… for Codecs & Media

Tip #942: An Overview of Apple Silicon

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Apple silicon is both a sea-change and a continuation of past practice for Apple.

Topic $TipTopic

To get this discussion started, here’s Apple’s press release announcing the move to Apple silicon.

Next, the team at iMore provided some analysis of what Apple Silicon means and what’s coming. Here’s the link.

Finally, to put this transition into better perspective, four years ago Bloomberg profiled Johny Srouji, senior vice president for hardware technologies at Apple. He’s the man supervising the team building Apple silicon. While the Bloomberg article preceded the announcment of Apple silicon by several years, the article is prescient as we consider the coming transition to Apple silicon.

I think you’ll enjoy reading it. Here’s the link


Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!

… for Codecs & Media

Tip #941: Deep Dive into Metal on Apple Silicon

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Apple silicon seriously leverages the GPU.

Topic $TipTopic

Apple released a developer video focuses on the benefits and performance of moving to Apple GPUs for upcoming Macs. Hosted by Michael Imbrogno, Manager, CPU Software and Domenico Troiano, Engineer, CPU software, this presents how Apple silicon will improve graphics-intensive apps and games. Here’s the link

Apple’s Description

Apple Silicon Macs are a transformative new platform for graphics-intensive apps — and we’re going to show you how to fire up the GPU to create blazingly fast apps and games. Discover how to take advantage of Apple’s unique Tile-Based Deferred Rendering (TBDR) GPU architecture within Apple Silicon Macs and learn how to schedule workloads to provide maximum throughput, structure your rendering pipeline, and increase overall efficiency. And dive deep with our graphics team as we explore shader optimizations for the Apple GPU shader core. We’ve designed this session in tandem with “Bring your Metal app to Apple Silicon Macs,” and recommend you watch that first. For more, watch “Harness Apple GPUs with Metal” to learn how TBDR applies to a variety of modern rendering techniques.


Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!

… for Codecs & Media

Tip #940: Just How Fast is Apple Silicon?

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Apple silicon is hardware optimized for running software.

Topic $TipTopic

Jim Turley, writing for the Electronic Engineering Journal takes a deeper look at the upcoming Apple silicon transition and how an ARM CPU is able to run x86 software. This is an excerpt.

First, the basics. Apple has gone through at least five different processor generations by my count. The company started with the 6502, then 68K, PowerPC, x86, and now ARM. It’s always used ARM for its iDevices – iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc. – since the very first iPod almost 20 years ago.

What’s remarkable is that all three architecture changes supported the previous generation’s binaries. Users won’t be able to tell the difference. It just works.

How well does it work? Well enough that Apple’s emulation beats other systems running natively. Surprisingly, the DTK’s x86 emulation is faster than some real x86 processors.

The consensus is that Apple didn’t need to mess around with the ARM architecture – at least, not the visible parts of it. Instead, the company likely optimized its microarchitecture: the underlying circuitry that implements the programmer-visible parts

Apple is uniquely qualified to create an effective binary translator. The company has done it twice before, always in software. The initial results suggest that it’s pulled off a hat trick, even without any hardware assists. Rosetta 2 running on A14X should be even better.

EXTRA CREDIT

This article is well-written and well worth reading for additional detail and commentary.


Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!

… for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Tip #931: What is a Project Shortcut?

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Project shortcuts allow you to import projects as separate project panels.

The Import Project dialog. Premiere seems to ignore the bottom checkbox.

Topic $TipTopic

Something new appeared in the File menu in the spring of 2020: a Project Shortcut. What is this?

Starting with Premiere Pro 14.1, Shared Projects have been renamed as Project Shortcuts. Project Shortcuts are quick links to open other projects. You can import projects as project shortcuts.

To import projects as project shortcuts:

  • Click File > Import and select the project file that you want to import.
  • In the Import Project dialog box, select Import as Project Shortcut and click OK.

The project is imported and can be seen in the Project panel as a folder icon with an icon indicating that it is a link to the project.

Double-click this link to open a new Project panel for that imported project.

You can make this the default option for all imported projects by checking the “Do the same for all projects” checkbox at the bottom. But, even when you check this, the Project Import dialog will appear each time you open a new project. So, I’m not sure what good checking this box does.

EXTRA CREDIT

If you have shared projects from older versions of Premiere Pro, continue to work with them using Project Shortcuts. If you are collaborating on new projects with others, consider trying the Production workflow.


Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!

… for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Tip #930: A Quick Way to Focus Faster

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

This is a fast way to focus on what you need to see right now.

Topic $TipTopic

A new feature in the July, 2020, update to Premiere Pro is the ability to close all projects EXCEPT the one you are working on. This is a great way to quickly get rid of clutter to focus on what you are working on right now. Here’s how this works.

If you are working in a production, or if you have multiple projects open, you can now close all other projects except for the one you are working on.

You can do this by:

  • Click File > Close All Other Projects
  • Select one or more projects in the Production panel, right-click and choose Close All Other Projects.
  • In the Project panel menu, choose Close All Other Projects.

Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!

… for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Tip #929: Create & Remove Proxies FAST!

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Proxies are becoming increasingly easy to manage in Premiere.

The options in the Proxy menu for the Premiere July, 2020, update.

Topic $TipTopic

A new feature in the July, 2020, update to Premiere is the ability to remove proxies from your clips. Here’s how this works.

CREATE PROXIES

If you don’t create proxies during import, you can easily create them once files are in the Project Panel.

  • Right-click one or more selected clips in the Proxy panel and choose Proxy > Create Proxies.

DELETE PROXIES

  • When you are done with your edit and want to save storage space, right-click one or more deleted clips in the Project panel and choose Proxy > Delete Proxies.

