Blog Archives

While human skin gray-scale and saturation values can vary by individual, skin color values are remarkably consistent. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to set skin color values to fix color problems and make on-camera talent look “normal.” This applies to all video editing software.

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.

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.

Recently, Apple updated Motion to version 5.6, where one of the highlighted features is a new neon text effect. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how this works and how you can add an effect to make it look even better.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about subjects related to editing. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the two key video scopes in Apple Final Cut Pro, how to read them and how to use them to fix color problems like color casts and dark exposure levels.

An illustrated tutorial on how to put different video inside each 3D text letter, while still keeping the 3D effect. This effect has multiple uses and lots of creative options to play with it, once the basic effect is created.

Adobe introduces Auto Tone in the beta version of Adobe Premiere Pro. Here’s a description of what this new automatic color correction tool does.

Adobe adds speech-to-text and native M1 Mac support to the July, 2021, version of Premiere Pro. Here’s the full list of changes.

Apple updated Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor last week and both Final Cut and Compressor got a flurry of new features. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to reduce the file size of an animated image sequence. We do this without losing any video quality, by using indexed color and Apple Compressor.

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.

Still images are at the heart of many video programs. But, what do you do if the images you are using don’t look that good? In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan showcases how to use a variety of tools to clean up an older image using Adobe Photoshop. These include straightening, cropping, adjusting grayscale levels, removing spots, and cleaning up damaged portions of an image.

Still images are at the heart of many video programs. But, what do you do if the images you are using don’t look that good? In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how to use masks to repair an older image, add a vignette to highlight a face and use the clone tool to remove an unsightly line – all in Adobe Photoshop.

Still images are at the heart of many video programs. But, what do you do if the images you are using don’t look that good? In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates several simple ways to clean up a still image; including crop, scale, content-aware fill and straightening an image – all in Adobe Photoshop.

In a world where videos move millions and a picture is more powerful – and popular – than the written word, a key survival skill is how well you communicate visually. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows the importance of the 180° Rule and the impact of changing the position of camera and talent on the impact of your visuals.

In a world where videos move millions and a picture is more powerful – and popular – than the written word, a key survival skill is how well you communicate visually. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan demonstrates “eyelines,” what they are and how they help our eye explore an image.

In a world where videos move millions and a picture is more powerful – and popular – than the written word, a key survival skill is how well you communicate visually. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains The Six Priorities that determine where the eye looks FIRST in an image and how they help guide a viewer in exploring it.

Here’s how to create a logo or shape in Photoshop, fill it with moving video in Final Cut Pro, then place that over a moving background. This works with video or stills and with any text, logos or shapes you care to use. Plus, it is fun to create – once you know how.

Adobe has made continual improvements to the color grading controls and video scopes in Premiere Pro. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the Hue / Saturation Curves to change the colors of a portion of an image, for example, to change the color of a shirt.

Adobe has made continual improvements to the color grading controls and video scopes in Premiere Pro. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to change the color grade as colors change within a single shot; for example, as an actor walks from daylight in to interior lighting.

Adobe has made continual improvements to the color grading controls and video scopes in Premiere Pro. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use masks and tracking in Premiere to change the color of something in the frame – even if that element moves around during the shot.

Adobe has made continual improvements to the color grading controls and video scopes in Premiere Pro. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the Video Limiter in Premiere Pro to make sure your video levels stay within legal boundaries.

This is a very fast and flexible technique to add multiple images to an Apple Final Cut Pro project, think a Zoom video, where each image is in a shape that can be scaled, animated, positioned and changed quickly and easily.

Adobe has made continual improvements to the color grading controls and video scopes in Premiere Pro. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to analyze your images using the video scopes inside Premiere.

Adobe has made continual improvements to the color grading controls and video scopes in Premiere Pro. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to analyze your images using the video scopes inside Premiere.

In March, Adobe released the new 2021 versions of Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Media Encoder, and the rest of their audio and video applications. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the new media replacement feature in Motion Graphic templates in Adobe Premiere Pro.

In this session, we step deeper into the 3D world of Apple Motion with a look at cameras and sets. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to move a single camera between multiple sets in Motion.

In this session, we step deeper into the 3D world of Apple Motion with a look at cameras and sets. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to add and frame multiple cameras to shoot a single scene in Motion.

In this session, we step deeper into the 3D world of Apple Motion with a look at cameras and sets. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how to add depth of field (focus) to a camera in Motion.

Motion has a virtually limitless package of lights that can be positioned for both 2D and 3D elements. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates what happens when you change light settings in Apple Motion.

Motion has a virtually limitless package of lights that can be positioned for both 2D and 3D elements. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how to light a 3D object in Apple Motion using a variety of lights.

Motion has a virtually limitless package of lights that can be positioned for both 2D and 3D elements. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how to create a cast shadow from a chroma-key using lights in Apple Motion.

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial creating an animated reflection in Apple Motion, then publishing it to Final Cut with additional effect controls, to use as a template.

[This is an excerpt from a recent on-line video webinar: “Advanced Techniques in Apple Motion 5.5” which is available as a download in our store, or as part of our Video Training Library.] EXCERPT DESCRIPTION Explore the capability of Apple …

Explore the capability of Apple Motion for your projects in more depth. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how to use and modify particle emitters, then showcases two simulations: Repel and Vortex using Apple Motion.

You don’t need to be an incredible artist – or a programmer – to create interesting and useful effects using Apple Motion. In this short video training, Larry Jordan shows how to create a custom transition in Motion for use in Apple Final Cut Pro.

You don’t need to be an incredible artist – or a programmer – to create interesting and useful effects using Apple Motion. In this short video training, Larry Jordan shows how to create a custom effect in Motion for use in Apple Final Cut Pro.

In this illustrated tutorial, I show how to use chroma-key to create an irregular object in Apple Motion, then create a cast shadow that changes as the foreground image changes.

I use blurs all the time, to keep a background from becoming too distracting, or improve a green-screen shot, or provide the illusion of depth. Here’s an in-depth tutorial on how to create them, what they look like, how to animate them and examples of their use.

At first blush, many of the backgrounds included with Apple Final Cut Pro are mostly unusable for text. However, when you adjust their settings – and combine them with a few well chosen effects – you’ll discover a wealth of creative options to make your projects more visually interesting. Here are six examples.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan presents three simple ways to fix color problems in Adobe Premiere Pro. One to change the look, another to fix exposure and a third to correct color problems.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how to create an adjustment layer , then explain how it works, how to add effects to it, and what happens when you move clips around it.

In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the new, hidden, Transform Overscan feature in Apple Final Cut Pro to preserve important details when creating a picture-in-picture effect.

In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the new Comparison Viewer in Apple Final Cut Pro, along with a quick way to modify colors across multiple clips.

Here are some text tricks that can help position and display text in eye-catching ways using Apple Final Cut Pro.

Motion has a full range of lights and, more importantly, lighting presets that can add drama and visual interest to any scene – especially one that involves 3D objects. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to use them to increase the drama in your projects.

There’s a small icon in the Motion interface that enables multiple views of a project. This is really helpful when working with cameras and lights. Plus, it is cool to look at.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows why the order in which you place effects on a clip makes a difference in the results in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create a clean chroma-key using both good and bad footage… and a carefully placed mask in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Effects are the fun part of video editing because there are so many different options. In this video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the differences between a hold frame and a freeze frame – and how to create both in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Custom overlays in Final Cut Pro X can help with figuring out the best way to frame a scene for multiple aspect ratios, or other compositional tasks. Here’s how to create and apply them.