Blog Archives

This morning, Apple released new versions of Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor. Here are the details, along with links to the full release notes.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is fascinating, but it starting to wreck havoc on creative artists. When your work can be copied in a heartbeat, how do you earn a living. Here’s a background on AI with an emphasis on ethics and where to go to learn more.

Confused when comparing Intel to Apple silicon systems? Jerry Thompson was, too. Here are the answers to your questions on what the differences are between Apple silicon and Intel, along with suggestions on how to spec a system.

Adobe announced a raft of new features, along with improved AI creation tools and an initiative to verify who actually created an image or other creative work.

As video professionals and, especially, free-lancers, we have an instinctive regard for the value of time. Here are my thoughts on what is under our control, what isn’t and what splits the difference.

Picking a high-quality computer monitor for video editing is surprisingly confusing. Here is Larry Jordan’s explanation of what specs you need to look for, which you can ignore, and what criteria he uses for picking computer and video monitors.

In this illustrated tutorial, learn how to animate multiple elements in the same graphic using Adobe Premiere Pro.

Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to animate multiple elements in a bar graph to illustrate a scientific concept. While this will work with most video editing software, I use Apple Final Cut Pro in this example.

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.

What is a “Retina Display?” What does it do and what monitors support it? This tutorial explains the term, why it’s used and what it means.

No monitor is perfect, but if images are your life, you should make the effort to check out the ViewSonic VP2776. When I look at the same image on all three monitor connected to my Mac, the ViewSonic looks the best. Here’s a detailed review.

Which combination of hard disk or SSD storage provides the fastest speed or highest capacity for video editing? This illustrated tutorial will answer these questions, plus provide a spreadsheet you can use to test your own numbers. This works for Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Apple Final Cut Pro editors.

Here are two very clever workarounds to create short extracts of much larger media files to save storage space when importing video into Apple Final Cut Pro.

Looking for ways to work faster? Here are five pretty much undocumented quick tricks – from import to export – that make Final Cut Pro work even faster.

Even the largest RAIDs fill up. If you own an OWC RAID, you can safely and easily archive RAID sets for archiving and storage. Loren Miller explains the process in this highly-illustrated, step-by-step tutorial.

Thunderbolt is an amazing protocol and essential to many video workflows. However, it isn’t a magic box. Once you understand what affects the speeds it can transfer data, you can better plan for how to use it. This tutorial explains what impacts the speed of a Thunderbolt device.

Sometime in October, Apple will release the latest version of the macOS: Ventura. First announced at the 2022 WWDC in June this version, like every macOS update, features a variety of new features and apps. Still, while this is exciting, …

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.

In this illustrated tutorial are three interesting, but little-used, effects in Apple Final Cut Pro that create interesting backgrounds or change the mood of a scene.

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.

V-Station HD is a new and uniform approach for multi-cam video projects, particularly for those who are not trained in video production. In this article, Larry Jordan interviews FutureVideo Products CEO Robert Cohen to learn more about their video products.

Last week, I asked video editors to share how they organize and manage their media for video editing. Here’s what they told me.

I’ve been thinking recently about how much the marketing of the tech industry is driven by “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO). Rumor sites are in the business of generating page views by emphasizing “what we might miss.” But speculating on what Apple will announce is a smoke-and-mirror-filled rabbit hole. Don’t let FOMO derail your buying decisions.

There are seven Stylize effects in Apple Final Cut Pro that create illegal video levels. This tutorial shows what they are, the problems they cause and how to fix them before final export.

[ Updated Aug. 22, 2022, with comments from Ed Cilley. ] Kristen Flynn asks: “How do people keep track of stock music? Where do they keep it? How do they access it for an edit? I feel like I have …

Four classic production stills that showcase how much video production has changed over the last 40 years – along with some core ways it hasn’t changed at all.

In this highly-illustrated tutorial, I showcase what the “Light” effects do in Final Cut Pro, along with the settings used.

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.

Last week, Adobe released a detailed Premiere Pro Workflow Guide for Episodic and Feature film Editing. This week, I spoke with Morgan Prygrocki, at Adobe, about typical mistakes video editors make and how this Guide can help.

The reason we use effects is to help us tell our story more effectively. While creating effects can take more time than we expect, the results, when effects are chosen wisely, can be amazing. Here are a baker’s dozen of little-known effects in Apple Final Cut Pro.

One of the smaller changes in the June update to Premiere Pro is also one that can save you a bunch of time: Adobe revised Copy/Paste. Here’s what you need to know.

The CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 4 (TS4): More ports and more speed in one small box with a great price. However, there are a few key issues you need to understand before you buy. Here’s my detailed review.

I think these four skills are essential for every video editor to master. I also think it is impossible say that one is more important than the other, because if any one is missing, the project suffers.

One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video, Larry has a conversation about computer performance in the real-world, specifically for video editing.

One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video, Larry talks about Mac obsolescence and whether the new Apple silicon computers make older systems obsolete.

One of our favorite – and most wide-ranging – sessions returns with “Ask Larry Anything!” Presented by Larry Jordan, this is a free-form conversation based on questions submitted by viewers. In this short video, Larry answers Simone’s question about scanning photographs for digital video.

The TourBox is a small control surface for just about any Windows or Mac application – with a special emphasis on media creation and editing. It is well-built with a very well-designed software interface. There’s only one small problem…

Larry Jordan shows how to optimize preference settings for Adobe Premiere Pro 2022. Feel free to share your personal choices in the comments.

The Apple silicon version of Premiere does not support AAF export – yet. But the Intel version does. Here’s the workaround to get AAF export working in both versions of Premiere.

This built-in Mac utility is fast, easy-to-use and always available. When you need to rename files in a hurry, this is a good trick to know.

There’s an old axiom for everyone who works in video, “Editing is all about work arounds.” Carleton Cole presents a workaround for editing Microsoft Teams videos when the images randomly shift position.

In these troubled times, it is easy to get depressed. Let us not forget that our job is to bring great stories to the world. And that transcends technology.

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.

The iRig Pro Quattro I/O is a four-channel audio interface perfect for recording music or video in the field, or for live-steaming podcasts or other productions. Here’s an in-depth review.

Integrating vertical video into a horizontal video timeline is increasingly common. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to do it using both Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro.

Audio Design Desk is an amazing program. It creates sound environments faster and easier than anything I’ve ever seen. Now they’ve extended it with Media Bridge connecting ADD with sound effects libraries across the web. Learn more!

Machine learning is a fact of life in video editing today, though its impact is often a two-edged sword. In this guest post, Jourdan Aldredge looks at Adobe Sensei, Adobe’s AI tool for video editors.