The iPhone Patent

The US Patent and Trademark Office has revealed a mammoth document that can only be described as The iPhone Patent, a 371-page spectacular that covers Apple's handheld multi-touch UI paradigm in excruciating detail. Many of the mocked-up screen shots depicted in the paperwork are dead ringers for screens that we're well acquainted with in the production phone, while others represent ideas that either haven't finished cooking or eventually found their way into the Cupertino circular file (follow the break for a picture of a home screen with dedicated "Blog" and dictionary apps, for instance). The application also mentions "modules" for video conferencing, GPS, and other currently non-existent (though widely expected) functionality. And in case there's any doubt over who was responsible for this compendium of legalese, industrial design, and technical diagrams, one only need look at the header of page 1: "Jobs et al." Yep, Steve himself wasn't the least bit shy about taking credit atop an entire column of company A-listers for inventing the iPhone's trademark user interface, which we're guessing came about from a mix of equal parts truth, ego, and ass-kissing from the legal department down the hall. Seriously though, if you're Scott Forstall down there at number two on the Inventors list, what are you going to do -- go boardroom showdown all John Sculley-style?

(via Engadget)

Rocking out With Rock Band in the Vans Warped Tour!

Well, looks like not even Punk Rawk music can compete with the onslaught of music simulation videogames. Proof of this is Xbox.com's decision to make an... alliance with Rock Band to provide what they call "some gaming fun along with the music". This means that at each tour date, one will be able to leave the mosh pit for a second, and head for the nearest Rock Band gaming station... This means, the true end of anarchy for Punk Rawk....

Lesson 3.3 is getting near, be ready!

Rock Band
Vans Warped Tour
Xbox 360

Nueva Cámara de cine digital full HD SONY HVR-Z7

Cámara SONY HVRZ1 HVR-Z7: "HVRZ7N NUEVA CAMARA DE 3 CMOS Cine Digital FULL HD
US$6,850 mas IVA
Tiempo de entrega usualmente 1 día hábil a partir de la recepción de tu deposito pregunta disponibilidad pues la demanda es muy alta y manda un email video@video.com.mx Tel 5343 5650 Cel 044 5532018741

Folleto

La nueva HVR-Z7 usa el sistema 3 ClearVid CMOS Sensor™ de tipo 1/3” (0,85 cm) de Sony, mejorado con la tecnología Exmor™. Las dos nuevas tecnologías trabajan juntas para que la camára pueda desempeñarse significativamente mejor en entornos de baja iluminación, con sensibilidad de 1,5 lux.*"

Para mayor flexibilidad, los usuarios pueden poner lentes diferentes, con la ventaja de que ambos modelos tienen un mecanismo universal estándar de montaje en bayoneta de 1/3” (0,85 cm) para cambiar lentes más fácilmente.

Aprovechando un adaptador especial, los usuarios pueden conectar también una serie de lentes diseñados para cámaras fotográficas SLR digitales de Sony para el consumidor.

Los camcorders HVR-Z7N y HVR-S270N pueden cambiar entre grabación 1080p, 1080i en formato HDV, DVCAM™ y DV. Ambos pueden reducir en frecuencias el material HD a SD, y producir las señales de video tanto a través de su interfaz i.LINK como a través de otros conectores de salida SD.

El modelo HVR-Z7N tiene una salida HDMI, en tanto que el HVR-S270N se ofrece con conectividad HD-SDI o SD-SDI, y admite código de tiempo y audio encajados.

En existencia $US$6,850 mas IVA Dólares mas IVA

Sony gets serious about HDV with two fine cameras based on the same core components

ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder: "Review: Sony HVR-Z7 & HVR-S270 1/3” 3-CMOS HDV camcorders
Sony gets serious about HDV with two fine cameras based on the same core components"
The HVR-Z7 and HVR-S270 camcorders take Sony’s commitment to the HDV format to the next level. Both are based on the same core technology: three 1/3” ClearVid CMOS sensors viewing the world behind interchangeable lenses. The cameras share the same EVF and LCD panels, the same microphones, the same rich feature sets (including CF card recording, and both interlaced and true progressive HDV modes), and the same fundamental performance, but they’re packaged very differently. The Z7 is a svelte Handycam, while the S270 is a no-excuses shoulder-mount camcorder, bristling with dedicated buttons and switches, full-sized BNC connectors, large-cassette capability, and four channels of audio recording—a first for HDV.

The US$6,850 (list) HVR-Z7 weighs about 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg) in shooting configuration, a bit heavier than an HVR-V1 or HVR-Z1 but lighter than an HVX200 or PMW-EX1. It’s a compact and well-balanced package.

The $10,500 (list) HVR-S270 weighs in at around 15 pounds (6.8 kg)—no Handycam this, but a solid, hefty unit that feels instantly familiar to shooters used to DSR-300/400/500-series units or other, similar shoulder-mount camcorders.

Windows 7 is shown off...

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer got on stage at D6 with Walt and Kara to talk... Microsoft, of course. While the company is still being rather coy about Windows 7 -- some have blamed loose lips early on in Vista development for saddling the OS with too high of expectations and making things difficult for developers -- they were nice enough to show off what Ballmer called "the smallest snippet" of Windows 7. The big reveal was multi-touch support, which utilizes technology developed by the Surface team. The taskbar seems to have been reworked a bit, and the demo was running live on a Dell Latitude XT tablet. Apparently Microsoft is reworking the whole user interface with a multitouch experience in mind. Steve reiterated the "three years after Vista" mantra for availability. Not exactly earth-shattering, but we'll take what we can get at this point.(via Engadget)

Windows 7

ShotPut EXpress™ For Sony XDCamHD EX Cameras

ShotPut EXpress™ For Sony XDCamHD EX Cameras
Automates Secure Offloading and Backup of SxS Cards


Carmel, IN – Imagine Products, Inc. announced today the release and general availability of ShotPut EXpress™ a new, automated offload application for Sony EX SxS cards. Now you can securely backup Sony XDCamHD EX based video projects while streamlining your workflow from acquisition to archive. Available for Mac or Windows (Intel-Mac, Windows XP and Vista computers).

