PodCast

Archiving Final Cut Pro X Projects and Media

This Week on MacBreak Studio

By Mark Spencer | May 14, 2013

This week on MacBreak Studio, Steve Martin from Ripple Training talks about archiving your projects in Final Cut Pro X.

Once you've delivered your edit to your client, they've approved it and you've been paid, how do you go about saving that project and storing it... Read More

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Text Animation in Motion

This Week on MacBreak Studio

By Mark Spencer | May 07, 2013

This week on MacBreak Studio, I show Steve Martin from Ripple Training a few tricks for animating text in Motion.

Text, like shapes, particles, replicators, cameras, and other objects in Motion, has a dedicated set of behaviors available for animating it in various ways. In... Read More

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MSNBC mainstreams the radio/TV term “rundown”

Beyond its baseball and common use, “rundown” has a very specific use in media production, especially in live news.

By Allan Tépper | May 03, 2013

Although the word “rundown” is used in baseball and in common US English as a “quick summary of main points of information”, its very unique meaning in radio and TV production has been (up until very recently) unknown beyond media professionals. In fact, many media... Read More

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Combining Cartoon with Brainstorm

Using one tool to show you what another can do.

By Chris and Trish Meyer | May 01, 2013

Ever feel like you’re getting the same old looks out of Cartoon, no matter what you try? In this third and final installment of learning how to get better results with the Cartoon effect, we will show you how to combine Cartoon with the After Effects Brainstorm module to get unexpected looks out of Cartoon, including images that look like they were created with a fine pencil, fat markers, or a photocopy machine.

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Enhancing the Cartoon Effect

Just as you shouldn’t use all effects at their defaults, don’t be shy about combining them with other effects.

By Chris and Trish Meyer | April 30, 2013

In this second installment of learning how to get better results with the Cartoon effect, we will go beyond altering Cartoon’s own parameters from their less-than-ideal defaults and explore pre- and post-processing the video clip getting the Cartoon treatment.

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Creating a DVD - Without the DVD

This week on MacBreak Studio

By Mark Spencer | April 30, 2013

This week on MacBreak Studio, Steve Martin from Ripple Training shows us a neat trick for creating a "diskless" DVD straight from Final Cut Pro X.

Although DVDs are becoming less prevalent due to the rapid rise in web-delivered HD video, some clients still require them. Plus,... Read More

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Using Cartoon in After Effects

Go beyond the defaults to get more interesting looks.

By Chris and Trish Meyer | April 29, 2013

As we’ve mentioned before, we updated our After Effects Apprentice video courses last year. As part of adding and reorganizing material, some movies got cut. But we hate to see anything go to waste, so we’re reposting them here for free - including a three-movie set on using the Cartoon effect.

Cartoon may be one of the most unfairly maligned tools in After Effects. Some of that is due to burn-out based on the popularity of the this look a few years ago; a lot of that is due to the less-than-attractive default settings for Cartoon. But if you’re reading this, you know to go beyond the default settings - and learning those settings is the basis of this first movie.

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Canon’s new XA20 and XA25 cameras fulfill wishes from my Open Letter to pro AVCHD cam manufacturers

In addition to adding many other general improvements, Canon is first to fulfill wishes from my Open Letter.

By Allan Tépper | April 26, 2013

Back in November 2011 (17 months ago) I published an Open Letter to pro AVCHD camera manufacturers. With their introduction of their new XA20 and XA25 cameras at NAB 2013, Canon has fulfilled some of the key wishes I had expressed in that Open Letter, in addition to making other improvements... Read More

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Using Behaviors in Motion

On this week's MacBreak Studio

By Mark Spencer | April 23, 2013

This week on MacBreak Studio, I talk with Steve Martin from Ripple Training about using behaviors instead of keyframes for creating animation in Motion.

Almost everything in Motion can be animated either with traditional keyframing methods or by using procedural objects... Read More

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NewTek commits to adding internal waveform monitor to TriCaster 40

Sometime in 2013, even the entry model TriCaster 40 will have an inboard waveform monitor to facilitate camera matching.

By Allan Tépper | April 19, 2013

After expressing my profound constructive criticism about the lack of an internal waveform monitor in the TriCaster 40 (both publicly (in ProVideo Coalition magazine and privately) in 2012, I am now delighted to report that I have just received written confirmation of NewTek’s... Read More

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How to make the Lumix GH3 camera deliver proper, recordable 1080p over HDMI

With the firmware update + menu settings, you should be able to get the native 1080p framerate over HDMI.

