The first in a series of lessons for everyone interested in learning Avid Media Composer 6. Have fun!
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Learn Avid Media Composer – Lesson 1
Posted in Deals, News, Software, Tips & Info
Tagged Avid Technology, computer app, Digital Video, editing, Education, free, media composer, post-production, video, YouTube
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Choosing A YouTube Poster Frame
I love YouTube. The idea that you can post a video that potentially can be seen by millions or just a few friends across the country, heck across the world is awesome. But I’ve always been annoyed by the fact that it’s impossible to choose your poster frame when you upload a video to YouTube. All this cutting edge technology and you can’t choose the best frame available to represent your masterpiece? That’s ridiculous. Maybe you don’t care if it’s a swish pan mish mash of color that has nothing to do with the actual content of your piece, but I do. Sure they give you three choices but often those three choices are not very good. People have suggested that there are various formulas one can apply to determine what your poster frames will be. Frankly, I’ve never seen any of these formulas work with any consistency. What I did discover by accident is that you can change the poster frame choices YouTube has forced on you by using the advanced features after you upload your video. After you log in, go to the Video Manager choose “Enhancements” from the drop down menu of the video.
You’ll get a new screen where you can choose how you want to “enhance” your video. I usually like to use “I’m Feeling Lucky”.
It usually gives me a bit more color saturation, sometimes better contrast. I didn’t change the length of my video. And no convoluted math formulas.
But the best part is that when it finishes processing your video it gives you 3 NEW POSTER FRAMES!!
I simply applied the ”I’m Feeling Lucky” enhancement and there they were. Try it. Right now it’s the best option I’ve found to obtain a potential useable YouTube poster frame. Or at the very least a few more options to choose from.
Related articles
- Watch: YouTube Responds To Ridiculous User Complaints (socialtimes.com)
Posted in Television, Tips & Info, Web Design
Tagged Entertainment, Google, television, Uploading and downloading, video, YouTube
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Tekserve & AllCreative NY Present Meet the Adobe Experts
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With the release of Adobe Creative Suite 6 came lots of improvements, changes and questions. The new Adobe applications have been optimized for 64 bit computers, interfaces have been streamlined, new tools have been added and others refined. The overall effect is a much improved and faster creative workflow. What’s new? What’s improved? What is the Adobe Creative Cloud?
So on July 18 and 25th, Tekserve along with AllCreative NY presented a panel of Adobe experts, Adobe specialists and authors for two nights of special panel discussions about Adobe Creative Suite 6. I was privileged to participate with this group of diverse and talented individuals, even though Jerron, “The Pixel Smith”, wouldn’t let anyone get a word in edgewise (just kidding Jerron). Occasionally we would go off topic, talking about some of our favorite apps like FX Factory, Dropbox and 1Password.
Thanks to Ken Cavaliere-Klick and Tekserve for bringing together these Adobe experts for a great event.
A lively crowd brought their questions and found out what the latest version of the Creative Suite could do for them. Here’s what they had to say about “Meet the Adobe Experts”.
Our Panel of Adobe Experts
Josh Apter: Owner of Manhattan Edit Workshop
Scott Citron: Scott Citron | Design, Graphic Designer/Adobe Certified Trainer at InDesign User Group, Consultant at Adobe Systems, Graphic Designer and Creative Director at Scott Citron | Design.
Sandee Cohen: Vector Babe, Author of the InDesign CS 6 Visual Quickstart Guide, the only book to cover every version of InDesign. Sandee is currently co-authoring a book on tablet apps, interactive PDF, and ePubs.
Fred Gerantabee: Author/Presenter/Conference Speaker – Technology Director at Grey Group, Author of Flash CS6 Digital Classroom (Wiley & Sons), co-author of Creative Suite 6 for DUMMIES (Wiley), and Director of Technology at GREY Group NY.
