Thanks for checking out my blog. There's a good chance you're here because you had a class with me or met me at a tradeshow. I'm an Apple- and Adobe-certified instructor from Boston, and a full-time trainer for Future Media Concepts.

Feel free to take off your shoes, get comfortable, and have a look around. All of my previous posts can be searched by the keywords along the left side of the page, my resume can be found on the right, and if you care to write me with a question, my address there, too. Please, don't hesitate- your questions give me material to write about (and improve my classes).

And YES, I am available for consulting!

I'm not a shill for Adobe- if you want to buy CS4, I'm sure you know plenty of places to go. But a lot of people have been asking me whats new, and if it's worth it, so here's the most concise breakdown of the important new features:

CS4: What's in it for Photographers?

Personally, I'm most excited for the improved panoramas, content-aware scaling, and the new adjustments panel:

Adobe finally, officially announced their CS4 suite of apps today. To very, very, very briefly sum up a few key points:

• No date seems set yet, or none that I can find. Amazon lists various dates between November 7-14
• The suites are the same: Design, Design Premium, Web, Web Prem, Production Prem, Master
• Prices have not gone down from CS3, but they dont seem to have gone up, either.
• The video apps are Intel-only, but the design & web suite are still Universal.
• There will be a 64-bit version for Windows, but Mac users will have to wait until at least CS5

I highly recommend checking out John Knack's blog for more details. He is the Principal Product Manager for Photoshop and has a lot to say.

This time, a warning: Apple has just released a new Pro Apps update, and an update to Final Cut Server 1.1.1.

You MUST run the ProApps update before updating to the latest FCServer. Also, you must update Java... and the latest Java update is not available to PowerPC Macs. We have experienced some major issues trying to run Final Cut Server on a PowerPC Mac... Until things get ironed out, I would advise against upgrading to the latest version if you are running on PPC hardware. You probably shouldnt be running FCServer on PPC hardware, anyway.

So far, running the client app on Intel or PPC both seem fine.

This came from a colleague of mine, Ben Balser.

Atempo just announced their support specifically for Final Cut Server with the new Atempo Digital Archive (ADA) for Mac:
http://www.atempo.com/newsEvents/press.asp?id=2136

Excerpts:
•  The introduction of Atempo Digital Archive (ADA) for Mac marks the first dedicated file archiving software to deliver enterprise-class archiving capabilities to the Mac platform.

•  Atempo also furthered its commitment to serving Mac-intensive vertical markets with the integration of Apple Final Cut Server with ADA, ensuring long-term storage for media assets created in data-intensive industries.

ADA’s integration with Final Cut Server also marks an important step in serving data-intensive media and entertainment markets. The media asset management and workflow automation software is widely-used in this Mac-heavy industry, but by itself can only archive data to a very limited set of disk devices. With its integration with ADA, users can enable the storage of fixed-content media assets stored in Final Cut Server into a wide number of long-term storage devices. The archived assets are displayed in Final Cut Server and marked with a specific icon to ensure easy retrieval and quick restoration.

Also related to this is a piece of hardware from Quantum.
http://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/solutions/docs/Quantum.pdf

Microsoft releases the Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.0, a free download which lets you open Microsoft Office 2007 and Mac Office 2008 documents in Office 2004 for Mac.

Open XML Converter allows you to convert Open XML files that were created in Office 2008 for Mac or Office 2007 for Windows so that you can open, edit, and save them in earlier versions of Office for Mac. Open XML Converter can convert Word documents, Excel workbooks, and PowerPoint presentations that are in the Open XML Format so that you can open and edit the files in Office 2004 for Mac and Office v. X for Mac. You can choose to convert and open one file, or convert a large number of files.

