Bob Donlon’s Adobe TV Blog

As a kid, I spent a lot of time in front of the TV. A LOT of time. Then I grew up and married a woman who grew up in a house without a TV. When our son was born last year, we started talking about how we were going to deal with the "TV or no TV for the kids" issue.

Then we moved to a new house and decided not to get cable or satellite service -- leaving me to get my TV fix solely from online offerings. Heck, 99% of what I'm interested in is available online anyhow (primarly baseball games and new episodes of The Simpsons). Can a recovering TV addict survive without a "traditional" TV set in the house?

When I tell my friends & colleagues that I don't have a TV anymore, I get funny looks. After all, I founded and run Adobe TV and spent many years working in the TV and video fields. I think I have one of the best jobs in the world right now -- I get to run an online TV network that educates and inspires users of Adobe software. I get to be involved in every aspect of the process of planning, producing, and delivering loads of great content. And none of it is going on "traditional" TV.

But I do miss some aspects of my previous job @ Adobe, especially the parts involving direct communication with all of youse guys. So I decided to resurrect my blog as a means of telling you what's up at Adobe TV. We typically publish between 2-6 new videos every weekday -- a considerable amount of content (to put it in perspective, we launched Adobe TV on April 9 with 210 videos -- and today we've got over 440). So I'm going to be writing about new videos we have coming online, and will also be throwing in some tidbits on how we use our own technologies to put it all together.

And if you haven't watched Adobe TV yet, what the heck are you waiting for?

Posted by Bob Donlon at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, I've been quiet for so long because I couldn't tell you what I was working on. Today I can.

The project that I founded and run @ Adobe launched tonight at 9pm Pacific. Adobe TV

Just go there. tv.adobe.com

You'll understand it - I don't need to explain.

More soon about how we put it all together

Posted by Bob Donlon at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've read my blog in the past (and by past I mean WAY in the past, since this is my first posting since July) you'll notice that it has a new name. Well, I've taken on a new role at Adobe and it's still to early to talk about what it is (hi-tech is such fun that way). The name of the blog might tip you off to what general area I'm working in, but for now I'm keeping my mouth shut.

The combination of my new gig, which has me working out of an office 5 days a week for the first time in YEARS, and this little project pictured below, has kept me far, far away from the blogosphere. I'm really happy to be back.

That's my son Theo, who's the biggest joy of my life, ever, and also the source of some of those lines on my face. The sleep deprivation is kind of like being jet-lagged all the time (which I'm pretty used to anyway).

So it's a "Web TV" blog now, eh? Well, my philosophy is that production methods should be the same whether you're going the traditional route of video distribution or you're planning to chuck something up on YouTube. Because something is "for the web" doesn't mean you should cut corners on production values. In fact, the way you rise above the fray is to have better looking content than everyone else. So as far as production techniques go I'm still going to be focusing on that alot.

The encoding, distribution, and playback pieces of the web TV puzzle can be confounding to those of you that come from a traditional video background, so I'm going to be focusing on that as well. These areas of technology are still in a great deal of flux -- the fact that the 4 major TV networks in the USA have completely contradictory strategies for their online video presence is a good testament to this. This article from Forbes.com features interviews with the heads of the online divisions of ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX so you can read it all for yourself. There's still a long way to go..

But I'm a true believer of being in the right place at the right time, and the fact that Adobe is the only company with a complete capture-to-consumption workflow for web video puts me (and you) in a pretty good place to do some amazing things with this technology. We just announced a long-term strategic partnership with the BBC which will now be using Flash Video as it's online distribution format, as well as Premiere Pro and CS3 Production Premium as their main post-production toolset (which they've been using since earlier this year). The Adobe Media Player went into public beta earlier this month (click the link and download it from Adobe Labs today!). And there are so many things coming down the pike that I'm finding the "perfect storm" is swelling on a daily basis right here in my own backyard at 601 Townsend Street. Stay tuned and enjoy the ride.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Yep, I'm making up words again. That’s jetlag talking. But through the jetlag I’m going to try and show you how to create a 3d model from a photograph using some new integration we’ve done with Photoshop CS3 Extended and After Effects CS3.

A lot of what we do here at the “factory” is try and take things that would take you hours or even days to do and give you ways to do them in a matter of minutes. Sometimes that takes looking within and seeing what bits of this app could be used to help someone working in that app. The “secret sauce” in this case is something called Vanishing Point Exchange (vpe).

