WALL-E Rocks – Two Great Mac Jokes

Just saw WALL-E with my son, and in typical Pixar fashion, it is awesome!

Two quick things I found hilarious for the Mac-Geeks out there.

First, there is a character in the film called Auto, who is an auto-pilot robot for the ship. The character’s voice is done by Macintalk, the speech synthesizer included with the Mac back in 1984. It sounded familiar, and I confirmed it as the “actor credit” actually appears at the end of the film.

Second, there is a scene where WALL-E reboots… and yes, it is the Macintosh startup chime that you hear. I found myself laughing out loud (and I think I was the only one within 20 rows of me who got the joke (geek!).

Scrolling the FCP Timeline

Too many tracks in your Timeline, and you want to scroll up and down quickly? No need to grab the scroll bar on the right edge if you have a three-button mouse. Put the cursor over the Timeline, and use the third button to scroll up and down. It gets better; hold down the Shift key and you can scroll left and right (if you’re using an Apple Mighty Mouse, just scroll). Don’t stop now—place the cursor over the Viewer or Canvas, and you can scrub backward and forward. If you aren’t impressed yet by Apple’s thoughtful engineers, go try these shortcuts in a bin, on effect sliders, and even in the audio mixer.

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

Special Episode of Layers TV on Production Premium CS3

I recently got a chance to co-host Layers TV with Corey Barker.  The show is a great podcast that comes out each week on all things Adobe.  They do a really great job with it and they had me on as a guest host to cover Adobe Production Premium.

“Corey is joined by guest co-host Richard Harrington to discuss working with video in Photoshop Extended, Premiere, and After Effects.
• When working in Premiere, don’t forget about the search menu that you can use to locate the effects you want
• Change Color is a useful effect that you can use to target and adjust one color region of your video clip
• There are also Shadow/Highlight adjustment options in Premiere
• You can bring your video clips into Photoshop Extended and apply Photoshop effects to them
• Make video clips into smart objects so that Photoshop will treat them as a single layer
• After you have finished editing the video clip in Photoshop, go under the Export command and render the finished video
• Get more information from Richard at Photoshop For Video.com
• Use After Effects to make speed changes to your video clips. Remember, time is just another keyframe
• If you want further video training from Richard, you can watch his classes at Kelby Training.com, or see him live at Photoshop World this September in Las Vegas”

DOWNLOAD THE EPISODE
WATCH ONLINE

PSV#81 Age a Photo - Photoshop for Video

Instructor Richard Harrington shares some techniques on how to age a photograph in Photoshop.

Stan Winston, Rest In Peace

I’m surprised that more people haven’t talked about this…  I am on vacation on a mountain-top (hence a little removed from civilization).  I was flipping through the paper and saw this:
Visual Effects Master Stan Winston, 62.

Turns out one of the greatest visual FX and animators in the world passed away on June 15.
I suspect most of you know his name and work.  Some of the accomplishments include:

Terminator 2 & 3
Interview with the Vampire
Edward Scissorhands
Iron Man
Jurassic Park
Predator
Aliens
Batman Returns

Be sure to see the history timeline on his site.

You can find a nice overview of him here.

Truly an amazing life and Many of us owe a lot to what her accomplished.

His son, Matt Winston, said his father was in many ways “a big kid” with cool toys who enjoyed what he did and would say, “Just have fun, and success will come.”

Good advice for us all.

Learn How to Scan Photos for Video

Seems like a lot of folks have forgotten (or never learned) how to scan photos.  With this is mind, I offer some practical scanning advice.  Several problems can be introduced by those using antiquated scanners with a distinct lack of skill. To get the best results, try the following:

• Before scanning an image, ensure you have the latest software needed by your scanner. You can always check their websites or use Version Tracker. Having problems with a lack of support on the OSX side for older scanners. I recommend checking out VueScan from Hamrick Software.
• The most important thing when scanning is to be consistent. Scan all of your photos in at one time if possible.
• Ensure that the scanner is lying flat, or you may get misregistered scans.
• Use a gentle glass cleaner whenever smudges appear. Spray the cleaner on the soft cloth, and then wipe the scanner bed down.
• Make sure your photos are clean before scanning. Never write on the back of photos, instead write on a post-it note and adhere to the back.
• Place your photos on the scanner straight. Use the edges to help you maintain parallel edges on your photos. If you get crooked photos, try Photoshop CS’s newest automation tool File>Automate>Crop and Straighten Photos.
• If your scanner allows you, set the white and black points before scanning. Think of this as a white and black balance that you would do in a video camera. This will produce the best tonal range. You can then use Photoshop’s color correction tools to adjust the white and black points as well as make additional color changes.
• If you are scanning in previously printed items such as newspapers, magazines, books, inkjet prints, etc, you will likely get a moiré pattern. Photoshop scanning the small spaces between the previously printed dots causes this. Most scanners have a de-screen filter in their software. If available use it when scanning previously printed items. If this is not available, run the Median filter at a low value (Filter > Noise > Median).
• Scan at the quality you need. For video, scan so you have approximately 4,000 by 3,000 pixels. This is generally enough pixel information to perform motion control in After Effects.
• Save to uncompressed formats such as TIFF, PICT or TARGA for maximum compatibility and disk space usage. The PSD format is great for layered files, but is not as efficient for single layered files. Always save the appropriate file extension for your file type.

CYA: FCP’s Autosave Vault

Ever have a project go bad? A file get corrupted? Maybe the system crashed (OS X never crashes—it just has an undocumented close feature). Worse, you come back from lunch, and the client is standing over your editing system. “I just pushed a few buttons, really!”

It’s okay if the Autosave Vault feature is turned on. This great feature will back up your project automatically. You tell it how often to save, how many versions to save, and how many total projects can be archived. This is a great way to cover yourself against unexpected events.

If things ever go wrong, simply choose File > Restore Project…. This way you can quickly access time-stamped versions of your project. After restoring a project, immediately select the Save Project As command and revert to the original name. Otherwise, the Autosave Vault feature will start building a new project folder for the project with a name such as FCP Tips_08_12_08_0241.

Use this the next time a producer pulls a 180-degree turn on you and wants to go back three hours in time.

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

Have a Broadband Card?  Want to Share with the rest of the Crew?

Author and video podcaster Richard Harrington explains how you can take your wireless broadband card and share that internet connection with others on location.

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