ShotPut EXpress™ features Single card (manual) and Multiple card (auto) modes. Simply insert the SxS card into a PowerBook or Notebook’s ExpressCard slot and ShotPut EXpress™ makes secure, verified copies of the SxS card’s video contents (the BPAV folder) in up to three (3) locations.

ShotPut EXpress™ makes a printable activities report log of all the file transfer activities. This text file shows all the details including names of cards and files, the copy destination names, file sizes, duration of each transfer and aggregate transfer time, date, etc. A great way to document and organize your project and billable time.

Why Use ShotPut EXpress?

Fast Copying: Perform copies at top speed without the overhead of Finder or Explorer.

Automatic or Manual Copies: Manually select one or more drives to copy. Or use the auto offload mode to sequentially copy SxS cards upon insertion.

Easy Folder Naming: Save time and improve consistency and organization by auto-naming the copy folders.

Improve Workflow: Make up to 3 simultaneous SxS card copies at the same time.

Reformat Cards: After offloading is finished, automatically Erase the BPAV folder contents and Rename the card so it’s ready to return to the camera.



Security: Verify byte-to-byte comparisons of your media copies to ensure integrity of the files.

Verification Report: Create a record of file transfer activity, how the copies were named, time, date, etc. Save complete details for project organization and billable time.

Print Offload Log: Offload results are presented in a text file, printable with the click of a button.

Session Error Checking: Prevents overwriting of existing folders and duplicate offloading of the same card.

Progress Bar: Displays overall percent completion and file-by-file progress during the copy process.

Copy Cards or Disks: The BPAV contents of any mountable volume (drive) can be copied.





ShotPut EXpress is a single user, download application. Help and Users Guide in PDF format available. When you purchase, the serial number provided may be used with either the Mac or Win versions of the software. Available now.

Imagine Products, Inc. develops high value, innovative digital logging tools, video analysis solutions, archiving systems and asset management software for video professionals. Imagine Products' corporate headquarters is located at 1052 Summit Drive, Carmel, Indiana 46032, USA. The company can be reached by phone at (317)-843-0706, by fax at (317)-843-0807, or on the web at http://www.ImagineProducts.com/


ShotPut EXpress is a trademark of Imagine Products, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Lesson 3.2: The Timeline

Well, the Timeline: This is where the magic happens. You may set effects and in-points and out-points in the Viewer, or select those effects in the Browser, but your project ends up here... The almighty Timeline. 

Actually, at first glance (and based upon personal and shared opinions) the Timeline looks like the easiest window to understand, specially if you´ve worked on iMovie. And it is, if you use the basic knowledge: you pull the clip, and drop it on the Timeline, like we did on Lesson 3.1. But then, you´d have a sequence featuring tons of bumps, and jumps, and audio problems, etcetera.

The Timeline and the Canvas have a smbiotic relationship: Both display two different views of the same sequence, were the Timeline shows the chronological arrangement of clips ad layered video and audio clip items, while the Canvas provides  single view of your sequence as it will appear on whichever media you´ll be playing it.

On the upper right corner of theTimeline you´ll find the tabs for each different sequence you´ve created. Using the timeline, you can quickly navigate through an entire edited sequence, adding, rearranging and removing clip items.

One thing you´ll notice is that the playhead in the Canvas mirrors the playhead in the Timeline, which means you can use the Canvas to add in-points, out-points, markers and keyframes in the Timeline, and viceversa.

You can open sequences from the Browser in the Timeline, by double clicking the desired sequence in the Browser. Also, if that sequence had previously been opened in the Timeline, you can select it from the tabs I mentioned earlier, located on the upper right corner of the Timeline. To close a sequence, simply select the sequence´s tab in the Timeline, and choose File>Close Tab

On the Lower right corner of the Timeline you´ll find the keyframe and track controls: Toggle Clip Overlays and Toggle Clip Keyframes. The Toggle Clip Overlays button allows you to actually see the levels of opacity and sound in the sequence´s clips, while the Toggle Clip Keyframes button allows you to edit keyframes in the clip. Those of you familiar with Macromedia Flash (now known as Adobe Flash, since the release of CS3=, or Corel R.A.V.E (known asCorelCAPTURE, from the release of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 on(man, has it been that long since I learned to use animation software????)) , or any other animation software will know what a keyframe is, and what's it's usage.

On the right side of the Timeline, we found ourselves with the Editing Controls: Source and Destination, Track Visibility, Lock Track, and Auto Select Control.

Today´s shortcuts: 

Snapping: N

Linked Selection: Shift+L

Clip Overlays: Option+W

Render All: Option+R

That´s all for today. Keep an eye out for Lesson 3.3

Final Cut Pro

Canon Selphy CP770: Prints in a bucket...

The Selphy CP770 is probably the most interesting design in a peripheral I've seen in the past 6 months: the printer, accessories, paper and ink are stored in a special compact photo tub with carry handle.

The printer can also print directly from a camera or memory card without a computer. It accepts most card formats. Although it's a bit slow (it takes 52 seconds to print a 15 x 10 cm photograph), it features a nice 300 dps resolution

The Selphy CP770 has a 2.5" LCD screen, with which one can perform minor adjustments to the photographs, like red-eye correction. Best thing of it all: It can use a rechargeable battery, which makes this bucket-printer hybrid truly portable.

Canon Selphy CP770

Glow in the Dark Xbox enclosure haunts small gamers around the world...

(Via Engadget)

I've seen many enclosures for the Xbox 360: Hentai enclosures, crocodile skin enclosures, heart enclosures, and once, a multicolored enclosure (this one was created by accident by a friend of mine, who thought it was intelligent to do an arts project with oil paints on top of his XB360)

But, for some reason, no one had ever made a Glow-in-the-dark enclosure. Probably because glow in the dark things are kind of (admit it) spooky. Imagine entering your living room and seeing your Xbox 360 glowing with a ghastly green light. Sounds like extracted from Poltergeist, doesn't it?

