In this interview, Larry and Phil discuss the mind-bending graphics that Pixotope creates, why it uses the Unreal Engine, and the need for graphic designers – at every level – to find ways to improve on their best work..
In this interview, Larry and Gary discuss the challenges of accurately tracking camera pan and tilt changes when shooting on an LED volume stage and how Cartoni is providing tripod heads that track this and send it to the computer. As well, Gary shares his thoughts on how to pick the right tripod for your work.
In this interview, Larry and Ian discuss digital sculpting, overcoming the fear of “the blank page,” and new releases from Maxon.
In spite of our best efforts, all too often we have audio that has problems: too much noise or hum. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to use Resolve’s audio effects to fix both those problems.
Your project is complete – except you need to burn captions into your video. This process is surprisingly easy in Apple Final Cut Pro – but darn hard to find. Here’s how to do it.
Captioneer is a Premiere Pro extension that creates animated captions directly in your timeline using .mogrt files which are easily modified by an editor. Here’s an interview with its developer: Nic Dean.
Sometimes, creating a custom effect can save you a lot of time – especially if you need to use it over and over. So, here’s an example of how to create a template in Motion, using a variety of useful Motion effects, that you can use directly in Apple Final Cut Pro. (I included both the movie and the Motion project.)
This was a fun project! I decided to compare how accurately Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve handle tracking shape masks used for color correction. I also included movies so you can judge the results for …
“Ducking” is the process of lowering the audio level of background music or background sounds during dialog. Resolve has a blindingly fast way to do this automatically – without keyframes. It’s called “sidechaining.” Here’s how it works.
Hidden in the Fairlight audio page interface are several tools which can quickly optimize dialog for quality and levels in DaVinci Resolve. Here’s what they are, how they work and how to set them for best results.
Joel asks: “I want the logo to enlarge, eventually getting to the point where a single letter fills the screen, and at the same time, the logo area gradually becomes the concert video. How do I do this?” There are at least three ways. Here’s an illustrated approach to all three.
Saturation and vibrance control the amount of color in an image. What’s the difference between them and which should you use? This tutorial shows how to use them for video.
Fx badges are hidden in plain sight in every Premiere Pro clip. But, what you may not know is how much they can speed adding and modifying audio and video effects. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows where these are, how they work and the tricks you can put them through.
Adobe added a variety of new features to enhance markers and text editing in two recent releases. This includes better searches, smoother edits and faster performance. Larry Jordan illustrates these new features in this short video.
Adobe updated text and graphic styles in the March, 2024, update. A “style” is a format, like a template, that is applied to text or captions. This tutorial explains how they work.
Looking for reputable video or audio plugins that “the pro’s use?” Recently Larry Jordan surveyed his audience to learn the answer to that question. Here are the results.
Not all slow motion looks the same. In this short video, Larry Jordan illustrates the four different ways to create slow motion – including the brand new Smooth Slo-mo in Final Cut Pro 10.8 – and the different looks each of these options create.
In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to improve the look of your video using the new Color Adjustments effect in Apple Final Cut Pro 10.8.
New effects features in the 10.8 update to Final Cut Pro, when combined with existing effects features, can make your post-production life faster and more consistent. These include renaming custom effects and building effects presets.
This week, Apple released Final Cut Pro 10.8. While this significant upgrade contains multiple new features and lots of fixes, here are the key features and how to use them.
As I was writing about using Auditions in Final Cut Pro to compare different audio clips, I started wondering whether we could use auditions to compare different visual effects. The answer is that we can, but the process is not intuitive. Here’s how this works.
There you are, immersed in creating your next epic – Ghost King Arising – when you are struck by a thought. “What, exactly, does a ghost king sound like?” Here are two audio effects in Apple Final Cut Pro – Alien and Spectral Gate – that you can use to answer that question.
This is a video interview with David Dowling, Chief Revenue Office for Pixotope. David describes the VR image they created for this year’s Super Bowl. He uses this to explain what the company does, their latest releases and how smaller shops can use it effectively.
This is a video interview with Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe, Product Specialist for NUGEN Audio. Freddy shares how their essential audio plugins for ProTools work, then highlights their latest updates.
This is a video interview with Jim Tierney, CEO & Chief Digital Anarchist for Digital Anarchy. Jim discusses his latest plug-ins and the squishy nature of using AI in software; for example, what does AI even mean?
A video interview with Pierre Jasmin, Founder and CEO of RE: Vision Effects. He describes the latest updates to their visual effects tools, their focus on customer feedback and the key products of his company.
