The Genesis Project

Does any of this start to sound familiar?

I posted a while back about being able to access my Mac drives from my PC, but I mentioned then that I still didn't have a way to view NTFS volumes from my Mac - until now.

Paragon Software has released their NTFS for Mac software and I installed a copy yesterday to give it a test drive.  What can I say about it?  It worked! 

The installation was light and quick and there's no startup splash screen or application you need to launch before hand - it just seems to do it's thing in the background.  It's pretty fast too - there doesn't seem to be any noticible delay in copying and while I've been typing, I've been pushing across 1.7GB of information to a PC drive and it's going just fine.

This isn't a sexy software plugin that's going to make you and After Effects do amazing things.  No, it's just a terrific, must have utility if you move media between platforms day in and day out.  You won't notice it's there but you'll love how it works.  If you need to view PC drives from your Mac, this is money well spent.

NTFS for Mac product page

If you're working from a PC and need to access the Mac here is my original post and review about MacDrive 7 : MacDrive 7 post

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 07:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Andrew Kramer is definitely on my short list of super talented guys that I wish I could be.  What's really cool is that he has no problem sharing his talent and he recently did a short tutorial on building an exploding planet, effectively heading off what I would have done in a while anyway.  (darn you Andrew!) ;-)

So, head on over to Video Copilot and watch this 13 minute tuturial that gives a good overview of the Shatter plugin.

Exploding Planet

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 06:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just a quick note here that Matrox is hitting various cities and showing off the latest with their RT.X2 hardware in conjunction with Adobe Production Premium.  Click on the link to see if they're coming to your neck of the woods.

I'm off to Chicago today to participate in tomorrow's event.

Matrox Hardware Advantage Tour

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As an audio guy, I've grasped how important this method of audio editing really is, so I like to show it every chance I get.  Plus, Soundbooth is really designed for 'non-audio' people so it's great to show with Premiere and the like.  Still, I'm always surprised that people have the products (Soundbooth and Audition) but haven't tapped into this feature yet.

So, it's my personal mission to continue to show this unique toolset until everyone knows that it's available to them.

If you've clicked to read this and are intrigued to learn more, here's a screen shot for you to look at

Soundbooth Spectral View

Additionally, there are a lot of tutorials that can be accessed via Bridge Home, Adobe.com and of course a link here to the Design Center.

Design Center (Video Workshop)

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the two super guys who help run AENY (After Effects New York) was recently asked to help blog/write on motiongrapher.com.  Well, after seeing the link about an upcoming AENY meeting (Thursday in case you're wondering), I started to browse thru the site.  Wow....

If you want to see what some truly crazy creative people are doing with our products, then click on some of the websites that are on the left side of the site.  I specifically remember Psyop coming to AENY and the stuff they presented was simply stunning.  They're listed on this site.  So is Blur, Nailgun, REZN8, Interspectacular and so on. 

Beyond a list of great animation and post houses, there is a blog with a bunch of current work that is being done whether it's websites or tv/film.  Definitely worth reading and if you do, you may start to get a glimpse of where I may pull some of my material!

Motionographer website

Sounds corny,but I love working for a company that allows people to create this kind of stuff.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lots of things going on with Premiere Pro and it's all good.  Matrox has just announced and released their 3.1 software version to coincide with our 3.1 release for Premiere Pro.  I'm firing up my Axio again in our NY office so I am looking forward to giving this realtime hardware a real test drive over the next couple of months.  The 3.1 release also applies to the RT.X2 series as well.

Premiere Pro is getting some good comments and reviews regarding our DVC Pro HD implementation.  While that's terrific, I can't wait for what we're cooking up next.

Lightroom 1.3 went live last week and if you haven't gotten it yet, you should run the updater under the help menu.  It provides updated Camera Raw profiles as well as support for some new cameras including the EOS mk3. If you haven't tried Lightroom yet, give it a try.  It's one of those products, I'll launch just to fool around with.  It's really that cool.

