If you are new to Avid's Media Composer DSLR workflow it is essential to look at the new good video footage prepared by Alex Walker, director of photography and editor. The presented in video method of maintenance work on all Canon DSLRs.

Alex Walker briefly describes performed in the guide steps as follows: “We start with AMA native H.264 playback, then cut offline DNxHD36 files and relink to the originals, and then wrap up with encoding for the web using Sorenson Squeeze 8.5 and x264”.

Check out our latest motionVFX production available on vimeo! It was a great pleasure to work with Angelika Cierpucha, a rising modeling star. The session was shoot on Canon 5D Mark II with 50mm/f1.2L and 24-105mm/f4L. In post, we used Motion5, mBurns, Adobe Premiere CS5.5 and DaVinci Resolve. Enjoy the video !
 

• model: Angelika Cierpucha
• photo: Magdalena Ostrowicka
• makeup: Magdalena Dudzik
• audio: Grum - Want U

[F]Network launched on its website a first episode of video weekly workshop dedicated to lighting in photography by Joel Grims. ‘Episode 1: Take the Mystery out of Lighting‘ is an introduction to the series of meetings.

How important in maximizing drama of portraits and creating visual tension is appropriate lighting we all know from the time of Rembrandt. But to develop these skills you must carry out a lot of attempts and listen to the best advice.

Joel Grimes is known in the world of commercial photo advertising as creator uses a very specific way of lighting and processing of portraits in his works. In this part he talks about their inspirations, work experience and working methods. He trying to disseminate knowledge about the photographic creative process by teaching workshops: "I feel that by being an open book with my process I have an opportunity to inspire others to follow their dreams and passions to create".

Even if you're not a fan of this type of photography you should watch the next 15 parts of the series to broaden your knowledge of studio and outdoor photo lighting. The new episodes will be available online on Wednesdays.

Source: http://framednetwork.com/

Lightroom 4 for Mac is another Adobe software which together with Photoshop Elements 10, Premiere Elements 10 and the Revel is available from today on Mac App Store. This is a “convenient way to research and purchase software for your Mac computer” as Adobe announcing on the blog but on the other hand Lightroom is a natural rival to Aperture. Meybe if one of the key professional Adobe product is already in the Mac App Store, entire Creative Suite will follow the same way soon.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4, released in March brought a few major new features compared to version 3 including support for video editing and geotagging, a refined selection of adjustment controls, local white balance, noise and moire adjustments, soft proofing, photo book creation via blurb.com, support for video uploading to Facebook and Flickr, and simplified emailing. Pricing of Lightroom 4 on the app store is the same to the retails box product $149. The condition for use of this offer is to have a Mac carrying a 64-bit processor and running OS X 10.6.8 or later and to live in North America.

You can purchase Lightroom from Mac App Store here: Lightroom

Source: http://www.adobe.com/

'Finding Portland' is a short trip to the City of Roses - Portland, Oregon. This time-lapse video made by Uncage the Soul was shot over 51 springtime days in 50 different locations of the city and the Columbia Gorge. In three minutes, both those who know the city and all those who have not been there can explore Portland and feel its rhythm.

The authors conclude the process of film production in the following way:
„Comprised of 308,829 photographs taken from over 50 unique locations, it took an average of 3.8 hours to make each second of this film. The intent of the project was to place cameras in unique vantages across the city, achieve significant ranges of dynamic camera motion, and pursue cutting edge time-lapse techniques.”

Source: http://www.uncagethesoul.com/

If you still feel hungry for knowledge on editing with Final Cut Pro X and you like listening to tips on specific topic not by one but by many professionals you’ll be pleased with a collection of great video tutorials on color correction in one place. Our Partner, PremiumBeat.com published a top ten list of the best video tutorials covering all aspects of the FCPX color correcting environment. Starting with basic information about the new FCPX color correction interface through workflow to advanced color effects ending with covering color matching, color balancing and defining the difference between color correction and color grading, you can learn all issues related to the process of color correction.

The video above is an example where Ben Brownlee from FilmmakingWebinars gives an overview of the basic color correction tools in Final Cut Pro X. In his comment to the presentation he notes: “Color correction is now an essential part of any edit. Whether you simply need to balance out colors between edits, or if you want to take a more creative angle and use color correction to help tell your story. Final Cut Pro X introduces a new tool set and filters built to help you fix problem footage or help craft your work.”