Customize TimeMachine's backup schedule:
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20080619124451183

Turn off Bonjour:
http://tech.karbassi.com/2007/11/06/leopard-turn-off-bonjour-mdnsresponder/

Turn on debug mode in Dashboard, and leave widgets on your desktop:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050422172929402

Skin your dock:
http://leoparddocks.com/index.php

Add more backgrounds & effects to iChat:
http://www.scottkellam.com/os-x-software/more-ichat-effects-add-new-ichat-video-background-effects/

Hidden bonus screensavers!
http://www.brighthub.com/Computing/Mac-Platform/articles/1297.aspx

Use a screensaver as your desktop background (check the comments for the terminal command)
http://osxdaily.com/2006/12/02/backlight-screensaver-as-your-desktop-background/

Enable hidden features in screen sharing:
http://www.macworld.com/article/131094/2007/12/screensharepower.html

Mac OS X volumes should be formatted as "Mac os extended", or HFS+, while WIndows wants to run on NTFS volumes. The problem is, Mac can red but not write to NTFS, and last I checked, Windows won't even mount HFS+ volumes. What to do?

Well the common solution is to format your data drive as FAT32, to enable sharing of files back and forth. Many external drives already come this way. But FAT32 is antiquated, and a bit slow on the Mac, and worst of all, theres a 4GB file limit.

Here is a list of utilities for accessing Mac drives on Windows:
http://www.macwindows.com/disks2.html

And for the other way around,  MacFUSE or NTFSforMac are recommended for utilizing NTFS drives on the Mac:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/11/19/ntfs-on-your-mac-two-ways/

Due to popular request, here are some of my notes from my NAB sessions in Las Vegas this month. Many of them are not more than speaking points, but you still might get something out of them. Happy editing!

Final Cut Keyboard Shortcuts - keynote
Final Cut Keyboard Shortcuts - PDF


Motion 3D lighting- Keynote
Motion 3D lighting - PDF

Final Cut Pro fast start - Keynote
Final Cut Pro fast start - PDF

First, here’s a potentially easier way to share the screens of other Macs on your network. The screen sharing feature is just an application. It resides in /System/Library/CoreServices, under the tricky name of Screen Sharing. Find it now, and drag it onto your Dock, or into your sidebar, or your toolbar—whichever you prefer for quick launch access.

Now you can launch Screen Sharing directly from the Finder, without first selecting a machine in the SHARED section of the sidebar. When you do, a dialog box appears onscreen, asking for the remote machine’s address. Great, you’re thinking, now I have to type in a machine’s IP address to connect to it? This is progress? No, not yet it’s not. Quit Screen Sharing if you launched it, switch to Terminal, and copy and paste this line, then press Return:

defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing ShowBonjourBrowser_Debug 1

Now launch Screen Sharing again, and revel in the new Bonjour Browser window that allows you to pick which machine you’d like to connect to from a list:

You can now pick your machines from a list of all Macs on the network. (And if there are any other Bonjour-compatible operating systems that support VNC (the technology behind screen sharing), I would expect they’d show up here as well, but I can’t test that assumption.) If you click the Add to My Computers box, the machine you connect to will be added to that section of the browser window, making future access a bit easier (think of it as a Favorites section).

Now that connecting is easier, let’s add even more functionality to the program. Again, quit Screen Sharing if it’s running, and then pop back into Terminal. If you’ve presently got a screen sharing session open, close it. Then copy and paste the following lines into Terminal, then press Return:

defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing \
'NSToolbar Configuration ControlToolbar' -dict-add 'TB Item Identifiers' \
'(Scale,Control,Share,Curtain,Capture,FullScreen,GetClipboard,SendClipboard,Quality)'

That’s all one long line, so feel free to copy and paste directly to Terminal. When you launch Screen Sharing again, you’ll see six new buttons on your toolbar. (If you can’t see the toolbar, use View -> Show Toolbar to make it visible.)

So what do all those buttons do? Check out the original article on Macworld.com to find out more.

Here's how you can reset a Leopard (OS X 10.5) user's password without having to boot from the Leopard install media
Security hole? well, depends on how you look at it. The bottom line is that someone with physical access has full access to your machine, regardless of whether or not they happened to bring a boot DVD with them. If you're truly worried about such things, then you'll want to use a combination of File Vault, a firmware password, and a case lock to minimize the chances that your machine is accessed.]