Mitch Jacobson: Category-5 Entertainment. Mitch Jacobson is a renowned multi-camera editor who has cut concert videos for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and Paul McCartney. He is the owner and executive producer at Category-5 Entertainment, a creative editing boutique in New York City. (Note: due to ongoing projects Mitch was there in spirit)
Matthew Mallinson, filmmaker, founder of AllCreativeNY, a user group focusing on Adobe, Apple and Avid technologies, NYU Adjunct Faculty for the Post Production Intensive, Avid instructor at the Digital Film Academy, award winning director of the murder mystery “Joker’s Wild”, editor of numerous music videos (Sade, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, etc.) and over 20 features including the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner “Chameleon Street”. He’s also one of the producers of “The Wrong Coast”, a stop motion animated series for Bravo.
Jerron Smith: The Pixel Smith, Instructor at Fashion Institute of Technology, Contract–Application Specialist at American Graphics Institute, Adjunct Instructor at New York Institute of Technology, Author of Adobe After Effects CS6 Digital Classroom and Premiere Pro CS5 & 5.5 Digital Classroom. An animator, editor and educator Jerron is currently pursuing projects related to multimedia and motion graphic design.
Dennis Radeke: Senior Business Development Manager at Adobe Systems and The Genesis Project.
We had great door prizes from digieffects, Pond5 , Focal Press, Peachpit, O’ReillyMedia, noise industries, Boris FX and Contour Systems.
Related articles
- Adobe Creative Suite 6 – the new face of creativity (brajeshwar.com)
- Adobe CS6 Tutorials (cs5.org)
Posted in Events, Mac, News, PC, Software, Tips & Info, Web Design
Tagged adobe, Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Systems, Digital Video, Media Production, post-production, Social media, Video Editing
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NextStories – A Unique Way to Browse the Web
I came across a rather unique site, rather a unique web browsing concept courtesy of David Pogue. It’s called NextStories. The concept is that while you’re on a site that’s covering some aspect of the news and/or a topic, you click on the NextStories bookmark which you dragged from their website and placed somewhere in your bookmarks. I put it on my bookmarks bar rather than bury it my bookmarks.
You go from a page like this one above
To a page like this one below
It throws up a translucent page with links to a variety of stories over the site you’re currently on, stories that relate to the content on the page you were viewing. Sports page, get sports links. Tech savvy site, get tech related links. I was a bit annoyed that it took me away from the page I was on when I chose one of those linked stories floating on the page until I discovered that holding down the command key on my Mac (and I would guess the control key on a Windows PC) opens up a new window. If you want to lose the NextStories overlay and resume looking at the page you were on just click on the translucent border and it’s gone.
Posted in News, Tips & Info, Web Design
Tagged Bookmarking, David Pogue, Web browser
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Goodbye MobileMe, Hello MacHighway
I’ve heard more than a few people lament about the demise of Apple’s MobileMe. Apple’s free iCloud takes care of some issues. And even if one needs more cloud storage, there are a plethora of free options elsewhere like Dropbox, SugarSync and Box.net. But many laments arise because of the loss of iWeb hosting. I had an iWeb based site for several years, but I’ve never had a MobileMe account. And I paid less for the privilege than I would have with a MobileMe account. It was easy with MacHighway.
I don’t recall how I stumbled across MacHighway, but suffice to say I’ve been very pleased with the price and the service. It’s nice to be able to call their 800 number, even on a Saturday, and after a short wait or sometimes instantly I get someone who can answer my questions quickly and efficiently. Yes, a live person!! What a concept! Their yearly hosting plans are a bargain, starting at $29.50 for a blog and $39.50 a year for hosting a single domain. But I think the best option is their $49.50 plan which gets you hosting for two domains. New customers get a new domain registration free for the first year with any yearly plan. Check their site for details and conditions.
I eventually used MacHighway to host a WordPress site and the MacHighway team made the WordPress install easy. I was up and running my WordPress site in less than 15 minutes.
MacHighway is proud of the fact that their service is completely powered by wind power, making their contribution to a clean environment. And no, your site will not go down if the wind stops blowing.
So if you’re looking to host that iWeb site, check out this MacHighway how-to video
Related articles
- The Archive Team finishes downloading all 272 terabytes of MobileMe and .Mac for posterity (thenextweb.com)
- Three things to back up before MobileMe goes dark on June 30 (arstechnica.com)
Posted in Deals, Mac, News, Reviews, Tips & Info, Web Design
Tagged apple, ICloud, IDisk, IWeb, Machighway, MobileMe, productivity, WordPress
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