Click here to view the remaining nine tutorials produced by: PremiumBeat, DanAllenFilms, macProVideoDotCom, BX Films, PixelWizard, TelekinesisBacklot, Matt’s Macintosh, FCPeffects, and Color Grading Central.

Here is the complete list of films selected by PremiumBeat.com:

1. Final Cut Pro X Basics Tutorial: Color Correcting / Grading by Dan Allen
2. Color Correcting Inside Final Cut Pro X by Ben Brownlee
3. Overview of the FCPX Color Board (Color Correction Techniques) by Michael Wohl
4. FCPX Match Color by BX Films
5. Final Cut Pro X Color Matching + Vignette by Andrew McKee
6. FCPX Color Grading Workflow by Alan Seawright
7. How to Apply and Keyframe Shape Masks for Color Correction by Ashley Kennedy
8. Final Cut Pro X Sky Color Correction by Matt’s Macintosh
9. FCPX Selective Color Tutorial (Sin City / Pleasantville Effect) by FCPeffects
10. Final Cut Pro X Color Correction Tutorial: Popular Looks by Denver Riddle
     

Source: http://www.premiumbeat.com

If you are a Photoshop user, and you probably are, you will be keen to know that Adobe announced Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended! Both bpackages bring new features and enhancements, the software includes many innovations and performance improvements. Additionally Photoshop CS6 Extended includes tools for 3D design, image and video editing, and quantitative analysis which address the needs of the graphic design, video, Web, architecture, medical, manufacturing and engineering industries. Here's a nice video describing the most interesting new features:
 

“Creativity is at the very center of our efforts – both in developing exceptional tools, and enabling our users to create beautiful imagery that stands out from the visual clutter around us,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. “Photoshop CS6 is unrivaled in capabilities and power and – as we have seen from the astonishing reception of our recent public beta – has once again captured the imagination of the worldwide creative community. ‘Photoshop magic’ is alive and well with CS6.”

Here's the list of Photoshop CS6 features (via Adobe):

• Content-Aware Patch – Allows greater control by letting users choose the sample area used to create a patch.
• Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine – Takes advantage of the graphics processing unit in modern hardware to speed up imaging and editing tasks, and process large images faster.
• New and Re-engineered Design Tools – Type styles enable consistent formatting; vector layers apply strokes and add gradients to vector objects; custom strokes and dashed lines are easily created; quick layers search and more.
• Intuitive Video Creation – The full range of familiar Photoshop tools and an intuitive set of new video tools to create and enhance any video clip.
• Blur Gallery – A simple new interface with on-image and in-context controls allows users to quickly create photographic blur effects including tilt-shift effects, blur everything with one focal point, or vary the blurriness between multiple focal points.

Photoshop CS6 Extended includes all Photoshop CS6 features and:

• Mercury Graphics Engine for 3D – Increased power and speed via engine optimized for 3D imaging.
• New 3D Controls – UI improvements for more efficient 3D workflows.
• New 3D Effects – Reflections and “drag-able” shadows to enhance images.

Both versions of the suite will be available within 30 days and can be pre-ordered now. Photoshop CS6 wil cost $699, Photoshop CS6 Extended will cost $999. Subscription pricing for Photoshop CS6 is also available at $19.99 per month for an annual contract and $29.99 for a month-to-month contract.

Source: http://www.adobe.com

Adobe released the newest version of Photoshop Lightroom for Mac OS and Windows. Just to remind you, Lightroom 4 is a digital photography workflow solution helping amateur and professional photographers quickly import, manage, enhance and showcase their images. The price is much lower than before and you can get the full version for $149 and the upgrade for $79. Lightroom 4 introduces refined technology for superior shadow and highlight processing, ability to create photo books, additional local adjustment controls, and enhanced video support.

“Feedback from our customers is invaluable in developing Lightroom and the real trick to a great release is to combine these insights with Adobe’s unrivalled image processing innovation,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president of Digital Imaging Products, Adobe. “Lightroom 4 is a stunning new release that will enhance photography workflows and help photographs stand out from the crowd.”

Lightroom 4 features new adjustment controls that allow to maximize dynamic range from cameras, recovering exceptional shadow details and highlights. The software features new and improved auto adjustments to dynamically set values for exposure and contrast, and additional local adjustment controls including Noise Reduction, Moire and White Balance.

