In a series of Ask Larry Anything!, here is a brief tutorial on the use of color mask in FCPX. The starting point to this Larry Jordan presentation is the question posed by the viewer: Are there any tips for working with color masks inside Final Cut Pro X? Tutorial shows how effective is the separation of color and its correction using the tool determining the saturation. In this way, you can correct not only one color within the edited clip. For more Final Cut Pro X tips and tricks check out the complete list of Larry's webinar here.

Source: http://www.larryjordan.biz/

The fact that today's cinema is completely different in terms of technical and aesthetic qualities than that which we know from the old classic films, does not mean we can not still learn from those examples. Filmmaker IQ proposes study the art of cinematography based on classic Film Noir Period which included films like Stranger on the Third Floor, Double Indemnity, The Big Combo and Touch of Evil. Their course named Origins and Techniques of Film Noir is both a great base of knowledge about the history of the time in the film industry as well as an overview of the basics of creating that can let you make a similar looking your film production. Here are some observations on the lighting:

"The common thread of film noir lighting is low key lighting – a style called Chiaroscuro in the art world. Chiaroscuro emphasized shadows and harsh lighting to create a sense of depth and volume in paintings. Cinematographers working in the classical film noir era sought to do the same thing – trying to overcome the bland flatness that bright black and white film could have if there’s not much contrast."

"Film Noir generally uses “hard lights” – the hardness or softness of a light is the type of shadows it creates. Hard lights leave sharp edged shadows – this is created by a single point source of light where the light rays are running more or less from a single point in space. Think of a bare halogen bulb. Soft lights leave fuzzy shadows and are created by a larger area of light where the light rays is being scattered in different directions the illumination is coming from many points. Think of this like a frosted bulb or Compact fluorescent."

Full course with an analysis of four films listed above, you can find here.

Source: http://filmmakeriq.com/

It's time for a new MacBreak Studio episode! Mark Spencer and Steve Martin join their forces once again and this time they show a few tricks for animating text in Motion. There are many elements that you can animate in Motion, such as text, shapes, particles, replicators, cameras, and other objects. As Mark also notes, Motion has a dedicated set of behaviors available for animating it in various ways: "In fact, there are more behaviors for animating text than for animating anything else in Motion. The interesting thing is that the entire collection of a certain type of text behaviors is actually a set of "presets" created with a single, super-powerful behavior called the Sequence Text behavior." 
 

In this episode, Mark explores this potent animator. He starts with the Adjust Item Tool, which allows you to animate text simply by dragging a single character on the screen. He also reveals a "hidden" parameter that "controls the point around which an individual glyph scales and rotates (it's not the anchor point), and finally touch on how you can combine both behaviors and keyframes to create more complex animation effects."

Source: http://provideocoalition.com

It seems that the Creative Suite will be thing of the past sooner than expected. At Adobe MAX, Adobe revealed that the company decided to accelerate its shift to the cloud with a major update to Adobe Creative Cloud. This is why Adobe updated the Creative Cloud with some new features and with this new update, creative files can be stored, synced and shared, via Creative Cloud, on Mac OS, Windows, iOS and Android. The company also shared some numbers - the community consists of more than a half million paid members, and well over 2 million free members have signed up for Creative Cloud since it was launched in April 2012. Not bad! Adobe CS6 products will continue to be supported and available for purchase, but the company has no plans for future releases of Creative Suite or other CS products. Adobe will now focus on Creative Cloud development and the company hopes that this shift will accelerate the rate at which they products can innovate. We'll see...

What's surely cool is that now the service integrates Behance, the world’s leading online creative community, but also and more importantly the update to Creative Cloud includes Adobe’s next generation desktop applications including Adobe Photoshop CC, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC,Dreamweaver CC, Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC. Adobe’s desktop tools, previously known as Creative Suite (CS), are now branded CC to reflect that they are an integral part of Creative Cloud and have been reinvented to support a more intuitive, connected way of creating. It also seems that the new versions of Premiere Pro and After Effects support OpenCL! Anyway according to the website this is exactly the case:

"Now, more editors get real-time performance when working on complex sequences, thanks to support for a wider range of GPUs. Get enhanced, cross-platform support for OpenCL and CUDA. Render less often, work faster with third-party effects, and face deadlines with more confidence."