You might be familiar with a feature of Photoshop called Vanishing Point, which is typically used when working with still images to define the perspective of a scene or object. What vpe does is let you take the geometry data generated by Vanishing Point and make use of it in other applications. In Creative Suite 3, you can now export the vpe to After Effects where before your very eyes a 3d scene is automatically created, something that would’ve taken huge buckets of time in the past.

I’m going to be starting with a photo I just snapped here in my SF office:

Thrilling, isn’t it? No, really, we do have a very beautiful office here – it’s just that I wanted to start with something simple for this tutorial – something with good, clear corner perspective.

You need to have Photoshop CS3 Extended to export the vpe, but you can still follow along with the next step, which is to create your planes in Vanishing Point, if you’re using the Standard edition.

With the photo open in Photoshop, select Filter > Vanishing Point. You will start by defining a plane in the photo, and you want to look for the easiest one to define. In my photo, it is the wall on the right side. It’s a matter of clicking on the 4 corners, lining up each edge with the edge of the plane you’re defining, and you’re done. If your plane is red, Photoshop is telling you it can’t get a read on your plane, so try again ‘til you get it (just use the hard edges in your photo as your guide). Once you’ve got a good plane it’ll look like this:

If you look at my cursor, on the right, you can see I am dragging to the right to extend the plane just past the edge of the photo – that’s about where you want to be. You can adjust the first plane after you've drawn it, and do take advantage of that capability because it is imperative to get this first plane right. If you don’t the whole rest of this will be messed up.

The second most important thing is to get the second plane right. For this I’ll use the left-hand wall. Create a new plane by holding down Cmd (Mac) / Ctrl (Win) on the left-hand control point on the original plane, and drag a new plane to the left (if your second plane is in a different direction than adjust that instruction accordingly). It is important to add your additional planes in this matter, as the planes need to be connected in order for this to work.

If the plane doesn’t line up right, you’ll need to rotate it. Hover your curser over the same control point you were just using, and hold down Opt (Mac) / Alt (Win) – your curser turns into a little bendy arrow. Use it to adjust the angle of your second plane – a task you can also accomplish in the “Angle” widget at the top of the Vanishing Point UI.

Continue adding and adjusting planes, repeating those steps, until you’ve got your planes all defined. If I weren’t in such a hurry to write this, I would’ve also refined this by adding planes to those brown columns on the left-hand wall, which would add more realism, but you can go ahead and do that on your own time ;-)

Here’s what I wound up with:

Now it’s time for that “secret sauce”. Go up to your fly-out menu (that little triangle-in-a-circle that you see in all Adobe apps) and select Export for After Effects CS3 (.vpe)

Create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive, because Photoshop is going to spit out a bunch of .png image files (one for each plane you drew) and a .vpe which holds all the geometry data. Go ahead and save. Then close out of Vanishing Point and save your PSD, you’re done there.

Now, switch over to After Effects CS3 and select File > Import > Vanishing Point (.vpe)

You’ll see a bunch of new stuff in your Project Panel, including a new Composition. Double-click the Composition and you’ll see that AE has built for you a 3D scene based on the vpe. It has arranged all the exported planes (each of them an individual layer in the .png format) in 3d space.

Select your Orbit Camera tool (letter “C” on your keyboard) and rotate your scene to see the 3d glory. I did a quick animation on my camera and got this:

You can also see that there was a bunch of white space where my Vanishing Point planes extended past the edge of my photo. That's fixed easily by selecting the layer in the AE Project Panel, then selecting Edit > Edit Original which opens that layer in Photoshop.

Then it's generally time to use the Clone Tool, Healing Brush, or whatever tool suits the need. In my case I used the Clone Tool to “fill in the blanks” (here it is “in progress”).

Here it is, cleaned up a bit (not 100% yet, but with 5 min. in Photoshop I was able to get it 95% of the way there – in 15 more minutes it’ll be perfect).

I want to do a users gallery of this kind of stuff, so please send me comments if you’ve done anything cool with this technique.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 09:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you need evidence that TV as we know it is about to go completely out the window, check this out:

I've been watching baseball on my laptop every morning during breakfast here on my business trip in Asia, streaming live over the web on MLB.TV (the subscription is worth every penny to a baseball addict like me).

Watch what you want, when you want, where you want. That's where it's all going. Heady times for a video geek like me . . .

p.s. - follow me home from Asia in realtime on Bizflyer.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've finally arrived at my last stop on the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Launch Tour (Asia Pacific section). Hong Kong is one of the most high-tech cities in the world and flat panel TV screens are used for advertising wherever you go -- even in the subway. They don't seem to be too concerned about theft.

I know it's a little hard to tell that it's a flat panel display, but trust me it is...