According to an Adobe tech note, it's possible that the Adobe Version Cue CS3 3.1.0 update won't get installed correctly, leading to a damaged framework file that can cause Photoshop to crash.  To fix the problem, you can download this small updater and run it.  If you're not able to run the script (e.g. you don't have admin privileges on your machine), you can go into Photoshop preferences (Cmd-K), then go into File Handling and uncheck "Enable Version Cue." The tech note mentions other Adobe CS3 apps, but I've tried the fix only with Photoshop.  In any event running the updater is a good idea.

Ordinarily I don't re-post stuff from other blogs, because you can just read it yourself (its the "newsfeeds" link at the top of the page. If you missed it, you're missing out!). But this was such exciting news, I wanted to put it out there. It's not going to happen overnight, but it's something to consider if you're deciding a new workflow or software purchases in the near future.

From John Nack's blog:

Well, I guess the cat is scratching its way out of the bag: as noted Flash author and developer Colin Moock reports on his blog, the Flash authoring tool is moving away from its binary FLA authoring format (undocumented & unreadable to the outside world) and towards an XML-based format.  Yeah!

Why the excitement?  I'll admit, this seems like a pretty arcane subject, but the possible ramifications for workflow are great.  Colin writes,

Historically, interchanging source with the Flash authoring tool has been virtually impossible for third-party software because the specification for .fla has never been public... [Now, however,] in theory you might one day edit the images of an XFL file directly in Photoshop without disturbing the timeline information also contained in that file. Or you might be able to import a page from a word processing document into a Flash presentation.

I should add the obligatory caveat that plans are subject to change, none of this may happen, void where prohibited, professional driver on a closed course, etc.  Even so, I find the direction really exciting.

How do you sum up the entire Middle East oil situation in four minutes? Well, you can't, of course. BUt maybe you can explain at least a little to help ease your audience into your movie without too much pain. Check out the excellent opening sequence from this year's The Kingdom, done largely with After Effects & Motion.

Then check out the Pic Agency, the guys & girls that made it.

In honor of FMC's new Advanced Photoshop for web & video class, I've collected some of the links on the subject I've found useful in the past.

My colleague Rich Harrington really has no peer in this field. Check out his excellent site, Photoshop For Video, for a wide selection of books & DVDs. You can also download a good sampling of free podcasts, tutorials and videos.



A good overview of creating files for video in Photoshop, both the "old way" and the "new way". Also includes a nice table of video formats & pixel aspect ratios.



An excellent article (I have posted here before) on Ken Stone's site, with tips for getting the best color and quality out of your text in the DV format. Its an old article but just as relevant today: the DV codec hasn't changed, after all. This one is short, and a must-read.



Adobe's web site, of course, has a wealth of information. Here are a couple good PDFs (download links):
And a primer on the various film grain filters in Photoshop (web page link):



Wikipedia is always good for no-nonsense explanations and technical details. And it's free, so hey.

And finally, Wiki has a strikingly thorough list of film formats in a convenient table.

Anyone else out there have some good sites for Photoshop/video resources? Leave a comment!

If you have upgraded to Leopard, and you haven't fallen in love with the new QuickLook feature yet- you are missing out. All you have to do is click a GIF, TIFF, PICT, PNG, JPG, TXT, HTML, MOV or PDF file (and some others), and tap the space bar, to see a preview, no need to launch some bloated app first! Even movies will play with audio in the QuickLook window.

It's not perfect, though. For one thing, it doesn't cover nearly every file type yet, but Apple, in their infinite wisdom, made it extensible! Developers have been writing plugins like crazy. Here are a few.



And then, something I just found tonight:

SneakPeek Pro Quick Look plugin for Adobe® Illustrator®, Adobe® InDesign® & Encapsulated PostScript Supported Files >

Now Mac OS X Leopard users can preview their Illustrator, InDesign and EPS documents without launching an application. Introducing SneakPeek Pro. SneakPeek Pro is a Quick Look plugin that allows you to preview Illustrator, InDesign and EPS documents in the Finder, dialog boxes and other applications. SneakPeek Pro also allows you to see fonts, images and colors used in many CS3 documents.