After Effects is still working towards adding DVC Pro HD + P2 support to sync up with Premiere Pro.  My guess is that this update will come along with our Leopard updates in early December.

Came across two websites that might peak your interest:

Josh Fozzard is a wedding/event videographer who has dived into After Effects and has a number of interesting items you might like to look at including his website name: AEproject.com

The next one comes to me via Terry White, who besides being an avid technology buff (Terry's techblog) also writes for Photoshop User and Layers magazine. Terry mentioned Rod Harlan and Rod's website, DVconfidential.  After taking a quick look at it, I know I'll be back.

Just like Thanksgiving, there are more dainty tidbits and delicacies to explore, but I'm stuffed for now.  More coming soon.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yup, that's right, it's Flash. 

Along those lines, let me say that I recently saw the latest Flash statistics and it's even more startling than before.  We've reached 99.1% of all computers in the world.  Wow...Let me say it backwards - WOW!  Throw in 300 million flash enable mobile devices (c'mon Apple let the iPhone have Flash!) and you've got the biggest audience in the world - period.

The WOW stats!

First, here's the original link on the NBC story - it contained a few updates over the course of the week and I believe it still fairly encapsulates what the story is about.  There are a lot of links within this one too that are worth your time if you're so inclined.

NBC - The first of many?

As for NBC's Hulu, it is a beta at this point, but you can sign up for free.  Give it a try - just don't get caught watching Heros while you're at work!

Hulu

My question for NBC: Why the name Hulu?  Guesses anyone?

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

_______________

I can't say that I've tried it yet: I just got a serial # today.  Chances are that Dave Helmly will do a piece on this once he's put it thru it's paces.  If so, I'll be sure to post a link.  Still, I thought it worth mentioning since AVC-HD has been in asked about so much recently.

In addition to AVC-HD, it supports a variety of Sony formats including XDCAM, XDCAM HD and now XDCAM EX.

There's a whole bunch to dig into and it looks like they already have a trial download set up so download it, give it a try and let me know what you think.

MPEG Pro HD 3 by Main Concept

When I get a chance to put it thru its paces, I'll be sure to let you know what I find.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (126)

the pleasure part is really for my kids (and yours if you've got 'em).  We recently put up some new pages focusing on Flash and on video and broadcast.  I saw them a few days before they went live and they're really terrific.  The broadcast pages really show some interesting data and if you're into trends, you'll definitely find some surprising (or not) information.

Solutions: Broadcast and media

In the above, as I was browsing thru the pages, I encountered one of our recent examples of rich interactive media and this is the part for the kids (or the kids at heart).  Definitely requires a good broadband line, but also well worth whatever wait you might have to endure...Give it a look at:

GetTheGlass

We've also got a new slogan for Flash and it's "FlashOn".  There's a lot here for you to explore as well so I'll just give you the link.  Happy viewing and exploring.

FlashOn

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 06:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

UPDATE 11/15/07: Ron Lindebloom of Creative Cow opined a piece and it's worth reading. He takes a similar view to my own and throws in a little bit about the Cow for good measure...  here's the link

First off, you probably want the link.  You can get the press release here

To me, I see this as a natural reaction of Avid dealing with a prolonged struggle to market changes. Their customers have resisted the idea of continuing to migrate to newer hardware and while certain divisions have continued to perform like Digidesign, others have struggled and the result is that Avid's bottom line has been a problem.

Honestly, there are things that make sense about this move.  Everyone knows who Avid is and they can rent meeting rooms and accomplish much of the same result and not spend millions of dollars.  What do they accomplish by being there in a big way?  On top of that, Avid's move will likely stave off more layoffs.  If I had to make the choice of participating at NAB but layoff more people that I need to be competitive, I'll choose bowing out of the show, though I'd do it reluctantly.

Nonetheless, it is surprising the industry and I understand that too.  It's on the same order of saying that Panasonic or Sony are not going to be in the South Hall - it's just inconceivable!  This could be a chance for Apple and Adobe to say "we've won!" but I think that would be premature.