I'm looking forward to getting back to San Francisco to resume blogging about new CS3 features, but for now here's the view from the back of the room in HK. Thomas DiMeo, our Director of Product Management for Creative Suite, is speaking to the crowd.

There's another room downstairs with another 500 or so people watching the event via a video feed. Sure are a lot of folks out there . . .

These trips are great because I get to meet and talk to so many Adobe customers. I get handed demo reels by many of them, and my favorite part is getting to watch 'em on the 14 hour flight home (which is currently staring me down like an angry elephant -- I need to leave for Hong Kong airport shortly).

There really is nothing like going back home. For those of you in the SF Bay Area, I'll be giving a talk at the Bay Area Motion Graphics User Group (BAMG) at the Apple Store in SF on May 7 at 6pm. Jim Tierney, founder and "Chief Anarchist" of the After Effects plug-in developer Digital Anarchy, is the brilliant and affable leader of this group, so if you're in the area please do come on down.

But for now, it's farewell to Asia... see you next time.

The most beautiful skyline in the world . . . after the Manhattan skyline that is (naturally).

Posted by Bob Donlon at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A moment after I wrote the previous entry (commenting on the fact that the song "One Night in Bangkok" is banned here in Thailand) I went to upload some video to YouTube where I host the video for my personal blog Bizflyer.

Nothing loaded.

Then I went to Bizflyer and none of the video loaded.

Then I was told by one of the local crew that the government banned YouTube after the military coup.

This is the first time I've actually seen censorship firsthand, and actually been censored myself.

(note: I stand corrected, the coup was not the reason for the YouTube ban, read the comments for more details . . .)

Posted by Bob Donlon at 07:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

I believe that song is actually banned here.

As someone who has made stuff for television, I'm always intrigued by what's on local TV in the foreign countries that I visit for Adobe. Thais are avid TV watchers, and there were no less than 20 local Thai language channels on the TV in my hotel room, showing everything from unfathomable game shows involving eating contests to monks chanting.

At least today the room I'm presenting in is a bit smaller than the ones in KL and Singapore, so I can remind myself of where I am. Have a look:

That was Marianne Young from our Singapore office jumping into the frame at the very end. Too bad my Canon PowerShot SD400 that I'm shooting these videos on can only capture 23 seconds at a time, that's why she got cut off (what she said was "and they don't speak English"). She's our Solutions Engineer for Southeast Asia, and is presenting our Design Premium suite as well as Photoshop CS3 Extended. Make sure to check out her blog CSdeSigns.

If you want to see more video & photos of my Asia trip, you can find all that on my personal blog Bizflyer.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You know the old expression “don’t make a big production out of it”? Well that’s one expression I’ve never heard uttered at Adobe. We go all out at our launch events, and the ones I’m currently presenting at in Asia are no exception.

Aah, what a beautiful sight, the brand new CS3 boxes neatly stacked at the entrance to the Raffles Convention Center in downtown Singapore (there’s really not much else in Singapore other than downtown, it’s pretty compact). The next thing you encounter is the registration table.

After a chat with the charming receptionists you’re admitted to the inner sanctum to explore new technologies from Adobe’s partners.

Of course, you can buy any Adobe product you want (normally at a special “event discount” price) from our local resellers. There are also special promotional offers to entice you.

I still don’t really know what to make of that one. “CS3 Musketeers”? Some things are definitely different in this part of the world.

After you’ve mingled, checked out the technology exhibits, and had a tea or coffee, it’s time to enter the ballroom, take one of the 1,000 or so seats, and see some of the great new features in Adobe Creative Suite 3. I’m writing this in the ballroom right now as we are finishing setup before the doors open.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 06:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are some new voices in the Adobe blogosphere that you should definitely check out if you’re into Digital Video (and if you’re not, what the heck are you doing reading this blog - - - except if you’re my Mom. Hi Mom!)

First off, the venerable Jason Levine, who without a doubt is the most entertaining presenter at Adobe (if you’ve seen him before you know what I’m talking about). He’s also my partner in crime (a.k.a. co-host) on Total Training for Adobe Production Studio. Check out his blog Jason Levine – Healing People Daily with the Power of Digital Video & Audio.

Next, my colleague Dennis Radeke, one of the sharpest DVA guys out there in the field, offers up tips, tricks, and tutorials on several Adobe products, especially After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Photoshop on his blog The Genesis Project.

If you’re a Flash designer or developer (or just want to learn more about Flash) check out Richard Galvan’s blog Galvan on Flash. Richard is the Technical Product Manager for Flash and is also one of the world’s leading experts on Flash authoring.

