Quick Links

Adobe After Effects CS6 | Jeff Foster | MacWorld
A big thumbs up for the new After Effects release:
If you held out updating After Effects from CS5 or earlier, I urge you to consider this upgrade—or get left in the dust. That sounds like a strong statement, but I believe it's justified. After Effects CS6 is the most important upgrade the program has received since the first major update in version 7. It's not just a bunch of additional features and add-ons, but rather a truly rebuilt, reworked, and enhanced powerful compositing and motion graphics creation tool.


Studying 3D Camera Tracker | Jerzy Drozda Jr | Maltaannon
A tutorial on After Effects Camera Tracker:
Some time ago I’ve posted a short introduction video on YouTube about the new 3D Camera Tracker available in After Effects CS6. I’ve got a lot of comments and questions since then, so I decided to make a more in-depth video on the various aspects of match-moving. If you tried solving a 3D camera on your own either using After Effects CS6 or any other software and failed – this tutorial is for you.


PART ONE…Which way to go? | Philip Johnston | HD Warrior
Philip still can't decide whether to keep using Final Cut Pro 7, switch to FCPX, or go to Premiere Pro.
Final Cut Pro 10 has very good points not to mention the vast amount of plug-ins being produced almost weekly for FCP-10, Apple are supporting it and updating it with new features like Canon MXF and 1080 50p support… but it does not act the way you think it should act and thats a serious stumbling block and a lot of the FCP-7 style of editing is hidden. I have lost material using FCP-10 even lost edited projects and that disturbs me.


Turning Down Work Will Make You More Successful | Danny Greer | Premiumbeat
Should you work for free or at a cut price? Some thoughts on why you shouldn't:
Deferred payment rarely comes through. Don’t be swayed with promises of big bucks later when the project sells. If the organizer doesn’t have the money to pay you to work on their project, they surely don’t have the money to make it a financial success.


The Free Ride Is Over For Streaming Video | Ryan Lawler | Tech Crunch
Comcast puts a cap on streaming for their cable users:
According to Nielsen, the average TV viewer consumes about five hours of video a day, or about 150 hours of video per month. For those keeping track at home, that means that you’d have to watch even more video online than your typical TV watcher if you ever plan to max out Comcast’s 300 GB allotment.


Film is Dead. Long Live Digital? | Matt Singer | IndieWire
More thoughts on the death of film (for projection):
On the other hand, I recently attended a my first DCP projection of an archival film, and it was a slightly disappointing experience. The movie was Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie" and while the picture was crisp and clear, and the sound was particularly good, the image felt lacking in some intangible way. We didn't have a print of "Marnie" on hand to do a side-by-side comparison, but to my slightly-better-than-layman's eyes the DCP just didn't have the same sense of depth as film. Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery looked great, but they also looked weirdly flat.


GARY HUSTWIT’S 10 WEB TIPS FOR DOC FILMMAKERS | Nick Dawson
| Filmmaker Magazine
Some thoughts on self promotion:
3. Stay in regular contact
Aside from tweeting, blog a couple of times a week and send out a newsletter every one or two months when you’re still production, and once every two weeks when your film is actually screening. When teasing your film during production, put up pictures but not footage: “The fantasy of what your film’s going to be about is often better than the reality,” quips Hustwit.


MATCHES! High frame rate comparison of 240, 480 and 960FPS on SONY FS700
| Philip Bloom | Vimeo
Philip posts an additional video with examples shot at different speeds:
240FPS is full HD
480FPS is full HD with less than half resolution
960FPS is full HD but cropped with less than a quarter resolution


Lightworks | Web site
The official 1.0 release of the open source version of Lightworks for Windows is now available. It's free (or $60 for the Pro version which adds support for additional file formats.)
For those new to Lightworks, there's a collection of tutorials on Youtube here: Lightworks Tutorials



Update on Litepanels budget LED patent infringement suit at the ITC | Tony Reale | Next Wave DV
Litepanels is suing other makers of LED panels:
The legal battle has been a slow uphill battle for them but it looks like things are making some headway. That said, I was contacted by one of the lawyers representing the companies battling Litepanels. This lawyer informed me of some crucial evidence they need to help nullify Litepanels patent claims.


A D V E R T I S E M E N T


Canon EF 24 f/2.8 IS & EF 28 f/2.8 IS Pre-orders | B & H Photovideo
The new Canon EF 24 f/2.8 [$849.95] IS and EF 28 f/2.8 IS {$799.95] are available for pre-order with expected delivery June 17

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sony GV-D200 review

Image
Sony GV-D200 I've been using a Sony GV-D200 deck to transfer old Video8 and Hi8 tapes. Some of these tapes are over twenty years old, and no longer having a Hi8 camcorder that worked I was concerned that if I didn't do something about transferring them to a more modern format soon, I might never be able to. While Sony no longer make camcorders that use these tapes - that I know of - Sony does still sell the GV-D200 deck (or Video Walkman, as it's sometimes labelled.) They also offer the GV-D800, which is almost identical but adds a small LCD screen for about $120 more. I didn't think I'd need a screen since I was using this to capture to the computer, but you will need an external monitor when you first set it up. Physically, the device is small. At 5 7/8" wide, 5 3/8" deep and 2" high, it's the smallest video deck I've encountered. I used to have a Video8 deck that I thought was small; and it was twice as deep and twice as high. The t...
Read more

Response: Which iPhone to Get?

Image
In response to my iPhone musings, I got the following reader email which actually sums up a lot of my second and third thoughts too: You might have a point about the fancier camera, but otherwise I would buy the smaller model. Its screen is about the same size as that of my Nexus 4, and I don't feel at all like it limits me with a too-small screen. But I do sometimes stretch to get my thumb the reach to the other corner of the screen. It is plenty big for a phone. A phone is a pocket thing. (Well, in my case it lives an ancient REI soft sunglasses case that I have on my belt.) Ubiquitous, handy, convenient, almost always with me. Small is crucial for all of that. Certainly a large screen is cool, but you need a place to put it: don't break a fundamental feature of a pocket phone by getting too big. That is what your small tablet is for. I have my phone with me almost always. I have my Nexus 7 tablet with me nearly as much. The bigger screen is great, yet it fits in some...
Read more

Should you buy the Sony NEX-FS100 Kit Lens?

Image
The Sony NEX-FS100 is available in two configurations: B & H : NEX-FS100U Camcorder only $4,999 B & H : NEX-FS100U (with 18-200mm lens) $5,599 But what does that extra $600 get you? It get's you this: Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Zoom Lens for NEX Camera This lens is also available separately for $799.99, so at $200 off you'd think everyone would be jumping on it. But not so fast... In his article about switching from the Canon 5D Mark II to the Sony NEX-FS100 , Paul Antico  at Need Creative says of the kit lens: 7) Its 18-200 F3.6-6.3 kit lens absolutely sucks and should be avoided (thankfully, you can order it without one) [ 1 ] But is it that bad? At B & H 's site, 43 reviews give it an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars. That's not a bad rating, though many of these people are using it for stills, and the most common complaint noted is how large and heavy it is. Of course this feeling of size would be exacerbated when you put it on a tiny camera ...
Read more