The Genesis Project

While you may have never noticed, the fact was that I was using a convoluted way to actually post my entries and content to this blog. 

The problem was that Contribute CS4 was practically unusable on the Mac which is my main laptop computer.  Text entry was slow, the thing crashed...in short it was ugly. I had to launch VMWare, get into Vista 64 through emulation on my Mac, launch Contribute CS3 (not 4) and do my entries.  Not the most pleasant of experiences to say the least!

However, it would seem that all is right again in the world and after a Saturday install of Contribute CS4 along with the important update, I am typing away and experiencing no problems at all.  Kudos to the Contribute team for tracking down these issues and fixing them.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 3:20 PM | Permalink

I really enjoyed doing this one and couldn't leave well enough alone.  That being said, this is nothing new to an experience AE designer.  This has been done and taught by many great people.  In fact, I must give do credit to Danny Princz in NYC as well as FXPHD.com because it's from them that I originally learned this technique.

And while I don't use this technique, I should also mention Maltaannon's great plug-in that uses After Effect's Shape Layers feature.  It's free, so have at it.  You can get it here.

Once the video is live on AdobeTV, I will post an embedded version in this blog entry.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

...Or perhaps this entry could be titled, "A study of contrasts"

I recently received the latest issue of Event DV, which is an excellent magazine with some solid writers.  Each month they've got some excellent contributions from Photoshop wiz, Lance Gray and an editorial from Jan Ozer.

Event DV also has a recurring tutorial called Cut Lines which represents how to do things with Apple's Final Cut Pro. It too is good, but I can't help but often compare how things are done in Premiere Pro (call me biased. ;-)

This month's article was about how to edit AVCHD content.  If you're curious to read the article, you can view it here.

Author Joe McManus does a very good job of outlining the basic steps to editing content inside of FCP as well as outline one potential technical pitfall that he encountered.

BUT....

There are a couple of things in the article that are not mentioned and I feel it is misleading. It is for this reason that I'm writing. Joe outlines 5 steps, but I've listed only the two most important ones below:

Step 1: open the Log and Transfer window - This is warning #1 to me as the word 'transfer' often means 'transcode.'  In other words, change my pixels and make me wait.  More on this in a bit.

Step 4: capture the footage to ProRes 422 - For the uninitated ProRes is Apple's codec that is used for converting DVCProHD, AVCHD, RED, XDCAMEX and XDCAMHD.  It's a solid codec that scaleable (larger or smaller) and is in some ways an answer to Avid's DNxHD codec.

Okay. In contrast, here's the edit workflow for Adobe AVCHD assuming that your media is plugged in or you have copied it over to the hard drive:

Adobe Step 1:Edit.

Now, to be fair, I think it safe to say that playing the ProRes clip in either Premiere Pro or FCP would be a smoother experience on my laptop than a native AVCHD clip.  AVCHD is CPU intensive.  I can play an AVCHD clip in real-time on my Mac laptop (very cool), but if you get into multiple layers, PIPs, etc., it will slow down.  There's the advantage of a transcoded clip.  That being said, as with MPEG-2 before it, AVCHD will become easier to play and decode as computers continue to develop and get faster.  Certainly, editing native AVCHD on a Mac tower is a good editing experience today as it is on a similar desktop PC.

Returing to the topic at hand, the two things that I think are not represented in the article are transcoding takes time and the size of the resulting files.  On my Macbook Pro laptop, my clips were converted to ProRes in about real-time or a little more.  Meaning Joe's 6m18s clip would take about 6m18s to convert to ProRes.  One of the real benefits of tapeless editing is that there's no capture process.  Even if the transcode process is faster than real-time what's the advantage of tapeless formats if you can't edit more quickly? 

Secondly, there is the issue of storage.  I took an AVCHD clip that was 23 seconds long and had an original file size of 18.4MB (I know - REALLY small!).  When I converted it to ProRes with the default settings the clip size was 347MB or almost 19 times greater in file size!  If we extroplate the math out to Joe's original AVCHD clip, the size was probably about 302MB in size.  Contrast that with the 5.51GB that he lists in the article.  Unlike him, I don't find that particularly acceptable, given that the original file size was so much smaller.

I don't claim these findings to be scientific, nor am I bashing Apple, Final Cut Pro, Joe or Event DV.  Far from it in fact. Look back at the first line I wrote - A study of contrasts.  If your goal is to preserve your original media and get your job done quickly, I feel Premiere Pro does a better job of that today than the example that Joe outlined in his excellent tutorial. Its sometimes a lack of awareness that makes us continue to do what we've done in the past.  Not knowing of something better, we think that what we've got is fine. 