And finally, Bridge product manager (and my neighbor from up the hill in SF) Gunar Penikis writes about all things Bridge at From Gunar.

Look for some others to spring up in the near future – check the All Adobe Blogs page to see what’s new (the most recently added blogs are at the bottom of the page).

Posted by Bob Donlon at 06:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Please forgive me on this one. It is, after all, my 101th post on this blog, and I get to do something indulgent. So here it is. If it works, you'll get a very unnerving prelude to a very unnerving situation. If you saw it live, you know what I'm talking about. If not, then that's even better.

If you don't see anything below this line of text, the experiment failed, and I'll try some other ways of getting video on my "digital video blog".

Posted by Bob Donlon at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Contrary to what has been reported in some national mainstream media outlets, interference from a cell phone did not cause the problems with the projection system at last week's Creative Suite 3 Launch Event.

It was caused by problems with the gear you see in the photo above. Or the people running said gear. But it was definitely not a cell phone. Yes, we were cracking jokes onstage that it was a cell phone, but I wasn't expecting to be taken seriously about it! I guess I need to be more careful next time.

Also, there were speculations in at least one article that I was using one of the yet-to-be-released 8-core Mac Pro systems. I could only wish! In fact, I had a 2x266GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon with 10GB RAM. One 7200 RPM SATA drive for the OS & apps, another for the project files & assets. A rocking system, yes, but no 8-core. After Effects, for example, can take advantage of all them processors, so I can't wait to get my hands on one of those 8-core machines.

I'll be unleashing a torrent of CS3 new feature info starting later today, so hang on to your hats.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's 12:06am on Tuesday March 27 here in New York City, and that means that Adobe Creative Suite 3 has officially been announced!

We're working through the night, putting the final touches on our Creative Suite 3 Launch Event, which you can watch live here today at 3:30pm EDT. Here I am on the stage getting things ready with greg and Ginna, who you'll be seeing along with me on the live webcast (also available to watch later on adobe.com if you can't tune in live).

Not the first sleepless night for me in the recent past, but it's gonna be worth it. You'll be seeing lots of new products, features, workflow integrations . . .

I had to blur out the big screen in the photo below (can't let the cat out of the bag just yet) but this is the view from where I'm standing right now -- rehearsals going into the wee hours to make sure we bring you a really good shoo.

I'll be back in San Francisco on Monday and will be blogging like mad about all the new stuff.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you've been wondering why you haven't heard much from me lately, this is why. Please join us for the big event on March 27, 3:30pm EDT. You just might see my ugly mug up there showing you some cool new things.

Trust me, you don't want to miss it.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, this picture says it all:

There’s nothing like hanging around Shinjuku at 7 in the morning because you woke up at 4am due to jetlag and couldn’t get back to sleep. Doing a good job at Adobe means you get to repeat it around the globe. Having to go to Tokyo for 1 day to do a press briefing may sound like a suicide mission, but the results in terms of getting the word out about our video products coming Back to the Mac and introducing the former Serious Magic products DV Rack and Ultra to the Japanese market for the first time were definitely worth it. The auto-translator on the aricles in the aboe links are a hoot -- my colleague Hideyuki Komura's name came out as "Old Sonhideyuki".

Well, thanks to the amazing Komura-san and Shinichiro-san of Adobe Japan (with me in the photo below) we had a great press briefing in Tokyo today.

My goofy smile comes to you courtesy of sleep deprivation due to having crossed 17 time zones the day before.

One of the major highlights of the briefing was all the reporters bum-rushing the stage to get a photo of DV Rack running on my Mac Book Pro in Boot Camp. Mark Randall, if your reading this, I wish you could’ve been there, you would’ve been very proud (to fill the rest of yez in, Mark founded Serious Magic, invented DV Rack, and is now our Chief Strategist at Adobe).

For those of you paying attention to the technical stuff, Japan uses the NTSC standard for TV just like the US, but they use a different setup for their black levels (0 IRE for black, as opposed to 7.5 IRE which is what we use in the States). DV Rack has a menu option to adjust the setup for black to 0 IRE which was an amazing foresight considering the product hasn’t been available in Japan until today.

Getting to the Adobe office in the Osaki section of Tokyo can be an adventure in itself. Like NYC the best way to travel is by Subway, but trying to find your stop on this map can be a bit confusing if you can’t read Japanese.

If you wanna read more about the things you’ll encounter if you visit Japan, read my BizFlyer blog here. You’re also welcome to use this handy cheat-sheet of useful Japanese phrases (bad transliteration courtesy of me).