But then again, if you like Fatal Frame, then this might suit your needs....

Sold Here

Stay tuned for Lesson 3.2 from our FCP course.

Glow In The Dark enclosure

Lesson 3: Editing 101

Well, we've gotten here. That's quite a step, you know? Many people just stare at the computer and say: Meh, I think I'll do it in iMovie instead... But if you've followed since Lesson 1, and at least have tried to set a scratch disk, then you are worthy of recognition

This one is a strange lesson, because I can't really tell how you should edit your videos. I can only pass on some old editing wisdoms, and say what buttons do what things. But editing works two ways:

1. You follow your instinct
2. You obey the producer's orders

It is also an extensive lesson we'll have to divide into 4 parts. Today we'll concentrate on basic editing. So, let's get started...

First of all, ancient editing wisdoms:

1. Long clips are boooooooriiiiing! Keep it short, 10 seconds per clip, at it's most...
2. Do not overuse effects. It looks cheesy, and it can force your computer into a crash, unless you render
3. Transitions ARE an effect
4. Sound is important. Try to use sound transitions whenever sound levels jump a lot between clips
5. Don't listen to music while editing... Trust me...
6. Save your project, for God's sake, Save every 5 minutes!!! You can't trust on the autosave feature too much...
7. Don't edit more time than you can spend having fun. You'll get bored, and eventually, you will do neither. Try to balance it..

Now, off to the EditCave (cheesy 70´s superhero music):

If you've payed attention, you now know each of the windows in FCP (Browser, Canvas, Viewer, Timeline). You also know how to upload footage (Log and Capture). So now, all you've got to do is, move your mouse button over to the Browser. That's it. Double-click the desired clip to make it appear on the Viewer. Now that "Kat's_Birthday_Party_001.1" is on the viewer, proceed to select an in and an out point. (Remember Lesson 1's shortcuts? I= set in-point, O = set out-point) Now, once you've set the in-point at the moment Kat's face is shoved deep into the cake by good old Tommy Benson, and the out point when Kat throws cake at Tommy's face, click and drag the Viewer's screen. You can either drag it to the Timeline, and drop it there, or to the Canvas, were a small multicolored menu will appear, displaying different options: Insert, Superimpose, etc. Choose the one you prefer. If your clip appeared exactly as you wanted on the Timeline, congratulations, you've succesfully edited a clip!!!

Now, that's adrenaline, ain't it?

Keep tuned for part 2 of lesson 3!

Final Cut Pro

New Fujifilm A-series camera...

The Fujifilm FinePix A850 is a new entry-level digital camera offering 8 megapixels, a 3x zoom lens and ISO 800 sensitivity at full resolution. Image Intelligence processing, 14 selectable scene modes, icon-based Graphical User Interface and complete the major specifications. The Fujifilm FinePix A850 will be available from retailers from July. Pricing will be announced nearer to the date of the launch. (Via PhotographyBlog)


FinePix A850

Video en internet, gran apuesta de la publicidad

Video en internet, gran apuesta de la publicidad
"Lo que vamos a ver con la publicidad en línea y con la publicidad en videos es lo que se ha visto con la publicidad en medios escritos y televisión, que es una mejora progresiva", explicó el presidente ejecutivo de Publicis, Maurice Levy, en un foro organizado por Reuters.
Redacción / El Economista.com.mx


Nueva York.- Toda conversación sobre los mejores lugares para la publicidad acaba inevitablemente en el video en Internet, mientras las compañías se muestran ansiosas de llegar a una audiencia enorme que ahora ve sus programas favoritos de televisión o videos caseros en la red.

¿Por qué entonces las compañías estadounidenses del sector sólo gastaron 471 millones de dólares en publicidad en videos en internet el año pasado, según la consultora Forrester, lo que supone apenas el 2.6% de todo el marketing interactivo?

Los ejecutivos que acudieron esta semana a un foro de Reuters sobre tecnología, medios y telecomunicaciones hablan de la inexperiencia del personal creativo y de ventas, así como del temor a lo desconocido, entre los obstáculos.

Sin embargo, se mostraron de acuerdo en que es cuestión de tiempo el que se produzca un despegue.

“Lo que vamos a ver con la publicidad en línea y con la publicidad en videos es lo que se ha visto con la publicidad en medios escritos y televisión, que es una mejora progresiva”, dijo el presidente ejecutivo de Publicis, Maurice Levy.

En una industria que tiene que atraer a los clientes con anuncios de televisión de 30 y 60 segundos, crear anuncios efectivos en internet ha sido difícil hasta ahora.

“Las cosas sólo crecerán con la velocidad que dicten los anunciantes de televisión y, sinceramente, estos son tipos que quieren moverse con mucha cautela porque históricamente han tenido todas las cartas en el mundo publicitario”, explicó el analista de Forrester James McQuivey.



Vender publicidad en videos es otra cuestión

“No creo que los publicistas tengan claro verdaderamente cómo venderlo todavía o qué formatos funcionan mejor con los consumidores, y mucha de la tecnología para anuncios (...) sigue siendo muy inmadura”, dijo Saul Klein, socio de la principal compañía de capital riesgo en Internet de Europa, Index Ventures.

“Ni siquiera los principales actores, Google con DoubleClick, etcétera, tienen una respuesta clara sobre cómo va a funcionar el video”, agregó.

Aún así, Forrester espera que el gasto en publicidad en video online casi se duplique este año, a 989 millones de dólares, y luego de nuevo a 1,860 millones de dólares en el 2009.

Esto supone una tasa anual de crecimiento del 72% del 2007 al 2012, mucho más que otros tipos de publicidad interactiva.

Guitar Hero IV is finally named, and gets a few pats in the back in the process

Up until now, all we knew about Guitar Hero IV was that it had designed it's own guitar controller and that it included a drum kit with cymbals. Not much, if you ask me.

But now, we know a lot more. We know for starters, it will be released by Fall 2008. We also know the official name, Guitar Hero: World Tour (snazzy!!)

