I like to use Visual FX to enhance the story I am trying to tell. If they have a purpose, make the shot look better and help tell a story, why not use them, right? The problem is that many people don’t know where to start. A few years ago, I was one of those people. However, by le

The goal of this tutorial is to demonstrate some basic tools in developing a DVD motion menu from scratch. In our example, the motion menu will play back for 30 seconds, and the specifications will be NTSC format, using a 4:3 aspect ratio. For this tutorial, we will be creating a typica

The technique of shooting outdoor night scenes in broad daylight has been around since the early days of film. It is commonly called Day for Night (DFN), and you can spot it in films like It’s a Wonderful Life, Planet of the Apes and Jaws; documentaries like The Creation of the U

A well-done opening title—even if it’s only ten seconds long with your name and the name of your YouTube clip—can do much to set a polished mood to your video. The reverse is true as well. Create an amateurish-looking title sequence and your project is immediately off on the wrong foot with yo

Quick and External As far as external hard drives go, we’re bullish on the eSATA interface. Short of adding a Mini-SAS controller, eSATA is the highest-bandwidth port you’ll find on the outside of a mainstream computer worth your time to consider buying. This is the primary reason we jum

Turbo Powered Encoding video to a usable format has always been a time-consuming process. Many programs available for converting video are complicated and require many steps. Exporting video from a camera adds even more problems to the mess. The turbo.264 HD aims to clean up this process while also

Smart producers are using the internet to broaden their market and quickly pass proofs to clients. Should you consider the internet as your next video business channel? The internet provides a method for video producers to keep clients in the loop, from rough cut to final edit. You can look for a v

[image:blog_post:13801] Our August workshop is off and out the door and what a workshop it was! 31 attendees spread out over 4 classes. For those of you who have never attended a Videomaker Workshop the idea is to hunker down and drill as much knowledge into the brains of our readers that we can!

Reprinted from a Roxio press release Roxio, today launched Roxio Creator 2010, a comprehensive upgrade focused on streamlining and accelerating the process of capturing, editing and enjoying personal video, including high-definition content. Building on Creators already extensive feature set for edi

Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink Studio is as close as you will get to a Rosetta Stone for capturing and displaying video. While the current buzz in the video world is all about tapeless workflow, it’s important to realize that there is still thirty plus years of tape out there to deal with

Reprinted from a Boris FX press release BCC 6 AVX for DS brings nearly 180 filters to 64-bit versions of Avid DS. The release features over 30 new filters including Pixel Fixer, DV Fixer, and Smooth Tone tools; Swish Pan, Cartoon Look, Pencil Sketch, and Water Color effects; and OpenGL-accelerated e

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; better known as ASCAP, is targeting videos on YouTube for royalty payment for it’s professional creative members. This is a good thing for producers who work hard at making their product, only to see that someone has “borrowed

Check out this blog we discovered on WebTV Wire. It’s a fabulous collection of different sites where you can find free public domain footage. The blog, “Free Online Stock Video Footage – 9 of the Best Domain Video Resources” was compiled by Michael Pick a few years ago, and i

Reprinted from a Matrox Graphics press release Matrox Graphics today announced the availability of the Matrox M9138 and Matrox M9148 DisplayPort graphics cards. Expanding the M-Series product line, these new triple- and quad-monitor cards offer a remarkable 1 GB of memory, and with support for ind

Reprinted from a Boris FX press release Boris FX has announced the release of Boris Continuum Complete 6 which includes 15 New Filters, New 3D Objects, Exchange Keyframe Animation with Adobe After Effects. BCC 6 AVX is based on Avids AVX 2 plug-in architecture with support for Avid Media Composer, A

Most cinematographers use filters. Most videographers do not. Why? Money, time and tradition. Besides, you can always fix it in post. Right? Not necessarily. There are some things filters can do that you really can NOT fix in post. Using filters can set you apart from the competition. And the supe

What a Workstation… HP is justifiably proud of its new line of workstations. In a massive set of launch events, HP hosted the international technology press and shared a number of achievements its new workstations have accomplished for customers spanning the gamut of hardcore computing needs &

Transform with a Click Even with current hard-drive technology, there is still a chance of the drive going bad. Sometimes a drive will last years while some fail within the first week. It is essential to keep a backup of important files. Losing your important data can result in many hours of work.

Check out this video we found of a demo on the Making Of site. It’s an editing system called “Tamper” being created by Oblong Industries, a software company that’s looking into the future with a technology called G-speak. John Underkoffler, the creator, gave a demo of this am

From an Active Media Products press release: 8-Channel Controller and 128MB of SDRAM Cache Combined with Flex-Fit Adapter make these SSDs Ideal for High-End Desktops – Active Media Products, manufacturer of unique USB drives including the Obama drive, today introduced the new Predator GT seri