Blog Archives

In this short video tutorial, learn how to animate text on a curved path in Motion 5. (This works for Motion 4, as well.)

This video tutorial shows you everything you need to know to create a great-looking key with Final Cut Pro X.

A video tutorial on adding chapter markers and creating test movies using Compressor 4.

Trevor Ward sent me his review of the Sony PMW-100 camcorder, based on his use at the London Olympics.

Auditions, in FCP X, speed the process of selecting the next shot. This short video shows how to create and modify them.

A video tutorial on how Watch Folders allow AME CS6 to automate the process of compressing media. This tutorial shows you how.

A video tutorial on how to set preferences in Adobe Media Encoder CS6.

Here’s how to change the speed of a clip in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 – from still frames to variable speed changes. This article shows you how.

Job-chaining saves time during compression by sending the output of one compression process into input of the next. Here’s how it works.

Whether you are using multicam in Final Cut Pro X or Final Cut Pro X, keep this key point in mind: You can not mix audio tracks using multicam editing, and you can switch between tracks, but not mix between tracks.

The Precision Editor in FCP X makes adjusting where two media clips touch simple, precise, and visual.

Recently, Adobe updated Prelude CS6 to version 1.0.1. This article describes the new features.

Adobe Prelude CS6 is designed to speed the review, ingest, logging, selection, and export of tapeless media. This is a first-look at the new software.

ScopeBox 3, new from Divergent Media, is designed to replace hardware scopes with software. Here’s a video demo.

Auditions are new in Final Cut Pro X for comparing two or more shots in the Timeline. This technique shows how this works.

In this article, I want to talk about what happens when you make a color or exposure adjustment to a clip; and illustrate this with screen shots.

One of the great new features with multiclips in Final Cut Pro X is how easy it is to add and sync new clips into an existing multicam master. Here’s a video tutorial that shows you how.

There are two ways to create movies using custom image sizes: one in Motion and one in Compressor. This illustrates both methods.

Here’s a step-by-step technique that shows you how to create chapter markers manually or automatically in Compressor.

Often, we need to organize our clips manually as we figure out the organization we need to make sense of a project. Keywords are perfect for this – and very fast, both to apply and to use.

Here’s a technique that explains what and how to import and organize your files in Final Cut Pro X.

Adobe Story can help you write, plan, collaborate, and schedule your next production. This video tutorial shows you how to get started. You can access Story from anywhere via a web browser, or as part of the Adobe Production Premium suite.

Photoshop is legendary for fixing image problems. But the Extended version can also retouch video, as this video tutorial illustrates.

The open secret of Final Cut Pro X is that all its effects are Motion 5 projects. This means that you can use Motion to create custom effects for use in Final Cut. This video tutorial shows you how this works.

With the release of FCP X: 10.0.3, Apple made a subtle change to both transitions and preferences. In this tutorial, I show you what the changes are, and how they affect the way we apply transitions.

iMovie user can easily move both iMovie Projects and Events into Final Cut Pro X. This tutorial explains how to do it.

Open in Timeline is a hidden menu item in Final Cut Pro X that allows you to modify a clip in the Event Browser without removing it from the Event Browser. This technique allows you to solve problems that are not easy to solve any other way.

Optical flow, and it’s less sophisticated cousin, Frame Blending, are techniques that Final Cut Pro X uses to smooth playback of extremely slow-motion clips. This tutorial shows you how to apply and use them in FCP X.

Is it possible to permanently link video and audio clips together? Larry teaches you how to create a Merged clip.

The easiest way to control editing audio or video to the Timeline is with the patch panel. However you can also use the Button List to search for shortcuts.

Stuttering, frozen display is one of the hallmarks of non-native video. FCP can edit it, but can’t play it smoothly.

A reader wanted to know how to display video on the monitor using an AJA card. So he contacted AJA, who responded with this.

When importing a video into DVD Studio Pro, if you encode at the end of the project, your assets are not converted to MPEG until you start to build the project.

DVD SP contains drop zones, which you can use to add video or images to a menu. Here’s how.

I’ve become increasingly concerned as I talk with producers, editors, and vendors that we are rapidly moving into a tapeless environment without any realistically priced options for long-term media archiving.

Larry answers some questions regarding the different codecs that Final Cut Express captures vs. Final Cut Pro, as well as fielding a question on audio waveforms.

Adding timecode to clips or projects is a great way to allow clients to review your projects and relate their comments to a specific time in the project. (This process is also called “timecode burn-in” – or “burning in timecode.”) This technique explains what you need to know.

There’s a lot of confusion about the three different media types in Final Cut Pro X: native, optimized, and proxy. This article explains what you need to know.

By default, the audio output of Final Cut Pro is stereo. You can get it to output split tracks, but you’ll need to do the mix in Soundtrack Pro or ProTools. This tutorial explains how.

There’s been some debate about authoring NTSC DVDs in DVD Studio Pro (with having all of the region codes selected) and their playback in PAL countries.

Here is an explanation of how to create a highlight overlay menu in Photoshop when creating menus for DVD Studio Pro.

In the Log & Transfer window of FCP 7, how do I empty the Log & Transfer window?

I am looking for a specific workflow instructions. Since I’m dealing with HDV, XDCAM EX, anamorphic SD, recaptured DVD assests and stills, I needed an in depth step by step workflow.

Changing the color of a gradient in Final Cut Pro X requires opening it in Motion and making changes. This article describes how.

An overview of working with proxies for your media in Final Cut Pro X.

Cheryl Foster sent me an email recently asking about archiving.

Here’s a quick way to hide, or reveal, audio track names on the FCP 7 Timeline.

Here’s what you need to convert GoPro video files to before importing them to FCP.

Apple rewrote both the Constant and Variable Speed change interface for FCP 7. In this technique learn how to create speed changes using FCP 7.

A clip collision generally occurs when you are trimming. Specifically, when you are ripple trimming.