The game will include songs by bands like Van Halen, The Eagles and Sublime. The game will offer significantly more localized downloadable music than ever before on all of the next-generation consoles. Budding rock stars will also be given creative license to fully customize everything from their characters' appearance and instruments to their band's logo and album covers.

There's also an 8 player "Battle of The Bands" for online and offline gaming

Citing literally the press release: In addition to a newly designed more responsive guitar controller and microphone, Guitar Hero World Tour will deliver the most realistic drum experience ever in a video game with an authentic electronic drum kit. Featuring three drum pads, two raised cymbals and a bass kick pedal, the drum controller combines larger and quieter, velocity-sensitive drum heads with soft rubber construction to deliver authentic bounce back and is easy to set up, move, break down and store.

Perhaps the most "promising" feature of GH:WT is it's Music Studio, with which a player can create a digital composition that can be played and shared with other players online with GHTunes.

The game is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for Xbox 360 and Ps3, Vicarious Visions for Wii, and Budcat for PS2.

This looks like the cue for GH fans to start saving...



Guitar Hero: World Tour

Nanobot plays Soccer, Ronaldinho fears for his job...

When I found this, I actually thought it would be some kind of spoof, you know, like those sneezing panda videos? But upon seeing the video, my jaw dropped to the ground. If you were awed by the Swashbot's simplicity, this will cause you a seizure




More info at : IRIS


Nanobot Playing Soccer

Game Consoles Contain Harmful Materials, Greenpeace Finds

According to their lab findings, the PlayStation 3's AV cables contained phthalates up to 21.2 percent by weight, while the housing on the cooling fan had "the highest level of bromine found in all components tested from all three consoles," 13.8 percent by weight. The Xbox 360's power cable contained phthalates up to 27.5 percent by weight. Both console's controllers were noted for having low levels of bromine.

The Nintendo Wii, while having bromine up to 12.5 percent by weight in its internal housing, was praised for having no beryllium, which can cause lung disease. Check out the Greenpeace page for more information. (Via Joystiq)

Lesson 2: Getting Started

Oh boy... I don't know how to explain this... well, here it goes: I hate getting started. At editing, that is. It's probably an editor's most tedious, time-consuming, frustrating tasks. You may be editing a 5 minute-long videoclip, but you can be sure you'll be given at least 2 DV's with 1 hour of tape each, if you're lucky. Uploading those videos to your equipment, will take at least, two valuable hours of your life with it. And the logging!!! Oh my God, the Logging!!!

Ooookey, let us forget that awkward moment, because, let's face it, there's no way you can escape this part of the edition, unless you are given a Hard Disk Drive with the raw footage inside it.  Then, you can jump all the tedious process of Logging and Capturing, by just clicking on File>Import>Files/Folder, and selecting your desired clips from the specified folder. But, you can't always count on your clients or relatives to give you a nice HDD with the entire clips inside. After all, an HDD is kind of expensive, and most people will prefer paying the editor for logging and capturing and editing, doing the first two themselves. So, try to take your notes nice and properly and pay attention.

First of all, you've got to plug your camera or deck to your computer. WARNING: This MUST be done while your camera or deck is turned off. If done the opposite way, you could cause a short-circuit. 

Once you've done this, open FCP. Click on the Final Cut Pro tag, and select "System Settings". On the "Scratch Disks" tabs, you'll find yourself with a table with four columns and four lines. On the first line,  click on the "Set" button. This will set a scratch disk for your FCP project. A scratch disk is where all clips, audio files, pictures and other things used on your project will go. Try to select an easy to find folder to put your scratch disk. Once you've made a Scratch disk, i strongly recommend you make an autosave vault, in case your lights go out and you forgot to save during the last 20 minutes. Try to set your AS Vault on a different folder than that of your scratch disk. This way, if anything should happen to your Scratch Disk folder, you won't have to start all over again. Remember, a good editor always, always, remembers Murphy's Law.

Now, time to upload some footage!!! On the file tab, you must click on the Log and Capture button (it's the seventh from the bottom :D) 

You can choose from many different Logging and Capturing workflows, but the most common (and most efficient) are this ones

Log Your Tapes, then Batch Capture them with Log and capture window: 

This is the traditional method of logging and capturing. In this case, you watch your footage by playing videotapes in a deck or camcorder connected to your computer. You can set in and out points using the timecode information coming into Final Cut Pro, and creat clips that represent portions of your original tape. After you finish logging, you capture media for only the clips you think are necessary for your project

Log and Capture tapes one by one, using the Log and Capture window: 

With this method, you log clips using a deck connected to FCP, but you capture each clip immediately after you log it. This is the most time consuming of all the methods, because, unlike batch capturing, which is semi-automated, you must oversee the capture of each clip immediately after you log it. But you'll find that it is also the safest method. Perfect for timecode break-filled tapes, or tapes with only one or two useful clips.

Capture Entire Tapes, then create subclips in the Browser:

I consider this one my favorite. It saves time, and provides you with an overview of the material once it's on the computer. Instead of choosing small clips directly from the tape, you upload the whole tape to your compuer, and then split it into smaller clips once it's in the browser.

You can also capture your clips on another application, like iMovie, and then, Batch capture them to move them to iMovie, or create clips in the Browser with the Offline clip command in the file menu. You just set logging info (in-point, out-point, angle, name, etc) and batch capture the clips. Quite useful for very few clips.

The Log and Capture Window:

The Log and Capture window is composed of three main areas: 

• The Preview Area: It includes your standard transport controls, as well as timecode fields, and marking controls. NOTE: Device control must be enabled for transport controls to appear. Left.
• Tabs: Logging, Clip Settings and Capture Settings tabs. Top right area.
• Log and Capture buttons: You use one of these buttons when you are ready to log a clip or capture media. Lower Left area

Tabs: The Log and Capture window has several tabs:

• Logging: This tab adds descriptive information to each clip you log, such as reel name, In and Out points, scene/take number, markers, etc.
  
