Reflections require a reflecting surface and a group that’s switched to 3D.
Reflecting surfaces can be any color or shape.
Philip asked: “How do I create a reflection in Motion?”
By default, all objects in Motion radiate light, meaning they can create a reflection. However, in order to see a reflection, you need a second object that catches the light from the first object and reflects it. THAT setting, to enable reflections, is turned off by default.
To enable reflections:
Create the object you want to reflect (the heart, in this screen shot)
Create a surface upon which you want the reflection to appear (the gold rectangle)
Be sure both objects are in the same group.
Switch the group from 2D to 3D by clicking the small icon of rectangles on the right of the group name in the Layers panel.
Select the rectangle.
Go to Inspector > Properties and enable (check) Reflection.
Adjust the angle of the rectangle to get the reflection you want.
Adjust the Inspector settings to get the look you want.
NOTE: 3D Objects do not create reflections.
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https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2021-02-04 01:30:002021-01-29 17:56:49Tip #1377: Create a Reflection
Additive dissolves add an extra visual “punch” in the middle of a dissolve.
Typical cross-fade dissolve (top) compared to an additive dissolve.
Normally, when we create a dissolve, in any NLE, the transition gradually moves from one clip to the next by cross-fading the opacity between the first clip and the next.
However, there is a lot of visual potential hidden in even the most mundane dissolve – if you know what to look for.
Most NLE’s include different dissolve settings – either as separate effects (Premiere) or settings within the dissolve (Final Cut).
An additive dissolve, for example, not only cross-fades using opacity, it also applies an additive blend mode during the dissolve which boosts the highlights in both clips as the transition progresses. (See the screen shot.)
NOTE: This works best when there are highlights in at least one of the shots. If both shots are dark, you won’t see much difference.
This has the effect of calling attention to the transition, rather than simply letting it slide past.
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https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2021-02-03 01:30:002021-02-03 01:30:00Tip #1384: Add Punch to a Dissolve
In-person classes are better, but here are some good alternatives.
Vancouver Film School Makeup Design for Film & Television student Aerien Steadman works on a clay sculpture after limited groups of students resumed campus activities last August. (Image courtesy of Vancouver Film School)
This article, written by Chris McGowan, first appeared in VFXVoice.com. This is a summary.
Once the pandemic hit and turned classes into virtual events, VFX and animation schools scrambled to get their curricula online, make classes glitch-free and dynamic, and offer remote access to workstations.
“As the world changed, so have we,” says Miguel Rodriguez about Vancouver’s InFocus Film School and its response to COVID-19. Rodriguez, Head of the 3D Animation and VFX program, comments, “It definitely was a rough process of adapting to the new normal. During the first week of the quarantine we worked hard to set up online learning tools and remote access to the class computers. It gave [students] 24/7 access to their workstations without leaving home.”
USC’s School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) animation and digital arts classes are using Zoom, Blackboard, SyncSketch and Slack, according to Teresa Cheng, Chair of the John C. Hench Division of Animation and Digital Arts at SCA, plus “our Creative Technology department has worked out virtual desktop access for our students via Teradici.” However, she emphasizes that “our value is in our faculty. Zoom is just a tool. Of course, there are limitations [in not] being physically in the same space, but good teachers always find inventive ways to reach their students and deliver good content.
The College of Motion Picture Arts at Florida State University pursued a hybrid model for the fall of 2020, going remote when possible, according to Ron Honn, Filmmaker-in-Residence, Visual Arts. He notes that the school went the extra mile for its students when the pandemic began. “We were determined that our students would have the equipment necessary to continue work on their projects. So we shipped professional camera packages, lighting and grip gear, as needed, to students in their various locations.”
InFocus Film School’s Rodriguez observes, “These are difficult times for everyone, but it’s also a great opportunity to look into developing your career. People will keep watching shows, movies and playing video games, much more so during these crazy times. That means more work needs to be done, more hands and talent are needed.”
EXTRA CREDIT
The article includes many more interviews, photos and details on specific software tools used to enhance teaching.
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https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2021-02-03 01:30:002021-02-03 01:30:00Tip #1383: New Ways to Educate Tomorrow’s Pros
These sessions can help demystify color grading in post.
Image courtesy of Maxon.com.
Red Giant, now a part of Maxon, announced “Demystifying Post-Production: Shooting for the Grade.”
Join the Maxon Color Training Team every Monday in February, as they investigate grading workflows for your camera gear. They’ll look at key aspects of production, such as how the sensor can affect your grade, and how colorists can take advantage of different picture styles, including paint, shade and raw settings. They’ll provide practical recipes to help in post-production, and also show how you can leverage the new color handing features in Magic Bullet Looks inside DaVinci Resolve.
They’ll feature DaVinci Resolve techniques for color correction, but the concepts we’ll be covering are applicable to multiple applications and workflows, including Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X.
https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2021-02-03 01:30:002021-02-03 01:30:00Tip #1375: Red Giant Offers Free Color Training
Quantum acquires CatDV to better track all the data we are collecting.
The Quantum logo.
In December, Quantum announced that it has acquired Square Box Systems Ltd, a specialist in data cataloging, user collaboration, and digital asset management software. The acquisition builds on Quantum’s recently expanded portfolio that classifies, manages, and protects data across its lifecycle by adding technology advancements to further enrich video, digital images and other forms of unstructured data.
