Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Public Domain, Fair Use, and Other Bedtime Stories

Chris Meyer | 02/21- 10:13 PM

Finding sources without breaking the law.

We’ve all been there before: We really need a particular source image to realize an idea. And we don’t have a copy of one ourselves. But look - there’s one on a web site! Or a client gives us one that they picked up “somewhere.” Or there’s a book lying around the office that we could scan. And if anyone involved feels a twinge of guilt, someone else tries to excuse it as “public domain” or “fair use.”

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

HPA Tech Retreat - Day 1

Adam Wilt | 02/20- 08:34 PM

3D, AudioScope, CES, and the Analog Shutdown

On this, the first “real” day of the HPA Tech Retreat, we were treated to 3D cinema demos and discussions, a CES review, a phased-array mic for sports recording, and more.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Non-Square Strategies

Chris Meyer | 02/18- 02:00 PM

Suggested workflows when dealing with non-square pixels and anamorphic formats.

No matter which workflow you choose, always make sure your source footage has been tagged with its true pixel aspect ratio - this is the only way your software will know what to do with it in order to keep you out of trouble.

For a variety of arcane technical reasons (trying to record NTSC and PAL on the same tape, cutting corner on data throughput, being compromised by camera sensor technology of yesteryear, etc.), virtually all digital video formats have non-square pixels. This means they must be projected in a way that stretches or squashes them on playback to properly fill the television screen. Unfortunately, a side effect of this is that they will also look odd on a computer screen. When all you do is send the digital signal from camera to tape deck to switcher to monitor, this is neatly hidden from you. But when you start working with digital video inside a computer, you have to deal with these misshapen pixels.

As a result, a common question is what is the best way to work with these pixels: Stretch them back out to being square? Or leave them in their native format? The answer depends on what your primary goal is in life: preserving maximum image quality, or preserving your own sanity.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Toolfarm Sales and New Releases

Chris Meyer | 02/17- 10:00 AM

A great deal on Mocha AE, plus other new releases

ToolfarmIs a handy one-stop shop for anyone looking to buy plug-ins for After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Shake, Motion, Cinema 4D, Avid, or Autodesk products. They also sell the host applications themselves, upgrades, stock footage, and training. It is worth getting on their mailing list, as they regularly have special offers, plus inform you about product updates.

Below is an example of some of their current deals and promotions (if not visible, click on the “more” link):

Saturday, February 16, 2008

After Effects 8.0.2 Interpretation Rules Issue

Chris Meyer | 02/16- 09:11 PM

If you’ve created your own rules, they’ll be ignored in 8.0.2 - but you can get them back…

Normally, when you install a minor update to After Effects, it does a pretty good job at remembering your previously-installed plug-ins and the such. That said, there is an exception in the case of the 8.0.2 updater. This version writes a brand-new interpretation rules file that alters how it handles some YUV color space files. However, it does not merge in any changes you may have made to the previous interpretation rules file. Fortunately, it doesn’t delete your file; it just sets it aside.

Click here for an Adobe Tech Note on what’s going on, and how to work around it.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Nifty EPS Conversion Tool

Frank Capria | 02/14- 09:56 AM

Ever need to convert a puny JPEG or GIF of a client logo to EPS so you could scale it up? Adobe Illustrator’s Live Trace will do the job, but I don’t always have access to Illustrator on the client’s NLE. This handy web application does the trick quite nicely.

Update 2/27/08: Vector Magic has officially moved away from Stanford and is operating independently at vectormagic.com. It is no longer a free service, though the first two image conversions for new account holders are free.

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