• Clip Settings: With this tab you can choose which video and audio tracks you capture from tape. You can capture video only, or audio only, or both video and audio, specify which channels you want to capture or adjust video levels for each clips with the Waveform Monitor or Vectorscpe.
• Capture Settings: This tab is used to select scratch disks for captures

Log and Capture Buttons:

As you log and capture, use the following log and capture buttons:

• Log Clip: Logs a single clip with the current log info and clip settings.
• Capture Clip: Logs and Captures a single clip with current log info, clip settings and capture settings.
• Capture Now: Captures the current video and audio and input to a media file on disk until you press the escape key. No In or Out points here, thank you! You can use this button to capture a whole tape in a single file.
• Capture Batch: Captures the selected clips from the browser or clips from the logging bin. 

Today's Shortcuts:

• Apple + Z = Undo Tip: you can set how many
  
• Apple + 4 = Show/Hide browser
• Apple + F = Find
• Apple + 8 = Show Log and Capture
• Option + /= Play every frame

That's all for today!!! Until Next Time!!!

Video and Television Postproduction in Mexico

Final Cut Pro

Three Little robots captivate Naive Blogger!!

Every once in a while, I find a myself with nothing to do, and scanning YouTube for something that gets hold of my attention. Many things achieve it, and some really are worth it, for example, a homemade trebuchet made with Legos, and some can really piss me off, with their deceptively captivating titles, but poor content (I curse you, "Flaming Jack Jack"!!!!). But out of that percentage of "Videos I watch and Like", and "Videos I watch, and don't like", there's the "Videos that absolutely change my way of seeing things". This is one of them.



You see, it ain't a video showing a shark biting off a wannabe Madonna's leg, nor The Landlord´s sequel. Nope. Actually, it's robots. Tiny robots in fact. Made with R/C helicopters. Take a look:










Admit it: Swashbot1's the cutest robot since R2-D2, and Swashbot2 kinda reminds us of those evil SpiderBots in Minority Report. And Swashbot3 reminds us of that crazy vacation on the sandy beaches of Cancun...

The interesting things is the guy who made the robots. He calls himself Crabfu on the cyber world, and by what I've seen in his YouTube profile, he's not only interested in making cute R/C robots, but also steampunkis steamp-powered robots, and funny animations.

Take a look at his page

Also, remember to stop by tomorrow for Lesson 2 of our Final Cut Pro 101 course...

Until Next Time!!!!

Swashbot

Cámaras SONY 2008 PMW-EX1 CineAlta XDCAM PMW-EX1 PMW-EX3 HVR-Z7, HVR-HD1000 HDV PROFESIONAL

Cámaras SONY 2008 PMW-EX1 CineAlta XDCAM PMW-EX1 PMW-EX3 HVR-Z7, HVR-HD1000 HDV PROFESIONAL: "También se introduce al mercado profesional de comerciales, cine, películas y cortos independientes, la nueva Sony CineAlta XDCAM PMW-EX1 una verdadera joya de grabación FULL HD 1920 x 1080 que destroza a la roja competencia en calidad y facilidad de uso para la creación de comerciales en cine digital, en mi opinión la Sony CineAlta XDCAM PMW-EX1 es en este momento la mejor cámara profesional de mano que Sony ha diseñado."

Lesson 1: Features of Final Cut Pro

Okay... Let's check if everyone's here... meh, probably you're all here....

Today we start with our 5 day Final Cut Pro 101 non-consecutive course, and I'm telling you, it'll be tough: you'll probably have to go to your Macs and do some mouse-clicking, you'll learn what you must do before starting to work, how to upload your raw footage to your computer, and how to make that raw footage into a nice sirloin footage with mustard sauce (damn, I'm hungry...)

I'll also give you a list of shortcuts at the end of each lesson. This way, you won't have to learn the exact location of menus and buttons. Although, you'd do well in learning those too...

First off let us remember something from our previous lesson: Final Cut is based upon Adobe Premiere, so, if you know Adobe Premiere 101, you have an advantage over all of us who didn't even know about other editing software befor Final Cut, except for Windows Movie Maker, or iMovie (I've done some nice things in iMovie, and so has my friend Ing. Jose Maria Noriega C.A.S. In fact, he's better at iMovie than many guys at Final. Behold the power of Simplicity!)

Final Cut is one snazzy application: non-destructive editing of any QuickTime compatible video format. It also supports an unlimited number of simultaneously composited video tracks, up to 99 audio tracks, multi-cam editing for cutting video from multiple camera sources; as well as your standard set of effects like ripple, roll, slip, slide and many other I can't really name right now, cause I can't remember (I'm just human after all, you know?)

If you're a beginner at Mac, you'd like to get yourself Final Cut Pro 6, the newest version, since it has better integration with Apple's other Pro applications and improved codec support for editing HD, DV and SD video formats, or Final Cut Express: it's Final Cut Pro, without the Pro, which means less specifications and more user friendly. If you like things well done, you might also like to get Final Cut Studio 2, which includes our aforementioned application, Motion 3 , Soundtrack Pro 2, Compressor 3, DVD Studio Pro 4, and Color. I personally have a Boris FX

plug-in integrated in my Final Cut Pro. Kinda makes it even snazzier (God, I love that word! Snazzy!)

Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express have four main windows: the Browser, The Viewer, The Timeline and the Canvas.

• The Browser: where source media files are listed, including video files, audio files, effects, pictures, and transitions


• The Viewer: This is where you preview and trim files, including effects, transitions, and pictures


• The Timeline: your map on your editing adventure: this is where you arrange your diverse files into what's to become your final product.


• The Canvas: this is where you see your edited production from the Timeline. In short terms: On the Viewer, you watch what's happening on the Browser, in the Canvas you're watching what's happening on the Timeline.

Both Viewer and Canvas windows have a jogging interface, which is useful when you want to scan frame by frame your files, and a shuttle interface, your aid when wanting to scan a film on different speeds

Shortcuts:

• J: Play any file at full speed backwards


• K: Pause (you can also use the Space Bar, which is Play/Pause on many Apple apps)


• L: Play any file at full speed forwards


• I: Set an in-point on a clip or sequence


• O: Set an out-point on a clip or sequence

That's all for today. Hope you liked today's lesson... See ya soon enough !!!