Watashi no namae wa _______ des.
My name is ________.

Good Morning.
Ohio goziamas.

Good Afternoon.
Konichi-wa

Good Evening.
Konban-wa.

Thank you.
Arigato goziamas.

Pleased to meet you.
Hajime mashite.

One beer, please.
Ichi beeru, kudasai.

Coffee, please.
Kohi, kudasai.

Tea, please.
O-cha, kudasai.

Excuse me.
Sumimasen.

I am sorry.
Gomen nasai.

I like this.
Ski des.

This is good.
Eee des.

May I have the check, please?
O-Kanjo, kudasai.

I don’t speak Japanese.
Nihon-go dekimasen, gomen nasai.

I don’t understand what you’re saying.
Wakarimasen.

Do you understand me?
Wakarimashta ka?

Where is the toilet?
Toire wa doko des ka?

What is it?
Nan des ka?

The Japanese language is actually not that hard as far as pronounciation goes if you’re an English speaker. But, just like in New York, people talk crazy fast in Tokyo so understanding what people are saying can be impossible even if you speak fluent Japanese.

That’s my name & title in Japanese. Unfortunately “Bob” does not fall within the pronunciation guidelines of Japanese, so I can be either “Bobo” or “Bobu” (apparently I’m the latter in this nametag) and my last name winds up being “Donron”.

I’m trying to learn some more Japanese for my next visit. Stay tuned to see how I make out. And also stay tuned for an explanation of what IRE means and why you should care.

In the meantime, I’ll send a limited-edition piece of Adobe swag to the first non-Japanese speaking person who can figure this sign out. I’m completely baffled, but for some reason I can’t help wishing I was the guy on the right.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 02:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A recent posting here having illustrated the irrefutable evidence of my old band The Rake's Progress' descent into dinosaurhood (last seen in the "CD's By The Pound" bin at your local record store) I was pretty amazed to hear that tickets for our first real show in over 10 years are almost sold out. For those of you with interest in my old music career, the show is Friday February 23 @ Mercury Lounge in NYC. The promoter is trying to add a 2nd show (hopefully Sat Feb 24) or perhaps move the show to a bigger venue, but for now if you're a Rake's fan please get tix now, I want youze there, here's the link.

Guess which one is me ? (promotional photo from 1995)...

Watch me jump around like a dork amongst cows in a field in this 1994 Rakes video that was seen in the Beavis and Butthead episode "Bus Trip". They mainly talked about the cows and the old guy.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back when I started in video, Ron Lindeboom was running the WWUG which was at the time, and still remains, one of the great users forums on the web for tools like After Effects. Without that I would've never been able to learn my craft as fast as I did.

Not long thereafter, Ron and his wife Kathlyn started Creative COW, which has arguably become one of the most popular users forums in the world. Last year they launched their print magazine (free subscriptions available here) and not only is it great, but they brought on my buddy Tim Wilson (formerly of Avid, Boris, and . . . going way back . . . the WWUG) as the Associate Publisher.

I've read every issue cover-to-cover, and this month I'm honored to be part of an article about making a living as an After Effects artist. It starts on page 13. Tim interviewed myself and several other AE pros around the world, on the subject of how we got our first gigs using AE.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I started this blog about a year ago, I didn't really understand blogging. More importantly, I didn't realize how many people would read my blog just by virtue of the fact that it's an Adobe Blog.

Despite the fact that from the get-go I intended to write primarily about the craft & technology of fim & video post production, the timing of starting my blog co-incided with being sent to all corners of the globe to spread the word about the recently-launched Adobe Production Studio. That meant I wound up writing more about my travels than anything else. People seemed to like it, but my lord was it way off-topic.

I wanted to keep the blog relevant to video pros (and beginners) so I decided to steer it pretty much strictly towards news, tutorials, observations, and info related to my craft and Adobe's technology.

Well, here I am a year later and I find myself once again facing some serious air mileage, stamps in the passport, pens from hotel rooms, and killing countless hours in the business class lounges of the world's busiest airports. I like writing about that stuff, mainly because I like complaining about it and after all I am a New Yorker and complaining is just in my blood. Living in San Francisco these past 2 years hasn't softened me that much.

So, perched on my first flight of the year tomorrow (to Seattle to hang with the After Effects team) I introduce my new blog BizFlyer where I'll rant & rave about all the stuff I encounter getting from point A to point B on my business travels for Adobe. If you're interested, great. If not, don't worry because I'll continue blogging here, with more tutorials, tips, and everything else I can cram in during my copious free time.