So, with all that said, what do you think?  Does the size of the files matter to you with hard drives cheap?  Does the smoother editing experience mean more to you now than having your image untouched and converted?  What about metadata?  Does losing the time for conversion to ProRes matter to you?  I'd be curious for all points of view.  Feel free to comment below.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Matrox has announced the availability of Axio 4.0 software for Production Premium package including Premiere Pro CS4.  This software not only adds support for CS4 for existing Axio users but also the following:

* Full resolution, full frame rate, realtime editing of many more layers of video and graphics
* Realtime mixed-format timelines and multi-cam
* More effects in real time including color correction, chroma/luma keying, speed changes, 3D DVE, blur/glow/soft focus, and many more
* Realtime native editing of Panasonic P2 and P2 HD and Sony XDCAM, XDCAM HD, and XDCAM HD422 clips (MXF files)
* Realtime native editing of Sony XDCAM EX clips (MP4 files)
* Native support for additional codecs including: DVCPRO HD, MPEG HD, MPEG HD422, offline HD, MPEG-2 I-frame in HD and SD, IMX, DVCPRO, and DVCPRO50
* Composite, Y/C, HD/SD analog component, and HD/SD SDI input and output
* Simultaneous HD and SD output
* Realtime MPEG-2 IBP capture from analog, DV, and SDI sources for DVD authoring
* WYSIWYG video output for graphics and compositing Adobe After Effects, and Photoshop, Autodesk Combustion and 3ds Max, eyeon Fusion, and NewTek LightWave 3D (32-bit versions) with dynamic Alt+Tab switching

All in all, it looks like a good release.  Go to the Matrox website for more details.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 6:45 AM | Permalink

I recently received a note from Juan Carlos, a New York area Premiere Pro editor who has done some interesting work in the game field.  Juan Carlos has done an interesting film called Second Skin which is about gamers lives inside these massive game worlds.

More recently, he let me know that he's connected VBS.tv and the show is called Motherboard.  It's about games as well and the initial episodes were covering Lord British (aka Richard Garriott) who developed several games including the Ultima series of yesteryear.

It's an interesting view and in three parts. If it tickles your fancy, you should check it out here.

Of course, Juan is busy cutting away in Premiere Pro CS4. Real world work (on virtual worlds) being done on Premiere Pro.  And why not?  It's the best editor out there in my opinion! ;-)  Enjoy the videos.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 7:20 AM | Permalink

I've finished three episodes and trying to squeeze in some more in my spare time. These episodes are ones that I really like, because they focus on either something really cool, or something really necessary. 

I've found that creating these is much like your own work - sometimes the muse strikes you and you create some good stuff and other times...yawn...  When it's the latter, I don't publish anything and when it's the former - well, I hope you like it.

In my first two part episode, I walk you through how to create 3D text - a technique that I picked up from Danny Princz of FXphd.com.  I also was recently reminded of an important feature in Audition 3.0 - removing 'silence' from your audio...very nifty in certain instances.

They'll be coming online over the next several weeks, so I hope that you'll consider bookmarking the site which is here: Adobe Beginner Classes

The first one should be online by the end of this week.  As always, I'd welcome your comments.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 7:09 AM | Permalink

I love provactive titles.  That one got you didn't it? ;-) 

It's hard to imagine that Adobe is already looking at what to do next with OnLocation, but you'd be shocked at how far off we try to think when planning on the future of our products.  We do this in part because we have so many passionate customers that need new functionality.

The title says it all, but let me add a caveat.  Being a useful beta tester is not about wanting to see what the new features may be.  In fact, it's a real commitment and the ones that get invited back or invited to test other things are the ones who put the time into logging bugs, using the product and trying to break it.

I've been a beta tester, but not a good one.  I like many others were more interested in seeing the new stuff rather than trying to make it better by breaking it.  Hopefully, some of you are interested in doing the latter.  If so, you should check out a post on Creative Cow from Adobe that outlines some upcoming testing for OnLo.

Creative Cow Post

One other completely obvious statement - No, there isn't a new version of OnLocation or anything else on the imminent horizon, so please don't ask! ;-)

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 2:09 PM | Permalink

I've been extremely remiss in doing episodes, but the fact is Adobe has given me a different assignment this year and as a result, doing Adobe Beginner Classes has fallen off the map! 

Never fear!  I've got two episodes done (and I'm quite happy with them) and hopefully doing some more this week. 

As a refresher, you can get to my 'channel' by clicking here

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 9:39 AM | Permalink

Among the very best plugins available for After Effects are the ones from GenArts.  Called Sapphire plugins, they are an extensive collection of toolbox additions that are must haves if you are a serious AE artist. 

As a result, these plugins never go on sale.  The price for the whole collection is over $1500.00 which is a lot by any measurement. 

Next Tuesday only, it seems that Toolfarm will have the entire collection on sale for one day only.  So, on February 24th, you'll want to click here

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 8:10 AM | Permalink

I just recevied a digital version of Videomaker magazine and I have to say I enjoyed it. 

The question for me is why did I enjoy it?

Why did I enjoy it?  Because it was easy to navigate around in and I got the stories or bits that I was most interested in quickly. The art of gathering information in the information age is have effective strategies for finding what you need quickly! For me, this means looking at the table of contents of the magazine and being able to jump right to the story I want to see first.  Then jumping back and looking at the next bit. 