Video and Television postproduction editing in Mexico

La escala de extincion Extinction Timeline

The book “Future Files, The History of The Next 50 Years” by Richard Watson, features a really interesting graphic showing an Extinction Timeline 1950-2050 (full-size image).

A Brief History of Final Cut Pro

Last time, we took a look at how edition has changed in the past 40 years. We now know what linear-edition systems are, how they worked, which was the first real non-linear edition system, and who are the big boys in the edition software game.

This time, we'll take a shot at Final Cut Pro, Mac's edition software. You've probably seen the results of using this fine piece of computer programming, although you probably don't know you have. Let me give you a hint: if you've seen Napoleon Dynamite, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, The Ring, Cold Mountain, Happy Feet, Corpse Bride, No Country for Old Men, or 300, you've watched only a few of the many movies post-produced with Final Cut Pro. It's a nice bunch, if you ask me...

Now for some History Class:

It all starts with Adobe Premiere. The year: 1992. The man: Randy Ubillos. Randy had created the first three versions of premiere before being given a team. Just before Premier V.5 was released, Ubillos was hired away by Macromedia to creat KeyGrip, which was to become an even snazzier video-editing software based on Apple QuickTime. Yet, Macromedia could not release the product without harming Truevision, as KeyGrip was also based in part on MS technology licensed to Truevision, and then borrowed to Macromedia. The license agreement stated that it was not to be used in conjunction with QuickTime. So Macromedia was forced to keep the product off the market until a solution was found. Afterwards, around 1998, Macromedia started focusing more and more on web applications, and they started looking for buyers for their non-web apps, including KeyGrip, which by this time had been renamed Final Cut.

Final Cut would be presented in private room demonstrations at 1998's NAB. During the demonstration, Windows and Mac versions were shown. The Mac version was working with a Truevision RTX dual stream real time card with limited real time effects.

When no purchaser could be found, Apple decided to buy the software as a defensive move. But then, Apple could not find anyone willing to buy the program, so they continued developing the software. In 1999's NAB, Apple presented Final Cut Pro, with added Firewire/DV support.

With the introduction of Final Cut Pro, Adobe remained strong on Windows, but began to lose users on Mac. since its older codebase was more difficult to maintain and enhance. In 2003, Apple announced a program for Premiere users to trade in their discs for a free copy of Final Cut Express or a $500 discount on Final Cut Pro. Later that year, Adobe introduced the successor to Premiere, Premiere Pro, a Windows-only product with a modern codebase.

Next time, I'll teach you Final Cut Pro's features, as well as file formats and introduction to start editing your videos...

See ya!!

Video and Television postproduction editing in Mexico

Non-Linear edition's importance in today's media (or "Remember how edition was like 30 years ago?")

Ah, the 60's!!!

The music, the colors, the movies, the clothing, the hair, the forcefully linear edition...

When someone who knows about edition, or knows something about the entertainment business talks about linear edition, you can almost see the goosebumps popping in his' or her's skin. Linear edition was tedious, boring, and extremely difficult. Imagine having to take a look at a whole tape, looking for the right shot the producer or director wants. You'd need at least two VCR's ( and not any VCR, if you want your video to look just right), a switcher, a mixer, at least two monitors's, a big bunch of cables, and a thumbs-up editor, for when your boss shouts at you "I like that!! Tag it!!!"

Then along came CMX 600 in 1971 , and all our problems were solved. It recorded & played back black-and-white analog video recorded in "skip-field" mode on modified disk pack drives the size of washing machines. The 600 had a console with 2 monitors built in. The right monitor, which played the preview video, was used by the editor to make cuts and edit decisions using a light pen. The left monitor was used to display the edited video. A Digital PDP-11 computer served as a controller for the whole system.

After that came LucasFilm's EditDroid in the 80's (the name is obviously influenced by Lucas' Star Wars trilogy) and the Avid1 as the first in it's line of Media Composer systems in 1989. I actually saw an Avid1, and even pressed it's buttons (that sounds a bit primitive, but I was only 5 back then. The term "computer" and "delicate equipment" meant nothing to me)

Avid then forged it's status as market leader in edition software, but two new cowboys were about to enter the scene. The first one was Adobe Premiere, which was launched in 1992 but only became a serious threat to Avid in 1995. And the other one was Final Cut Pro, in 1999, back when good ol' Steve Jobs was rocking the computer world after NeXT was bought by Apple in 1996.

The thing about non-linear editing, is you can 2 two different parts of the movie at a time, or you can easily find that scene you are looking in tape 2, without having to scan the whole movie again. It's all 1's and 0's, baby

While Avid Media Composer is mainly used by big Hollywood filmmakers, Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere have found their way into the hearts of young (and not so young) independent filmmakers around the worlds. Final Cut Pro's user base is 49% percent of all professional editors, with Avid at 22%.

All this serves to a purpose: an introduction to a series of tips, lessons, secret features and many other things I'll be publishing in the next couple days, so stay tuned if you are interested in learning how to make your vacation video even more neat!!!

Until Next time!!!

Final Cut Pro
Avid
Adobe Premier
Video Editing

Video and Television postproduction editing in Mexico

Microsoft: 10m Xbox 360s sold in US!!!

Good news for Microsoft!! Although I'm sure they already know the news, since it was them who announced them. Anyway, Microsoft announced on Wednesday that its Xbox 360 gaming console has become "The first current-generation gaming console" to break the 10 million threshold for gaming units in the United States, while the Wii stands at 8.8 million and the PS3 at 4.1 million units sold (via Joystiq)

Now, breaking down the numbers, and assuming the Xbox 360 hit 10 million the midnight of May 14 2008, exactly 903 days after it's November 2005 launch, one would notice that:

• At a population of 301.4million, that's approximately 3.32% of all people in the US.
• Using the 903 metric, the Xbox 360 has therefore sold 11,074 per day, 461 per hour and 7.7 units per minute.

