You need to animate some text. It needs to be flashy. It needs to be colorful. And, most importantly, it needs to be done yesterday. Apple Keynote to the rescue! In this short video tutorial, Larry provides an overview on how to create animated text using Apple Keynote for use in any video editor, such as Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro or Media Composer.
Apple Keynote, like Apple Pages, supports text styles. However, these are more limited than you might at first think. Here’s a tutorial that explains more about how to create and modify them.
August is vacation time. Still, over these five weeks, we published 19 tutorials and product reviews. Here’s a summary of everything we released this month. Something to look through during the holiday weekend.
Axle.ai is a fast, powerful and customizable media asset management system that is designed for the needs of a small to medium sized workgroup. This is an in-depth product review, along with an interview with Axle.ai CEO Sam Bogoch.
This week, Apple released a minor update to Final Cut Pro (v 10.6.4), Compressor (v 4.6.2), Motion (v 5.6.2) and iMovie. Here are the details.
Particle Illusion is a free, powerful particle generator that runs on both Macs and Windows with hundreds of presets for 2D or 3D particles. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to get started using it.
BorisFX Continuum is the “Swiss Army Knife for visual effects for video editors and motion graphics creatives. In this short video tutorial Larry Jordan shows how to create a complex effect using blurs, color effects and multiple masks, plus Mocha mask tracking in BorisFX Continuum 2022.5 and Final Cut Pro.
BorisFX Continuum is the “Swiss Army Knife for visual effects for video editors and motion graphics creatives. In this short video tutorial Larry Jordan shows how to create a simple blur effect using masks and Mocha mask tracking in BorisFX Continuum 2022.5 in Final Cut Pro.
BorisFX Continuum is the “Swiss Army Knife for visual effects for video editors and motion graphics creatives. In this short video tutorial Larry Jordan shows how to create a simple “Day-for-Night” color effect using Continuum in Final Cut Pro.
What I like about the Classic Color Meter is that it works the way you expect, measures colors six ways from Sunday and allows copying and pasting color values, even color images, from whatever you measured into whatever you need. Here’s how it works.
If you have a crashed hard disk and need to recover images, Stellar Photo Recovery may be worth considering. But if you have specific images that used to open, but don’t open now, Stellar Photo Recovery didn’t work for me. It may work for you.
Like many, I get confused about the differences between HDR, RAW, HDR, Log, LUT, and 10-bit media. All too often, the explanations are deeply technical – and confusing. So, here’s an overview of what these are and how to use them.
Last week, Axle ai released a new cloud-based video editor call axledit. This is a browser-based video editor with integrated collaboration, search, and publishing features that’s hooked into axle ai for media management. Here are the details.
evrExpanse, a media metadata and transcoding tool, was updated to 2.1.6. The new version provides support for more codecs and faster performance. Here’s a first look.
Recovery Mode is a hidden operating system on recent Macs that simplifies emergency maintenance on your system. However, it is accessed differently for Intel and M1 Macs. Here are the details.
In this article, I compare the compression speed of Apple Compressor, Adobe Media Encoder and ffWorks (ffMPEG) on an Intel system versus a new M1 MacBook Pro. Along the way we also discover that speed is not dependent upon how hard the CPUs are working.
SilverFast SE Plus 9, by LaserSoft Imaging, provides high-quality image scans for professional use. However, it has an interface that takes time to learn. It does a great job, not because of its interface, but in spite of it. Here’s my review.
Leigh Reeves owns a Canon R5 camera and needs to record ProRes RAW to an Atomos Ninja V. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to configure the gear to do this.
I’m a long-time owner of an Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner. But, recently I purchased an Epson V850 Pro because I have a lot of slides to scan. In this review, I compare both and share the strengths and weaknesses of each.
It is a true saying that “change is the only constant in life.” But, when it comes to operating system upgrades, I tend to be far from the bleeding edge. Recently, I upgraded to macOS Monterey. Here’s what I learned.
Most technical problems with media editing are often the result of insufficient bandwidth caused by bottlenecks in the media, the operating system, software, or hardware. This looks at each in detail to provide ideas to get your system working better.
Apple introduced new security technology with M1 Macs that affects 3rd-party RAIDs, hard disk and other external gear frequently used by professionals. Here’s what it is and how it affects you.
Here are 21 keyboard shortcuts that work on any Mac that can help you get your work done faster.
When you need to get the best streaming video possible – for Mac or Windows, live or recorded – here is the gear you need, links to find it and instructions on how to get it all to work.
