The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 update includes these enhancements:

• Additional camera support for several new camera models including the Nikon D5000 and Canon EOS 500D (Digital Rebel T1i)
• Several corrections for issues introduced by previous Lightroom 2 releases

Don't own Lightroom? Get it here.

Labels: Adobe, Lightroom

Just got an email from the GridIron team:

Join Steve Forde, CEO of GridIron Software and John Nack, Principle Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop, LIVE - from your computer. Steve and John will be hosting a special web event next Monday, June 29th at 12pm EDT, showing something brand new - and VERY unique - between GridIron Flow 1.0 and Adobe Creative Suite 4.

Space is limited and you are invited - so please register here to reserve your spot. We think you will be glad you did.

Labels: Adobe, GridIron Flow

Next Meeting & Door Prizes:

Next meeting: Thursday, May 28, 2009

The Time: 6:45 PM - 9:00 PM

The Place:

P.S. 41
116 West 11th St., NYC
(corner of 11th Street and 6th Ave.)

Thanks to our sponsors, the meeting is FREE. Our Lineup Includes:

Award-winning director, editor, & filmaker, Paul Del Vecchio, will show us how he uses After Effects in his films. If you are a fan of horror and thrillers, or want to get insight into using AE for that genre, don't miss this presentation!

Compositing and Photo Re-touching artist, Justin Paguia, will be showing how he takes his photography and compositing to the next level. If you want to up your Photoshop skill level, (and let's face it - we all use it in our work) this presentation is for you.

...Plus other cool stuff TBA.

 

Labels: Adobe, AENY, GridIron, Maxon Cinema 4D

Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks: Desert sunrise, Arctic tundra, nighttime urban streets: the look of your footage defines the mood. Now you can define the style of your video or film, regardless of on-set conditions, with powerful imaging tools. Choose from more than a hundred Look presets, all neatly organized into 10 categories, to help set the mood for everything from a wedding to the next Sundance original.

You also get Magic Bullet LooksBuilder, a stand-alone application that lets you pre-visualize looks on set or anywhere, using a JPEG or TIFF image. Look presets are portable and load into any of the editing hosts, so the same Looks you create on set are the ones you finish with in the editorial suite. It's no longer necessary to have an expensive finishing system. Magic Bullet Looks provides hundreds of options with one click.

Through May 2009, buy any Adobe product or Apple Final Cut Studio, including upgrades, and you can add Magic Bullet Looks for just $99! Looks normally retails for $399. Offer expires May 31, 2009. View Details.

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Final Cut Pro, Magic Bullet Looks, Red Giant, Sale

If you're in the Bay Area, check out SFMograph, San Francisco's user group for animation, design, motion graphics, and visual effects professionals.

Tonight, Mark Coleran will be presenting GridIron Flow, which just had another public beta released yesterday. We'll have info to come on that shortly. Also, Adobe's Kevan O’Brien will walk you through the latest CS4 updates released at NAB.

You must pre-register for the meeting. The meeting takes place at Adobe, 601 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA 94103 on Thursday, April 30, 2009 from 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM (PT).

Labels: Adobe, GridIron Flow, SFMograph

I sat in on a sneak peek of Adobe's new roto tool, which at this time is called Magic Matte. Here are a couple of pix from the presentation.

Labels: Adobe, NAB

Boris Motion Graphics Pack for Adobe and Final Cut Pro on Sale through April 24th!

Boris Motion Graphics Pack combines the power and flexibility of Boris RED, Final Effects Complete and Continuum Complete. Create projects faster, for less money. Motion Graphics Pack takes the place of multiple plug-ins, while also offering features that no other plug-in offers. Meet tight production schedules. Create dynamic titles, composites, effects and vector graphic inside your editing system and take advantage of cutting edge support for OpenGL hardware acceleration, the perfect combination of efficiency and raw speed. If you need effects for your NLE, build them inside your NLE. No tedious cycle of exports and imports, no media management issues, and no format hassles.

Boris RED adds motion graphic features that have never before been available inside of nonlinear editing systems: 4-point motion tracking with corner pinning, vector paint, rotoscoping, EPS file import, animation, & extrusion, 3D animation, and exceptionally powerful vector titling.

Continuum Complete FxPlug provides the widest range of compositing, image processing, keying, color, distortion and temporal effects ever offered to Final Cut Pro and Avid editors - all using their native filter interfaces.

Final Effects Complete FxPlug delivers a comprehensive collection of effects plug-ins for leading digital nonlinear editing and compositing solutions. Ranging from graceful blurs and edges to radical warps and particle generators, Final Effects Complete dramatically augments your creative arsenal without forcing you to learn an entirely new application.

Regularly $1595, NAB Special ONLY $995- Get 3 Boris products for the price of Boris Continuum Complete alone!

Labels: Adobe, Boris, Boris Continuum Complete, Boris RED, Final Cut Pro, NAB, Sale

So you just bought a fast new computer and dread the process of having to transfer your licenses to your new computer. It can be a hassle, but here is a guide for a few products you may own, to help things go a bit more smoothly. If you have questions, please post a comment below.

Adobe:

If you want to uninstall your product and reinstall it on a different computer, then you must first deactivate it. In the program, click Help > Deactivate, and then follow the instructions in the wizard to deactivate the program. If you have installed a suite product, you can deactivate the entire suite by deactivating any one of the point products included in that suite.

Automatic Duck:

1. After installing again on the new system, you will get a new Product ID to use for a new Activation Key. DO NOT try to activate the old Product ID on the new system.
   
2. Reset your serial number on the registration server so that you will be permitted to activate again. Please reset your serial number at this web page.
   
3. Register using your email address that you used to activate and you'll be able to log in and reset your serial number.
   
4. Quit After Effects, trash your plug-in's key file, click here to find it. Now you'll need to go through the activation process again.

BorisFX:

Requires a license transfer. Send license transfer request to us with your new Unique Product ID to obtain a new permanent code. Follow your original install instructions to obtain your Unique ID.

Digieffects:

Just reinstall on the new machine. Your serial number will work on either Mac or Windows, and does not require uninstalling your previous system's version.

The Foundry:

To obtain a new license, first fill out the license transfer form. You cannot transfer any of The Foundry products to a different host system.

GenArts Sapphire:

1. First uninstall the plugin: On Windows: go to Start->Control Panel->Add or Remove Programs. Find 'GenArts Sapphire Plug-ins' in the list, and press the Change/Remove button. On Mac: go to the /Applications/GenArtsSapphireAE folder and double click on Uninstall Sapphire.
2. During the uninstall, select the option to register that uninstall via the web. As long as the uninstall is successfully registered, you should then be able to install your serial number on the new machine. The license is cross-platform so you can transfer a serial number between Windows and Mac systems in this way.
   

GridIron:

Requires a license deactivation. Send your old serial number and the MAC Address of the new machine to us.

Imagineer Systems:

Requires a license transfer. Send a license transfer request to us to obtain a new license.

Noise Industries FxFactory Pro:

First uninstall from the old machine by launching the FxFactory application and choose the "Uninstall FxFactory..." command under the Actions menu: Then install as normal on the new machine.

If you uninstall FxFactory, it will uninstall everything, including all the FxPacks.

Furthermore you can also deactivate and remove individual FxPacks. This can be done by launching the FxFactory application.

1. To turn FxPacks on/off simply click the checkbox to the left of each FxPack in the FxFactory Application interface.
2. To completely remove an FxPack simply drag it out of the FxFactory application and into the trash.
   

Red Giant Software:

Just reinstall on the new machine. Your serial number will work on either Mac or Windows, and does not require uninstalling your previous system's version.

Re:Vision Effects:

Request a License Transfer. Delete plug-ins from the old machine, and send an email with serial number requesting a transfer. Note: License transfer fees may apply for certain hosts.

Tiffen Dfx:

First deactvate your license on the old computer by opening the licensing Menu and clicking "Internet Deactivate". On the new computer, select "Activate Dfx" and follow the instructions.

Trapcode:

Just reinstall on the new machine. Your serial number will work on either Mac or Windows, and does not require uninstalling your previous system's version.

Labels: Adobe, Automatic Duck, Boris FX, DigiEffects, GenArts, GridIron, Noise Industries, Re:Vision Effects, Red Giant, The Foundry, Tiffen Dfx, Trapcode

We have two great upgrade deals for this week from Trapcode and Adobe! These deals end Friday, April 17th.

Upgrade any Trapcode product to the FULL SUITE for only $399, or upgrade any two products to the FULL SUITE for only $299! The full suite includes all 9 Trapcode plug-ins; Shine, Starglow, 3D Stroke, Soundkeys, Lux, Particular, Echospace, Horizon and Form!
Upgrade to the Trapcode Suite Now and Save

Upgrade any Adobe Product and you will receive Boris Continuum Unit: Glitters for Free! Boris Glitters Includes the Famous Glint, Glare, and Glitter filters from Continuum Complete!
Upgrade to CS4 and get Boris Continuum Glitters for Free

Labels: Adobe, Sale, Trapcode, upgrade

The Soundbooth CS4 2.0.1 update was released this week, addressing quality issues in the initial CS4 release.

Update Soundbooth by running the Adobe updater (Help > Update) in Soundbooth CS4. You Or download the patch here: Windows | Mac

Full details of the patch are here.

Labels: Adobe, Soundbooth

Mapsoft provides a wide variety of plug-ins for the Adobe Acrobat platform. These allow users to edit, markup and modify pdf documents for distribution and publishing purposes. Tools include Bookmarking, Table of Contents, TOC, stamping, numbering, masking, changing media sizes and contents, security, optimizing and many more.

Labels: Acrobat, Adobe

Read the entire After Effects CS4 review from Microfilmmaker reviewer, Tom Stern. He gives a great rundown of the new features in AE CS4.

I should mention that we've extended our upgrade special through this Friday. Upgrade any Adobe product to CS4 and receive Digieffects Simulate: Illuma and Simulate: Camera for free! More Info

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, DigiEffects, Sale, Simulate:Camera, Simulate:Illuma, upgrade

If you were a student and bought the academic versions of Adobe software, you can upgrade it to CS4, just like you bought a regular, full license.

Upgrade any Adobe program to CS4 now and get Digieffects Simulate: Illuma and Digieffects Simulate: Camera for free through next Friday, March 6. ($198 value).

There are also a couple of upgrade deals where you can save $100-$200 on Adobe upgrades. These deals expire February 28. See the post about the Adobe deal for all of the information.

Labels: Adobe, Adobe CS4, DigiEffects, Simulate:Camera, Simulate:Illuma

If you upgrade any Adobe CS3 product or bundle to CS4 at Toolfarm and you will receive a free copy of DigiEffects Simulate: Illuma and Simulate: Camera, a $198 value entirely for free.*

Digieffects Simulate: Illuma

• Simulate: Illuma Light and filter options you didn’t have in the field...
• Halo: one effect with both bloom and focus controls
• Lightracer: enhance visible light sources, particularly in dark settings
• Radiance: the stuff of dream sequences...gentle glow with a versatile set of tools you'll find multiple reasons to use
• Photogust: fast and easy point emination blurs
• Luminus: just the right glow is easy to achieve with lots of control

Digieffects Simulate: Camera

Simulate: Camera Who says you can't change your mind once it’s shot?

• Archive: film from the back room...under the table saw... where the dog was shedding...and the roof was leaking...


• Overexpose: exposure and focus in a fast, single effect


• Iris: is it the camera or the projector?...exposure migration with lots of controls for animated behavior
• Destabilize: you finally brought a tripod along...and the footage is boooooring...
• Lens Flare: you can't have a complete set of camera post effects without it we’ve heard...

*The free Digieffects plug-ins offer ends Friday, March 6, 2009.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us anytime. We're here for you.

Labels: Adobe, Adobe CS4, DigiEffects, Simulate:Camera, Simulate:Illuma, upgrade

All the info is here: Adobe Photoshop Downloads

Labels: Adobe, Photoshop

Repost from Chris Bedford at Encoding video and audio content with Adobe Media Encoder:

There is a known bug when exporting from Premiere Pro or After Effects involving modified bitrate values. If you modify the bitrate value of an encoding preset, the default bitrate for that preset will replace the custom bitrate you specified.

As a workaround, you can:

Manually change the bit rate of the video file you are exporting to the desired value once the file is in the Adobe Media Encoder encoding queue...

-or-

Add your video to the list of files to encode from Adobe Media Encoder itself. You can drag a file into the list, or click the Add button and select a file on your computer.

Note: To add Adobe Premiere Pro sequences or Adobe After Effects compositions to the list of files to encode, you must use the File > Add Adobe Premiere Pro sequences or File > Add Adobe After Effects Compositions menu commands. These file types cannot be dragged into the list of files to encode.

For more information see, Workflow for exporting files in the Adobe Premiere Pro help.