The new version also provides tools to create photo books with text controls and a variety of easy-to-use templates, as well as a direct link for photo book creation from within the new Book module. A new Map module displays images already assigned a location, provides location tagging and reverse geo-tagging controls and saved locations for easy assignment of a photographer’s common locations. Native video support gives the capability to play, trim and extract frames from video clips shot on DSLRs, point-and-shoot cameras and smartphones. Video-specific presets and many standard Lightroom image adjustment controls can be applied to video clips, and adjusted videos can be exported as a H.264 file or published directly to Facebook or Flickr.

In the Develop module, presets fully utilize new processing technology and the addition of soft proofing helps tune images in a destination color space.

RAW file support has also been updated and now it includes the following cameras:

• Canon EOS-1D X, PowerShot G1 X, PowerShot S100
• Fujifilm FinePix F505 EXR, FinePix F605 EXR, FinePix HS30 EXR, FinePix HS33 EXR
• Nikon D4, D800, D800E

Source: http://www.adobe.com

Adobe released today its second Adobe Touch app for the iPad - after Adobe Ideas, this time its Photoshop. Android users have access to four more apps - Collage, Debut, Kuler and Proto - but these are expected to hit the App Store with the launch of Creative Suite 6 and Creative Cloud.

Adobe Photoshop Touch is not as advanced as the desktop version but it still has many useful features. It allows to combine images, apply professional effects, share results with friends and family through sites like Facebook, and more.

Here is the list of features and highlights (via App Store):

• Use popular Photoshop features designed for the tablet such as layers, selection tools, adjustments, and filters to create mind-blowing images. 
• Use your iPad camera to fill an area on a layer with the unique camera fill feature.
• Select part of an image to extract by scribbling with the Scribble Selection tool. With Refine Edge, use your fingertip to capture even hard-to-select image elements, like hair, with ease. 
• Search and acquire images with the integrated Google Image Search. 
• Share images on Facebook and view comments right within the app.
• Browse an inspirational gallery for the styles and results you'd like to achieve. Then follow step-by-step tutorials to easily learn techniques the pros use for great-looking results.
• Use AirPrint for wireless printing of Photoshop Touch projects.
• Upload projects to Adobe Creative Cloud* and open layered files from Adobe Photoshop Touch in Photoshop CS5.
• Maximum image resolution: 1600 x 1600 pixels

The new product is only compatible with iPad 2 with iOS5. No luck for users of the first generation of iPads.

Adobe Photoshop Touch is priced $9.99 and you can get it here.

Source: http://itunes.apple.com

CoreCG is a New Zealand-based research and development that specializes in creative solutions for CG animation and visual effects.

The company announced the release of MentalCore - a cross-platform, standalone plugin designed to help artists achieve maximum creativity and efficiency while using NVIDIA mental ray with Autodesk Maya. According to the company, the release follows two years of extensive use at Oktobor Animation, a year of beta testing by high profile film, television, and game companies, and a soft launch in December 2011.

"We saw an overwhelming response to our beta phase and are excited to introduce an off-the-shelf solution that answers such a huge community need. Eliminating common CG pipeline bottlenecks can require dedicated R&D and often complicated workarounds," said Jason Adams, creative director, CoreCG and Oktobor Animation. "We built MentalCore to simplify workflows and expedite rendering, so artists spend less time troubleshooting and more time on the quality of their work. It's truly an efficient, reliable solution for artists made by artists."

MentalCore provides many enhancements to the standard rendering workflow using Autodesk Maya with NVIDIA mental ray. It supports Maya 2011 and Maya 2012, and hosts a user-friendly interface and a feature set  including (via CoreCG): 

• Render Globals Interface - Quick access to all global settings and render passes
• Node Based Render Pass System - Reliable render pass system that eases linking to objects, materials and lights
• Shader Library - Achieve desired looks with new material, texture and utility shaders
• Color Management System - Easily adopt a linear color workflow
• Preview Render Passes - Preview render passes in the renderview without the memory overhead of rendering all other passes in one go
• Ambient Occlusion Transparency - Support for ambient occlusion transparency
• Python API - Easily integrate MentalCore into any pipeline
• mental ray Compatibility - Compatible with mental ray standalone renderer

MentalCore is available at an introductory price of $189 (node locked license), or a floating license for $199. A free 30-day trial version of MentalCore is also available and you can download it from the official website (here).

Source: http://www.core-cg.com