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Product Review: Rampant Edit Essentials

If you are looking for visually interesting ways to style, degrade, or spice up your images, Rampant Edit Essentials is a great place to start. Here is an illustrated review of the product.

Product Review: Xsend Motion for Final Cut Pro X

A long-time weakness of Final Cut Pro X was its inability to easily move projects into Motion. Xsend Motion, from Automatic Duck, solves that problem. This is a detailed, illustrated review of this program.

Apple Compressor: Transfer Compression Settings Between Computers

An illustrated technique showing how to transfer custom Apple Compressor settings from one computer to another.

Speed Test: Adobe Media Encoder (2016)

A performance test of Adobe Media Encoder (2016) comparing its performance against earlier versions, with optimized suggestions for YouTube compression.

Readers Report: How I Archive [u]

A variety of media creators explain how they archive their media and projects for the long-term.

The New Media Browser in Adobe Media Encoder [video]

In this short video excerpt, Larry Jordan highlights the new Media Browser in the June, 2016, update to Adobe Media Encoder.

Compressor: Compress Video for Social Media [video]

In this short video excerpt, Larry Jordan shows how to compress files for social media using Job Actions in Apple Compressor.

The Lifespan of Flash / SSD

In a discussion at the 2016 Creative Storage Conference, I discovered the answer to: “How long can we store flash media on a shelf without losing data.”

FCP X: Configure Video Scopes

Video scopes are indispensable when making final decisions on how to fix problems or grade a scene. This article shows how to configure them in Final Cut Pro X.

FCP X: Color Correct Orange Skin Tones [video]

Color correction allows you to make problem images look great. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to color correct a shot where the skin tones are too orange using Final Cut Pro X.

FCP X: Color Correction Shape Masks [video]

Color correction allows you to make problem images look great. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to color correct a portion of an image using Shape Masks in Final Cut Pro X.

Premiere Pro CC: Audio Mixer Sends and Buses

The Audio Track Mixer in Premiere allows us to control our sound in some very sophisticated ways. One of which uses Sends and Buses. This illustrated tutorial explains what audio buses are and how to use them.

Why Is My Hard Disk So Slow?

An explanation of the various factors that influence hard disk speed when transferring files from one drive to another.

Which USB Version Does Your Mac Support?

An illustrated way to find out which USB protocol your Macintosh computer supports, along with a discussion of the new USB 3.1-C.

Final Cut Pro X: Graduated and Vignette Masks [video]

Masks allow us to modify or hide portions of an image. While most often used in chroma (or green-screen) keys, masks have a wide variety of uses. In this short video excerpt, Larry shows how use the Graduated and Vignette Mask effects in Final Cut Pro X.

Premiere Pro CC: Use Masks in Chroma-keys [video]

Masks allow us to modify or hide portions of an image. While most often used in chroma (or green-screen) keys, masks have a wide variety of uses. In this short video excerpt Larry shows how use masks to exclude sections of the image in a chroma-key effect.

Premiere Pro CC: Share Sequences Between Projects

An illustrated tutorial showing how to import selected sequences, media and projects into a separate project in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Premiere Pro CC: What the Heck Do These Image Export Options Mean?

An illustrated explanation of those weird, obscure settings at the bottom of the Sequence and Export dialogs in Premiere Pro that no one understands… and that you can’t find in the Adobe Help Files.

Premiere Pro CC: Convert Stereo to Dual-Channel Mono Audio

An illustrated tutorial on how to convert stereo audio to dual-channel mono for editing in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

FCP X: Create Library Templates

There are two ways to create Library templates for Final Cut Pro X. This illustrated tutorial describes both methods.