This begs the question, "Where does Adobe fit in all of this?" Our answer has always been that we play nice with Avid and Apple and will continue to do so.  Do you use FCP? Great, you need After Effects and Photoshop (probably more apps too.)  Do you use Avid?  Great - same message for you.  Of course, we're excited to see more and more broadcasters and high-end professionals embracing Premiere Pro too.

Do I think Avid will weather this storm?  Yes.  Will this change how they do business?  Yes.  Are there more questions here? Probably...

So, what do you think?  Let me know!

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you’re a regular reader/downloader of my tutorials (doubtful!) then you might say, where are the other two parts? Indeed, there is a first part, where I give you a tutorial on how to take a simple earth image (downloaded free from the Internet) and create a convincing view of Earth in space. Part 2, I’ve never actually had the nerve to write up, because it’s a fly through of the entire Solar System and to write up all of the details on that...well, I just haven't had that much leisure time yet.

So, take a look, download the tutorial and dive in. Download Strange Planet 3 tutorial

Here's the original tutorial - Planet Earth

Here's one on creating the Sun (feel powerful don't ya?) - The Power of the Sun

Finally, let me point you to Aharon's website All Bets are Off You never know when you'll need a good After Effects artist...

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 08:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This news is a bit old, but in the spirit of providing it, I'll use the cliche, "Better late than never." ;-)

The latest update from Apple in conjunction with our After Effects CS3 update now gives OpenGl preview capabilities to Mac customers. PC users, you can read on as well in case you've never turned it on (because you've had it for a while), but Mac users rejoice because you've got another way to potentially speed up After Effects.

I'm a big fan of tapping into any resource that will speed up tasks and next to the CPU, the graphics card (or GPU) is the most powerful processing component in your computer.  The question then becomes, why not take advantage of it? 

If you access your After Effects preferences, go to the preview section

You want to choose OpenGL (when possible) if your card supports it.  To find that questions out, click on the OpenGL info button.  Hopefully, you'll see something like this:

You'll find that almost all recent computers and graphics cards will support these items and it's great to see that some serious things are supported like Antialiasing and Motion Blur - things you're likely to use all of the time.

So, take a minute to look at this and if you've found that it's not turned on, well, I've hopefully just given you an early holiday present.

Cheers, Dennis

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 08:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In this document, I also give you a way to copy and print ALL of the keyboard shortcuts available inside of Premiere Pro.  The ones I've listed are merely the ones that I think are most important or the ones I use the most.  Many people are hesitant to embrace keyboard driven editing, but I am convinced that it is the fastest way to edit.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dean's changed his website and his focus.  Take a look, grab some of the free After Effects projects and see what's the latest from this talented After Effects designer.

Motion Graphics Lab

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 04:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Let me put it this way, if you can pick up 5 things at this seminar that you apply, I'm confident that you'll walk away a better editor. Along the way, I'll show a new feature or two, namely a brief overview of Panasonic DVCProHD support inside of Premiere Pro CS3.

The event is Thursday at 2PM EST

Adobe video e-seminars registration

There will be some Q&A as well, so it's a great chance to ask questions and hopefully get them answered right away!

So sign up and show up!  I'll feel lonely unless there are several hundred people there with me! 

Dennis

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got a copy and immediately put it through it's paces.  To nobody's surprise, all of my hard drives had some (or much) deframentation and as a result, slower disk performance.  If you're regularly doing editing on the Mac, you'll want to consider optimizing your drives every so often to squeeze all of the speed possible from it. Enter Coriolis Systems.

Let me put it this way, iDefrag just plain works and as a person who likes to be neat and tidy (though it rarely happens), iDefrag is a great tool to have.  I wish the demo version would allow you to defrag something more usable, but at $30.00, you might as well just buy it and be done with it.

iDefrag product page

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 09:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just a quick entry here to note that Premiere Pro 3.1 is available as an update to all current users.  The 3.1 update introduces Panasonic P2/MXF support in addition to some fixes.

Macintosh: Premiere Pro 3.1 update for Macintosh

Windows: Premiere Pro 3.1 update for Windows

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)