Personally, I've been having a problem exporting from Premiere Pro through the Adobe Media Encoder, period! It starts in the Media Encoder, then fails. As a workaround, I've had to use dynamic link and send it to After Effects, then go through and fix any transitions and titles I may have used. I still love to edit in PPRO, but I hope this issue is fixed asap. Anyone out there have a better solution for me? Thanks in advance.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Premiere Pro

My friend Matt of WMAEUG.net sent me this. I don't think he's talking about pirating, but about being able to get Blu-Ray support in Pro Apps and other software.

I would like to recommend anyone interested in being able to author 'replicatable' Blu-Ray titles to sign this petition that hopes to simplify the licensing and especially reduce the cost of AACS copy protection implementation. It's the only way we'll ever see Blu-Ray support 'officially' in Apple's Pro Apps, or in Adobe Encore DVD.

http://www.dvda.org/petition/

I'm behind disk authoring because I'm a movie lover who eats up the hours of extras on special edition releases - the same documentaries that are glaringly missing from digital downloads.

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Apple DVD Studio Pro, Blu-Ray, Encore

Besides the new Media 100/Kona 3 bundle we've just added, here is a listing of the current items on special at Toolfarm.

Through March 30
NVIDIA/Adobe CS4 Bundles. Save $300 or more!

Through January 31
Huge price drop on The Foundry Autodesk node-locked plug-ins

Through January 28
Tools for Television Pro and QClip 50% Off

Through January 30
Avid Editors: Save Over 60% on Final Effects Complete 5 AVX

Through January 31
NewBlueFX Video Essentials $20 Off

until March 6th, 2009
Wacom Intuos3 4x6 Tablet $40 end-user mail-in rebate

Through February 09
Special introductory price on Select Adobe Upgrades

Save $50
PowerProduction Software StoryBoard Quick 6

Labels: Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, Boris, Final Effects Complete, Media 100, NVIDIA, One Day Sale, QClip, The Foundry, Wacom Tablets

More info on John Nack's blog. Buy Lightroom.

Labels: Adobe, Lightroom

The Adobe Lightroom 2.2 update is now available for download [ Mac | Win ]

The release includes new camera support for the following models: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon PowerShot G10, Panasonic DMC-G1, Panasonic DMC-FX150, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Panasonic DMC-LX3 and Leica D-LUX 4.

Buy Lightroom 2.2 | Upgrade to Lightroom 2.2. It's a free update for owners of Lightroom 2.0.

Read more at the Lightroom Journal

Labels: Adobe, Lightroom

If Adobe Update Manager hasn't taken care of this for you, you can do it manually by going under the Help Menu > Updates. Alternately, download the Mac update or Windows update from the Adobe site.

Adobe 9.0.1 Release Notes |
Buy After Effects here

There are many fixes in this update, including the Puppet Tool, the Illustratorlayers importer, the Exposure effect, and stability of 3D object layers from Photoshop. They've also added Red Camera support. Here's a movie about that from Adobe TV.

Labels: Adobe, Adobe CS4, After Effects, Red Camera

If you're one of those people who got up at 5am to shop for the best bargains, I hope you had fun. If you're like me and you'd rather sleep in and avoid the crowds, there's plenty of good deals here at Toolfarm.

• Boris Continuum Unit 50% Off Promo! The sale includes Film Look, Lens Flare Advanced, Motion Key, Glitters, Pan and Zoom, UpRez, and Chroma Key. Ends Dec. 1.
• GridIron Nucleo Pro 2 - Save $100 through November 30, 2008! Nucleo Pro makes your workflow REALLY work.
• GenArts Sapphire 2.0 for AVX - Save 15% on new licenses in November plus get a free upgrade to the upcoming version 3!
• Sorenson Squeeze 5 Pro - $50 off Squeeze 5 Pro through December 31th
• Sorenson Squeeze 5 for Flash - FREE professional video podcasting book with purchase!
• PowerProduction Software StoryBoard Quick 5 - Save $150 through Noon, December 1 2008!
• Digital Tutors Training Thanksgiving Sale November 24-30! Save 15%!
• Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium Upgrade Path 2 - Special introductory price until February 28, 2009
• Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium Upgrade Path 2 - Special introductory price until February 28, 2009
• Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Standard Upgrade Path 2 - Special introductory price until February 28, 2009
• Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium Upgrade Path 2 - Special introductory price until February 28, 2009
• Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Standard Upgrade Path 2 - Special introductory price until February 28, 2009

Labels: Adobe, Boris, Boris Continuum Complete, Digital Tutors, Flash, GenArts, Sale, Sorenson, Squeeze, StoryBoard Artist

They've updated the site with the new features of PPRO 4.0.1, including OMF Export, working with XML files from Final Cut Pro and working with Red Camera.

The supported languages

• English |English PDF
• French | French PDF
• German | German PDF
• Japanese | Japanese PDF
• Italian | Italian PDF
• Spanish | Spanish PDF
• Korean | Korean PDF

Labels: Adobe, Premiere Pro

Introduces Final Cut Pro project import, RED camera compatibility, OMF export, and other enhancements

Today, Adobe Systems Incorporated introduced Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.0.1 software, a major update to the leading start-to-finish professional video production solution. A pivotal component of Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.0.1 leads the way in delivering open, flexible post-production workflows by providing virtually seamless project exchange with Final Cut Pro, Digidesign Pro Tools, and Avid workflows. Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.0.1 enables users to import Final Cut Pro projects via XML interchange, export to Open Media Framework (OMF) format, and import and export projects in Advanced Authoring Format (AAF). Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.0.1 also offers significant performance and stability enhancements, including full support for 64-bit computing platforms to accelerate compute-intensive post-production tasks.

Top new features in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.0.1 include:

• More flexible, open workflows: Editors who are using Final Cut Pro, Digidesign Pro Tools, and Avid solutions can now more easily tap the high level of integration and unique features offered in Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium. Final Cut Pro users can transfer projects directly to Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.0.1 without conversions or re-rendering, preserving commonly used effects and transitions. Once files are in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, features such as Adobe Dynamic Link provide tighter-than-ever integration when moving assets among Adobe After Effects CS4, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, and Soundbooth CS4, saving invaluable time that would otherwise be spent in intermediate rendering. To help users manage footage, Speech Search in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 turns spoken dialog into text-based metadata that makes video searchable. Project output can be delivered virtually anywhere, including exporting through Adobe Encore CS4 to Blu-ray, DVD, and the Web. Customers can also streamline audio editing by exporting audio in OMF for interchange with audio workstations, and then importing the final mix back into Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.0.1 also includes enhanced AAF project interchange for improved integration with high-end workflows and tools.
• Native RED R3D support: Both Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.0.1 and Adobe After Effects CS4 version 9.0.1 provide a true file-based workflow for RED R3D files, without transcoding or rewrapping, via RED’s beta plug-in available at www.red.com/support . Native handling of RED R3D augments Adobe’s existing support of Sony XDCAM EX, Panasonic P2, and AVCHD tapeless formats, providing users with software-only HD workflows from capture to output. In addition to downloading the RED plug-in, customer must update their software to Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.0.1 and Adobe After Effects CS4 version 9.0.1, accessible for free throughout the Adobe update manager in the Help menu of the applications. To learn more about RED workflows with Adobe video solutions go to: www.adobe.com/products/premiere/pdfs/red_adobe_cs4_beta.pdf
• Faster performance and responsiveness, with full support for 64-bit computing platforms to accelerate compute-intensive post-production tasks. Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.0.1 is architected to take advantage of the additional memory available in 64-bit systems. In addition, version 4.0.1 includes numerous performance enhancements in all areas of the workflow.

Labels: Adobe, Premiere Pro, Red Camera

Adobe Labs posted a new item today, Configurator, which is a utility that enables the easy creation of panels (palettes) for use in Adobe Photoshop CS4. Sounds useful.

Labels: Adobe, Beta Test, Photoshop

Join the Digital CONNtent Creators and BOSFCPUG for a Soiree in New York City!

The Boston Final Cut Pro User Group (BOSFCPUG) and Digital CONNtent Creators (DCC) are back in the Big Apple to host the 2nd Annual NY Post-Production Conference FCPUG Soiree in conjunction with Future Media Concepts' New York Post Production Conference on November 12, 2008!
We'll open the doors to the big show at 5pm with a FCP Tradeshow with more than a dozen exhibitors! The event starts at 7pm with a bunch of raffle prizes being handed out. That's right, a raffle to start AND end the show! Join BOSFCPUG and DCC and all of the top editors, D.P.'s and motion graphics artists in the tri-state area for food, fun, and prizes totalling in value of over $20K!

This event is FREE and open to the public - BUT you must REGISTER to attend!
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS-

- Matt Stoneking of Blackmagic Design will start off the Soiree with a toast to the FCPUG Community and to all those attending and also give us the latest BuZZ on Blackmagic Design!

- Francesco Scartozzi of Matrox will be on-hand to demonstrate the highly affordable MXO2 and FCP workflow solutions.

- Rock out with SonicFire Pro as Stephanie Joyce jets in from sunny California to dazzle you with all the new features in the great music authoring program we've come to know and love. One big new feature? Let's call it, "Turning the Beat Around..."

- Special Guest David Thaler will give a hands-on explanation of his six camera (Canon XL-H1 and XH-G1 cameras with HD-SDI) multicam FCP HD workflow in which he records live with all six cameras sharing the same timecode straight to Final Cut Pro on his MacBook Pro and an external hard drive without the use of expensive recording decks! This is a must see workflow for all interested in affordable HD multicam production.

- Come see how to implement Adobe Creative Suite 4 as part of your FCP workflow as Adobe's Dennis Radeke is in the house to show you all of the latest and greatest features crammed into the CS4 Production Premium Suite.

- Meet many of the important third party partner companies and see products that make Final Cut Studio the most versatile Post tool set available for every workflow imaginable from capture cards to effects filters and automation.

So, let's recap: FREE admission, inspirational, educational, and eye-popping presentations. Thousands of dollars in raffle prizes. The raffle begins at 6pm and continues throughout the night so get there early and grab your tickets! Oh, and did we mention FREE food and drink? Folks, this is one event that you don't want to miss. Chase away those late autumn blues at the 2nd Annual NY Post-Production Conference FCPUG Soiree!

November 12, 2008 at 5:00pm
Venue: AMC Theater, 34th Street, New York, NY (between 8th Avenue and 9th Avenue) - 212-244-8686

Sponsors exhibiting at the FCPUG Soiree are:
- Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/)
- AJA Video Systems (http://www.aja.com)
- Blackmagic Design (http://www.blackmagic-design.com)
- Boris FX (http://www.borisfx.com)
- Canon (http://www.canondv.com)
- Data Robotics, Inc. (http://www.drobo.com)
- Euphonix (http://www.euphonix.com)
- Focal Press (http://www.focalpress.com)
- Matrox (http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mxo/)
- Mediasilo (http://www.mediasilo.com)
- Smartsound (http://www.smartsound.com)
- Roland (http://www.roland.com)
- Adrienne Electronics (http://www.adrielec.com)
- Logic Keyboards (http://www.logickeyboard.com)

Contact:
Daniel Berube, BOSFCPUG (dan@bosfcpug.org)
Keith Larsen, Digital CONNtent Creators (keith@digitalct.org)
Alan Spaulding, Digital CONNtent Creators (alan@digitalct.org)

Labels: Adobe, Boris FX, BOSFCPUG, Digital CONNtent Creators, Final Cut Pro, SmartSound

I've been away a lot lately, traveling and I did a brief stint in the hospital due to a ruptured appendix. Not fun, but while I was away, I've missed posting a few news items and tutorials. Here's a quick rundown Adobe news items, blog posts, tutorials, and more from the past couple of weeks. Enjoy.

• From Adobe - Camera Raw 4.6 and DNG Converter Available
  Mac Version | Windows Version
• Ko Maruyama's Halloween Photoshop tutorials at Ninja crayon
  Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
• After Effects Support on the web
• fxguide.com podcast (pops) - Mike Seymour chats with Ron Brinkmann, author of The Art and Science of Digital Compositing.
• Russel Brown Show webcast (pops) - Russel demos Photoshop CS4's cool new content-aware scaling feature
• Todd Kopriva talks about color management in AE and Photoshop
• After Effects Tutorial: Recylcling Presets and adding a blur - New from Dennis Radeke/The Genesis Project
• John Dickinson/Motionworks showcases the new features in AE CS4.
  Part 1 (pops) | Part 2 (pops) | Part 3 (pops)
• New Tools in Adobe Photoshop CS4 from Studio Daily
• Filmmaking Central Episode 23 2008 Adobe CS 4 Discussion (pops) Dave Basulto and co-host Ko Maruyama discuss the XSI aquisition, Adobe's new CS4 collection and more.
• How to Make a Lens or Shutter in After Effects on Creative Mac

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Photoshop

Tuesday October 28: Get a first look at Adobe After Effects CS4 (plus some other cool CS4 stuff). Need we say more?

