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Tip #1548: Training & Tutorials from Foundry

… for Visual Effects

Tip #1548: Training & Tutorials from Foundry

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Free training & student licenses from Foundry.

Topic $TipTopic

Foundry offers free licenses Nuke Studio, Mari, Modo and Katana to students at select universities, plus the ability to apply for a free license if your school isn’t listed. There’s also a wealth of other training materials on their website.

As well, this web page offers free tutorials, educator resources and other discounts.

Even if you aren’t a student or educator, this page is worth visiting for the tutorials alone.

NOTE: Here’s the link.

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Tip #1547: Ask the Artist: Nemanja Sekulic

… for Visual Effects

Tip #1547: Ask the Artist: Nemanja Sekulic

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Workflow thoughts from a world-class photo-manipulator.

(Image courtesy: Nemanja Sekulic, via BorisFX.com.)

Topic $TipTopic

Nemanja Sekulic is a pro photographer and digital artist, who has a passion for photomanipulation and compositing. In both his personal and commissioned projects, some of which you can see on his website, Sekulic weaves elements of science fiction, fantasy, and surrealism into realistic everyday vignettes.

BorisFX.com interviewed him about his though-process and workflow. (Here’s the link.)

Here are three questions from the article:

  • What type of photography or photographic genre do you work in? I like to do a bit of everything, which I think lets me have more fun creatively speaking. And since I do photo manipulations and composites, it allows me to take different kinds of photos — portraits, maybe a landscape for a background, and then small objects, food, etc. — and combine them into a new fun, and unique story.
  • How do you prep for a big project? I approach most projects in the same manner: First, I do research on the topic. I want to know as much as I can about my subject. But how long I have to do my research depends on the size of the project and its complexity. Next, I’ll do some sketching, which is an important step in compositing since it helps me understand what elements I need to include in the work to be able to create a final image. Then, after that, I take all the necessary photos for the project, which could also include other visual elements like stock photos or models of a 3D element.
  • What’s a keyboard shortcut you can’t live without? It’s hard to choose just one, but I’d pick Ctrl+Z, or UNDO.

EXTRA CREDIT

Here’s Nemanja’s website. He has some AMAZING images on his portfolio page!

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Tip #1546: Autocad Resources for Educators

… for Visual Effects

Tip #1546: Autocad Resources for Educators

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Autocad Resources for Students & Educators

(Image courtesy of autocad.com.)

Topic $TipTopic

Autodesk created a webpage specifically for educators – from elementary school through to professional development – providing resources for students and teachers.

Some of these resources are free, most are subscription-based.

NOTE: I especially like the entry-level “Tinkercad” for grade-school students.

Here’s the link to learn more.

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Tip #1551: Create Still or Moving Watermarks

… for Codecs & Media

Tip #1551: Create Still or Moving Watermarks

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Apple Compressor creates still or moving watermarks easily.

The Apple Compressor logo.

Topic $TipTopic

[ I discovered this tip while researching a recent PowerUP webinar illustrating Media Compression in Apple Compressor. ]

In this four-minute video tutorial, I illustrate how to use Apple Compressor to add either still or moving watermarks to a video during compression.

I use watermarks for all my posted videos. While I create watermarks using stills, the opportunity to embed an animated logo is equally easy.

NOTE: Here’s the link.

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Tip #1550: Use Nesting to Add Power to Watch Folders

… for Codecs & Media

Tip #1550: Use Nesting to Add Power to Watch Folders

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Adobe Media Encoder Watch folders are flexible, useful & easy.

The Adobe Media Encoder logo.

Topic $TipTopic

Adobe Media Encoder (AME) supports creating nested watch folders, which is a great way to perform multiple actions at once.

A Watch Folder is an automated way to compress (or transcode, actually) any media file using AME with settings that you apply to the Watch Folder itself.

Here’s a tutorial I wrote that explains how to create a simple watch folder setup, then extends that into nested watch folders which can accomplish multiple compression tasks automatically and hands-free.

NOTE: Here’s the link.

EXTRA CREDIT

You can also program AME to automatically transfer compressed files to a website when compression is complete. We used this feature a LOT during our live coverage of NAB for the Digital Production Buzz.

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Tip #1549: What Is Handbrake?

… for Codecs & Media

Tip #1549: What Is Handbrake?

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Handbrake is a free, general-purpose media compression program.

Topic $TipTopic

HandBrake is a free open-source video transcoder available for Linux, Mac, and Windows.

HandBrake takes videos you already have and makes new ones that work on your mobile phone, tablet, TV media player, game console, computer, or web browser—nearly anything that supports modern video formats.

Features:

  • Convert nearly any video to MP4 or MKV
  • Crop and resize video
  • Restore old and low-quality video
  • Remove combing artifacts caused by interlacing and telecine
  • Pass-through audio without conversion for certain audio types
  • Downmix discrete surround sound to matrixed surround or stereo
  • Adjust audio volume levels, and dynamic range for certain audio types
  • Preserve existing subtitles, and add or remove soft subtitles (subtitles stored as text)

HandBrake does not:

  • Combine multiple video clips into one
  • Pass-through video without conversion (video is always converted)
  • Create Blu-ray, AVCHD, or DVD discs
  • Transcode into professional codecs such as ProRes, DNx, or GoPro Cineform

HandBrake also does not defeat or circumvent copy protection of any kind. It does not work with video files employing Digital Rights Management (DRM). This includes but is not limited to, copy protected content from iTunes, Amazon Video, Netflix, or other online providers, and many commercial DVD and Blu-ray discs.