• Quickly flip through your graphics files in Cover Flow
• View list of fonts, images and swatches used in Quick Look (CS3)
• See previews of graphics documents within any open dialog box
• File previews magically appear on your Desktop and Finder windows
• Illustrator files preview whether or not they're saved with PDF compatibility
• Intelligent parser uses embedded preview for large AI or EPS documents

Check out code-line communications for more info. Personally, I'm not going to pay $20 juuuust yet, there are so many QuickLook plugins coming out weekly that a free one could be just around the corner. But if you work with these file formats daily, and maybe you can write it off as a business expense, it could be a bargain!

---

Please, PLEASE remember that these are third-party products and in some cases are still in beta. While I have not had any trouble with any of them personally, in particular, I have heard that Perian and Flip4Mac have been problematic with Leopard, so use at your own risk! I am not affiliated with any of the above, nor am I getting anything for mentioning them. (Though if any of you are reading this, lets talk! ;)

From Peachpit:

Due to a manufacturing problem, the first printing of APTS: Soundtrack 2 books included defective DVD discs and a small number were sold before the problem was discovered. The discs have been replaced in all warehouse stock, and all new books should not experience a problem. If you purchased a book with a defective disc, a replacement disc can be obtained at no charge. Please e-mail us and include your name, address, and the book's title and ISBN: Apple Pro Training Series: Soundtrack 2, 0321502663. We apologize for any inconvenience.

For more information and a short (but useful) errata list, please visit: http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321502663, and click the "Updates" tab.

Apple released updates to OSX 10.4 Tiger, bringing it to 10.4.11, and Final Cut Studio, bringing FCP to 6.0.2, as well as Soundtrack, DVD Studio pro and more. These are some major enhancements to fix trouble with leopard, and also a surprisingly large number of feature enhancements people have been requesting for a long time. Even if youre not on leopard, this looks like a must-download.

Release notes:

Final Cut Pro 6.0.2
Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 addresses specific customer issues and general performance issues, improves overall stability, and supports compatibility for additional video devices. Release Notes

Soundtrack Pro 2.0.2
Soundtrack Pro 2.0.2 addresses specific customer issues and general performance issues and improves overall stability. Release Notes

DVD Studio Pro 4.2.1
DVD Studio Pro 4.2.1 addresses specific customer issues, compatibility issues, and general performance issues and improves overall stability. Release Notes

Motion 3.0.2
This Motion 3.0.2 software update addresses specific customer issues and general performance issues, and improves overall stability. Release Notes

Color 1.0.2
Color 1.0.2 addresses specific customer issues and general performance issues and improves overall stability. Release Notes

Cinema Tools 4.0.1
Cinema Tools 4.0.1 addresses specific customer issues, general performance issues and improves overall stability. Release Notes

Compressor 3.0.2
Compressor 3.0.2 and Apple Qmaster 3.0.2 address specific customer issues and compatibility issues. Release Notes

Pro Application Support 2007-02
Pro Application Update 2007-02 includes fixes to underlying frameworks and shared components for the updated Final Cut Studio 2 applications.

Run software Update and install the Pro Apps Support. Then, run it AGAIN to download the individual updates. Note: Project files saved in FCP 6.0.2 are NOT backwards-compatible with 6.0.1!

You've probably heard the phrase "Macs are better for design" about a million times, but never really knew why. Whether or not its still true, here's where it all started. A couple in-depth, detailed, and uber-geeky articles about the history of Apple, graphics, multimedia and GUIs in general. Good reads.

Road to Mac OS X Leopard: QuickTime, iTunes, and Media Features

An Introductory Mac OS X Leopard Review: Core Graphics and the New UI

DVCreators has a pretty nifty video, detailing all the different types of lights in the new Motion 3, and their effects.

http://www.dvcreators.net/a-look-at-lights-in-motion-3/