The Time: 6:45 PM - 9:00 PM
The Place: P.S. 41
116 W est 11th St., NYC
(corner of 11th Street and 6th Ave.)

The meeting is FREE and there are loads of door prizes. Free, woohooo!

Labels: Adobe, AENY, After Effects

Milestone Release Radically Improves Creative Workflow Efficiency; Redefines Collaboration Between Designers and Developers

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced the immediate availability of the Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 product family, the highly-anticipated release of industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Delivering radical breakthroughs in workflow efficiency - and packed with hundreds of innovative, time saving features - the new Creative Suite 4 product line advances the creative process across print, Web, interactive, film, video and mobile.

Customers can choose from six new versions: Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium and Master Collection. The combination of Creative Suite and the new capabilities of Adobe Flash® Player 10, also available today deliver new levels of creativity and expressiveness across media channels. Designers using the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product family will gain unprecedented creative control using the new expressive features and visual performance improvements in Adobe Flash Player 10 to deliver breakthrough Web experiences across multiple browsers and operating systems.

"Creative Suite 4 and Flash Player 10 introduce vital time-saving features, new levels of integration and the jaw-dropping innovations our design and developer customers expect from us," said John Loiacono, senior vice president, Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe.

"CS4 continues to fulfill our promise to customers to break down more barriers in cross-media workflows, while also providing new services and collaboration tools that help them manage complex client demands."

As part of the CS4 product launch, the largest in Adobe’s history, also available today are brand new versions of Photoshop® CS4, Photoshop CS4 Extended, InDesign® CS4, Illustrator® CS4, Flash CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS4, Fireworks® CS4, Contribute® CS4, After Effects® CS4, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4, Encore® CS4, Soundbooth® CS4 and Adobe OnLocation CS4.

Intuitive Workflows Improve Creative Efficiency
A simplified workflow in Adobe Creative Suite 4 enables users to design across media more efficiently by making it easier to complete common tasks and move content seamlessly among applications. InDesign CS4 includes a new Live Preflight tool that allows designers to catch production errors and a newly customizable Links panel to manage placed files more efficiently. The revolutionary new Content-Aware Scaling tool in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended automatically recomposes an image as it is resized, preserving vital areas as it adapts to new dimensions. An expanded version of Dynamic Link in CS4 Production Premium enables users to move and update content between After Effects CS4, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Soundbooth CS4, and Encore CS4 without rendering, saving countless hours in production. With deep XMP metadata support, the production workflow is simplified, resulting in online content that gives viewers new ways to interact with and search for video, while giving content owners new opportunities to track and monetize content.

Adobe Creative Suite 4 brings 3D center-stage providing the ability to paint, composite, and animate 3D models using familiar tools in Photoshop CS4 Extended. Flash CS4 Professional now offers the ability to apply tweens to objects instead of keyframes, providing greater control over animation attributes. Also in Flash CS4 Professional, the new Bones tool helps create more realistic animations between linked objects. With a searchable library of more than 450 dynamically updated device profiles from leading manufacturers, Adobe Device Central CS4 enables users to easily test mobile content designed using many of the Creative Suite 4 products.

New and Expanded Services Extend Capabilities for Online Collaboration
Adobe Creative Suite 4 now also offers a host of services for online collaboration. Adobe ConnectNow, a service of Acrobat.com, allows real-time collaboration with two colleagues or clients. Designers can also share color harmonies with Adobe Kuler. Other online resources include: Adobe Community Help for technical questions; Resource Central for accessing video and audio product-related news and tutorials, as well as Soundbooth scores and sound effects; and Adobe Bridge Home, a customizable resource for tips, tutorials, news and inspirational content.

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Creative Suite 4 and its associated point products are immediately available through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store. To reward customers for staying current, Adobe is offering Creative Suite 3 customers moving to Creative Suite 4 a lower upgrade price than it offers to those moving from older, qualifying versions. For a limited time, a special introductory offer enables customers with older qualifying products to enjoy the same lower price with savings of up to US$200 off their actual upgrade price.

Adobe Flash Player 10 is available immediately as a free download for Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms (including new support for Ubuntu 7 and 8) from www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer

Labels: Adobe, Adobe CS4, After Effects

From Brandon Grande, Marcello Grand and Matt Silverman, the hosts of SFMograph:

FIRST LOOK AT ADOBE CS4

SFMograph hosts a first look at Adobe Production Premium CS4 featuring Adobe After Effects. Our favorite software company, Adobe, will be on-hand to demonstrate the recently announced Creative Suite 4 (CS4) Production Premium.

Matt Silverman, Creative Director at Phoenix Designs (and sfmograph co-host) will break down the motion graphics stinger his team created for the Adobe CS4 launch. Created in collaboration with Nando Costa from Portland design studio Nervo, and Barcelona's Vasava, the piece explores the CS4 Master Collection as we travel through the Nervo and Vasava artwork. Phoenix completed this heavy AE project in After Effects CS4 (along with Photoshop CS4, Maya, and Cinema4D), and will go over some of the new features which they used to complete the animation including 3D model import and separate X/Y/Z transforms, as well as go over an interesting use of 3D transmission layers with falloff lighting using Buena Depth Cue. Bring the kids for this one... it's going to be swell. A QuickTime of the stinger can be seen here: http://www.phoenixedit.com/html/gfx_spts.html

"Plug-in of the Month" for October is MochaAE. One of the biggest shortcomings in After Effects has been it's motion tracker. Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel, Adobe turned to Imagineer Systems to license it's industry leading planar tracker for CS4. Planar tracking is a revolutionary way to track objects. Instead of tracking four individual points points which are all independent of each other, MochaAE looks at these four points as the corners of a 3D plane, and can not deviate the shape of this plane over time. The result are rock solid tracks, even if one of the corners becomes obscured. There is no other tracker in the world that comes close to the power of Imagineer's planar tracker (even the big guys can't compete on million dollar systems). We'll show how to track in MochaAE, move Corner Pin data into After Effects, and extract stabilization data for scale and rotation based on the corner's points using some fancy expressions.

Now you may be saying, "MochaAE is not a plug-in... it is an application!" This is true. So in the spirit of "Plug-in of the Month", we are going to show a first look at a brand new Red Giant plug-in, "RG Warp". RG Warp comes with a few killer plug-ins, most notably RG Corner Pin. This advanced corner pin filter is the perfect complement to MochaAE. It provides high quality filtering and anti-aliasing (including super-sampling), "to" and "from" pins (like Nuke), offset channels (like Flame), secondary transforms, and MochaAE import. It is a must-have for anyone interested in using MochaAE to it's fullest potential. RG Warp also includes some other killer plug-ins which we will detail at the event.

Finally, we are working hard to gather a bunch of great prizes for the raffle. We'll provide more details as we get closer to the meeting and post updates on our site, sfmograph.org.

Labels: Adobe, SFMograph

Adam Meisel emailed me about a site he created, along with Erik Frick, called Dear Adobe

Adobe has been very positive about their site and has gone so far as to respond directly to the After Effects Top 25 gripes. It's a VERY entertaining read. Enjoy!

Labels: Adobe, After Effects

We have a lot going on in the coming couple of months. Here's a brief rundown.

Sept 29 - Boris Continuum Chroma Key Offer Ends

Oct 1-3 - Final Cut Studio Conference, Mt. Pleasant, MI.
I'll be teaching some Apple Motion Seminars at the conference. As far as conferences go, this one is very inexpensive and there are excellent classes being held. Plus, Mt. Pleasant is home to the world famous Sweet Onion restaurant. :-)

Oct 8-9 - Rocky Mountain VidExpo, Denver, CO.
Toolfarm will be running a booth at the show. Stop by and say hi to Alicia and Michele from Toolfarm (that's me!). Also, if you register by October 2, you can get into the exhibit hall, the keynote address and some of the seminars for free.

Oct 12-15 - Motion08 Conference (special offer expires September 30), Albuquerque, NM.
Use that link to get a fantastic special offer. Save $600! For real! Trish and Chris Meyer, Mark Coleran and others will be presenting so this is a big show not to be missed. Not only that, the NM Hot Air Balloon Festival is at the same time. Toolfarm may have a booth at the show. We're in this little contest and we're very close to getting in.

Oct 13-17 - MG Fest, Orlando, FL
Toolfarm is a sponsor of the MG Fest. It's a traveling show this year and will be hitting loads of US cities. I'll be teaching some classes at the Chicago stop in January. Nothing like Chicago in January...

Oct 24 - The Nobody Hole Contest Ends
The contest just launched last night! This is something like we've never done before and we're very excited about it. There are boatloads of prizes. Check it out!

Oct 29 - Adobe CS4 Expected Ship Date
Can you wait that long!?

Labels: Adobe, Contest, Event, Final Cut Studio, Motion Conference, VidExpo

Are product names getting longer and longer every year or is it just me? :-)

Lightroom 2.1 is out but they would like that people continue to test it, so if you use it and find a bug, please help 'em out and post it to their User to User Forum. They've fixed several bugs and stability issues and added support for new cameras too.

The Photoshop Camera Raw 4.6 update supports new cameras.

Labels: Adobe, Lightroom, Photoshop

Join Boris for a free webinar and discover the power of Boris plug-ins...

• Wednesday, September 10th: Apple Final Cut Pro with Boris Plug-ins
• Wednesday, September 17th: Adobe After Effects with Boris Plug-ins
• Thursday, September 18th: Avid Editing Systems with Boris Plug-ins
• Wednesday, September 24th: Apple Final Cut Pro with Boris Plug-ins
• Wednesday, October 1st: Adobe After Effects with Boris Plug-ins
• Thursday, October 2nd: Avid Editing Systems with Boris Plug-ins

Space is limited. Register Now!

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Boris, Webinar

It's been all over the web today... September 23 is the big day for the announcement about Adobe Creative Suite 4, aka CS4.

Register here to register to watch it live!

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Photoshop, Podcast, Premiere Pro

Using Red Camera? They've busily been working on the Red Camera Adobe Importer plug-in for Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Encore for both Intel Mac and Windows. Get the full sneak peek here.

Labels: Adobe, Premiere Pro, RED

Enter your work to be show in the Adobe MAX Events which will be stopping in San Francisco, Milan and Tokyo. Enter in one of six categories: Advertising & Branding, Enterprise, Mobility and Devices, Public Sector, Rich Internet Application, and Video.

The top three finalists will get to go to San Francisco where a winner will be selected, as well as the People's Choice. The deadline for all entries is Friday, September 5, 2008.

Labels: Adobe, Adobe MAX, Contest, Event

Dennis Radeke shows you how to make a Picture-in-Picture effect in Premiere Pro in the latest episode of Adobe TV's Adobe Beginner Classes.

Labels: Adobe, Genesis Project, Premiere Pro, Tutorial

Toolfarm is taking an instant $100 off the Adobe C3S Production Premium Upgrade Path 2. Own Final Cut Pro, and a single qualifying Adobe product*, and looking to add the full Adobe CS3 Production Premium to your arsenal? Apple Final Cut Pro Owners save an extra $200 off the $100 instant discount - total savings of $300, when purchasing the Adobe C3S Production Premium Upgrade Path 2 through Toolfarm.com. That's $799 for the complete Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium package!

• The rebate submission must be postmarked no later than September 30, 2008.
• Mail-in rebate offer for Apple Final Cut Pro owners is valid in US only. See rebate form for details- download rebate form.
• Reasons to buy Creative Suite 3 Production Premium for Final Cut Pro editors

*Customers who own one of these products and Apple Final Cut Pro qualify for the additional $200 mail-in rebate:

• Adobe Photoshop 7.0, CS, CS3, CS3, CS3 Extended
• Adobe Illustrator 10.0, CS, CS2, CS3
• Adobe Flash MX, MX 2004, MX Professional 2004, Basic 8, Professional 8, CS3 Professional
• Adobe After Effects 5.x, 6.x, 7.x, CS3 Professional
• Adobe Premiere- Any version of Premiere or Premiere Pro

Toolfarm instant rebate ends August 31st. Mail-in Adobe rebate offer: purchase must made before Aug 31st.

Labels: Adobe, Final Cut Pro, upgrade

Major Software Upgrade Further Simplifies Photography Workflows

(San Jose, California - July 29, 2008) Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 software, the photographer's essential toolbox for managing, adjusting and presenting large volumes of digital photographs.

With new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localized image correction, and streamlined search capabilities, Lightroom 2 is a compelling upgrade that simplifies photography from shoot to finish. As Adobe's first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel® processors and Microsoft® Windows® Vista® 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

"A worldwide community of photographers provided valuable insight and feedback, as part of the Lightroom 2 public beta program, ultimately helping us deliver a better product," said Tom Hogarty, senior product manager for Lightroom and Camera Raw at Adobe. "We've considered their requests which helped us develop useful features that make it easier than ever for our customers to quickly refine, enhance and present brilliant photographs."

Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate
The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographers' workflows. With the ability to visually organize images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organize images in a way that maximizes an additional display.

In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust color, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customizable templates to maximize paper and ink.

Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster. Developers can further extend the Lightroom workflow with Web, Export and Metadata Software Development Kits available at the Adobe Developer Connection, http://www.adobe.com/devnet/.

Ground-Breaking Innovation in Raw Technology
New raw technology gives photographers access to flexible camera profiles. Camera profiles are the visual starting point for the raw processing workflow, but image preferences vary for every photographer. To minimize surprises, Adobe is supplying default camera profiles that closely emulate the visual looks that photographers are used to seeing from their favorite camera, while also providing the ability to create highly customized profiles to suit different tastes. Camera profiles are available for immediate download on Adobe Labs (http://labs.adobe.com ) for use with Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5, along with the DNG Profile Editor for the community to test and create their own profiles.

The Adobe Camera Raw 4.5 plug-in and DNG Converter 4.5 are also now available on Adobe.com and support over 190 camera models including the Olympus E 420 and E 520 models.

"One of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very vocal user community," said Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). "Adobe really listens to the issues and challenges today's photographers face and they've built a complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom 2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate freedom to produce professional images quickly."

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available now through the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in English, French and German with the Japanese language version planned to be released at a future date. The estimated street price is USD$299 for new users with an upgrade price of USD$99 for registered users of qualifying Lightroom customers. Recommended system requirements are Macintosh OSX 10.4, 10.5 1 GHz PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel® based processor, or Microsoft Windows® XP SP2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise, Intel Pentium 4® processor, 1 GB RAM and a 1024x768 resolution screen. Additional information on product features, upgrade policies, pricing, and language versions is available on www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Labels: Adobe, Lightroom, Photoshop

Pixel Bender is formerly code named known as Hydra, which you may remember reading about here about six months ago. This Pixel Bender Toolkit Preview Release 4 includes a high-performance graphics programming language that Adobe is developing for image processing, named Pixel Bender and an application to create, compile and preview Pixel Bender filters and effects. The toolkit contains a specification for the Pixel Bender language, several sample filters, and sample images provided by Pixel Bender team members.

I just got an email from Mason Dixon of MG Chicago and he said:

Also btw, Flash 9 new features:
After Effect Style Timeline!!!!
Actionscriptable plugin-style visual filters....
like photoshop filters but scriptable in realtime
and 2.5D... um wow.

Attached was the link to Pixel Bender. I'm not going to even begin to understand all this can do but I thin kits something we should keep our eyes on.

Labels: Adobe, MGFest Chicago

A new prerelease version of Adobe Flash Player 10, code-named "Astro," is now available for download on Adobe Labs.

Labels: Adobe, Flash

Events planned for San Francisco, Milan and Tokyo

SAN JOSE, Calif. - June 25, 2008 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced dates and locations for its MAX 2008/2009 event series. MAX is the premier industry forum for designers, developers and business decision makers focused on creating and delivering rich, engaging digital experiences across mediums and devices. The series begins Nov. 16 to 19 in San Francisco, followed by events in Milan from Dec. 1 to 4, 2008, and Tokyo from Jan. 29 to 30, 2009.

Adobe also launched its call for entries for the 2008 worldwide MAX Awards program, which recognizes the most innovative work from designers and developers around the world. Entries are being accepted through Sept. 5, 2008.

Under the theme, "Connect. Discover. Inspire." the San Francisco event will feature keynotes from CEO Shantanu Narayen and CTO Kevin Lynch, as well as technology "sneak-peeks," business discussions, technical sessions, hands-on workshops, exhibits and networking events. More than 200 sessions will engage designers, developers and business strategists on the topics of:

• Designer/developer workflow
• Cross-media design, including Web, video, mobile, print and interactive
• Rich Internet applications
• Services, components and tools
• Designing for multiple screens

"MAX inspires creatives and technologists to design, build, and share new ways for people to deliver engaging experiences over the Web and on any screen," said Adobe chief technology officer Kevin Lynch. "Nowhere else can passionate members of the Adobe community learn from the best, be on the inside track of breaking industry news, connect with peers and industry experts while discovering cutting-edge technologies."

MAX 2008 promises to deliver a glimpse into the future of digital experiences, enabling designers to dive into the art and science of designing across media, while developers broaden their expertise in architecting, building and deploying next-generation Web, mobile, enterprise and rich Internet applications.
2008 MAX Awards

2008 MAX Awards will honor the most engaging and innovative work from designers and developers using a broad spectrum of Adobe products and technologies. Categories include: Advertising and Branding, Enterprise, Mobility and Devices, Public Sector, Rich Internet Applications, Video, and People's Choice. Adobe is accepting nominations now through Sept. 5, 2008. All entries must be submitted online at www.max.adobe.com/awards/ . To see last year's finalists, visit: www.adobemax2007.com/awards/2007/finalists/ . The 2008 MAX Award winners will be announced on Nov. 18 at an awards ceremony during the North America event.
Exhibits and Sponsorship

Companies interested in exhibiting or sponsoring MAX North America should contact Robb Trost at 1-650-226-0656, robb.trost@gpj.com . For MAX Europe, email sponsorships-europe@max.adobe.com.
Registration

To register for MAX North America, visit www.max.adobe.com/na/reginfo/ . Register before August 31, 2008 to qualify for the early bird discount.

Registration for MAX Europe will open in mid July. More details about MAX Japan will be announced later in the year.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com .

Labels: Adobe, Event

Download Camera Raw 4.5 from Adobe Labs. The Camera Raw plug-in gives easy access to the raw image formats in Photoshop.

Labels: Adobe, Photoshop

Many Adobe bundles have been updated to version CS3.3. The bundles now come with new Acrobat 9 Pro plus Fireworks CS3. There are new productivity features and tighter integration to simplify creative and production tasks and they support for the latest Mac and Windows systems.

Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Design Premium Updated!

Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Design Premium delivers a dream toolkit for print, web, interactive, and mobile design.

• Full: $1,799
• Upgrade Path 1: $599
• Upgrade Path 2: $1,399 Price lowered!

Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Design Standard Updated!

Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Design Standard focuses on professional print design.

• Full: $1,199
• Upgrade Path 1: $399
• Upgrade Path 2: $799 Price lowered!

Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Web Premium Updated!

Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Web Premium combines the best-of-the-best web design and development tools.

• Full: $1,199
• Upgrade Path 1: $499
• Upgrade Path 2: $1,299 Price lowered!

Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Master Collection Updated!

Adobe Creative Suite 3.3 Master Collectionenables you to design across media - print, web, interactive, mobile, video, and film — in the most comprehensive creative environment ever produced.

• Full: $2,499
• Upgrade Path 1: $1,999
• Upgrade Path 2: $1,399

Acrobat 9 (all new)

Share your ideas
Use Acrobat 9 to create polished PDF files, present multiple documents in a PDF Portfolio, and even add multimedia. And all in a single file.

Control your work
Use Acrobat 9 to apply passwords, set permissions, and permanently remove sensitive information — so you can feel confident your work is safe.

Work better with everyone
With Acrobat 9, your entire team can view and respond as comments are being made — streamlining your reviews and approvals.

Simplify form creation

With just a few clicks, you can create a form that virtually anyone can fill out and save electronically.

• Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Standard - $299 - Win only
• Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Standard to Standard Upgrade - $99 - Win only
  
• Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Professional - $449 Mac or Win
• Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Pro Upgrade from Standard - $159 Mac or Win
• Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Pro to Pro Upgrade - $159 - Mac or Win
  
• Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended 9 - $699 Win only
• Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended 9 Upgrade from Acrobat Pro 8 - $229 - Win only

Labels: Acrobat, Adobe, Creative Suite

Boris Final Effects Complete has been added to the Boris Motion Graphics Pack, which also includes Boris RED and Boris Continuum Complete. The best part? The price is the same!

• Boris Motion Graphics Pack (RED+BCC+FEC) for Adobe After Effects/Premiere Pro Users
• Boris Motion Graphics Pack (RED+BCC FxPlug+FEC FxPlug) for Final Cut Pro Users

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Boris, Continuum Complete, Final Cut Pro, Final Effects Complete, Premiere Pro, RED

Info from Ninja Crayon:

Digital Media Artists / Los Angeles (DMA/LA) is an association for professionals creating imagery for video, film, and other media using desktop tools. MGLA was formed in August 1997 through the merger of several previously-existing groups. DMA/LA is an extention of that - continuing in 2008. DMA/LA's area of discussions are not restricted to a specific hardware or software solution, understanding that an artist often has to employ 2D, 3D, and other digital tools to realize their vision - and that artistic inspiration can be universal.

Lineup: Q&A with Tom Luth / SonicFire SmartSound / Trapcode Horizon / Chevon Hicks - HeavenSpot

7:00 - 7:30 Q&A with Tom Luth

In addition to a short Q&A session, DMA's Tom Luth will show off the bit of title design that we missed last month.

7:30 - 7:55 Smartsound SonicFire 5.

With the new version soon to be released, Stephanie Joyce will be presenting a sneak peek for us at DMA/LA. If you're a motion graphics artist or producer, you'll want to be sure to see the new features.

Stephanie will be demonstrating all the amazing new features in SmartSound Sonicfire Pro 5. Building on the recent success of their Multi-Layer Music and the famous Mood Mapping® feature, the new Sonicfire Pro 5 does things you never imagined possible with library music. Want to move a music beat to align with an event in your video? Come check it out.

8:05 - 8:30 Trapcode Horizon

Presented by Sean Safreed of Red Giant Software (site to all Trapcode, Magic Bullet, Knoll Light Factory Pro, Instant HD and more), Trapcode Horizon is the latest offering from Peder Norrby for After Effects users. Taking advantage of some simple steps, AE users can create scenes that, well, stretch to an unending horizon.

8:35 - 8:55 Break

Get to know some of the other members, grab a snack or drink in the lobby, or ask the presenters some of those questions you didn't want to raise your hand for.

9:00 - 9:50 Chevon Hicks : Heavenspot

Chevon will be presenting some of the company's recent work for FOX's NASHVILLE which will incorporate both motion graphics for promo and interactive. It is a great case study on a newly emerging trend, where the website design took an interesting influence on the broadcast look.

Door Prizes will include great prizes from our friends at: Black Magic Design/ Adobe / Artbeats / Red Giant Software / Smartsound / Automatic Duck / Toolfarm / Ballistic Publishing / Focal Press / 12" Design / Gridiron Software And More...

New Members welcome: JOIN (free of course)

If you have any announcements about jobs, projects or other employment opportunities, please contact Tom Luth (tom luth @ aol . com) (remove spaces).

And again, thanks to Adobe's sponsorship of DMA/LA this year, admission is free!

* Tony, Warren, Ed, Tom and Ko
Your co-hosts

Labels: Adobe, ArtBeats, Automatic Duck, DMA/LA, GridIron, Ko Maruyama, Red Giant, SmartSound

Users of Adobe's Photoshop and inDesign are reporting that the Leopard 10.5.3 update causes their files to be corrupted when loaded from and then saved back to network volumes. Downgrading to 10.5.2 seems to solve this problem. Adobe advises against saving directly to servers, and recommends saving locally and then transferring to the server. More information can be found at the Macworld website.

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Bug, Leopard, Photoshop, Update

If you've been waiting to upgrade some of your Adobe products, now is the time snag an upgrade at a lower price!

• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium Upgrade Path 2
  (Upgrade from Creative Suite or Macromedia Studio)
  Reduced from $1,199 to $1,099
• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Standard Upgrade Path 2
  (Upgrade from Flash or Dreamweaver)
  Reduced from $799 to $599

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Flash, Premiere Pro

Adobe Labs has new beta releases of Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth.

Anyone can download and try the software for at least two days after installation while existing customers of Dreamweaver CS3 and Fireworks CS3 can request a serial number to activate the respective beta for the duration of the prerelease period. For those interested in the Soundbooth beta, we are allowing any customer with any CS3 product serial number (including but limited to Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc.) request and receive a beta serial number and activate the Soundbooth beta.

Labels: Adobe, Beta Test, Soundbooth

Dennis Radeke is organizer of the Adobe event later this month on May 29 near B&H at the New Yorker Hotel's Crystal Ballroom on the 2nd floor. There will be two sessions, 11am-3:30pm and 3:30pm-8pm.

From Dennis' Blog, The Genesis Project:

Additionally, rather than have the event be static where you sit and we talk, it is a twofold event. In one area, you'll have a large room where many of the vendors will present their products and workflows throughout the day in rapid fire 20 minute presentations. I hope that one of the highlights to these 20 minute demos will be a 20 minute technology preview demo of some stuff we're working on that I think you will find VERY helpful.