I should probably mention that BizFlyer is my own personal blog, is not connected in any way or endorsed by Adobe, and the ideas & opinions contained within are my own and not necessarily those of my employer. Even if they do pay the airfare.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, this is a bit off topic, and is not, repeat NOT about an actual prostitute (although the Moscone Center is in the South of Market part of San Francisco which does have its share of street life if you wander down the wrong street). Among the curiosities and attractions at Macworld was this humongous stack of CDs.

So I wandered over and there was a CD my band put out in 1994, called Cheese Food Prostitute. My band was called The Rake's Progress and you can see the CD 15 down from the top of the stack in the photo below. The spine is yellow on the right and blue on the left.

How random is that?

As far as the Macworld buzz goes, the iPhone thingy looks neat, but the only one they have in the unbelievably enormous Apple booth is in a huge illuminated plexiglas cylinder, which has easiily a hundred people crowded around it at any given moment. It's like trying to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.

At the Adobe booth we have Dave Helmly showing Production Studio on the Mac once a day on the stage, so make sure to get over and see that if you're at the big shoo. The stars of Photoshop (Julianne Kost and Russell Brown) are also presenting daily, as well as Hart Shafer showing Soundbooth.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I’ve been a Mac user since 1988, when I bought my first Mac Plus with a whopping 1 megabyte of RAM and a 20 megabyte external hard drive the size & weight of a couple of bricks. The Mac was, more or less, the only platform I used until a few years ago when I worked at Anystream who develops only for Windows.

I love using Premiere Pro and Encore on Windows (as well as the rest of Production Studio), but I’ve always had a fondness for the Mac OS. This is why I’m personally excited, on so many levels, to be able to show you this:

We announced today that Adobe Production Studio is coming to the Mac. That’s Premiere Pro on the Mac above, and we’ll also have Encore and the rest of Production Studio available for the Mac when we release the next version (that's expected to ship in mid-2007).

All the features in the Windows version will also be in the Mac version (including some new ones, but it’s still too early to talk about that . . .). True cross-platform, baby. It’s the first time Premiere Pro and Encore have ever been on the Mac (of course the original Premiere had its beginnings on the Mac, but that was a completely different app than Premiere Pro) and the tight integration between all the apps in Production Studio, with features like Dynamic Link which let you drag & drop your After Effects compositions into Premiere Pro and Encore without rendering, can now be enjoyed by Mac & Windows users alike.

You gonna be at Macworld next week? Stop by the Adobe exhibit and see the first ever demos of Production Studio on the Mac, being given by the venerable Dave Helmly.

I’ll be at Macworld as well, so if you see me make me buy you a beer or something. I live here in SF and know some pretty good places to get thrown out of…

Posted by Bob Donlon at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When I last left off, before the holidays, I was strutting some of the great new stuff we’ve got for you to try out on Adobe Labs where you can visit “Tomorrow’s Adobe Today” (no, that isn’t an official company line, I just made that up, so don’t think we’ve gone all lame with slogans, OK?). Labs is a relatively new thing for Adobe – we haven’t exactly been known for public betas in the past – and it's the way we're getting new products in your hands when we’re still developing them so you can tell us how to make ‘em even better! We’ve already gotten tons of great feedback on Soundbooth -- if you haven’t tried it yet (it’s free to download and use for the next few months so whattayouwaitingfor???) you can download it here.

After a restful holiday break (we pretty much hung the Gone Fishin’ sign on the door for the entire week) I’m geared up for what is going to be an incredible year at Adobe. It’s our 25th Anniversary, and some of the things we’ve got in the works are going to blow your mind. But before we even get there, check out this truly tasty snack on Adobe Labs.

This is not your daddy’s Photoshop

That’s right, for the first time ever you can download the not-even-released-yet-brand-spanking-new version of Photoshop, use it while we’re still developing it, and give us feedback on the new features. It’s a great opportunity for you to influence the future of Photoshop, so go forth and download!

One thing though -- unlike the Soundbooth beta (which anyone can download) you need to be a registered owner of Photoshop CS2 (or any suite that contains it, such as Production Studio or Creative Suite) to use the Photoshop CS3 Public Beta. All the details are here.

By the way, if you're one of the cool folks currently using the Soundbooth Public Beta, we put a new build up on Labs recently which includes some new functionality, so please do check it out.

So . . . after a week of laying low for the holidays, I was happy to return to the office this morning to find a box full of my latest “product.”

Clearly a guy not to be trusted . . .