It means that the software will be able to render videos much faster when using third-party effects and this can geatly improve your experience with Premiere Pro if you own an ATI card. Many Macs feature Radeon video cards, so this is a very much welcomed update!

According to the official info, Adobe is facilitating the transition to Creative Cloud with attractive pricing plans and promotions for individual members, teams and enterprise customers.  For more details, visit this site.  The new versions will be available next month and by signing up for Creative Cloud today, you will be obviously able to immediately download and use these latest cloud-enabled versions. Currently Creative Cloud membership for individuals is $49.99 per month based on annual membership while existing customers who own CS3 to CS5.5 can get their first year of Creative Cloud at the discounted rate of $29.99 per month. Students and teachers can also get Creative Cloud for $29.99 per month.

A team version of Creative Cloud includes everything individual members receive plus 100GB of storage and centralized deployment and administration capabilities. Creative Cloud for teams is priced at $69.99 per month per seat. Existing customers, who own a volume license of CS3 or later, get their first year of Creative Cloud for teams at the discounted rate of $39.99 per month per seat if they sign up before the end of August 2013.

If you want to find out more, visit the official website.

Source: http://www.adobe.com

 The Production Pipeline Expo 2013 is a new event that began as Career Fair & Technology Expo’s of 2011 and in 2012 evolved into a visual effects and animation expo with expert panels. presentations, education sessions, etc. The new edition will address the creation, development, management, and delivery of content across film, television, and games along all the disciplines of an actual production pipeline. The Production Pipeline Expo, which will be held May 3-4 at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, will showcase two special sessions. If you're interested in animation you will be pleased to find out that DreamWorks Animation will present a session on the Art of “The Croods” and “Turbo,” while Pixomondo will present a session about the FX work included within Universal Pictures’ hit film “Oblivion.” Let's not forget that Steve Jobs was the one who started the 3D animation revolution in the industry, when he owned Pixar Studios and the team came up with "Toy Story". Anyway here's some more info on the event and the panels:

"On Friday, May 3rd, at 10 AM, on the Main Stage at Raleigh Studios, DreamWorks Animation presents “The Art of the Croods” and “Turbo.”

DreamWorks personnel Jane Hartwell, Markus Manninen, Susan Rogers and Shaun Phillips will host the session.

On Saturday, May 4th, at 10 AM, on the Main Stage at Raleigh Studios,

Pixomondo presents “The Making of Oblivion” -- a look at the Visual Effects featured within Universal Pictures’ hit film “Oblivion.” Pixomondo personnel Gavyn Thompson and Fiona Campbell will host the session.

Also, on the 3D Stage on Saturday, May 4th, at 11AM, Casey Hupke will present a session entitled “Create Jaw-Dropping VFX with CINEMA 4D Thinking Particles.”

But of course that's not all and among the latest guest speakers within the inaugural Production Pipeline Expo are:

• Bryn Pryor - Filmmaker, “Directors on VFX”
• Ryan Kingslien - ZBrush Sculptor, “Digital Artistry Workshop: Zbrush Techniques”
• Robert Taylor - Pendulum Studios, “Active-LED Optical Mocap, MotionBuilder, and the Unreal Engine”
• Alex Santo - Stereo Fusion, “DAM: Past, Present and Future”
• Ruben Perez - Render Rocket, “Understanding the Cloud”
• Stephen Burns - Photoshop expert/writer, “Digital Artistry Workshop: Compositing”
• Sean Santiago - Stereoscopic Supervisor, “The Future of VFX Editing”
• Nick Tesi - TNG Visual Effects, “3D Scanning Techniques”

For more info on the event, make sure to visit the official site (here).

Source: http://www.productionpipelineexpo.com