The event will have onsite representation from Adobe, AJA, Blackmagic Design, B&H, CalDigit, DigiEffects, GenArts, GridIron, Matrox, Maxon, MOTU, Wacom and Zoomin Online (aka Magnet Media).

They're giving away LOADS of prizes from these sponsors too. If you're in NYC at the end of May, this is a free event. Don't miss it. Register now!

Labels: Adobe, DigiEffects, Event, GenArts, GridIron, Wacom Tablets, Zoom in Online

Check out this new training video to learn more about Boris plug-in filters inside Adobe Premiere Pro.

Stay tuned for Parts II and III which will cover PixelChooser and Transitions.

Labels: Adobe, Boris, Premiere Pro, Training

The Creative Suite Podcast has a new one up: Mixing different video formats in Premiere Pro CS3.

Labels: Adobe, Creative Suite, Podcast, Premiere Pro

The New York Post|Production Conference will be held from November 11 - 13. I went the first two years and it was really cool. Much smaller and lower key than NAB in Las Vegas, plus focused more on what I'm interested in.

Cutting-edge technical training sessions will be presented by an elite team of manufacturer-authorized instructors, developers and power users. This event is for professionals at all levels, and is the East Coast's largest resource for the latest and most up-to-date production, post-production and content delivery education. With the recent updates to Apple Final Cut Studio 2 and Adobe Creative Suite 3, there has never been a better time to take advantage of this one stop training opportunity.

Labels: Adobe, Creative Suite, Event, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Studio, NAB

Adobe is having a Digital Video Tools Showcase on Thursday, May 29 in New York City.

From planning to playback, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium drives video content creation. Combined with a diverse group of Adobe's partners, including AJA, Blackmagic Design, CalDigit, Creative COW, Digieffects, GenArts, GridIron Flow, Matrox, Maxon, MOTU, Panasonic, and Wacom, Adobe offers solutions and workflows for getting today's content out to air, tape, disc, or online faster than ever before.

First Session: 11:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Second Session: 3:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

New Yorker Hotel
Crystal Ballroom, 2nd Floor
481 8th Avenue at 34th Street
New York, NY 10001

Register now!

Labels: Adobe, DigiEffects, GenArts, GridIron Flow, Maxon Cinema 4D, Wacom Tablets

One of the biggest Plugged-In podcasts ever, Show 21 NAB Special Edition! Keith Larsen and Alan Spaulding talk to dozens of guests.

From the NAB Show

Rob Birnholz, Absolute Motion Graphics
www.absolutemotiongraphics.com

Zax Dow, Zaxwerks
www.zaxwerks.com

John Dickinson, Motionworks
www.motionworks.com.au

Harry Frank, Gray Machine
www.graymachine.com

Jim Tierney, Digital Anarchy
www.digitalanarchy.com

Wes & Harry Plate, Automatic Duck
www.automaticduck.com

Dan May, BlackMagic Design
www.blackmagic-design.com

Stephanie Joyce, SmartSound
www.smartsound.com

From the FCPUG SuperMeet

Kristi Prost, Larry Jordan Associates
www.larryjordan.biz

Jay Ignaszeski, Tek Serve
www.tekserve.com

Kevin Fischer, Lite Panels
www.litepanels.com

Kevan O'Brien, Adobe
www.adobe.com

Ben Syverson, DV Garage/PixelCorps
www.dvgarage.com

Brendan Cass, Quantum
www.quantum.com

Dan Montgomery, Imagine
www.imagineproducts.com

Marco Solario, Cinesoft
www.mediabatch.com

Francisco Scartozzi, Matrox
www.matrox.com

Frank George, Roland
www.roland.com

Jeff Greenberg, Philadelphia FCPUG
www.finalcutpronews.com

Greg Clarke, Open Television Network
www.opentvnetwork.com

Damon Hampson, Peachpit Press
www.peachpit.com

Jim Davis, LaCie
www.lacie.com

Justin McCarthy, Albatat
www.albatat.com

Jon Schilling, CalDigit
www.caldigit.com

Peter Wiggins, Ricardo Silva & Nancy Schopoff, Noise Industries
www.noiseindustries.com

Norman Zeledon, GMax Storage Solutions, LLC
www.gmaxstorage.com

Sharon Cedars, Lynda.com
www.lynda.com

Roger Mabon, G-Tech
www.g-technology.com

Steve Forde, Gridiron Software
www.gridironsoftware.com

Chris Heffner, Other World Computing
www.macsales.com

Simon Hollingworth & Victoria Battison, BlackMagic Design
www.balckmagic-design.com

Bernie Mitchell, Silver Platter Productions,
www.panasonic.com

Call the podcast toll free: 877-809-8145

TRT: 135 min.

Labels: Adobe, Automatic Duck, Digital Anarchy, GridIron, NAB, Noise Industries, Podcast, Zaxwerks

If this is your first NAB, I'll warn you, it's HUGE! You will not be able to see everything. Impossible. The South Hall is where all the stuff I want to see is anyway.

Exhibit floor map

Adobe Booth - Booth SL3220

Last year Adobe has some major stuff to show. This year they'll be showing off the Adobe Media Player. mocha-AE from Imagineer will also be shown in Adobe's Booth.

Automatic Duck - Booth SL2128F

From their press release about Edison and Leo, Automatic Duck will also be announcing new enhancements to Pro Import FCP at NAB 2008. Wes Plate, president of Automatic Duck, will be on hand in their booth #SL2128F to meet with customers and share all new developments in Pro Import FCP, as well as new features in Pro Export FCP, Automatic Duck's export tool for Final Cut Pro users.

Boris FX - Booth SL8720

Boris Blue 2.5 and Final Effects Complete FxPlug will certainly be shown. I will be demoing at Boris FX's booth, showing Final Effect Complete. Come by and watch the presentation!

Cineform - Booth SL10609

CineForm will be showing Prospect 4K and Neo 4K, their new products. Neo 4K is compatible with virtually all Windows AVI or QuickTime applications that support image resolutions up to 4K including After Effects. Prospect 4K includes CineForm's real-time video processing engine optimized for Adobe Premiere Pro on Windows, which enables the industry's first real-time multi-stream 4K editing workflow.

Digieffects - Booth SL02128D

See two new packages from Digieffects, as well as Damage, that came out in March.

The Natural Forces series debuts with Natural Forces: Vapor and Natural Forces: Aqua, both with a retail price of $99. Natural Forces: Vapor is a collection of effects designed around the creation of clouds, fog, haze and smoke. Natural Forces: Aqua is a collection of effects focused on various forms of weather and water effects.

The first two packages in the Simulate series are Simulate: Illuma and Simulate: Camera, providing practical lighting and camera filter effects for a variety of visual applications.

Also, Alicia from Toolfarm and I will be demoing at the Digieffects booth, which is in the Plug-in Pavillion, so come on by and say hello! We'll be in the Toolfarm shirts.

Digital Anarchy - Booth SL2128C

FLUIDZ for After Effects and Premiere Pro, ToonIt! and Text Anarchy FxPlug (FCP and Motion) will be shown. FLUIDZ uses the power of 2D fluid dynamics developed by SpeedSix to produce beautiful, flowing, fluid effects and transitions. It has three plug-ins that create realistic flames, smoke, and liquid effects.

The Foundry - Booth SL8605

From their press release: Headlining the show will be Nuke 5, the first major release of its powerful desktop compositing application, the recently launched Furnace 4 plug-ins for Nuke and eyeon Software's Fusion, plus a special preview of Furnace for Apple Final Cut Pro and a technology demonstration of its stereoscopic workflow VFX tools.

Stereo 3D Technology Preview - Responding to the worldwide interest in stereoscopic 3D production, The Foundry has laid the groundwork for efficient multi-view compositing in Nuke 5 and is now concentrating R&D efforts on creating unique tools to further support 3D stereoscopic workflow, and will preview its work in this area during the show... This sounds really interesting!

GenArts - Booth SL14516

GenArts will be showing off their new FxPlug version of their popular Sapphire plug-in package. It runs in Final Cut Pro and Motion.

Gridiron Software - Booth SL6220

GridIron Flow is digital content management software for creative professionals working on graphic design, web, and video projects. Flow automatically tracks the design process from idea to end result and manages assets and applications for the most complex workflows.

Imagineer Systems - Booth SL12405

Imagineer Systems' CEO, Allan Jaenicke will be making a big announcement about a new product called mogul on April 14 at 12:30pm. mogul is an entirely new and open, collaborative VFX architecture.

From the press release: Imagineer Systems is also announcing it has teamed up with another leader in the VFX software development marketplace, The Foundry UK (www.thefoundry.co.uk), to provide visual effects artists with a streamlined, efficient solution to move planar tracking data between two of the industry's most powerful tools -- Imagineer Systems' mocha and recently-announced Nuke 5 from The Foundry. The two companies have also entered into a marketing partnership agreement, in which The Foundry will offer a specially priced bundled version of Nuke 5 with mocha. Executives from Imagineer Systems will be on hand at NAB to demonstrate the benefits of this new agreement.

Imagineer mocha-AE will be shown in the Adobe Booth.

Maxon - Booth SL6826

See the latest versions of the company's professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions. MAXON's flagship software solution, CINEMA 4D, one of the fastest-growing and most widely-used 3D products for digital content creation, is utilized by artists around the world to create compelling motion graphics for some of the broadcast industry's most widely recognized entities, including The Weather Channel, MTV, CMT, Comedy Central, BBC, Al Jazeera, NBC, FOX, NFL, Court TV, National Geographic Channel, Univision, and the BBC, to name just a few.

Noise Industries - Booth SL2128H

The Noise Industries team will showcase new versions of their visual effects plug-in applications for Apple Final Cut Studio/Express and Avid AVX as well as introduce new partner releases.

Red Giant Software - Booth SL2128A

Be sure to check out a demo of the Magic Bullet Suite, plus Radium Glow will be shown. This is a new package of plug-ins that creates glows. Other new products from RG are Primatte 4 and the Instant HD upgrade. Alicia from Toolfarm will be showing Magic Bullet Frames and I will be demoing Magic Bullet Looks and Colorista at the booth at NAB so be sure to stop by and say hi. In addition to Alicia and I, the winner of the MyToolfarm/Red Giant NAB contest will be presenting on Wednesday at 10am. Don't miss him!

RE:Vision Effects - Booth SL2128J

Pete and Pierre will be showing the new releases for RE:Vision Effects

SmartSound - Booth SL7712

Get a sneak peek of SmartSound Sonicfire Pro 5, which is set to be released in early summer.

Sony Creative Software - Booth SL12413

Sony will surely be showing Vegas 8.

NewBlueFX's CTO, Todor Fay, will be making daily presentations at 11 am at the Partner's stage in the Sony booth.

Sorenson Media - SL6526

They just released a major upgrade to Squeeze, so I'm sure you'll be seeing Squeeze.

Synthetic Aperture - Booth SL2128B

Synthetic Aperture announced Test Gear 2.0 for Adobe After Effects CS3 today. Also, they'll be demonstrating the 3cP/Color Finesse/ASC CDL workflow.

Telestream - Booth SL5405

Featuring the latest Flip4Mac products including WMV Components for QuickTime, MXF Professional Components for Final Cut Pro, Episode desktop media encoding applications, and Pipeline network encoder for Mac OS X.

Ultimatte - Booth SL4920

They will be showing the Ultimatte 11 and 500, the Ultimatte DV and our software AdvantEdge.

Zaxwerks - Booth SL21281

ProAnimator 4.5 came out recently. I'll bet you'll see it!

Labels: Adobe, Automatic Duck, NAB

Colin Sharp, Toolfarm's VP Sales, and I (Michele) have flown in to attend the first meeting of SF Mograph. It should be great!

The lineup includes:

David Simons & Dan Wilk: Original creators of CoSA After Effects, now on the Dynamic Media Advanced Product Development team at Adobe.

Matt Silverman, Creative Director, Phoenix Editorial | Designs

Chris Prosser, After Effects Engineering Manager at Adobe

Brendan Bolles, Former Orphanage Technical Director, fnord software

Marcello Grande, Creative Director, WESTERNIZED Productions.

YOU MUST PRE-REGISTER

Thursday March 20th 2008 6:30pm - 10:00pm. Adobe Systems Incorporated. 601 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Event, SFMograph

Adobe will be presenting at the MCA-I meeting tomorrow night in Rockford, MI, which is just north of Grand Rapids. I'm on the board and Toolfarm is the food sponsor for the meeting. If you're in the area, please RSVP (link below) and you can meet me (Michele Yamazaki) and also see a terrific presentation from Adobe. The info below is from Scott VanderSchel who is our President Elect.

The forward momentum continues with our next Mid-Michigan MCA-I event showcasing Adobe Creative Suite 3. Adobe Production Premium trainer Josh Fozzard will join us at Wolverine World Wide to present this workshop on real-world workflow for both Mac and PC. Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium software enables exceptional productivity with the ability to create visually innovative work for film, broadcast, web, mobile phones and other portable devices. Josh will show this software in action. He’s also an After Effects guru so this has the makings of an interesting evening!

