Avid Screencast HD

It's almost Christmas and I did the Santa last year. What's left? Snow!

So this week, we're going to add snow to an image and we'll use a couple of advanced options to make it look ab bit more real (or a bit less fake, depending on your perspective).

SHOW NOTES

I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas or happy holidays or whatever you celebrate! Have a good time, appreciate your family (even though it may be hard!) and get ...

Starting January 1st, I'll have a new job. While that's a good thing, it also means a lot more work.

So more work plus wanting to spend time with my family now and again means less time for the podcast. Right now, I'm doing a show a week, and I'm spending pretty much a whole day on each show.

I will not be able to keep going at this rate. So long story short: There'll be a lot less podcasts next year. I'm sorry, I know it's impor...

This week, we'll continue creating a semi-transparent video progress bar as you know them from Youtube et. al.

Last week, we created the background elements in Marquee, this week, we'll create the remaining elements and then animate them in Media Composer.

SHOW NOTES

Learn the Marquee basics here:
http://learn.avid.com/content/tutorials/marquee/tutorial.html

Check out the blog entry for this week's episode:
http://avscr.de/5...

This week and next, we'll create a semi-transparent video progress bar as you know them from Youtube et. al.

We'll create the elements in Marquee, then (next week) animate in Media Composer. The cool thing about this approach is that you'll be able to change the length of the animation to fit your piece of video just by trimming it!

SHOW NOTES

Learn the Marquee basics here:
http://learn.avid.com/content/tutorials/marquee/tutori...

This week, another viewer suggestion: We'll create the high-contrast, saturated look that is common to many sports trailers.

We'll also play around with BCC's Glow and add some flicker to the shots.

SHOW NOTES

Vlad Video: The Stars (Original Clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O3vOnyOEmU

Music: Torley on Piano - Gymo (from the Album solo piano 7: Improvisations for a New Age)

Flickr videos:

Jump Around! - Camp Randall, UW ...

This week, we'll make footage look like it has been shot with a surveillance camera by distorting and degrading it. Plus, when we switch "cameras", we'll make the image break up for just a fraction of a second.

SHOW NOTES

If you want to manipulate your footage a bit further, try the Film Damage Effect from the BCC Effects category. Many of the option will not improve your result, but I like the Flicker option.

The idea for this...

In this last episode in the audio series, I'll show you how to apply audio effects in Media Composer and a couple of neat real-world tips (like limiting you master output) that will hopefully help you out one day or another.

SHOW NOTES

You should know what a compressor/limiter is, how it works and how you set it up. This website explains it -- don't be fooled by its gruesome looks (after all, it was designed by an audio guy):
...

This week, we'll look into Avid's EQ Tool. It's pretty basic (look for more powerful EQs in the AudioSuite), so'll we'll cover what it can and can't do.

Also: Build your own EQ preset into the Presets of the EQ's fast menu.

SHOW NOTES

These are the file paths to the Site EQ Presets bin:

Windows: drive:\Program Files\Avid\Avid editing application\ SupportingFiles\Site_Effects\Site_EQs_Bin.avb

Mac: Macintosh HD/Applications/Avi...

There's more than one way to manipulate audio in Media Composer (no surprise there, there's more than one way to do pretty much anything in MC).

So this week, we'll explore Automation Gain, more often referred to as Audio Keyframes. You'll learn how to use this feature as well as what its benefits (and disadvantages) are compared to regular audio editing.

SHOW NOTES

Want to toggle audio keyframes on and off with your keyboard a...

This week, we'll make some very simple audio edits, create transitions, check out waveforms and get rid of those horrid pops that are sometimes created by audio edits.

This is actually the first part of a show that was to include the audio mixer as well, but the episode just turned out to be way too long so I had to split it up into two parts.

SHOW NOTES

Want to toggle waveforms on and off with your keyboard and do some more coo...

After last week's look into Avid's Pan & Zoom effect, this week we check out the Pan & Zoom effect that is included in Boris Continuum Complete 5 and later.

It's a great effect that is incredibly easy to use, and we'll create a simple zoom in auto-mode (it will literally take you 30 seconds to do) and get into the nitty-gritty for more complex animations.

SHOW NOTES

If you haven't watched it yet, check out last week's episode o...

This week's episode is all about stereo tracks: How to create them, how to get stuff into them, how to get rid of them again when the ugly beast named Compatibility rears its ugly head.

Plus: Find out how to make me rich!

SHOW NOTES

Check out the blog entry for this week's episode:
http://avscr.de/42

Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/avidscreencast

Become a fan of the Avid Screencast on Facebook:
http://facebook.co...

I was asked by a lot of people to do tutorials on audio editing, so this week I'll start a series on exactly that.

This first episode deals with the various audio settings in Media Composer - it's a bit dry, but it lays the foundation for the episodes to come. So stick with me.

SHOW NOTES

Steve Cohen's great article on the different flavors of midpoint attenuations in MC's audio dissolves:
http://splicenow.com/2010/01/13/audio-...

So you want to change the skin tones in a shot by doing a secondary color correction. You're using the methods outlined in ASC #16 (and of course, they work incredibly well!), but there's that nasty balloon in the shot that has a skin-tone-like color but that you don't want to affect.

What you need now, my friend, is a garbage matte. A garbage matte restricts the key to applying only to a specific section of the image. I hear you ...

The way Media Composer processes effects has some weird side-effects: Sometimes an effect applied to an upper video track also affects the video tracks below -- whether you intended that or not.

So this week we'll take control over that issue by learning how to use nesting to your advantage.

SHOW NOTES

Check out the blog entry for this week's episode:
http://avidscreencast.com/asc39

Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/avi...

I've had several requests for tutorials on Pan and Zoom, so this week and next, this will be out topic.

This week, we'll look into Avid's own Pan & Zoom effect. It is used to, well, pan and zoom into images that are larger than your sequence dimensions without quality loss (as would occur if you imported the image into a bin and then used, say, a 3D Warp for panning and zooming).

We'll create simple and a bit more complex animati...

With Media Composer 5, you can access Quicktime and R3D files natively using AMA (provided you have the horsepower).

In this episode, I'll show you how to link to AMA volumes, change the R3D source settings (such as ISO, color temperature etc.) within Media Composer, adjust the formatting and then transcode to DNxHD.

Editorial note: I apologize for the bad audio quality in this and last week's podcast. Snow Leopard seems to reset...

I'm finally on Media Composer 5, so in this week's episode, I'll introduce you to the most obvious new features such as the Smart Tools, Realtime Audio Effects, the new Interface and some new Keyboard Shortcuts.

There are a lot of different tutorials covering similar subjects, so check out the show notes for more.

SHOW NOTES

Steve Cohen's Introduction to the MC5 Timeline. If you haven't watched it yet, shame on you!
http://blip...