This delete feature is new with the latest update to Premiere.


Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #927: Make Compound Clips Independent

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Compound clips are dynamic, unless you make them independent.

The middle compound clip is independent of those around it.

Topic $TipTopic

By default, when you change the contents of a compound clip in the timeline, you change every occurrence of that compound clip wherever it appears. Sometimes, that’s what you want. Here’s what to do when it isn’t.

When you want to change one compound clip, without changing all other clips linked to it, select the compound clip you want to isolate, then choose Clip > Reference New Parent Clip.

This creates an independent copy of the original compound clip. You can then make changes to it, without those changes appearing anywhere else.

EXTRA CREDIT

  • To change the contents of a compound clip, double-click it.
  • To close a compound clip, open any other project into the timeline.

Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #926: The Benefits of Compound Clips

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Compound clips are one way to nest one timeline into another.

A compound clip is indicated by this icon. (Image courtesy of Anne Gibson.)

Topic $TipTopic

Most of the time, when you make changes to a clip in the timeline, it does not change the source clip in the Browser or any other iterations of the source clip in the timeline. With one exception…

That exception is a compound clip.

Apple’s Help files state: “Compound clips can contain video and audio clip components, clips, and other compound clips. Effectively, each compound clip can be considered a mini project, with its own distinct project properties. Compound clips function just like other clips: you can add them to your project, trim them, retime them, and add effects and transitions. Icons appear on compound clips in the browser and the timeline.

Compound clips have many uses. You can:

  • Simplify a complicated project by creating a separate compound clip for each major section.
  • Sync a video clip with one or more audio clips and then combine the clips into a compound clip, to avoid inadvertently moving them out of sync.
  • Open any clip, edit its contents in the timeline, and then close it.
  • Quickly create a compound clip containing the clips in an event, based on the browser sort order.
  • Use a compound clip to create a section of a project with settings different from those of the main project.

Compound clips have the following characteristics:

  • You create compound clips in the browser or in the timeline.
  • Every compound clip in the timeline has a “parent” compound clip in the browser.
  • When you edit the contents of any compound clip, you are in fact editing the parent compound clip from the browser. Any changes you make to the compound clip are inherited by all of its child clips. For example, if you delete a title clip from the contents of a parent compound clip, the title clip is deleted from all child clips.

To create a compound clip, select one or more clips in the Browser or Timeline, then choose File > New > Compound Clip or type Option + G.


Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #925: Create a “Master Clip” for Efficiency

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Opening a Browser clip in the timeline emulates a Master Clip.

This file was opened in the timeline(left) and then effects were applied (right). (Image courtesy of Anne Gibson.)

Topic $TipTopic

Final Cut Pro X doesn’t actually support Master clips. But, here’s a little-known technique you can use to “create” one – along with significant efficiencies when you use these.

A Master clip is one where, when you change it, all the clips edited from it into the timeline change as well. FCP X does not support those type of clips. However, you CAN change a Browser clip BEFORE you edit portions of it into the timeline and have all those changes – like color correction, scaling or audio channels – travel with the edited portion into the Timeline. This means you can change a clip once, then have all those changes transfer during the edit. But, with the 10.4 update, Apple made creating these clips a whole lot less obvious.

NOTE: Final Cut Pro X used to call this “Open in Timeline.” That language has gone away.

Normally, when you edit clips into the Timeline, you can change that timeline clip’s settings or add effects, without affecting any other iteration of that clip in the timeline.

However, if, instead, you select a Browser clip, then choose Clip > Open, that Browser clip is opened in the Timeline, but NOT edited into it.

This means you can apply settings, effects, color correction or reorganize audio channels specifically to the Browser clip. Then, when you edit a portion of that clip into the timeline, all those modifications travel with it.

To remove the clip from the timeline, open a different project into the timeline, which takes it’s place.

EXTRA CREDIT

If you edit clips from the Browser into the timeline, then, open the clip into the timeline and make changes, any existing edited clips are not affected.


Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!

… for Random Weirdness

Tip #918: Types of Lighting for a Film Set

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Nothing says every scene in your film needs to be lit by the same lights.

A tungsten light, with barndoors, in operation.

Topic $TipTopic

Anthony Najera, writing for Shutterstock.com, created a breakdown of the different types of lights you might see on a film set. This is an excerpt.

“What’s the H.M.I. Roger Deakins is always talking about? Do people still use tungsten lights? Should I use LEDs in this scene or fluorescent? There are a ton of different types of lighting on a film set, each with their own qualities, pros, and cons. Let’s take a look.”

  • Fire. Lighting a scene with fire creates a beautiful aesthetic, as well as an element of caution.
  • Tungsten lights. If we’re going by age, next up is the tungsten category. Tungsten lights have been used to make movies for as long as movies have been made. Tungsten lights are easily recognizable as “movie making lights.”
  • HMI (Hydrargyrum Medium-Arc Iodide). Hmm… I didn’t know HMI stood for “hydrargyrum”… HMIs are much larger in size in comparison to their tungsten-equivalent wattage light. The HMI dwarfs the tungsten in size.
  • Fluorescent. With advancements in tech comes improvement in efficiency. Fluorescent lights are super efficient, especially when compared to a tungsten light. A 60W fluorescent could match the output of a 650W tungsten. With this low power consumption comes less heat.
  • LED (Light Emitting Diode). LEDs take the power consumption and heat improvements of fluorescent to the next level. LEDs are highly efficient and run basically cool to the touch. You don’t have to worry about these lights heating up a room because you ran them for hours.

EXTRA CREDIT

The article, linked above, has lots more details, images, pros and cons of different instruments and links to learn more.


Please rate the helpfulness of this tip.

Click on a star to rate it!