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August 27, 2008

Adobe Beginner Classes Bootleg #2 is live!

UPDATED 8-27-08 - I forgot to post the AE project file in case you want it. Here it is... Displacement Tutorial

I cover displacement maps in After Effects as a simple way of mapping your images or video on moving sources with depth. 

Subscribe to Adobe Beginner Classes in the Adobe Media Player if you haven't already.

Cheers, Dennis ;-)

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 2:32 PM | | Comments (1)

August 26, 2008

All the best of Photoshop and Premiere for home users

Today Adobe announced all new versions of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements.  It's all the power of their big brothers but without all of the detail.  It's all about the results and getting them quickly.

I can't say that I've played with them yet, but there are a few things worth noting.

  • Photoshop Elements is now offering services through subscription.  More and more people want to share photos, back them up, and get new templates and content.  That's what some of the photoshop services are all about.
  • Premiere Elements also gets some of the new services and in addition adds something that Genesis Project readers will write to me about - AVC HD

So, if you're interested in learning more about either product, you can get to the main page right here - Premiere and Photoshop Elements

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 10:43 AM | | Comments (1)

August 22, 2008

Adobe Beginner Classes Episode #8 is live!

As more and more episodes get posted, I will write less and less about each one...  I'd rather you just watch it and figure it out for yourselves! ;-)

Anyway, this one dives into Premiere Pro PIPs in a deeper way giving you the tools on how to create a sophisticated PIP look like "24" or the recent movie, Vantage Point.  As always, leave a comment here if you get the chance.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 2:17 PM | | Comments (3)

Adobe Beginner Classes Episode #8 is live!

As more and more episodes get posted, I will write less and less about each one...  I'd rather you just watch it and figure it out for yourselves! ;-)

Anyway, this one dives into Premiere Pro PIPs in a deeper way giving you the tools on how to create a sophisticated PIP look like "24" or the recent movie, Vantage Point.  As always, leave a comment here if you get the chance.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 2:15 PM | | Comments (0)

August 20, 2008

Adobe and AJA at B&H

If you're not doing anything tomorrow (come on it's summer time - take it easy and visit the coolest camera and video store on the planet!) then come and visit Adobe along with AJA as we discuss CS3 and the tools available.  A representative from AJA will also be there, so it will be a fun time for all. The event is tomorrow, August 21st at B&H's 2nd floor demo room. The event starts at around 11AM.  Hope to see you there.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 7:27 AM | | Comments (0)

August 7, 2008

Adobe Beginner Classes Episode #7 is live!

During this episode, I give a quick tutorial on Premiere Pro and how you can use it to create a picture-in-picture effect.  This is often used in news and documentary workflows. Go get with the Adobe Media Player and make sure you subscribe to my feed - type in Adobe Beginner Classes in the search field and subscribe - yes, do it now! ;-)

Okay, enough self-agrandizing.  Take a look at the latest and hopefully you'll learn something fun from it.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 2:19 PM | | Comments (2)

August 5, 2008

Ko's latest: Down and dirty AE tricks

Ko Maruyama is an experience AE artist out on the west coast and he also writes for Digital Media Net.  While I haven't met Ko yet personally, I do know him by reputation and in the community and he is an excellent teacher and community proponent.
Check out his latest down and dirty tutorial on creating volumetric light.  It's short, sweet and effective.  Get it right here: Ko's Volumetric Light Tutorial

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 12:35 PM | | Comments (0)

Adobe Digital VIdeo Tools Showcase - Matrox and MOTU

Back in late May, I helped do an Adobe event that not only included Adobe Systems, but about a dozen of our partners, both hardware and software.  We taped the videos and now I am pleased to announce that the first two are posted on Adobe TV.  These videos represent a great opportunity to get a synopsis of what our partners do and how they enhance Adobe products.  Give them a view and see what you think!
Matrox

MOTU

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 9:54 AM | | Comments (2)

August 4, 2008

Studies in success: New customer stories

Just a quick post here to mention that there are two new customer stories based around video and film making. 

For Unified Pictures, they employed nearly all of the Adobe tools in a variety of projects based around both Macs and PCs.  Get all of the details by clicking here and getting the PDF: Unified Pictures

For ReelTV, they utilize After Effects, Soundbooth, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, etc.  Get all the details by going here: ReelTV

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 1:39 PM | | Comments (0)

After Effects Tutorial: Adjustment Layers and Track Mattes

Adjustment Layers as a term sounds very perplexing and perhaps just downright weird.  It sounds like I should be talking about Chiropractors instead of After Effects.  Nevertheless, adjustment layers are one of the most powerful tools for an AE artist and if you're willing to read through the attached tutorial, I give a couple of minor examples on how to harness the power of this under utilized feature.

Along the way, I will also show you a simple example on using Track Mattes - a wonderful tool displaying your video in unique shapes - in this case text.  Yes, video text is within your grasp and it's easy with track mattes!

Finally, I happen to show you how to use Motion Sketch as a means to input real-time position data into layers within your composition.

So, download the project file and come along for a triple whammy tutorial!

Adjustment Layer and Masks Tutorial

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 1:34 PM | | Comments (1)