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Tip #917: Promote Your Blog on Social Media

… for Random Weirdness

Tip #917: Promote Your Blog on Social Media

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Not all social media is alike. Here are some tips to enable your messaging.

Image courtesy of Cision.com.

Topic $TipTopic

Cision, formerly PRNewsWire, has a blog focused on journalists which I tend to read fairly regularly.

Recently, they discussed “How to promote your blog content across social media platforms.”

Before you start, it is important to know who and where your audience is. “Once you have an understanding of where you have the best chance of getting in front of your readers, you can plan the type of content that’s going to appeal to them on that particular platform.”

Then, the article describes specific techniques for:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram

It wraps up with a discussion on when to schedule your posts and an info-graphic that summarizes everything.

Read it at the link above.

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Tip #916: 10 Books to Spur Your Creativity

… for Random Weirdness

Tip #916: 10 Books to Spur Your Creativity

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Creativity is more than technology. These books can help.

Perfume book cover.

Topic $TipTopic

James Thomas, writing for RitualMusic.com, created a collection of essential books for filmmakers. Not one talks about technology; instead, each inspires creativity.

As he was creating this list, he was reminded of a sentiment from an old college professor: “You can’t always tell if someone has gone to college, but you can always tell if they read.”

Here is his collection of ten books that will help prime your creative faculties with inspiration and plenty of literary nutrition.

  1. Stoner by John Williams
  2. Perfume by Patrick Süskind
  3. Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
  4. Chelsea Girls by Eileen Myles
  5. Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller
  6. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
  7. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
  8. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
  9. Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
  10. The Easter Parade by Richard Yates

NOTE: His description of each book is poetry in itself, plus, he provides links to purchase each book on Amazon.

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Tip #915: Add Texture to a Color

… for Apple Motion

Tip #915: Add Texture to a Color

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Some blend modes are better at texture than others; especially those labeled “Linear.”

Dark blue rectangle with Linear Burn (left) or Linear Light blend modes applied with a Travertine image below the color.

Topic $TipTopic We’ve long known how to add texture to text, or even replace white text with an image, using the Stencil Alpha blend mode. But, did you also know we can add texture to plain colors. Here’s how.

  • Using the Rectangle or Circle tool, draw a solid color shape.

NOTE: This will look best if you turn the shape’s border off.

  • From Library > Content > Images > Traditional, drag a texture into the Viewer and put it below the color layer.

NOTE: There are MANY options to choose from. I’m using Travertine, but scroll down past the book images and you’ll find lots of worthy candidates.

  • Mask the background texture (Travertine in my case) so that it is only visible under the color; otherwise, the texture will fill the screen.
  • Select the color and, depending upon the color, apply Inspector > Properties > Blend mode of Linear Burn or Linear Light, whichever looks better to you.

NOTE: The screen shot illustrates both. For my taste, I prefer Linear Burn to emphasize the darker texture.

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Tip #914: Interesting Freehand Mask Tricks

… for Apple Motion

Tip #914: Interesting Freehand Mask Tricks

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Use the Edit Points tool to modify any point in a Freehand mask shape.

The Freehand mask tool creates Bezier curves which can be modified using the Edit Points tool.

Topic $TipTopic

When you use the Freehand mask tool to hide, or reveal, portions of an image, you are actually creating a Bezier curve. This leads to some very interesting options.

  • Select the layer that you want to mask, then use the Freehand mask tool to draw an area that hides portions of the image.
  • Next, select the mask layer then choose the Edit Points tool. (This illustrates that the mask tool actually creates a complex Bezier curve.)
  • Drag any dot to change the shape.
  • Control-click any dot to switch from Linear to Smooth or back. (See screen shot.)

NOTE: Switching to smooth should display control dots to change the shape. If not, change first to Linear, then back to Smooth to display the curve controls.

EXTRA CREDIT

This screen shot illustrates why no one wants to hire me as a graphic designer. Sigh…

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Tip #913: A Quick Way to View Media

… for Apple Motion

Tip #913: A Quick Way to View Media

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

This should work for any media displayed in the Media tab of the Project pane.

Double-click an image in the Library to view it full size.

Topic $TipTopic

This is something I just discovered today as I was writing tips. There’s a “Quick Look” viewer buried in Apple Motion. Here’s where to find it.

I first found that if you go to Library > Content > Images, then double-click any image, it will open full-size in its own window in Motion. However, no other category in the Library seemed to act the same way.

Then, I wondered if this Quick View would also work for imported media. And the answer is: Yes!

Click the Media tab – to the right of Layers tab in the Project Pane – and double-click any video, audio, still or image. Motion will display at 100% size in its own window.

This is a nice way to see what your media looks like, when you need to see the details.

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Tip #923: Introducing SyncSketch

… for Visual Effects

Tip #923: Introducing SyncSketch

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

SyncSketch is a team-based review web-app focused on animation and VFX.