Once again, I teamed up with Total Training – this time it’s a training series for the beginner/hobbyist crowd (unlike my last Total Training disc for Production Studio which we made for professional users). I’m quite proud of this one – Total Training for Adobe Premiere Elements 3. If you’re just getting into video for the first time, this disc is for you as I take you through the fundamentals of setting up your camcorder and computer, shooting footage, editing, creating effects & titles, recording narrations, creating DVDs with customized menus, exporting your movie for the web & mobile devices, and on and on . . .

Premiere Elements is based on Premiere Pro, so if you’re just starting out it’s easy to learn Elements and move up to Pro once you’ve got some skills.

Okay, enough shameless self-promotion. I’ll promote something else instead. The folks over at Future Media Concepts have put together quite a conference – the Editors’ Retreat – which will be in Miami at the end of this month. You need credits to get into this, and by credits I mean motion picture or television. This is a high-level conference for seasoned pros, and there is a crack lineup of presenters. I’ll be attending (not presenting), and if you’re a pro editor in TV or film you should consider joining us in Miami (hey, a week in Florida at the end of January can’t be all bad . . .)

Posted by Bob Donlon at 03:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The new technology just keeps rolling off the assembly line at Adobe Labs. It seems like every time I return from traveling (was working in Mexico City last week) there's something new to talk about -- and this time it has to do with . . . (hold on to your hats, folks) . . . Color Theory!!!!!

For those of you that think I've geeked way too far out this time, stay with me. Color Theory is one of the fundamentals of graphic design (including motion graphic design), and since most people come into motion graphics on a "sideways" path (i.e. without having gone to design school) it's something that not everybody understands. One of the many reasons you learn Color Theory in design school or art school is to help you understand how colors relate to one another, which is the first step to being able to create an appropriate color palette for a motion graphics project.

In a project for a corporate client, it's often the case that the client will require that only their brand palette be used, so that their brand identity is reinforced. But even if you don't work with these constraints it's a good idea to create a working palette for your projects as it helps you to keep a cohesive look and feel. I like to use the analogy of a music ensemble -- there are a set of instruments each with their own sonic characteristics (i.e. timbre) but it's also how those instruments sound together that makes up the texture & feel of a piece. There’s a reason to use a string quartet, as opposed to, say, the Stanford University Marching Band to convey the mood of serenity. I think you get my drift.

So, being that having a color palette for a motion graphics project is important, and being that our goal here at Adobe is to create tools that make you more creative & productive, we rolled out a new web-based application called Kuler last week. It's free to use and you can access it at kuler.adobe.com

Kuler lets you create and share color palettes, as well as browse & download palettes created by other Kuler users. It’s designed to help you create palettes based on the rules of Color Theory, so even if you haven’t got a clue you can create tight, logical palettes with just a few clicks of the mouse.

When you first launch Kuler, you’ll see the screen above showing some of the highest rated palettes created by the growing community of Kuler users (you can see one I created based on the colors of the old “Good ‘n Plenty” candy box). To create your own palette, click on the Create button and you will be presented with Kuler’s easy-to-use palette creation interface:

To start with, adjust the sliders under the first swatch to set your base color. In my example, I’m using red. Then, you can create several color palettes based on the rules of Color Theory by clicking on the names of the rules, which are (with examples):

Analogous: Matches colors with adjacent hues

Monochromatic: Focuses on one color with varied intensity and lightness in a single hue

Triad: Spaces your colors in a triangle around the wheel for a contrasting theme

Complementary: Uses the opposite two colors on the color wheel for a simple theme based on two hues

Compound: Combines interesting colors from multiple hues

Shades: Creates subtle variations of the base color’s hue

Custom: Lets you drag individual color circles around the wheel with complete freedom

It’s easy to see, from the examples above, how many possibilities there are just staying within the rules of Color Theory. But it’s also easy to expand on this by dragging the color circles when you’re within a rule – thereby using the rule as a jumping off point to creating a palette that will look cohesive and pleasing.

Once you’ve created a palette you can save it, publish it for other Kuler users to use (if you wish) and then download it as an Adobe Swatch Exchange file that can be opened in Illustrator CS2. You can also use the swatches as they appear in Kuler to sample with the eyedropper tool in After Effects, Photoshop, or most other Adobe tools. Use this as the basis for the colors you use in your backgrounds, text, and other colored elements in your projects .

