Jason Levine – Healing People Daily with the Power of Digital Video & Audio

hallo, meine Freunde! Es war ein großer Tag in Köln! And if that didn't translate properly, what I was *trying* to say was that it was indeed a 'big day' in Cologne! With nearly 480 attendees, the Master's Tour really took a leap forward, and continued on the theme of inspiring the masses with the Master Collection workflow.

Rufus, Greg & I were in particularly good form today (with me, bursting into song, in German, singing David Bowie's "Helden"), and the 6 hours simply flew by! With a packed house (particularly during the middle section) we continued the theme of producing a website, an interactive PDF, and a DVD (with content created in Dreamweaver, InDesign, After Effects, Photoshop & Soundbooth) all from scratch, highlighting each step of the workflow process, and how we 'shared' the materials (back and forth) to create the 'final result'. Greg also managed to tag on a little about SPRY, which the audience REALLY enjoyed and appreciated.

I tried to take a bunch of photos and stitch them in PSCS3 as we've shown before. It was a little difficult (as the theatre was quite dark, and as you'll see, big spotlights were shining directly on us) so it was quite hard to 'capture' the natural light in the room (as there wasn't much) without completely blowing out the images. But still, this little auto-aligned/blended image will give you an idea of the packed house...

480 of our closest friends, in Köln...

Now, picking up where I left off on the last blog, today I continued with showing all of the Photoshop CS3 Extended integration, both via Vanishing Point Exchange, and with all of the new things you can do with Video in a PSD (ie, using tools like the healing brush, etc, as well as the application of Smart Filters for non-destructive processing of the video, across the entire duration! Wickedly cool) and people *really* understood the benefits. I wrapped up that section by showcasing a new Puppet Tool demo that I just worked up the other day, beginning in PS (using quick select), cutting out my subject, cloning in the background, and then going to town in AECS3. It never disappoints, forever changing the way people think about still photography...at least, that's what I ALWAYS say. Again, to my friends who attended...remember to use this feature for Good, not Evil! LOL

Following that, it was more integration with PPro/Dynamic Link, and bringing Soundbooth into the mix to repair audio (visually) using Photoshop tools. Again, a big winner with the crowds, and people really understand the concept of 'visually' repairing sound using Photoshop tools. Add to that the "louder" button, and adding Flash Cue Points (for subtitling in Fl CS3) and you've got a really cool workflow there. Again, taking advantage of the new caption component in Flash, Greg and I show this and it goes over big! Everyone should be doing this; if for no other reason than to make your sites (with video content) fully accessible! (want to know more about accessibility? Go to Stef's site)

Of course, my portion typically ends with showing the Adobe Media Encoder (and all of it's export options) including the new 'hit' of the week...the fact that we can export BLU-RAY from the Premiere Pro timeline *and* Encore CS3. Whereas Blu-Ray (and High definition DVD in general) seemed to be slightly 'under-the-radar', now that HD-DVD is no more, people are REALLY reacting to the fact that we do Blu-Ray. Very, very cool. ;)

So, because Rufus missed out in the video yesterday, and you only caught 'a glimpse' of his head in the previous photo, I figured he really deserved a spotlight shot here. Done without flash (and while he was in mid-demo) I think this captures the intensity of the presentation... But if you want the jokes, you'll have to attend the sessions! He was totally on a roll today! He literally had me and Greg laughing out loud during the preso. Great stuff, and great day had by all.

Rufus Rocking in Köln...

And on *that* note my friends, I think I'll end this post here. Our next stop will be Hamburg, and then onto Vienna for more CS3 Masters magic. Thanks again to all the attendees; thanks for all the great questions and feedback; thanks for the cheers and applause; and thank you to all for letting us come to your city and present the 'way's of the CS3 Master Collection.

Vielen Dank für alles

'Till next time...

Blog on.