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Apple Compressor: Use Color Indexing to Reduce Video Animation File Size [v]

Apple updated Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor last week and both Final Cut and Compressor got a flurry of new features. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to reduce the file size of an animated image sequence. We do this without losing any video quality, by using indexed color and Apple Compressor.

Apple Compressor: Control Video Metadata to Preserve Privacy [v]

Apple updated Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor last week and both Final Cut and Compressor got a flurry of new features. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to control what metadata is embedded into your movies during compression using Apple Compressor. This is a very useful technique when security or privacy are important.

New! Custom Browser Column Sets in Final Cut Pro

New with the 10.5.3 update to Apple Final Cut Pro is the ability to create custom Browser column layouts, save them, switch between them, even share them with other editors. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how to use this.

New! Quickly Find Missing Media in Final Cut Pro

New with the 10.5.3 update to Final Cut Pro is the ability to quickly find missing media in a library. You can also use this technique to find clips by type: optimize, proxy and missing. This illustrated tutorial explains how this works.

Use Apple Compressor to Reframe Video to Square or Vertical

New with the 4.5.3 update to Compressor are compression settings which simplify cropping and compressing square and vertical media. These new settings simplify the conversion of, say, horizontal media to vertical making it easier to repurpose existing assets for new uses.

Apple Updates Final Cut Pro, Motion & Compressor

Last week, Apple released updates for Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor. Both Final Cut and Compressor added new features, while all three applications saw significant bug fixes. Here’s the full list of what’s new.

Avoid Common Font Traps to Improve Text Readability [v]

Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the importance of readability – and other factors – when choosing fonts for a video project.

Tips to Help You Make Better Font Choices [v]

Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates several font design tips to help you choose which fonts to use in your next video project.

Three Quick Adjustments to Improve the Look of Text [v]

Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan demonstrates three font adjustment techniques that can make on-screen video text look better. While this uses Photoshop, we can actually do this in most applications on Windows or Mac.

The Balance Between Traditional Film and Digital Filmmaking

We love the look of film, but the world has gone digital. In this guest blog, Drew Gula, from SoundStripe.com, explores the balance between digital media and creating a film look.

The Secret of Silence: ProCo Sound’s Power Mute CDPM Mic Switch [u]

The ProCo Power Mute CPMD mic switch is a ruggedly-built, easy to use and reasonably quiet mic mute, well-suited for live events or recording. Here’s Larry Jordan’s detailed product review.

Why Scaling Images Looks So Awful So Often

DPI (Dots per Inch) is a measure of image resolution. It also confuses a lot of people. Here’s an illustrated guide to where DPI matters, where it does not, and why images look bad when you scale them larger.

Adobe Reports Massive Speed Boost Using M1 Macs

New Pfieffer Report testing confirms Adobe software, running natively on M1 Macs, is far, FAR faster than the same software running on Intel Macs. Speeds are almost double. Read the details here.

Adobe Premiere Pro: New, Improved Captions

With the May, 2021, update, Adobe improved captioning in Premiere Pro. New features include improved colors and more flexible trimming. This tutorial illustrates these.

Final Cut Pro: Consolidate Media for Archiving or Colllaboration

Recent versions of Final Cut Pro have a feature called: “Consolidate Library Media.” This tutorial looks at what this feature does, when to use it and how it can aid archiving and collaboration.

Adobe Photoshop: How to Make Older Images Look a Whole Lot Better! [v]

Still images are at the heart of many video programs. But, what do you do if the images you are using don’t look that good? In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan showcases how to use a variety of tools to clean up an older image using Adobe Photoshop. These include straightening, cropping, adjusting grayscale levels, removing spots, and cleaning up damaged portions of an image.

Adobe Photoshop: Clean-up Still Images Using Masks, Vignettes & the Clone Tool [v]

Still images are at the heart of many video programs. But, what do you do if the images you are using don’t look that good? In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how to use masks to repair an older image, add a vignette to highlight a face and use the clone tool to remove an unsightly line – all in Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop: Simple Tricks to Clean Up Still Images [v]

Still images are at the heart of many video programs. But, what do you do if the images you are using don’t look that good? In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates several simple ways to clean up a still image; including crop, scale, content-aware fill and straightening an image – all in Adobe Photoshop.

How to Set or Change Library Properties in Final Cut Pro

Library Properties determine fundamental media handling settings for all the media, events and projects in a Library. When you need to make changes, here’s what you need to know.

How to Set and Change Project Settings in Final Cut Pro

Project settings, which Apple calls “Project Properties” determine the technical specs of your project. In this illustrated tutorial, I explain what they are, how to set them and how to change them.