As someone who came into motion graphics “sideways” and didn’t learn Color Theory until I took a post-grad class at Pratt Institute after I’d already been working in the field a couple years, I can’t emphasize enough how much better a designer you’ll become by broadening your understanding of color. Whether this is a new concept to you, or you’ve had this down cold for years, give this great new (and free) Adobe tool a spin on your next project.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I decided to take a long lunch today with my buddy Tom who is visiting from NYC (Tom happens to be a very talented web developer -- his company is called Local Galaxy). Anyhoo, I decided to take Tom up to one of my favorite spots in the Bay Area, the Marin Headlands.

It took me exactly 25 minutes to drive from my office, which is completely on the other side of San Francisco, to where I took this photo. 'Nuff said.

Just over the bridge is The Presidio, where George Lucas has his brand-spanking new production facilities. Along with Lucas-owned Industrial Light & Magic, there are a handful of large & small production and post-production companies, such as The Orphanage.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And no, this has nothing to do with my winetasting jaunt through Napa Valley on Saturday. This is a tip for those of you running After Effects 7.0 on Windows XP.

AE7 uses the ClearType technology found in WinXP to smooth the appearance of fonts in it's User Interface. Here's how to make sure you have ClearType enabled:

1) Right-mouse-click anywhere on your desktop and select "Properties". The Display Properties dialog appears.

2) Click on the "Appearance" tab and then click on the "Effects" button. (screencap below)

3) In the second pulldown menu from the top, select "ClearType", and click OK.

This'll keep the AE UI smooth, smooth smooth, regardless of the "After Effects of Weekend Hijinks". Oh that's just sad.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A tutorial I wrote for Studio Monthly magazine on exporting Flash Video from After Effects 7.0 is now online at Studio Monthly's sister web publication Studio Daily (let's see how long it takes for "Studio Hourly" to show up).

Read the tutorial here.

BTW, Studio Monthly is an excellent magazine that has more tutorials per issue than any other magazine. You can get a free subscription here.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the best online resources for tutorials on Adobe's Video & Audio products is Creative COW (mooooooo) -- COW actually stands for "Communities of the World", so it's really "Creative Communities of the World". They still use a cow as their logo, and give away neat promotional items like "Bovine Bessie's Chicken Sauce" at trade shows. The COW's founders, Ron & Kathlyn Lindeboom, are extremely smart, creative industry vets who have built one of the best onine user forums for Video & Audio on the planet. I used to host the forum for a competitor's editing product there before I started working at Adobe, and if you seach the archives you'll see some of the product reviews & industry reports that I did for them over the years. Ron also happens to be a mean drummer and despite being extremely busy running the COW still manages to produce records & do session work now & then.

Here are direct links to the COW tutorials for After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Audition. In particular, there are some really good ones for AE7 and Premiere Pro 2 for those of you starting to work with the new versions.

They also just started a print magazine which you can get a free subscription to, and they have a podcast, hosted by Franklin McMahon, which discusses creative & business issues in our industry. Well worth checking out.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In an earlier post, I wrote that Dean Velez (a multiple Emmy Award winning broadcast designer & former Adobe SE) has a new After Effects training DVD (from Total Training, where he's now the Creative Director). Upon arriving back to my office today, I was delighted to find a copy of it in my mailbox -- "Total Training for Advanced Adobe After Effects 7 Pro - Broadcast Design Secrets". Dean is one of the rare talents that can start with absolutely nothing, create some artwork in Photoshop, animate it in After Effects, and come out with an incredibly deep, dynamic motion design piece. I guess it comes from all those years he spent in TV News, having to create graphics packages with an average deadline of 1/2 hour (!).

I just watched the first part -- creating a News Bumper -- which uses the Fractal Noise effect to great effect (sorry) in creating the animated clouds. Fractal Noise is one of those effects that you should always turn to when creating animated backgrounds as the possibilities are virtually endless. Here's a screencap from the training.

Anybody involved in Broadcast Design should have a copy of this disc.

Posted by Bob Donlon at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, it’s off to the races as I hop on a plane around noon today at SFO and will be delivered to Seoul, Korea by Singapore Airlines a mere 14 hours later. A day to set up gear and see a bit of Seoul and then we start a 2 week swing through 4 countries to show the new goodies to seminar audiences and meet with journalists.

I just got off the phone with Dean Velez, formerly an Adobe SE (and a multi-emmy award winninng broadcast designer). He has a great new advanced broadcast design After Effects 7 training disc, just released by Total Training.

Dean is now the Creative Director over at the Total Training production facilities in Valley Cottege, NY (about 45 min. NW of Midtown Manhattan). He’s a kick-ass designer and I’m looking forward to seeing his design influence on the Total Training series.

Gotta get to the airport…

Posted by Bob Donlon at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)