A video interview with Chris McLendon, Senior Product Manager for Vizrt. Chris presents their latest releases, and provides a description of NDI 6, how it is used and why it is needed. He also introduces Vizrt’s lower-priced line of products: Vizrt Go.
A video interview with David McGavran, CEO of Maxon, on their latest release of Cinema 4D, along with his thoughts on the impact of AI on creative artists.
A secondary color correction adjusts the color of something in the frame – like changing the color of a shirt. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to create these in Premiere Pro.
One of the harder tasks in color grading is changing the look of a clip when the lighting color itself changes during the shot. In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to use color keyframes to change the color grade during a shot using Premiere Pro.
LUTs are a color lookup table. In this short video, Larry Jordan explains what LUTs are, how to use them to change the color of your clips, and how to properly set the new Color Settings panel in Premiere Pro.
In today’s world of digital video, the Broadcast Safe effect (or Video Limiter in Premiere) is gathering dust in a corner. But, there is a BIG benefit to using it when you have a lighting problem to solve, as this tutorial illustrates. This trick works for all the major NLEs.
In this short video, Larry Jordan shows how to create and motion track a shape mask to change the color of objects in a frame. He also shows how and why to use the Broadcast Safe effect.
Masks hide things – even in video. In this short tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use shape masks and color masks to change the color of objects in a video.
In this short video, I show how to change the color of a single object in a frame. This is called a “secondary color correction.”
3D 3D Video Polygons, from Luca Visual Effects, creates highly-adjustable eye-catching 3D effects and transitions that push the boundaries of 3D in Final Cut Pro.
When it comes to removing backgrounds using a green-screen key, not all video codecs create the same image quality. Here’s what you need to know to shoot and edit the cleanest keys.
Depending upon the settings you choose at import, Photoshop graphics update automatically in Premiere. But there are lots of exceptions to this rule. Here’s how this technique works.
In this short video, Larry Jordan illustrates the differences between Paste Effects and Paste Attributes in Final Cut Pro. He’ll also show their impact on keyframe timing.
Recent updates to Apple Final Cut Pro added several more mask effects, three of which I illustrate in this tutorial: Corner mask, Graduated mask, and Image mask. Here’s what they look like and how to create them.
DaVinci Resolve is a state-of-the-art color tool for video. Whatever you can imagine doing with color, Resolve can do. But, oh. my. goodness. It is complex. Here’s an overview of how to use it.
Hawaiki Keyer 5 is a high-quality, infinitely-adjustable chroma-key plugin for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Final Cut Pro and Motion. Offering controls that simply aren’t available on other keyers, when you need to create a truly clean chroma-key, even with substandard production, you need Hawaiki Keyer, from FxFactory.
I created a green-screen shot that was impossible to key because the foreground elements kept keying out due to reflections. Here’s how to use a solid matte in Adobe Premiere or Apple Final Cut Pro, or even DaVinci Resolve, to fix this.
Background Remover, from FxFactory, removes backgrounds behind people without requiring a green screen or a stationary background. It works in Apple Final Cut Pro & Motion, along with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. It creates amazing results effortlessly and quickly. Here’s a review.
Recently, I needed to create the effect of a spotlight on a wall in Premiere. The only problem was that the only image I had to work with was a brick wall in sunlight. Here’s how to create this effect in Premiere.
In this tutorial, using Adobe Premiere Pro and BorisFX Continuum 2023, we’ll explore how to explode an image into thousands of particles then, even more fun, how to coalesce thousands of particles into a solid image o video.
Video Walls 3.0, by Luca Visual FX, is an extremely well-thought-out, highly-flexible series of 3D video wall effects. The controls are detailed and the results are mind-boggling. Even better, though, the defaults work without any modifications, so if you are pressed for time, you don’t need to tweak anything to get an outstanding effect.
This guest post, from Zac Carr, goes deep into the advanced features of the Warp Stabilizer in Adobe Premiere Pro. He looks into several key advanced features of the Warp Stabilizer tool and discusses why they are indispensable for achieving smooth motion and high-quality results.
Many Adobe Premiere Pro projects use the same effects – and effect settings – over and over. Creating these each time you need them is a waste of time. Why? Because it is easy to create custom effect presets and reuse them as often as you need. This illustrated tutorial shows how.
Many projects use the same effects – and effect settings – over and over. Creating these each time is a waste of time. Why? Because Apple Final Cut Pro makes it easy to create custom effects, reuse them as often as you need, even share them with other editors. Here’s how.