By Allan Tépper | April 17, 2013

Many initial users of the Panasonic Lumix GH3 camera who tried to record its 1080p signal externally have been disappointed to see that it wouldn’t work. That’s because as shipped from the factory, the GH3 does not output its native framerate over HDMI. For example, in 1080/25p... Read More

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NAB 2013: Átomos expands Connect converter line with CONNECT-AC; lowers prices

Lower prices on the original H2S and S2H converters + new AC-only models.

By Allan Tépper | April 17, 2013

Back in October 2012, I published a review of the Connect H2S (HDMI>SDI converter) from Átomos (link ahead), which includes onboard pulldown removal and a test pattern generator. The original H2S and S2H include a battery, charger, and external AC power supply. Now at NAB... Read More

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Telestream amends key response for recent WireCast article

Telestream’s amended response means that currently, the software waveform monitor is unavailable with any WireCast HD-SDI input.

By Allan Tépper | April 16, 2013

On April 1st, 2013, I published an article called How to pick your ideal HDMI or HD-SDI interface for WireCast (Pro). The article was based upon facts received after several sessions of detailed emails exchanged with the covered manufacturers (Blackmagic, Matrox, and Telestream).... Read More

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Mark, Replace, Slip

On this week's MacBreak Studio

By Mark Spencer | April 16, 2013

This week on MacBreak Studio, Steve Martin from Ripple Training shows us a cool trick for performing a particular kind of replace edit in Final Cut Pro X.

Replace edits are quite powerful tools for swapping out one clip in a project for another or adjusting (slipping) an... Read More

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Copying Keyframes in Motion

This week on MacBreak Studio

By Mark Spencer | April 09, 2013

This week on MacBreak Studio, I show Steve Martin from Ripple Training several different ways that you can transfer keyframes created on one object onto another.

It's easy to animate layers in Motion using keyframes, and to then adjust the animation by working in the... Read More

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Time Lapse Workflows and Final Cut Pro X

On this week's MacBreak Studio

By Mark Spencer | April 02, 2013

This week on MacBreak Studio, Steve Martin from Ripple Training explains his workflow for creating time lapse movies from a series of photographs using Final Cut Pro X and other applications.

Timelapse photography has become very popular recently - and with the advent of... Read More

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How to pick your ideal HDMI or HD-SDI interface for WireCast (Pro)

Depending upon how you prioritize features, ease of camera matching, and ISO recording will help you choose the hardware.

By Allan Tépper | April 01, 2013

UPDATED: This article now updated info. Many people have heard of Telestream’s renowned WireCast (Pro) software, which can convert a qualifying Mac or Windows computer into a multiple-input audio/video mixer (“switcher”). Among its features are a character generator,... Read More

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Working with Keyframes in Motion

On this week's MacBreak Studio

By Mark Spencer | March 26, 2013

This week on MacBreak Studio, I get back to the basics in Motion by showing Steve Martin from Ripple Training how to create animation with keyframes.

Keyframes are the basic building blocks for creating custom animations and Motion has a variety of tools for working with them... Read More

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Batch Renaming Clips in Final Cut Pro X

On this week's MacBreak Studio

By Mark Spencer | March 19, 2013

Depending on your source footage, Final Cut Pro X may assign clip names based on the metadata associated with the clips, such as the date and time each was shot. Folks used to logging clips before import may find this automatic renaming confusing, but it's actually very easy to... Read More

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After Effects Render Order Issues

Why the same treatments can look different on pixel or vector layers - and how to work around it.

By Chris and Trish Meyer | March 15, 2013

Last year, we updated our After Effects Apprentice video courses. As part of adding and reorganizing material, some movies got cut. But we hate to see anything go to waste, so we’re going to repost them here for free. 

After Effects follows a very specific order of calculations when it renders each layer of each frame in a composition. The trick is, that order changes depending on circumstances, such as whether their source layer is made out of pixels (such as photographs and video), vector outlines (such as text and shape layers), or is switched between the two (such as Illustrator artwork, which can be treated as pixels or as vectors). What may seem like “random” behavior is actually very repeatable and thought out; you just have to know it.

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