http://provideocoalition.com/index.php en kevinpmcauliff@gmail.com Copyright 2009 2009-04-16T19:57:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/automation_mixing/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/automation_mixing/#When:19:57:00Z From what I have seen, many editors shy away from using Soundtrack Pro 2, as they feel that they have the same tools in Final Cut Pro, and it’s one less step they have to go through, by mixing in their editing timeline. Let me say, if you think this way, you are missing out on one of the best “not so hidden” features of Soundtrack Pro 2, and that is Automation Mixing (AM).  AM used to be reserved for the sound engineers who had mixing consoles hooked up to their Mac’s, but not any more.  You can use this excellent advanced technique for not only regular mixing, but 5.1 surround mixing as well. 2009-04-16T19:57:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/stills_in_final_cut_pro/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/stills_in_final_cut_pro/#When:19:50:00Z The point of this entry is to create clean, professional sequences of animated still photos inside Final Cut Pro.  If you have a short deadline, one way to make this deadline is to prep your images in Adobe’s Photoshop CS-4 and animate directly in Apple’s Final Cut Pro.  This project relies on a few basic Photoshop (PS) techniques to prepare images for 2D manipulation.  Leveraging PS in preparing images maximizes the animation process.  The structure of this entry is to walk through the process of building a two minute long animated stills segment with voice over and music in the DV widescreen format.  FCP will handle the square pixel conversion to anamorphic pixel aspect ratio (PAR). In Photoshop, we’ll start by previsualizing the images, size and crop them saving them as jpg’s, importing and animating these images in FCP.  We’ll be using the Viewer’s Keyframe Graph Area for keyframing Scale, Rotation, Center, Crop, Distort and Opacity parameters.  This is a good workflow for down and dirty stills animation based on an overnight job for a public relations client completed last year. Post Production 2009-04-13T19:50:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/plugins_you_should_know_about/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/plugins_you_should_know_about/#When:01:36:00Z Just a quick follow-on to last week’s FXScript article—some real-world examples of FXScript plugins that add value to FCP. Some are even free. Editing, Post Production, Vendor Blog, Visual Effects 2009-03-25T01:36:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/fxscript_fcps_most_under_appreciated_feature/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/fxscript_fcps_most_under_appreciated_feature/#When:05:01:00Z So, these guys throw me a feature needing some digital janitorial work. I spend a few days in Motion and Shake, hand-tracking in fixes atop super-wide-angle, wildly distorting, handheld shots with exposure changes in ‘em, and faking up some greenscreen comps for stuff that didn’t get shot. Cool. But there are also stuck pixels throughout: the show was shot with a pair of HD camcorders: one had a bright white pixel in the upper right side of its image, the other in the upper left side (this, apparently, is what “fair and balanced” is all about). What to do? FXScript! Editing, Post Production 2009-03-17T05:01:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/inside_the_new_mac_pros/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/inside_the_new_mac_pros/#When:01:00:00Z Last Tuesday Apple announced new Mac Pro models based on Intel’s Nehalem architecture (at long last!). We got some things we’d been hoping for (Nehalem architecture, improved memory handing, MUCH faster GPUs, cleaner internal layout), and not some others some of us had been hoping for (Blu-ray burners, 10GigE networking, cookie dispenser). Read on for Mike’s breakdown of all the BTO options, what they mean, what they cost, and what Mike recommends in a new Mac Pro. Read on after the jump for the Full Scooby. *VIDEO*, Editing, Hardware, Post Production 2009-03-09T01:00:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/the_history_of_smoothcam/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/the_history_of_smoothcam/#When:09:27:00Z As they say, it’s not the destination that’s important, it’s the journey, and that can be said about a lot of things.  We as editors take things for granted, without appreciating where it came from.  As a Shake user, I loved SmoothCam, and when I found out they were brining it to Final Cut Studio 2, I was really excited.  I decided, for this article, to look at SmoothCam, where it came from, and how it evolved from Shake. As I say in the video, SmoothCam is a very welcome addition to Final Cut Pro 6, and I think it really shows the future of Final Cut Pro effects work, and with Background Processing, the future looks very bright indeed! Post Production 2009-03-07T09:27:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/prores_a_closer_look/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/prores_a_closer_look/#When:23:47:00Z The largest issue in post production is maintaining the highest quality for compositing, graphics, effects and delivery; whether that content is used in broadcast, theatrical or direct to DVD release.  Camera native codecs are amazing for their ability to capture light at the highest quality, yet this “native” camera data was never meant to work directly within the editing process, only within the manufacturers proprietary camera hardware. This intermediate codec, called ProRes, was designed specifically to maintain full colorspace and 10bit workflow throughout the post process allowing Final Cut Pro to finally take its place as a truly professional editing platform. 2009-03-03T23:47:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/setting_up_soundtrack_pro_for_51_monitoring/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/setting_up_soundtrack_pro_for_51_monitoring/#When:19:42:00Z In this short video, Steve Martin will show you how to set up and configure Soundtrack Pro for surround (5.1) monitoring. 2009-02-24T19:42:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/editing_in_motion_part_2/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/editing_in_motion_part_2/#When:06:49:00Z In Part 1, we looked at how Final Cut Pro users can perform some basic editing operations in Motion, including rough editing, trimming, and a sequential edit. All of these edits can be performed using just the mini-Timeline. But by opening up the full Timeline, you can perform additional edits, like insert, overwrite, and ripple edits. You can even slip clips in Motion. Let’s see how. 2009-02-20T06:49:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/editing_in_motion_part_1/ http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/apple/editing_in_motion_part_1/#When:20:51:00Z Introduction: Why Edit in Motion? Many motion graphics projects are built around a video edit which is then enhanced with effects, titling, and graphical treatments. Think of a the structure of a typical car commercial: a series of wide and close-up beauty shots of a vehicle intercut with interior shots, a close up on the happy driver, and perhaps a closing wide shot of the car driving away. This series of cuts is then augmented with color treatments, speed changes, and graphical elements in combination with animated text layers. Editing, Motion Graphics, Post Production 2009-02-17T20:51:00+00:00