Now, lest you think that I am pronouncing the death of paper, I would hesitate to do so.  I am a big reader and there is something indescribable about the connection you have between yourself and a good book. Until we have something like the movie Minority Report where we can read newspapers on a thin, film-like substance and turn pages with a motion of the hand, I don't see paper books and media going away.  Even the new electronic readers don't offer as much to the average reader as just buying the book in paper.

Anyway, lest I get more off track, I encourage you to give navigable PDFs a try, they're quite nice...

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 9:54 AM | Permalink

Just a quick post to let you know about a few local events that will be happening over the next month or so.

AENY - After Effects New York will be on for Thursday, February 26th.  Always a bunch of great people and conversation about After Effects.  If you haven't checked it out yet, you should.  It's on 11th street around 6th avenue.  Get all the details at the website.

NJFCPUG - A couple of days earlier in the week, Tuesday to be precise, I will be in North Jersey presenting to the NJ FCP users group. I'll be discussing how Production Premium fits into a FCP workflow and showing some workflow ideas including the now famous Final Cut Pro importer into Premiere Pro.

TekServe - An open invitation to have watch a basic presentation in an open format...meaning this is probably a good opportunity to ask me questions about Adobe stuff.  I'll be focusing a bit more on Premiere Pro at the request of Tekserve, but if you've got questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

I hope to see you soon - Dennis

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 6:51 AM | Permalink

Late yesterday I saw on the Adobe blog roll the title FCP Users: Using Premiere Pro is not cheating!

Of course I clicked on it and read it - that was too intruiging a title not to read for me and the comments and reactions have so mirrored my own that I too had to comment on it.

NLE users are a dedicated bunch and of course we have a giant number of Premiere Pro users who are just that - dedicated and loyal.  Furthermore, I understand that if I'm saying 'my' NLE is better than yours that in some way I am assaulting your decision - and that's not a good thing.  Choosing software in any category is an emotional and mental decision and if anyone challenges that then it is saying your decision (and by extension intellect) is not all it should be.

I get it.

As an aside, one of the reasons that I love working for Adobe is simple: Adobe is not the kind of company that wants to force you to work with only Adobe applications.  Should you choose to use Quark in print, or another web development tool or Avid or Apple, whatever - that's okay.  really... no really...

Would we like you to use all Adobe products - absolutely. We do in part because we believe that the integration and features we've put into the products are going to give you things you can't get in competitive products, but the point is we won't be draconian about it. 

Back to the FCP user - Karl's customer reactions have mirrored my own and while I like Macs just as much as the next person, I am continually amazed at how some people think that using Adobe or other creative products is like cheating on your spouse.  Why can't these people embrace other tools, specifically Premiere Pro?  You've embraced Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Encore because they supply functionality that you lack, why not Premiere Pro to do the same?  The fact is, more and more FCP and Avid users are doing just that and I think it underscores the main point here: these are all just tools. We are passionate about them, we care about them, we spend an inordinate amount of time in front of them, but they are still just tools.  Do I worship a hammer?  No, I do not.  In the same way, I shouldn't have preconceived notions about what I should be doing with software products. 

Will FCP users become the next generation of Avid editors? Think about it - perhaps a mere 5 years ago, Avid editors said, "I'm not using Final Cut, I'm an Avid editor!"  What are many of them doing now?  Using Final Cut (or Premiere Pro).  The point is, don't let your tools prevent you from better creativity.  Just because you have a 3 pound hammer, doesn't mean you can't have a ball pean hammer, or a sledge, or a nail remover, or a nail gun.  There are more than a few types of hammers - the same holds true for creative software. I'd like to think that Premiere Pro can have a place alongside any workflow. Time will tell!

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 10:00 AM | Permalink

Many people have been asking almost every Adobe employee about if/when Flash comes to the iPhone. Similar to this, I posted an entry about Google's upcoming phone quite some time ago (over a year) and today it's getting more hits than ever for the same reason - when is Flash coming to it?

So, for no other reason than to satisfy your need to know and to get gratuitous traffic to this blog (just kidding!), I came across this article the other day and am passing it on to you.  In it, it has some public comments by Adobe's CEO, Shantanu Narayen about Flash for the iPhone and also the Google G1.  Have at it.

Information week link

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 7:45 AM | Permalink

So, if you see me sometime at a tradeshow or what not, more than likely I will have at least one G-Tech product with me.  I've had three G-Raid minis and without a doubt are my favorite little hard drives.  They're bus powered and have firewire 400/800 and USB2.  I had an original 240GB on the road for the better part of three years and only recently did it start to show signs of being ready for retirement.  It had traveled with me for well over 100,000 miles and I still use it for a back up drive. I also have a G-drive-mini, a G-Drive and a G-Raid.  All of them are well designed, work as advertised and have stayed with me for a number of years. 

Lets be honest, hard drives are not sexy, but they are essential and having one you can trust is important.  I've been pleased with G-Tech and plan to use them for the future.

Posted by Dennis Radeke at 5:21 PM | Permalink