The meeting will take place on Wednesday, March 12th at Wolverine World Wide in Rockford, Michigan. The address is 9341 Courtland Drive NE. Join us for networking and refreshments at 6 PM. The meeting will begin at 6:45PM. The event is free to MCA-I members. There is a $5 charge for non-members. If you are not a current member, this would be a great opportunity to join.

We would like to thank Wolverine for hosting this event. Come early to check out their facility. Please come out and bring a friend! If you are planning to attend let us know with an RSVP at the following address: mcai.eventbrite.com. This will help us make preparations for food, etc. Hope to see you there!

Labels: Adobe, Event

Steve Whatley's After Effects Cookbook blog has a movie that shows you some 3D Layers, lights and cameras in After Effects. They also talk about the Adobe/Maxon Power Integration Tour. The video is being put up in small chunks.

Labels: Adobe, Maxon Cinema 4D, Tutorial

The 2008 Adobe School Innovation Awards information is available. The theme this year is "My Community - My Planet - My 21st Century." The competition is open to high school students in grades 9-12.

Students can submit entries in three categories:

• Web Design & Development
• Film & Video
• Graphic and Print Design

Prizes include software, cash, a laptop computer, and a trip to NECC being held in San Antonio, Texas.

I know we do get high school students and educators at Toolfarm and AE Freemart, as witnessed by the demo downloads. More Information

Labels: Adobe, Contest

Compose an engaging 15-second or less animation or motion graphic video of the Photoshop brand logo that illustrates the theme of 'See What's Possible.' The winning work must incorporate and close with the Adobe Photoshop logo and will be used by Adobe as part of an upcoming Photoshop marketing campaigns.

Accepting submissions February 15 through March 15, 2008

Learn more at Cut&Paste.com

Labels: Adobe, Contest, Photoshop

I didn't hear that Adobe had discontinued Adobe Stock Photos, but Dennis Radeke's Blog, the Genesis Project filled me in.

If you're in need of some space on your drive, you can uninstall.

Mac Uninstaller

Windows Uninstaller

Labels: Adobe, Genesis Project

Joint Motion Graphics Seminars with Adobe to Illustrate Benefits of a Combined MAXON CINEMA 4D and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Workflow

NEWBURY PARK, Calif., BUSINESS WIRE - MAXON Computer USA, the developers of CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D, today announced the 2008 schedule of its highly anticipated Power Integration Tour. The tour is a joint road show with Adobe Systems Incorporated that highlights the ease of integrating MAXON CINEMA 4D 3D software with Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium for a powerful 2D/3D cross platform solution. Representatives from both companies will present a range of dynamic visual effects and compelling motion graphics presentations geared to creative professionals seeking to integrate these two industry leading software applications into film, video, DVD, Web, and mobile device pipelines. The Power Integration Tour kicked-off in seven markets in 2007, drew over 1,500 participants and was deemed an overwhelming success by attendees and industry notables.

The 2008 leg of the tour will include stops in eight major markets, including: -- San Francisco, CA February 26th -- Vancouver, BC February 28th -- Seattle, WA March 4th -- Minneapolis, MN March 20th -- Boston, MA March 25th -- New York, NY March 27th -- Montreal, QC April 1st -- Toronto, ON April 3rd.

Space is limited. Register online at: http://tour.maxon3d.com/

Labels: Adobe, Event, Maxon Cinema 4D

From Adobe Labs Blog: Adobe Media Player brings the best of both the broadcast television and web video worlds to your desktop. This second prerelease version includes a new UI, many new features, and compatibility with the latest Adobe AIR beta 3 runtime. See the release notes (pdf) for more information regarding this prerelease application.

Labels: Adobe

NewBlue's much-anticipated plugin collection delights desktop video users

Video, Multimedia and Technology Editors

LA JOLLA, Calif. (Jan. 24, 2008) - Adobe® Premiere® Pro, the powerful desktop video-editing software, just became even more powerful thanks to a host of new video and audio plug-ins from innovative technology developer NewBlue, Inc. The company released its NewBlueFX product line for Adobe Premiere Pro, making its full line of NewBlue effects, transitions and filter collections available through the popular desktop video-editing software.

Adobe Premiere Pro users can now enjoy 978 presets and 114 effects encompassed in 12 distinct and competitively priced collections designed to enhance the video editing experience. Among the NewBlueFX collections released for Adobe Premiere Pro are 7 VideoFX collections and 5 AudioFX collections, including NewBlue 3D Effects, NewBlue 3D Transformations, NewBlue Art Blends, NewBlue Art Effects, NewBlue Equalizers, NewBlue Essentials, NewBlue Film Effects, NewBlue Motion Blends, NewBlue Motion Effects, NewBlue Production Tools, NewBlue Scrubbers and NewBlue Sound Benders.

"This has been a much anticipated release among our users and we're thrilled to deliver for them and Adobe Premiere Pro," explains Melissa Jordan Grey, chief strategic officer, NewBlue, Inc. "Our company roots are in film and music production, and this innate understanding of the creative process shows in our work."

"NewBlue's innovative range of video and audio effects, transitions and filters is a great complement to the already powerful feature set in Adobe Premiere Pro," said Giles Baker, Premiere Pro group product manager, editing workflows at Adobe. "The addition of NewBlueFX will enhance the video editing experience in Premiere Pro and allow users to add new, creative components to their projects."

The NewBlueFX product line for Adobe Premiere Pro consists of two main categories, VideoFX and AudioFX. In the VideoFX collections, users will find plug-ins that provide artistic techniques, such as air brushing, pastel sketching and line drawing, as well as motion effects, such as earthquake, spin blur, wiggle and zoom. Features of the AudioFX collections run the gamut from audio filtering, such as equalization, noise reduction and compression to creative sound manipulation tools, such as "Insectoid," "Buzz" and "Robot Fog."

Included in the VideoFX category are 7 collections:

• NewBlue 3D Explosions, 180 presets in 13 different plugins that introduce creative new ways to blast a scene into pieces. Plugins include: Blow Apart, Bouncing Cubes, Bouncing Frames, Box Explode, Confetti, Grid Fall Away, Grid Explosion, Intensity Grid, Plane Explode, Spiral, Spiral Rotation, Vortex, and Wiggle. ($119.95 USD)
• NewBlue 3D Transformations, 165 presets in 13 high energy transitions breaks creative ground with new ways to slice, fly and reassemble a scene with every technique. Plugins include: Box Fold, Checker Board, Comb, Flip, Fly Away, Louver Grid, Louvers, Magic Carpet, Page Turn, Pizza Boxes, Rotating Frames, Spiral Bounce, and Twist. ($119.95 USD)
• NewBlue Art Blends, 101 transitions in 10 specialized video effects that shift images through unique, stunning graphics filters. Plugins include: Color Melt, Color Wash, Contrast, Duochrome, Glow, Halo, Metallic, Shiny Fog, Sketch, and Vivid. ($119.95 USD)
• NewBlue Art Effects, 99 effects in 10 specialized video filters that shift video into a visually stunning alternate reality. Plugins include: Air Brush, Colorize, Color Melt, Dream Glow, Duochrome, Ghost, Hand Drawn, Line Drawing, Metallic, and Pastel Sketch. ($139.95 USD)
• NewBlue Film Effects, 81 presets in 5 dynamic filters that recreate the inexact mechanics of hand cranked cameras, dirty projectors, and decades sitting in film vaults. Plugins include: Film Camera, Film Damage, Film Express, Film Look, and Film Pro. ($159.95 USD)
• NewBlue Motion Blends, 112 transitions in 10 specialized video effects that twist, turn and transmogrify video from one scene to the next. Plugins include: Liquify, Roll, Shake, Shear, Shredder, Smear, Spin, Twirl, Wave, and Zoom. ($119.95 USD)
• NewBlue Motion Effects, 99 effects in 10 specialized video filters that add movement to images in a number of ways. Plugins include: Active Camera, Earthquake, Motion Blur, Ripple, Rolling Waves, Shear Energy, Spin Blur, Warp, Wiggle, and Zoom Blur. ($139.95 USD)

Labels: Adobe, NewBlueFX, Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas

Just the facts:

What: SF Cutters next meeting (San Francisco Final Cut Group)

Who:

• Stu Maschwitz, founder of the Orphanage and developer of Red Giant Magic Bullet
• Mark Christiansen, VFX Creator of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and author of After Effects CS3 Professional Studio Techniques.
• Bob Donlon of Adobe Systems: Many SF Cutters ask for Bob to return after his incredible overview of the entire Adobe CS3 Production Suite last Sept. Bob is back with more specifics on Flash and Audio in Adobe CS3.

When: Jan 31, 2008, 6:30pm PT - 9:15pm PT

Where: Adobe in San Francisco, 601 Townsend, San Francisco, CA 94103
Map

How: Register here

Labels: Adobe, Final Cut Studio, Magic Bullet, Magic Bullet Looks, Red Giant, SF Cutters

Todd Kopriva of Adobe posted about the latest AE update on Toolfarm Expert Forum. Todd says:

The After Effects 8.0.2 update is live, and so is the new After Effects CS3 Help on the Web. To get the update, choose Help > Updates. To see all of what has changed, see the ReadMe document.

Here's a link to After Effects Help on the Web, in case you forgot.

And here's a link to the page from which you can download a PDF copy of the Help document.

Beyond the additions to Help for P2 functionality, we made several hundred changes to the document for this version, most of which fall into two categories:

• We fixed a lot of little errors and clarified explanations based on feedback in LiveDocs comments and feedback from the LiveDocs survey.
• We added a lot of links from Help to external resources.
  

First, about that survey: We are doing a survey each quarter about our documentation resources. If you took the survey last quarter, please consider taking it again so that we can tell how our changes are working. This quarter's survey has additional questions about kinds of examples and illustrations:

Take the survey

I strongly urge all of you to take this survey. As you may have noticed, After Effects documentation is being done a bit differently than it used to be, with more links to external material, more frequent updates, et cetera. We need feedback about how well this is working for you so that we can decide how to go forward.

Now, about those external links: One of the things that we heard from last quarter's survey was that After Effects documentation is incomplete (but accurate, yay!). One very fast way to fill some gaps is to point users to the example projects, tutorials, and other materials that people like you create and publish. Some of you have been adding LiveDocs comments to Help on the Web that point to these great materials. We've incorporated many of those links ---plus a great many more--- in the parts of Help where we thought that these external materials could help the user. We intend to do much more of this if you tell us that you find it valuable.

Also, there are a lot of extensions to After Effects (some free, some not) that make After Effects work better. We also point to some of those. How did we pick which ones to point to? In part, we went by what we were being told in LiveDocs comments and on forums. If you don't see a mention of a plug-in, script, or other tool that you think is great, tell us through the LiveDocs comments in Help on the Web.

Todd also added a huge list of thank you's. You may be on that list! I was. ;-)

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Poll

John Nack has an article on his blog, John Nack on Adobe, about the new GridIron Flow.

GridIron has posted a cute movie on YouTube about GridIron Flow. Read the article first!



More on GridIron Flow

Labels: Adobe, GridIron Flow

The Videoguys rated the top 10 video products of 1007.

1. Adobe Production Premium CS3
2. Apple Final Cut Studio 2
3. Matrox RT.X2 with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and Encore CS3
4. Sony Vegas Pro 8
5. Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks & Colorista
6. Newtek TriCaster Studio
7. Pinnacle Studio 11 MovieBox Ultimate
8. Black Magic Intensity Pro
9. Pioneer BDR-202 Blu-Ray Disc Burner
10. Canon HV20 HDV Camcorder

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Colorista, Final Cut Studio, Magic Bullet, Magic Bullet Looks, Red Giant, Sony Vegas

TOMORROW: Tuesday, January 15 - Gallery Theatre at Barnsdall Art Par, 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., Cover charge: FREE courtesy of Adobe Systems

From Ninja Crayon: On the heals for the opening day of the MacWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco (Monday, Jan. 14), DMA/LA (formerly MGLA) will be having its first meeting of 2008 - not to mention its first meeting under the new name: Digital Media Artists / Los Angeles - on Tuesday, Jan. 15.

As any long time MGLA member can tell you, the first meeting of the year is usually big and this one fits the bill. As early as May of last year you may have heard of MAXON’s " The Power Integration Tour" for 2008, a joint road show with Adobe Systems Incorporated where motion graphics artists will learn how to bring their vision to life with blockbuster visual effects and compelling motion graphics for film, video, DVD, the web, and mobile devices. A quick glance at the show dates, set for next summer, may have even left you feeling anxious to see what MAXON and Adobe have to show. The third Tuesday of January, the wait is over.