Microsoft also seized the opportunity to boast there's 12 million global members of Xbox Live (myself included) and 19 million Xbox 360 game consoles sold worldwide, which they claimed was more than any other current-generation console. Yet, GameDaily called the MS guys and reminded them the Wii has sold 25 million units worldwide, to which Microsoft said: "we apologize for any confusion. Xbox 360 has the largest global install base of any current gen, high definition gaming console" with added emphasis (take that, Mario!!)

Xbox 360

CANON'S TRENDSETTING TRIO OF NEW DIGITAL ELPH SUPERMODELS INSPIRE FRESH EXPRESSIONS OF INDIVIDUAL STYLE, VISION & TRUE IMAGING INNOVATION

Canon has 3 new members in it's Power Shot family: the SD890 IS, SD790 IS and SD770 IS Digital ELPH integrate Canon technologies such as Motion Detection Technology, Optical Image Stabilization, Genuine Canon Face Detection Technology, and Canon's proprietary DIGIC III imaging processor, and of course, the ELPH line's secret weapon: the perfect camera for a night out, or an intimate social party.

"The Canon PowerShot SD890 IS, SD790 IS and SD770 IS Digital ELPH cameras carry on the trend-setting traditions and extend the boundaries of technological ease and the individual sense of style that has always been at the heart of the ELPH line up," states Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A. All 3 little fellas feature Canon's most advanced Genuine Face Detection Technology, which allows the user to focus up to 9 forward-looking faces. The cameras also include an In-Camera Image Enhancement, and Canon's exclusive DIGIC-III imaging processor.

Power Shot

Videora

I was doing my daily Internet surf, this time searching for an application that could help me upload my bunch of Simpsons episodes to my 16gb iPod Touch. After trying in Yahoo! Answers in both spanish and english versions, and under 3 different tags, Apple, and downloads.com, I came upon Videora.com. This surprised in a pleasant sort of way. I used to use Videora as a substitute for my BitTorrent application. That was 4 years ago, back in 2004. But it's 2008, and Videora isn't only a nice BitTorrent RSS Reader application anymore, but it's also the name given to it's series of video converters for multiple platforms (including Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, and Apple TV) and Media Center managers.

Really nice story, but you're probably asking yourselves: Does it work?

I tested the Videora iPod Touch converter version 3.7. If you try to look beneath the ad-filled (yeah, I forgot to tell you: it's freeware!!) application, you'll find yourself with a user-friendly tool, with 2 options: Normal Mode, and Power Mode.

Normal Mode is the easy mode of the application. In this mode, iPod Touch converter (and all other Videora converters) basically does everything for you. You only have to select how nice you want your video to look and sound and were do you want it to go. Depending on how large and the quality you want your video to have, the converter wil only spend a few minutes, or even seconds, working on converting your video.

Power Mode is made for those of you who like to have as much control over the video conversion as possible. To use it, you must understand technical jargon like AviSynth, 1 Pass, 2 Pass, the meaning of Kbps, MPEG-4, VGA, QVGA and H.264. It even has conversion profiles, if you like to experiment with different conversion settings, without having to reset your favorite conversion mode.

I'd say this is an indispensable application for those of you who like your vids nice and as perfect as possible. Oh, and also, if you own many iPods :D

Until next time!

New Tapeless P2 & AVCHD HD Cameras AG-HMC70 AG-HPX170, a fully solid-state P2 HD handheld camcorder. A full production quality

Panasonic unveiled here at NAB the AG-HPX170, a fully solid-state P2 HD handheld camcorder. A full production quality tool, the solid-state handheld camcorder enables high definition and standard definition recording, the widest zoom lens in its class, and a HD-SDI interface for connection to baseband production and distribution infrastructure, all in a lightweight 4.2-pound body.




Fully solid-state, the two-slot HPX170 is a 1080p capable camcorder that offers the compelling advantages of P2 technology including: no moving parts unlike tape, hard disk drive, or disc-based systems; instant random access to recorded HD or SD content; a faster IT compatible file-based workflow; and the ability to operate in harsh environments with resistance to temperature extremes, shock and vibration.





Entry Level Tapeless HD Panasonic AVCHD



The AG-HMC70 provides entry-level professionals with an easy-to-use, high-quality, solid-state HD recording solution at an affordable price.

As the first shoulder-mount camcorder in Panasonic's professional AVCHD line-up, the HMC70 utilizes the new AVCHD High Profile video codec, which offers similar image quality to HDV 1080i at about half the bandwidth. This second-generation, affordable HD format offers longer recording times and half the storage requirement of older systems.


AG-HPX170

Compra Venta de Equipo Panasonic

Video Conversion a Formatos digitales AVI Quicktime MPEG 1 MPEG 2 MPEG 4 Celulares

Video Conversion a Formatos digitales AVI Quicktime MPEG 1 MPEG 2 MPEG 4 Celulares: "Conversión y transferencia Digital de Formatos de Video en archivos digitales para Celulares, CD, DVD, VCD, Multimedia e Internet
Conversión y transferencia Digital de Formatos de Video en archivos digitales para Celulares, iPOD, CD, DVD, VCD, Multimedia e Internet
Video a DVD iPOD VCD MPEG 2 MPEG 1 MPEG 4 Multimedia Quicktime Multimedia AVI Conversion"


Video Conversion

Nuevo Video Camara Sony HD PMW-EX3

Sony Product Catalog-Sub-Category Landing Page: "XDCAM EX Family Video"

Content Creation and Distribution - Fast News and Updates - Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications - great tutorials

Content Creation and Distribution - Fast News and Updates - Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications - great tutorials: "Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications - great tutorials

Panavision has released a series of technical tutorials covering HD camera systems and related workflow. Each tutorial is available in 480p, 720p and 1080p for downloading."

Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications

Box Office: "Demystifying Digital Camera SpecificationsDemystifying Digital Camera Specifications"

April 3, 2008 - John Galt, Head of Advanced Digital Imaging at Panavision, and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager at Canon Broadcast & Communications Division, came together to help untangle some common misunderstandings in Digital Camera Specifications

7 Parts

http://media.panavision.com/ScreeningRoom/Screening_Room/Demystifying_Part1.html


Press Release- Panavision’s John Galt and Canon’s Larry Thorpe Make The Case for Meaningful Metrics
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“DEMYSTIFYING DIGITAL CAMERA SPECIFICATIONS,” SEVEN-PART VIDEO SERIES ILLUMINATING DIGITAL IMAGING TECHNOLOGY, DEBUTS ON PANAVISION WEBSITE
Panavision’s John Galt and Canon’s Larry Thorpe Make The Case for Meaningful Metrics Appropriate for The Age of Digital Movie Making
May 6, 2008 - Woodland Hills, Calif. —“Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications,” a seven-part series focusing on the complex science of image resolution and digital cinema cameras is now available on the Panavision website. The URL is: http://media.panavision.com/ScreeningRoom/Screening_Room/Box_Office.html.
The in-depth symposium is presented by two icons of digital cinema technology: John Galt, Panavision Senior Vice President, Advanced Digital Imaging; and Larry Thorpe, National Marketing Manager, Canon Broadcast & Communication Division.
A master class for motion picture professionals and students, the series is also in the minds of its creators a precursor to a broader, crucial industry-wide discussion: the need for a scientifically valid, objective method of assessing the quality of digital and film images.
Recorded in high-definition video, the symposium was held April 3 before an audience of invited guests in the Panavision Theater, located in the company’s world headquarters in Woodland Hills, Calif.
Imaging resolution science: a closer look
Throughout the series, Galt and Thorpe challenge the simplistic and inaccurate assumption that digital camera resolution is “all about the camera output pixels.” Instead, they help serious motion picture creators to understand the difference between optical sampling from camera imagers (where resolution is totally determined) and the camera digital sampling.
They explore in depth what is meant by Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) and the compounding effect of lens MTF, camera MTF, and the MTF of subsequent production system elements.
Their discussion emphasizes that the relationship between the lens-camera MTF profile and associated residual aliasing – in both the horizontal and vertical domains – constitutes the only rational metric on imaging resolution. These two criteria apply to all 2/3-inch three-imager and to 35mm single-imager digital cameras. Nyquist theory, optical prefiltering and imager sampling lattice are explained in the context of camera design criteria that seek a pragmatic compromise between high MTF and minimum aliasing.
While camera manufacturers generally do not publish camera-specific information regarding lens-camera MTF and aliasing, various test charts are available to enable an objective assessment of both criteria. With these charts, fully demonstrated in the series, content developers can directly compare the performance between any two digital cameras regardless of image format size, number of imagers, or their optical sampling lattice.
Using the MTF metric, Galt and Thorpe conclude, digital movie makers now have better tools to help them gauge precisely what effect each step has on the production of the final image.
In addition to appearing on the Panavision website, the “Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications” series is being made available through various professional, trade and media Internet sites. For film schools, students and instructors, it is being showcased through the University Film and Video Association: http://www.ufva.org, in the news section. The UFVA is an international organization of almost 800 professionals and institutions involved in the production and study of film, video, and other media arts.
Transcripts of the seminars, with embedded slides, will soon be available to accompany the video presentation to facilitate class use or individual study.
“With programs like ‘Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications,’” said Bob Beitcher, President and CEO, “Panavision is trying both to educate our customers as well as raise the level of industry discussion about emerging technologies to focus on the science of what we do. I think that most everyone stands to benefit from a good look-and-listen at this stimulating presentation from two true experts.”
About the company Founded in 1954, Panavision Inc. is a leading designer and manufacturer of high-precision camera systems, comprising of film and digital cameras, lenses and accessories for the motion picture and television industries. Panavision systems are rented through its domestic and international owned and operated facilities and distributor network. Panavision also supplies lighting, grip and crane equipment for use by motion picture and television productions.

Professional Camcorders - High Definition Camcorders and Lenses - Standard Definition Camcorders - Software - High Definition Camcorder - XL H1S - Canon USA Consumer Products

Professional Camcorders - High Definition Camcorders and Lenses - Standard Definition Camcorders - Software - High Definition Camcorder - XL H1S - Canon USA Consumer Products: "XL H1S
High Definition Camcorder"

Features

New Genuine Canon 20x HD Video Zoom Lens III with Professional L Series Fluorite


Three 1/3" Native 16:9 CCD with 1.67M Pixels (1440 x 1080)


Canon DIGIC DV II HD Image Processor


Complete Customization


HD-SDI/SD-SDI Out, Genlock In, Timecode In & Out, and Other Terminals


New Genuine Canon 20x HD Video Zoom Lens III with Professional L Series Fluorite

The new Genuine Canon 20x HD Video Zoom Lens III with Professional L Series Fluorite is the latest in a long and distinguished line of industry-leading lenses from Canon. It has been specifically designed for demanding producers of High Definition video who require the ultimate in optical quality. This lens brings features which give the XL H1S user unprecedented control over zoom, focus and iris settings, delivering an even higher level of creative expression.

Canon interchangeable XL Lens Mount

Independent Manual Focus, Zoom and Iris Ring
Zooming
Responsive manual zoom ring with three settings (Slow, Normal, Fast)
Increased weighting of zoom ring for smoother control
Smooth zoom start and stop
Selectable rotational angle of zoom between Wide and Tele (45°, 60° or 90°)
*Zoom Grip Lever has 16 zoom levels. Maximum and minimum speeds have been expanded. Handle Zoom Lever can be set to any of 3 speeds.
Focusing
Manual focus capability during zoom (in both Manual Focus and AF Modes)
Selectable response on focus ring (Slow, Normal, Fast)
Focus Limit (On/Off)
Four selectable focus preset speeds
Push AF
Super Range Optical Image Stabilizer
Two built-in ND Filters (1/32, 1/6)