The SyncSketch logo.

Topic $TipTopic

SyncSketch started as a tool to help Animation tutors review student work but has since evolved into the media review tool of choice for a number animation, post-production, VFX and games studios.

Their website says the software provides:

  • Real-time Reviews
  • A VFX and animation-optimized player
  • Team oriented
  • Can be integrated into an animation pipeline
  • Secure, using SSL technology with AWS access priviledges
  • Web-based

The current version also provides integration with Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Shotgun, Unity and Python.

They have three versions: Free, Pro ($8 / month / user) and Enterprise (requires a minimum of 20 members).

Their website has a variety of video tutorials that explain the product in more detail.

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Tip #922: FX Tutorials for All Major NLEs

… for Visual Effects

Tip #922: FX Tutorials for All Major NLEs

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

These plugins span the full range of visual effects for all major NLEs.

The FXFactory list of supported products.

Topic $TipTopic

FXFactory publishes visual effects software and tutorials for major NLEs. If you haven’t visited their News & Tutorials web page, your are missing some great tools.

FXFactory has effects for:

  • Final Cut Pro X
  • Motion
  • Logic Pro (audio)
  • GarageBand (audio)
  • Premiere Pro
  • After Effects
  • Audition (audio)
  • DaVinci Resolve
  • Avid Media Composer
  • Pro Tools (audio)

Here’s the link to learn more.

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Tip #921: Cinema 4D Quick Tips

… for Visual Effects

Tip #921: Cinema 4D Quick Tips

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Fast, free and easy ways to improve your Cinema 4D skills.

A partial list of Quick Tips from Cinema 4D. All free.

Topic $TipTopic

The rebranded Cineversity, part of Maxon, has published a variety of free Quick Tips on using Cinema 4D. Here’s where they are.

Go to this link.

Then, scroll the list on the right (see screen shot) until you find a subject you want to watch.

Each tip takes only a few minutes to watch.

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Tip #920: What is the AV1 Codec?

… for Codecs & Media

Tip #920: What is the AV1 Codec?

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

AV1 will be a format we see used increasingly for web-based media.

Topic $TipTopic

AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) is an open, royalty-free video coding format designed for video transmissions over the Internet. It was developed as a successor to VP9 by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia).

The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) is a non-profit industry consortium for the development of open, royalty-free technology for multimedia delivery headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts. It adopts the principles of the development of open web standards for the creation of video standards that can serve as royalty-free alternatives to the hitherto dominant standards of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).

The governing members are Amazon, Apple, ARM, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, Nvidia, Samsung Electronics and Tencent. Its first project was to develop AV1, a new open video codec and format as a successor to VP9 and a royalty-free alternative to HEVC, which uses elements from Daala, Thor, and VP10.

The Alliance announced, on January 8, 2019, the release of a validated version 1.0.0 with Errata 1 of the specification. However, the spec still needs to be translated into shipping products.

In developing this open-source codec, the emphasis was on the encoding mechanism and making sure the codec was free of legal constraints. Consequently, the early version of AV1 was orders of magnitude slower than existing HEVC encoders. Much of the development effort was consequently shifted towards maturing the reference encoder; i.e. making it faster. In March 2019, it was reported that the speed of the reference encoder had improved greatly and was within the same order of magnitude as encoders for other common formats.

YouTube and Vimeo are already rolling out AV1. Netflix starting using AV1 in February, 2020. Facebook, Twitch and iQIYI are also rolling out support.

The format is also supported by:

  • Firefox
  • Google Chrome
  • Opera
  • Microsoft Edge
  • VLC Media Player
  • FFmpeg
  • Bitmovin
  • Handbrake
  • and others

Here’s the link for more information.

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Tip #919: What is a Macroblock?

… for Codecs & Media

Tip #919: What is a Macroblock?

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

H.264 compression tracks macroblocks rather than pixels to create smaller files.

Topic $TipTopic

Macroblocks are at the heart of MPEG and H.264 video compression. But, what is a Macroblock?

In order to get the smallest possible files when compressing into H.264, the image is divided into “macroblocks.” (HEVC uses something similar, called a “coding tree unit.”)

Wikipedia describes a macroblock as typically consisting of 16×16 pixels, which forms a processing unit in image and video compression formats based on linear block transforms, typically the discrete cosine transform (DCT). (DCT is used in JPEG, MPEG and H.264 compression.)

A macroblock is divided further into transform blocks. Transform blocks have a fixed size of 8×8 samples. In the YCbCr color space with 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, a 16×16 macroblock consists of 16×16 luma (Y) samples and 8×8 chroma (Cb and Cr) samples. These samples are split into four Y blocks, one Cb block and one Cr block.

The reason macroblocks are important is that when media is encoded, the compression tracks the location of each macroblock from one frame to the next, rather than the full pixel data. This reduces the size of the file significantly, but at the cost of a loss of color information.

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