Read more at Ninja Crayon

Labels: Adobe, DMA/LA, Ko Maruyama, Maxon Cinema 4D, MGLA

Posted by Ko Maruyama to the AE List:

The next MGLA - well, it's no longer MGLA. It's a group that meets every third Tuesday of the month to talk about Motion Graphics and other digital graphics creation and content. As Chris explained to the group in December's meeting, the name "MGLA" was originally intended for the continuation of the group, but there'll be a new name for the group soon.

The user group continues in 2008 with a kickoff meeting by our two major sponsors. Adobe Systems and MAXON Computer are coming to give the Power Integration Tour presentation. It promises to be a big one, with several of the CINEMA 4D users from the Hollywood community spreading the word around and to be in attendance.

Chris is graciously giving us time to keep the same format on the web pages - until Warren can figure out how to flick the switch to the new site design, and more importantly what the new name is going to be! :) For now, the sites appear the same on http://www.mgla.org and http://www.mgla2.org.

The next meeting will be on January 15, 2008 from 7:00 - 10:00pm (yes, the night of the first day of the MacWorld Expo, so there'll be plenty to talk about).

It's the same spot - Barnsdall Art Gallery Theater in Hollywood, California. If you need directions, they're still on the website. We'll have prizes from both MAXON and Adobe, as well as other prize sponsors! (Including Toolfarm!)

Okay, so what's the new name going to be, Ko?

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Maxon Cinema 4D, MGLA

Oh, this is a fun one! Keith Larsen & Alan Spaulding of Plugged-In talk to loads of people. Check out this crazy guest list!

• Greg Clarke, Intelligent Assistance
• Michele Yamazaki, Toolfarm
• Jim Kanter, Digital Film Institute
• Michael Horton, LAFCPUG
• Frank Capria, XProve & KingPin Interactive
• Andrew Marcus, Buck & Buck
• Anne Renehan, Apple
• Gary Adcock, Studio37
• Mik Vitti, VittiPhoto Productions
• Chuck Whitlock, AJA Video Systems
• Jon Thorn, AJA Video Systems
• Nick Rashby, AJA Video Systems
• Dan Berube, BOSFCPUG
• Brian Maffitt, Total Training
• Steve Martin, Ripple Training
• Ben Kozuch, Future Media Concepts
• Christopher Phrommayon, Apple
• Gene Czarnecki, CZAR Productions
• Daren Dochterman, BetaFive.com
  
• Stephanie Joyce, SmartSound
• Rob Birnholz, Absolute Motion Graphics
• Don Peebles, Apple
• Bob Donlon, Adobe
• Terry Curren, AlphaDogs
• Anita Engleman, Adobe
• Douglas Spotted Eagle, VASST
• Larry Jordan, Larry Jordan Associates
• Jerry Hofmann, JLH Productions
• John Dickinson, Motionworks
• Ko Maruyama, MGLA
• Chris & Trish Meyer, Cybermotion
• Kiki Stockhammer, NewTek
• Rich Lenoce, Middlesex Community College
• Ramy Katrib, Digital Film Tree
• Carey Dissmore, Carey Dissmore Productions
• Kevin Monahan, SF Cutters
• Steve Jobs, Apple
• Jon Higgins, Northeast Utilities Corporate Communications
• Lacey Girard, Northeast Utilities Corporate Communications
• Daina Dodge, Northeast Utilities Corporate Communications

Labels: Adobe, Apple, John Dickinson, Ko Maruyama, Podcast, SF Cutters, Total Training

The latest Plugged-in: The Digital Landscape is ready! Listen to a great interview with Bob Donlon, Sr. Manager of Dynamic Media at Adobe. Check out Bob's Adobe blog. Bob answers all of the answers you've been yearning to know. The podcast also features regular guests Philip Hodgetts and Michele Yamazaki of Toolfarm. Philip has some big news and Michele and the guys discuss roller derby. Subscribe today. It's freeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Labels: Adobe, Podcast

The Genesis Project mentioned the update which includes bug fixes and some minor things with the titler and P2 workflow issues, in addition to the Leopard compatibility.

Labels: Adobe, Leopard, Premiere Pro

San Francisco, CA, December 4, 2007 - Red Giant Software Magic Bullet Looks was recently awarded a 2007 Vanguard Award by Digital Content Producer. Vanguard Awards go to the most groundbreaking new products for video production professionals that are released in the calendar year.

Magic Bullet Looks is a revolutionary, new color correction tool. Looks' powerful tools can be used on-set or in the edit suite to subtly adjust tone, color and focus to simulate the appearance of classic films or duplicate specific production conditions. Users can choose from more than a hundred Look presets, all neatly organized into 10 categories, to help set the mood for anything from a wedding video to the next Sundance original. For more information, please visit Magic Bullet Looks in our Plug-in Finder.

Other Vanguard winners include:

• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium
• Adobe Flash Player 9
• AJA Video Systems Io HD
• Apple Final Cut Studio 2
• Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro
• Ciprico MediaVault 5100 series
• Microsoft Silverlight
• Panasonic AVC-Intra
• Panasonic BT-LH80W
• Red Digital Cinema Red One
• Sony BVM-L230
• Sony PMW-EX1 and SxS flash memory card

About Red Giant Software

Red Giant Software LLC (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/) is a San Francisco-based company that develops professional tools for digital video production. Products are available as plug-ins for popular video editing and effects applications including After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, and Avid. All tools are based on production-proven technology developed by visual effects veterans.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Creative Suite, Final Cut Studio, Magic Bullet Looks, Red Giant

Here's an interesting tidbit... Britney Spears is exactly, to the day, one year older than Adobe!

Adobe celebrated 25 yesterday. John Nack's blog, John Nack on Adobe, takes a trip down memory lane in his post Adobe: The second quarter-century begins.

Labels: Adobe

From Adobe Labs:

Today a preview of the Adobe Premiere Pro Update for Intel SSE4.1 was released on Adobe Labs. This optional update is meant to be a preview of the optimization work that is currently under development for the next release of Premiere Pro.

Labels: Adobe, Premiere Pro

NewBlueFX Audio and Video Special Effects Plugins for Sony Vegas...now available at Toolfarm!
NewBlueFX offers dozens of filters, equalizers, special effects and pro-quality production tools for digital video editors running Sony Vegas. Add Film Effects, Motion Blends, 3D Explosions, Art Effects, and transitions to your creative arsenal, along with powerful audio tools to enhance and add interest to your audio tracks.

NewBlueFx will soon be available for Adobe Premiere Pro and Premiere Elements - with After Effects and Final Cut Pro development in the future.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, audio, Final Cut Pro, NewBlueFX, Premiere Elements, Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas

The 2008 Adobe Design Achievement Awards gives higher education students from around the world the creative license to propel their careers in the future. Enter in 12 categories in 3 media areas endorsed by the industry, over 60$K US in cash prizes will be awarded in New York City.

They will be taking submissions through May 2, 2008.

Submit your work here

Labels: Adobe, Contest

Adobe Audition 3 software is the all-in-one solution for audio recording, mixing, editing, and mastering. Whether you are creating your own music, recording and mixing a project, producing a radio spot, cleaning up production audio for a movie, or editing a soundtrack for a business presentation, Adobe Audition 3 gives you the tools you need to sound your best. Record with a powerful, flexible, low-latency mixing engine; create and arrange DVD- and HD-quality audio; and master productions with visual tools and easy-to-use audio cleanup features.

Product highlights

• All-in-one solution for audio recording, mixing, editing, and mastering
• Powerful, flexible, low-latency mixing engine with VSTi support for real-time recording and editing
Complete audio mastering and restoration toolset for unprecedented flexibility and control

Upgrade for just $99!

Labels: Adobe, audio, audition

Dave Helmly Adobe Blog has a new workflow video of the new After Effects P2 Support in Action. It will be part of the next free After Effects update (v8.02) which is scheduled for an end of year release.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects

I was just perusing some of the upcoming online events from Adobe after receiving a notice about one I'm signed up for.

Tomorrow is the Discover the hidden power of Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 eSeminar at 11am PST.

On November 15, there's a seminar called Working with Photoshop Extended to use with Premiere Pro and After Effects.

November 29 is Create DVD motion menus that wow your audience using Adobe After Effects CS3 and December 13 is A New World of Interactive Video Content.

Sign up today. It's free and you're certain to learn a lot.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Creative Suite, Photoshop, Premiere Pro

The Adobe Premiere Pro 3.1 update introduces Panasonic P2/MXF support and fixes a few bugs.

• Premiere Pro 3.1 update for Macintosh
• Windows: Premiere Pro 3.1 update for Windows

Labels: Adobe, Premiere Pro

Download this PDF about Adobe's support for Leopard and which need patches.

Labels: Adobe, Apple

From John Nack's Blog

Does Adobe recommend running Production Premium or Master Collection before its updates are available?

A. Yes, we are comfortable recommending this. Our testing revealed a few issues in specific workflows when running the video professional applications on Mac OS X Leopard. Many video professionals would not encounter these issues on a day-to-day basis, but we want to provide updates in December 2007 to address these issues and meet our standards of quality. You can evaluate the issues by visiting www.adobe.com/go/support and searching the online knowledgebase for more information.

What about older versions of Adobe software? The FAQ says,

While older Adobe applications may install and run on Mac OS X Leopard, they were designed, tested, and released to the public several years before this new operating system became available. You may, therefore, experience a variety of installation, stability, and reliability issues for which there is no resolution. Older versions of our creative software will not be updated to support Mac OS X.

I can't speak for other app teams, but while we naturally concentrated our testing on Photoshop CS3 (and beyond), we also tested CS2 a fair bit. The only significant problem we discovered is that Photoshop's Web Photo Gallery module can crash while running under Leopard. We plan to post an updated version that fixes the crash, but that won't go up until Monday. In case you're impatient, I've attached the file here/ (link should be live in a minute).

Also, check out Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Information to collect before an Erase and Install

Labels: Adobe, Apple

Via John Nack's Blog:

Last night at MAX, Adobe's Geoff Baum got on stage during the sneak peek session to show off a bit more of Photoshop Express. Boy, things have come a long way in the few weeks since the sneak at Photoshop World, and last night's demo showed Healing Brush- & Liquify-like tools running via the app's Flash interface. CNET's Martin LaMonica has details and screenshots.

The company is still being somewhat coy (as is par for the course when previewing technology), but as info firms up, I'll pass it along.

Labels: Adobe, Photoshop

This is a public service announcement:

Listen to the OnDemand training from Adobe and Register for upcoming eSeminars, including the one on October 4.

Via The Genesis Project

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Event, Training

The ever prolific Ko Maruyama has produced a couple of videos for the Adobe Design Center about Vanishing Point.

Working with Vanishing Point in Photoshop and After Effects

Using Vanishing Point to map a 3D environment

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Ko Maruyama, Photoshop, Tutorial

Last Call to sign up for the September 25th meeting at Adobe in San Francisco, 601 Townsend. Tickets are almost SOLD OUT. Claudia Crask, SF Cutters Ambassador/Business Manager gives the download of the meeting:

• Mabel Valdiviezo's long awaited preso of "oledad is Gone Forever" with her Colorist Chris Martin of Spypost
• Bob Donlon of Adobe showing Premiere Pro and After Effects
• Torrey Loomis of Silverado Systems and the RED CAMERA
• Dan May President of Blackmagic Design: "Choose the right card for the job"
• Alan Wray artist Photoshop and FX in FCP
• Chris Martin Digital Colorist Spy Post

Claudia needs to turn the attendee list in to Adobe on Monday morning, and just received permission to extend the total attendees to over 100. There are only about 15 seats left - if you were thinking about coming sign up now. Adobe is also buying a lot of pizza.

Pizza!? RSVP for the September 25 meeting now.

Also, Chris Phrommayon is holding a Final Cut Pro Workshop for Editors on October 20. Christopher Phrommayon is a video editor, motion graphics designer, and Apple, Avid, and Adobe certified instructor, whose clients include PBS, ABC, ESPN, Comcast, and Fox. Chris teaches Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Motion, Shake, Adobe After Effects, and Avid Media Composer.

Enrolling Now: Limited Seating - no more than 18 in this class.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Event, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, SF Cutters

Michael Horton posted to our forum about the next LAFCPUG meeting... that's Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group for anyone unschooled in acronyms (laugh-ka-pug?)

This seriously looks like a "Don't Miss" event... Next Wednesday, September 26. All of the details are in Michael's forum post.

Michael was recently interviewed on our podcast, Plugged-in and ditor and co-host of Digital Production BuZZ.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Apple, Motion

MAX 2007 is an experience unlike any other, an opportunity to connect with thousands of Adobe users, experts, and staff for education, inspiration, and community. Join us to discover new skills, explore emerging technologies, build valuable relationships, and together challenge the limits of creative possibility. The event will also visit Barcelona, Spain, and Tokyo, Japan.