Apple released new MacBook Pro laptops featuring high-performance Apple silicon chips. Given all the options, here are Larry Jordan’s recommendations for the best system for your budget.
“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about subjects related to editing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains what an LTO tape drive is, the differences between LTO generations, recommendations for LTO software and how media creators can use this technology to safely archive their media and projects for decades.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. While VPNs are used extensively, they may not be as secure as you think. DH2i has something better.
Audio Design Desk simplifies the process of finding, placing and experimenting with audio cues for video projects. While ADD handles the basics of sound design, the creative inspiration still comes from you. The good news is that version 1.7 makes this creative process faster and easier than ever.
Your Mac system is acting flakey. Here are a variety of tests and trouble-shooting techniques you can use to get your system and running. (This includes a special section on trouble-shooting for media editors.)
Seagate and Axle.ai partner to provide “Smarter Media” – edge-to-cloud mass storage with a media asset management front end. This new service, named “Lyve” is designed to provide cost effective smart media solutions for real world applications.
Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates several font design tips to help you choose which fonts to use in your next video project.
Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan demonstrates three font adjustment techniques that can make on-screen video text look better. While this uses Photoshop, we can actually do this in most applications on Windows or Mac.
DPI (Dots per Inch) is a measure of image resolution. It also confuses a lot of people. Here’s an illustrated guide to where DPI matters, where it does not, and why images look bad when you scale them larger.
Voice Changer, from Accusonus, is a plug-in for most popular NLEs that creates voice effects from robot to dragon. It is fast, easy to use and a fascinating sound design tool to bring the sounds in your imagination to life.
Any M1 system is impressive, when measured in performance. What these new 24″ iMacs lack, though, is more ports, more RAM and access to 10 Gb Ethernet. These first M1 iMac systems are targeted at consumers and general computer users. While they can be used for video editing – even serious video editing – be sure you can work with their limitations before ordering a system.
Maxon announces new versions of Cinema 4D, Redshift for Mac and Moves by Maxon. They also premiere a new corporate logo.
Bryan asked me to explain the media workflow for both master and proxy files from Frame.io’s “Camera 2 Cloud” into Final Cut Pro. It is surprisingly easy – provided you start in the right place.
When it comes to updating the operating system on my main production Mac, I’m a laggard. This is by intent. Still, I finally decided it was time to upgrade. Here’s what I learned in the process.
Last week, Dalet Amberfin announced significant updates to their Amberfin media transcoding software. I contacted Eric Carson, Director, Amberfin Product Strategy at Dalet to learn more about Amberfin and its new features.
This week, Signiant announced that it had acquired Lesspain Software, best known for it’s media asset management software “Kyno.” To learn more, I sent questions to Margaret Craig, CEO of Signiant. Here is our interview.
EditMentor is an online education tool that teaches the craft of editing. It is deep, extensive and well-thought-out. It is obviously a labor of love on the part of the EditMentor team, with a clear focus on education. Here’s a review.
Here are the twenty most-read tutorials (and links) from Larry Jordan’s website for 2020. These popular tutorials span millions of views and extend back in time to 2012.
Two “Top Ten” lists of tips and techniques from “The Inside Tips” for 2020. The first is by number of views, the second is by reader ratings. These cover Adobe and Apple software, along with codecs, media, visual effects and production.
“Should you upgrade?” is the wrong question. Here is a better answer on when to upgrade to Big Sur – along with links to help your transition go smoothly.
Apple’s new M1 SoC chips launched to incredible reviews – but the best is still to come, especially for media creators. Read Larry Jordan’s thoughts on this new technology.
As part of a larger update, Apple released new versions of their Pro Video Formats. This free update is recommended for all media editors. Here are the details.
accusonus believes that audio effects can be both powerful and easy to use. Supporting all major editing software, the ERA 5 bundle includes 13 plug-ins to fix common audio problems. Here’s a first look at what’s inside.
Technology constantly changes, but older codecs and media don’t. What do you do if you can’t play older media in macOS Catalina or Big Sur? Watch as Larry Jordan shows how to use Kyno to potentially find and convert older media.
In the past, we would use Safe Boot to repair and maintain our Macs. But that was then. Today, we need to use Recovery Mode. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows what you need to know to keep your Mac running right.
I first wrote this article to work-around a bug in Final Cut Pro X. But, Apple fixed the bug. Now, this is a step-by-step guide to importing chapter markers into Apple Compressor, which is useful for media created outside of Final Cut Pro X.
