Have you ever checked to see how many plugins you've got?  You might be surprised to know it's almost certainly well over 400, and it only takes a few purchases to clock up the 500 mark.

While some plugins get used every day, others sit in the dark, dusty corners of your... ]]> 2013-06-17T11:04:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/atepper/story/connect-pcie-cards-to-slotless-macs-via-thunderbolt-yes http://provideocoalition.com/atepper/story/connect-pcie-cards-to-slotless-macs-via-thunderbolt-yes#When:22:22:00Z

Many video professionals have unjustifiably disqualified slotless Macs because they incorrectly believed that there was no way to use their PCIe cards. They didn’t know that there is indeed a supported way to connect networking, pro video, and storage PCIe cards via Thunderbolt.... ]]> 2013-06-16T22:22:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/czwar/story/the-zwarchives-oldies-but-goodies http://provideocoalition.com/czwar/story/the-zwarchives-oldies-but-goodies#When:12:39:00Z

As an After Effects specialist with over 15 years of industry experience, I aim to produce video tutorials that look at all aspects of production and include insights into areas such as... ]]> 2013-06-16T12:39:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/after-effects-extendscript-training-ep-11 http://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/after-effects-extendscript-training-ep-11#When:04:27:00Z

Welcome to episode 11 of the After Effects ExtendScript Training series. This week we are finally building a GUI (Graphic User Interface). I will show you how to create nearly every, if not every, GUI element ExtendScript offers. So if you were looking to create a floating window... ]]> 2013-06-15T04:27:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/atepper/story/macbook-air-2013-what-apple-improved-and-what-apple-neglected-to-include http://provideocoalition.com/atepper/story/macbook-air-2013-what-apple-improved-and-what-apple-neglected-to-include#When:17:32:00Z

This week, Apple announced the revised MacBook Air (2013) models. Like before, the new MacBook Air models are available in both 11“ and 13” models. Ahead is my executive summary of the improvements that Apple added, what Apple neglected to include (but should have),... ]]> 2013-06-13T17:32:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/ssimmons/story/review-slicex-powered-by-mocha-is-a-must-have-for-fcpx http://provideocoalition.com/ssimmons/story/review-slicex-powered-by-mocha-is-a-must-have-for-fcpx#When:15:29:00Z

When it comes to quality motion tracking it’s hard to beat Imagineer Systems and what they have with their mocha technology. When it comes to masking tools inside of Final Cut Pro X it’s hard to beat what CoreMelt has come up with in their SliceX masking tool. Combine that masking of SliceX and the tracking of mocha and you’ve got a very must-have tool for FCPX in the recently released, $149 SliceX powered by mocha.

This week on MacBreak Studio, I talk with Steve Martin from Ripple Training about how to recreate the Spirograph (tm) effect in Motion.

For those of us old enough to remember, Spirograph was a drawing kit consisting of transparent gears with holes. You would place a gear... ]]> 2013-06-11T13:24:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/after-effects-extendscript-training-ep-10 http://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/after-effects-extendscript-training-ep-10#When:02:25:00Z

Welcome to episode 10 of the After Effects ExtendScript Training series. In this episode we will create a custom function that will allow us to easily retrieve specific types of project items like CompItems, FolderItems, or FootageItems. We will also get into setting arguments for our... ]]> 2013-06-09T02:25:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/shullfish/story/nvidia-k5000-next-step-in-gpu-power-and-tech http://provideocoalition.com/shullfish/story/nvidia-k5000-next-step-in-gpu-power-and-tech#When:21:09:00Z

Before I received the NVIDIA K5000, I read about it and was excited that it had H.264 encoding capability on the board. I tend to do a lot of H.264-encoded deliverables. Unfortunately my excitement was short lived when I found out that while NVIDIA had delivered on their end, nobody else had... ]]> 2013-06-07T21:09:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/shullfish/story/the-color-grading-environment-and-ideal-lume-bias-lights http://provideocoalition.com/shullfish/story/the-color-grading-environment-and-ideal-lume-bias-lights#When:19:08:00Z

In my first book on color correction, “Color Correction for Video – 2nd Edition” there’s a great story about an early color grading pioneer. When they built his color correction suite, they made it like a “smoking room,” with warm, incandescent lighting and... ]]> 2013-06-07T19:08:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/mspencer/story/making-ken-burns-obey http://provideocoalition.com/mspencer/story/making-ken-burns-obey#When:13:54:00Z

This week on MacBreak Studio, Steve Martin from Ripple Training shows us how to "take charge" of the Ken Burns effect in Final Cut Pro X.

This effect makes it fast and easy to create pans and zooms on still images (or video for that matter). However, it does suffer from one... ]]> 2013-06-04T13:54:00+00:00 http://provideocoalition.com/freshdv/story/cine-gear-2013 http://provideocoalition.com/freshdv/story/cine-gear-2013#When:03:12:00Z

I've always enjoyed the pace of Cine Gear more than NAB expo. Set on the Paramount LA backlot on street sets and amongst huge sound stages, it's smaller, more intimate, and a lot more cine-focused. It's one of the highlights of my year, and Cine Gear 2013 this last weekend was no exception. Here are a few things that caught my eye as I was browsing through the fake streets of New York. Read on...

In this week's "Answers Occasionally Given," I tackle a question about efficient scene balancing workflow; whether it's better to apply stylistic adjustments as part of one's initial grade, or separately. Then, I discuss another reader's strategy for identifying color imbalances, and how it intersects with the use of automated tools for color balancing. 

Video scopes are one of those things we often take for granted. Most all NLEs have video scopes somewhere in the software. They are very important when it comes to the color grading / color correction process but many of those working in post-production don’t really know how to properly use them (I say partially raising my own hand). Sometimes it’s a matter of making the right window arrangements to use an app’s built-in scopes but if you don’t save that window configuration then you’ll be less prone to use them when the time comes. Enter a product like ScopeBox which is $100 stand-alone video scope software. Video scope software, for the most part, requires its own computer and hardware to run, but ScopeBox 3.3 breaks that tradition with a new feature called ScopeLink.

Welcome to episode 9 of the After Effects ExtendScript Training series. We will continue from last week and modify our script even further to search through our project layers for all of our blue solids and change their source color to red. We will also update the blue solid names by... ]]> 2013-06-03T00:04:00+00:00