Labels: Adobe, Event

Michael Coleman is the product manager for Adobe After Effects and he posted the following to his blog:

One of the best parts of being on the After Effects team is how much interaction we have with our customers. We visit many of you just hear what you have to say about After Effects and the projects you are working on. While this is informative and a lot of fun, eventually we have to head home and get to work!

Since we can't speak with every one of you personally, we're also conducting a survey about After Effects usage. You are invited to take a few minutes of your time to tell us a few things about yourself, your projects, and your workflow. You'll also get a chance to indicate which potential features are most important to you. We often use surveys like this to guide future development efforts.

Please go to this URL to get started. It will probably take about 15 minutes to complete the survey. It is hosted at Surveymonkey.com

We know you probably have a million things to do, but if you can take some to have a little influence on the After Effects team, we'd certainly appreciate it.

The information we gather is just for Adobe's use and we promise not to do anything annoying with your survey responses. All data will be kept confidential. No information about you will be sold or furnished to any other company whatsoever, nor will you receive unsolicited e-mails because of your participation in this survey.

You may see another survey invitation from me on other forums or e-mail lists. It's the same survey and there's no need to do the survey again.

On behalf of the entire After Effects team, thanks!

Labels: Adobe, After Effects

Sign up today for some free video seminars from Adobe! Here is a sampling of the classes:

• Creating Animations with After Effects and output to Flash
• After Effects 101 part 2: Creating motion backgrounds and elements
• Capture the best footage possible from your video camera and save editing time with OnLocation and Premiere Pro
• Working with Photoshop Extended to use with Premiere Pro and After Effects
• Create DVD motion menus that wow your audience using Adobe After Effects CS

There are a few more on the list as well. Classes start September 27 and go through late November.

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Encore, Flash, OnLocation, Photoshop, Premiere Pro

Dear Digieffects Customer:

I want to thank you for all your support since I acquired the business in May. Since that time we've worked hard to update our code and bring Digieffects into the new millennium. Needless to say, it's been messy but we're making good progress.

As many of you know, we're working on our Universal Binary and Adobe CS3 compatibility updates for Mac Intel. This is scheduled to be released within 30 days and will, as promised, be free of charge to all existing customers. This update won't cover the Buena products (acquired from Toolfarm in June) which will come later this Fall.

One of the other engineering initiatives we embarked upon - and accomplished - was removing an archaic serialization scheme where our software required a CD-ROM to be serialized. Most Digieffects software is now available via ESD (electronic software download) which means it can be downloaded as a free trial and purchased immediately if desired. This is great for customers because it eliminates all the costs associated with a supply chain. Accordingly, a byproduct of these savings is drastically reduced prices (for example, Delirium is now $399 compared to $699 before).

In our march towards modernity we broke some things along the way. Here's a list of what works, what doesn't and when we hope to have it fixed.

Cinelook 2.5:

1. Mac: Already a Universal Binary application so it functions on Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro CS3 as well as Apple Final Cut Pro 6 and Autodesk Combustion 4. On the Mac we had to eliminate the custom UI for this version.
2. Windows: Functional in all modern host applications.

Delirium, Aurorix, Berserk and Fantazm:

1. Mac: Universal Binary and Adobe CS3 update coming out within 30 days. If your host application is a Universal Binary application you can still run these plug-ins in Rosetta mode. The exception here is Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 which can't run in Rosetta mode. This means Delirium, Aurorix, Berserk and Fantazm won't run on Premiere Pro CS3 Mac until our Universal Binary update is available.
2. Windows: Full compatibility with Adobe After Effects CS3 and Autodesk Combustion 4. It appears that our recent development efforts have broken all our compatibility with Premiere Pro on Windows (all versions). We're working to fix this immediately.

Buena Effects Pack (includes Au Naturel and Effect Essentials) and Buena Depth Cue:

1. Mac: Universal Binary update schedule for this Fall (no exact date yet). Same Rosetta workaround as mentioned above.
2. Windows: Functional in all modern host applications with the exception of Depth Cue which doesn't work with Adobe Premiere Pro. We are working to fix this.

We plan to have major revisions, including speed optimizations, out later this year. If you have any questions or anything to add, please give me a shout!

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Aurorix, Berserk, Buena, Buena Depth Cue, Buena Effects Pack, Cinelook, Delirium, DigiEffects, Fantasm, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, Universal

Enhance your video productions with incredible footage from Artbeats. Adobe has selected 15 royalty-free stock footage clips from the Artbeats library specifically to expand your creative options. Included are billowing clouds, stunning pyrotechnic effects, water drops, gently falling rain, a spinning globe, and mood-setting animated backgrounds. Available in NTSC and PAL formats. For more information and to preview all 15 of the clips, visit www.artbeats.com/adobeclips.

Buy Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium or Master Collection and get free footage from Artbeats - a $2,895 Value!

Offer Terms and Conditions:
Customers purchase a full retail or upgrade version (does not include Education, OEM or VAB versions) of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium or the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection from the Adobe Store or a participating reseller from September 10th, 2007 through November 30th, 2007 to be eligible to download 15 royalty-free stock footage clips from Artbeats ("Artbeats Clips") for free (a value of US$2,895). Offer is available to customers located in the U.S., Canada (excluding Quebec) and Mexico.

Labels: Adobe, ArtBeats, Creative Suite

Today, August 31, is the last day to register for Best in the SW at pre-conference prices. Don't forget!

Be inspired at Best in the SW
Meet the artists who created animations and visual effects for The Bourne Ultimatum, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Disney, The Simpsons and Nickelodeon.

Top Hollywood animators, motion graphics artists and VFX artists are coming to the Best in the SW: Flash Animation and Motion Graphics Festival to share their skills, work, and professional insights in panel discussions and workshop sessions. See how screen graphics were created for The Bourne Ultimatum. Learn about the VFX pipeline used in Star Wars. Discover how Disney and Nickelodeon animators are using Flash in their workflow. Learn new skills and techniques to apply to your own work in motion graphics, title design, broadcast design and animation.

This is the first time such a wealth of industry talent has come to one place—at the same time and in one location, ready to take you beyond technique to the art of Flash animation, broadcast design and motion graphics. Best in the SW covers it all: concepts, design and execution, in panels and sessions that include:

• The Art of Screen Graphics: The Bourne Ultimatum
• Flash Goes to Hollywood
• Advanced Cameras and Lighting in After Effects
• Flash Animation: The Art of Illusion
• Apple Motion: Meet the new 3D
• Character Animation Techniques in Flash
• Complex Animation Made Easy
• The Anatomy of VFXs
• Directing an Animated Feature
• Motion Graphics and VFX in Hollywood
• Zona Design: Design Made to Move
• Learn. Network. Celebrate the best.

Join the 2007 Best in the SW speakers, industry leaders and Adobe pros for a casual kickoff party in the Atrium at the Embassy Suites Hotel on October 8th. The conference opens on the 9th with Adobe favorite Michael Coleman giving a tour of the hottest motion graphics, broadcast design, and animation studios in the country using Flash and After Effects, followed by our annual Best in the SW: Flash Animation & Motion Graphics Awards program.

Be transported.
View the 2007 Domie Award winners and 40 minutes of the most innovative full-dome animations, motion graphics, and works of art at an after-hours party at the ARTS Labs Digital Media Garage on October 10th. Full-dome video is a rapidly growing medium with over 125 immersive displays deployed worldwide in planetariums and special-venue theaters. Freed from the "tyranny of the frame," artists transport viewers into fully immersive, mind-bending environments and alternate worlds as they explore storytelling techniques for this new medium.

An while you're at the ARTS Lab - join the party! We're blocking the street and making room for fun! Join the 2007 Best in the SW speakers, industry leaders and Adobe pros for an evening of food, drinks and music. See live motion capture demonstrations. Enjoy a unique visual sound design experience by artist Carla Barlow. Network with fellow attendees, enjoy food and drink, and be prepared for an evening of fun!

Take your pick.
Choose from the 3-day conference pass or full-festival pass that includes an extra day of pre-conference workshops. Then work hands-on with a pro in 2 days of post-conference intensives.

Best in the SW will be held at the Embassy Suites hotel in Albuquerque from October 8-11, 2007. For more information on conference events, or to register, visit www.bestinthesw.com.

Best in the SW 2007 speakers include:

• Zoa Martinez: A&E Networks, Animal Planet, Chrysler, Disney/ESPN, Dodge, HBO, SKY Italia, Time Warner/NY1
• Phil Nibbelink: Disney, Casper, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, An American Tail, We're Back
• Mark Coleran: The Bourne Ultimatum, Mission Impossible 3, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Stanton Cruse: ABC, Slacker Cats, MTV 2, Where My Dogs At, Cartoon Network
• Trish & Chris Meyer: Cybermotion, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, The Learning Channel, HBO, PBS
• Alex Lindsay: Industrial Light & Magic, Titan AE, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
• Chris Georgenes: Leapfrog, Nicktoons, Teletubbies, New Balance, Hasbro, Fuse TV, Carnegie Hall, PBS
• Dr. Woohoo: Fila, Bank of America, eTrade, CamelBak, Nike Golf, Nascar, Taylormade, NBC
• Ehren Addis: Universal Studios, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Old Navy, Atlantis, Motorola, Sketchers
• Michael Coleman: Adobe - Product Manager for Adobe After Effects
• Kevan O'Brien: Adobe - Video Expert

Labels: Adobe, After Effects, Best in SW, CyberMotion, Event, Flash

Cross-Platform Support for Both Mac OS X and Windows Enables the Industry's First Practical Collaborative Workflow

August 28, 2007 - Source: Studio Daily - CineForm, Inc. today announced that QuickTime versions of its HD and 2K CineForm Intermediate^TM codecs are shipping in production for Intel-based Macintosh computers running Mac OS X 10.4 or later. CineForm QuickTime movie files are now compatible on both Windows and Mac OS X computers. CineForm QuickTime files eliminate the need for massively large DPX files as a common exchange format between platforms, thus enabling the industry's first practical cross-platform and cross-application post-production workflow. Mac OS X software applications supported with the first production release include Adobe's CS3 Production Premium, Apple's Final Cut Pro, Motion, and QuickTime Player, Media 100, and Pomfort Silverstack. CineForm is also offering a free decoder for Intel-based Macs called Neo Player Mac.

"Adobe and CineForm have enjoyed working together for many years to optimize online digital workflows for independent filmmakers", said Simon Hayhurst, director of product management, Dynamic Media Organization for Adobe. "As the market expands, we're looking forward to collaborating with CineForm to enable the industry's most powerful cross-platform compatibility using CineForm Intermediate technologies within Adobe CS3 Production Premium". "The biggest workflow frustration expressed by our customers has been the lack of file compatibility between platforms," said David Taylor, CEO of CineForm, Inc. "Historically each platform has been an "island", inefficient for cross-platform project collaboration. With our CineForm Intermediate QuickTime codec for Mac, we're enthused to offer our customers a forward step towards simplifying collaborative digital workflows and reducing costs".

CineForm QuickTime Codec for Mac OS X
The CineForm QuickTime codec is now shipping with CineForm's Neo HD/2K and Prospect HD/2K products. The Neo and Prospect product families provide high-definition editing support for a broad range of industry post-production software, including from Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Media 100, Sony, and others. Each product purchase provides both a Windows and Mac OS X activation emphasizing the new simplicity of cross-platform compatibility. CineForm's QuickTime codec supports digital workflows from standard definition all the way to 2048x2048, including the 12-bit CineForm 444 format suitable for film scanning, animation, and high-end compositing. CineForm's free Neo Player for Mac allows all users of Intel-based Macs to play CineForm QuickTime files within most Mac video applications, including Adobe CS3, Apple Final Cut Pro, and QuickTime player, regardless of whether the files were created on Windows or Mac.

Pricing and Availability
NEO HD/2K and Prospect HD/2K, which include the CineForm QuickTime codec for Mac OS X, are available for immediate purchase with a starting price of $599. Certain free upgrades and special pricing is available to existing CineForm customers. Neo Player for Mac is available as a free download from CineForm's website. Visit CineForm's website www.cineform.com for more details. Purchases may be made from CineForm's website or from CineForm's network of resellers.

Labels: Adobe, Cineform

Okay, I know I've brought this up but I don't want anyone to accidently miss out!

If you got in on the free upgrade to AE CS3 when you purchased AE7 deal and have not claimed your AE CS3, you need to do it soon!

Dated proof of purchase and serial number for Adobe After Effects 7.0 Professional are required. You must claim your upgrade by September 12, 2007. Please contact Adobe Customer Service at 1-800-833-6687 and select option #1 by September 12, 2007 to request your upgrade. Shipping charges will apply. (Program Summary PDF)

Labels: Adobe, After Effects

provides important bug fixes for encoding and decoding H.264-encoded content and creating Blu-ray discs. Adobe strongly recommends that all users install this update to improve compatibility with H.264 content.

More information on the Encore update

Labels: Adobe, Encore