Square Box Systems’ flagship product is CatDV, an agile media management and workflow automation software platform that helps organizations with large volumes of media and metadata to organize, communicate and collaborate more effectively. CatDV leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to make it easier for businesses of any size to catalog and analyze digital assets such as video, images, audio files, PDFs, and more; enable advanced search across local and cloud repositories; and provide access control across the full data lifecycle for secure sharing and data governance.
Scaling an image smaller is fine, avoid scaling an image larger than 100%.
I get questions every day about how to maintain image quality while changing the size of an image (aka “Scaling.”)
The answer is simple, in theory, but tricky in practice: Bitmapped images, which include all digital video, are fixed in resolution. That means that each image is composed of a fixed number of pixels. As well, the projects into which we edit these images/video are also fixed in terms of pixel dimensions.
Assuming focus and exposure are good, the best an image will look is when it is scaled to 100%. You can probably scale an image to 110% without much damage, but beyond that typical audience members will start to see a difference.
When you make an image smaller, you are removing pixels, which, in general reduces the resolution of an image but doesn’t damage the perceived “quality.”
However, when making an image larger, you are duplicating pixels to fill the extra space. Duplicating a pixel means no new data is created. This makes a bitmapped image look fuzzy, soft or blurry.
In Final Cut Pro, you can set an image to 100% size by changing Video Inspector > Spatial Conform to None.
In Premiere Pro, you can see how much an image is scaled by Control-clicking a clip and enabling “Set to Frame Size.”
New features, faster performance and more inclusion.
The Adobe Premiere Pro icon.
Late last week, Adobe released a handful of new feature updates and performance improvements for Premiere Pro and After Effects.
Premiere Pro
Timecode Support for Non-Standard Frame Rates – Added support to display and use any non-standard frame rate timecodes, such as 120fps, 240fps or VFR clips.
Color space and Gamma changes – The default working space and Gamma curve is modified for all RED files.
Performance improvements in H.264/HEVC encoding for Intel TigerLake processors.
New Lighting Correction in Content-Aware Fill – Handle lighting shifts in footage better with improved Content-Aware Fill. The new Lighting Correction helps you cleanly remove objects from footage where harsh lighting changes occur throughout the footage.
Color Space and Gamma Changes – The default working space and Gamma curve is modified for all RED files.
As well, Adobe announced it will be updating terminology across Premiere Pro, After Effects and Audition to provide an inclusive toolset for all users.
https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2021-02-02 01:30:002021-01-29 16:55:13Tip #1373: New Features in the Latest Premiere Release
68% of Sundance films were edited on Adobe Premiere Pro.
The Adobe logo.
Adobe last week announced that Adobe Premiere Pro was used by more filmmakers taking part in the 2021 Sundance Film Festival than any other video editing system.
According to an Adobe blog, 68% of films used the Premiere Pro video editing software on their films; this is the third year in a row that Premiere Pro was the most used editing tool among Sundance Film Festival entrants. In addition, Adobe says that 89% of the 2021 lineup is powered by Creative Cloud tools, including After Effects and Photoshop.
Throughout the Festival you will also be able to see ‘When I Tell the Story’, Adobe’s short spot highlighting the work of Sundance Institute alumni Ro Haber (2019 Momentum Fellow), Natalie Erika James (2021 Momentum Fellow & 2021 Sundance Film Festival), Amber Fares (2019 Momentum Fellow), Rachael Moton (2019 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellow) — and co-directed and edited by Carol Nguyen (2018 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellow).
The 2021 Sundance Film Festival is taking place primarily virtually from Jan. 28-Feb. 3.
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https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2021-02-02 01:30:002021-01-29 16:57:14Tip #1372: Premiere Pro Sundance NLE of Choice
JPEG XS is specifically targeted at high-end video applications.
The intoPIX JPEG XS logo.
intoPIX is a technology provider of compression, image processing and security solutions.
One of their newest codecs is JPEG XS. JPEG XS is specifically targeted at high-end video applications, such as broadcasting, broadcast contribution, virtual reality applications, and so on.
As described by Antonin Descampe, co-founder of intoPIX:
“The main difference between JPEG XS and existing codecs from JPEG, MPEG or other standardization Committees is that compression efficiency is not the main target. Whereas other codecs primarily focus on their compression efficiency, disregarding latency or complexity, JPEG XS addresses the following question: “How can we ultimately replace uncompressed video?”. The goal of JPEG XS is therefore to allow increasing resolutions, frame rates and number of streams, while safeguarding all advantages of an uncompressed stream, i.e. interoperability, visually lossless quality, multi-generation robustness, low power consumption, low latency in coding and decoding, ease of implementation, small size on chip (no additional DDR), and fast software running on general purpose CPU and GPU.
“No other codec fulfills this set of strong requirements simultaneously. It can thus “compete” with ncompressed in every aspect and reduce bandwidth / video data significantly.”
Premiere supports Big Sur, but only partially supports M1 Macs
Just a quick FYI.
Premiere Pro is compatible with macOS Big Sur (version 11) and there are no known issues at this time. For the best experience, Adobe recommends running the latest version of Premiere Pro.
Premiere Pro 14.6 onwards will run under Rosetta 2 emulation mode on Apple devices with Apple Silicon M1 processors with this known issue: keyboard shortcuts appear grayed-out, but still work.
A new version of Premiere Pro with native support for Apple M1 systems is currently in Beta. You can install the Premiere Pro Beta from the Beta tab in the Creative Cloud Desktop.
Here’s the link to Adobe’s help with more information.
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https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2021-02-02 01:30:002021-01-29 16:56:42Tip #1369: Premiere Pro, Big Sur and M1 Macs
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