Tapeless Workflows, a Jump to the Past?

We in the post world are on the verge of an explosion in media management, and it isn’t a pretty sight. The worst part is that even though it is billed as the future, it really is a bast from the past. That is going to be very trying on many of the new production and post crowd who haven’t been raised with the disciplines of the old workflows.

Get Photos from Aperture to Final Cut Pro

Sometimes third-party plug-ins fill obvious holes… this is truly the case here.  Wouldn’t it make sense to be able to quickly send photos from Apple Aperture to Final Cut Pro? You’d think that sort of thing would be built right in (its not).  Fortunately the fine folks over at Connected Flow over an elegant (and free) solution.

“The Aperture to Final Cut Pro plugin lets you take your images stored in Apple’s professional photo management application and send them directly to a video sequence in Final Cut Pro. From within Aperture, you can select photos, set their order and duration and select transitions between frames.”

The Aperture to Final Cut Pro plugin is a free download and is provided on an as-is basis.  I find it works great.

Motion Templates in Final Cut Pro

For the past few years Apple has been pushing Motion as a tool that should be in every editor’s toolbox. The problem has been, not every editor has had the time or patience to learn Motion. In Final Cut Pro 6, Apple recognized this and has integrated Motion templates directly inside of FCP.

To launch a Motion template in Final Cut Pro you have three options:
1 Choose the Effects tab in the Browser > Master Templates.
2 Choose the Generators pulldown in the Viewer > Master Templates.
3 Choose the Sequence menu > Add Master Template.

Choose the template that you want and load it into the Viewer. Once the template has been loaded in the Viewer, clicking on the controls tab will let you change various parameters of the template. There is only one catch:

Not every parameter of a template is editable in Final Cut Pro. Text entry, size, tracking and populating drop zones with footage are the only parameters you can adjust inside Final Cut Pro.

If you need to edit a template to, for example, change the text color, or swap out a background, you need to edit the template in Motion. Here’s how.
1 Edit the template from the Viewer into your sequence.
2 Right-click on the template and notice at the top of the contextual menu you have two options: Open in Editor and Open Copy in Editor. Since the template is a prebuilt one from Apple, you can’t save over it (it’s locked) so you need to choose Open Copy in Editor.
3 Make your changes in Motion and save the file. Your changes will update in FCP.

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.

The Mac OS X 10.5.3 Update

I know a lot of folks who are hesitant to upgrade....  I admit, I’ve been burned by installing updates as soon as they come out… but hey, that’s why I’m an early adopter.  The latest Mac update looks to include several important bug fixes and enhancements.  Here’s a few that tip the scale in favor of installing.

• Addresses an issue with stuttering video and audio playback in certain USB devices.
• Fixes an issue in which certain attached hard drives may not show up in the Finder.
• Includes additional RAW image support for several cameras.
• Improves 802.1X behavior and reliability.
• Improves reliability when using Time Capsule.
• Fixes reliability issues with authenticated RSS feeds.
• Addresses compatibility issues with Aperture 2.
• Addresses reliability issues when performing a full restore from a Time Machine backup.

You can access the update through your Apple Menu....  I’ve been running it for several days and all seems happy.  Additionally, several new pro digital cameras were added for Raw support.

mocha AE to CC Power Pin

Imagineer Systems’ mocha AE is a stand-alone planer motion tracking application that creates keyframe date which you can in turn use in After Effects. If you are performing a perspective-style track, you will paste the resulting data into a Corner Pin effect already applied to the to-be-pinned layer in After Effects.

However, some prefer using the CC Power Pin effect that comes with Cycore Effects (bundled free with After Effects) over the stock Adobe Corner Pin effect: It is more flexible, and some feel it resamples the layer with higher quality. As a result, a number of workarounds have appeared to apply mocha’s Corner Pin data to CC Power Pin. I’d like to share a couple, and add my own.

PSV#77 Making Selections: Channels - Photoshop for Video

Instructor Richard Harrington shows you how to make great selections using channels in Photoshop.

Page 22 of 35 pages « First  <  20 21 22 23 24 >  Last »