Here’s the link to learn more.

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Tip #1537: A Fast Way to Improve an Image

… for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Tip #1537: A Fast Way to Improve an Image

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Basic Correction > Auto provides a quick fix for poorly exposed images.

Lumetri Color > Basic Correction panel. Click the Auto button.

Topic $TipTopic

[ This tip was part of a recent webinar: “Color Fundamentals in Adobe Premiere Pro” ].

If you have an image that isn’t exposed properly and you need a quick fix, here’s how.

Select the image in the timeline, then go to: Color workspace > Lumetri Color > Basic Correction and click the Auto button (see screen shot).

This adjusts the sliders in Basic Correction to correct exposure problems.

WHAT THIS DOESN”T FIX

This won’t fix color problems. It won’t fix blown-out areas caused by over-exposure. And it won’t fix black levels that were crushed when the image was taken such that all shadow detail was lost.

So, this doesn’t work miracles, but it can make many images look a LOT better.

Also, because this moved sliders, if you don’t like something in the new settings, the modified settings are easy to adjust manually.

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Tip #1536: Working with PDFs in Premiere

… for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Tip #1536: Working with PDFs in Premiere

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

The key is to convert a PDF to PNG before importing into Premiere.

The Page Options dialog in Photoshop scales the PDF image before import.

Topic $TipTopic

Premiere does not support importing PDF documents. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use them. Here are two workarounds.

TWO WORKAROUNDS

If all you need to do is import the entire PDF page without zooming into a portion of the page, use this workaround.

Workaround #1: Open the PDF in Preview, choose File > Export and set the export format to PNG. This exports the PDF at the size it was created, not the frame size of your project.

NOTE: Ignore the Resolution setting on export, even if you choose a higher number, the size and resolution of the exported image won’t change. I consider this a bug.

If you need to zoom into elements on the page – for example to provide closeups of an embedded image – this workaround is a better option:

Workaround #2: Open the file in Photoshop, or another image editing program. In the Page Options dialog (see screen shot) that appears: Set the Resolution to at least 400 Pixels/inch. This enlarges the image – while retaining image quality – so that you can easily zoom in or out of the PDF in the timeline.

EXTRA CREDIT

There are two types of PDFs: those that originated as bitmaps and those that originated as vectors.

Photos, scans and Photoshop documents will not scale very well, if at all. Text, Illustrator files or images created using musical notation should scale perfectly.

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Tip #1523: Multicam Audio Workaround

… for Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Tip #1523: Multicam Audio Workaround

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

This makes XAVC discrete audio tracks available.

Topic $TipTopic

Lee Berger writes:

I’m shooting XAVC-L with four discrete audio tracks. No matter which audio option I choose I get the same stereo track with mics 1 & 2 mixed in both tracks. What I want is to maintain separate channel 1 and 2 sources so I can duck each mic if necessary.

Here’s my workaround.

I select the camera 1 source clip and choose: Modify > Audio Channels > Clip Channel:

  • Format = Stereo
  • Number of Clips = 1

That gives me a single stereo track with mic one on the left and two on the right.

Then I create my multicam selecting Stereo and the resulting multicam clip has the same stereo channel assignments.

Finally, I select the Multicam clip in the bin, Modify > Audio Channels > Clip Channel:

  • Format = Mono
  • Number of Clips = 2

This puts it back to two discrete audio tracks. Seems cumbersome, but it solved my problem.

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Tip #1535: Better Options Working with PDF Files

… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #1535: Better Options Working with PDF Files

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Scale PDF images BEFORE bringing them into Final Cut.

The Page Options dialog in Photoshop scales the PDF image before import.

Topic $TipTopic

When you import a PDF file into Final Cut, it gets converted into a PNG. This causes problems when you need to scale the image because PDF files, generally, retain image quality when they are scaled. PNGs do not.

Essentially, the PNG is created at 100% of the size of the PDF page AFTER it is scaled to fit within the frame size of your project, not the original size of the PDF itself.

This conversion means that we can’t zoom into a portion of the PNG image without seriously losing image quality.

TWO WORKAROUNDS

If all you need to do is import the entire PDF page without zooming into a portion of the page, use this workaround.

Workaround #1: Open the PDF in Preview, choose File > Export and set the export format to PNG. This exports the PDF at the size it was created, not the frame size of your project. (You could, also, use this as a way to enlarge a PDF image to do a screen grab of a portion of a page.)

NOTE: Ignore the Resolution setting on export, even if you choose a higher number, the size and resolution of the exported image won’t change. I consider this a bug.

If you need to zoom into elements on the page – for example to provide closeups of an embedded image – this workaround is a better option:

Workaround #2: Open the file in Photoshop, or another image editing program. In the Page Options dialog (see screen shot) that appears: Set the Resolution to at least 400 Pixels/inch. This enlarges the image – while retaining image quality – so that you can easily zoom in or out of the PDF in the timeline.

EXTRA CREDIT

There are two types of PDFs: those that originated as bitmaps and those that originated as vectors.

Photos, scans and Photoshop documents will not scale very well, if at all. Text, Illustrator files or images created using musical notation should scale perfectly.

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