Million Year Picnic Documentary Progress

After a fun weekend with an old friend (Mike Luce) and 14 year employee of the MYP, we were able to film a long interview with him and he interviewed me since the first one was not working so well. This means I am finally able to start editing it into a real film.

Using Final Cut X  has a learning curve, despite what some people say about it being so much easier than other non linear editors. Getting all the video in is very fast and painless but getting it organized for editing is not any easier or faster than doing it in Final Cut 7, just different and more flexible. 

Even though I have done a short 3 minute documentary last year, working in full HD is still new to me and the ability to enhance and fix things has greatly advanced since I did my film about the 1270 disco tech a few years back. Mike and I were looking at the video together and sound is a huge problem on this project. Earlier interviews had to be done in the store which was a recording nightmare. I found a plugin that would take out the echo and really enhance the sound, but it was 400$.. so out of the budget which is now zero dollars since I’l already in debt for the film. we did try out Soundtrack pro for some of the real obvious issues, which a software that came with the old Final Cut pro and while not as easy to use as the in app features in FCPX, it does a lot more, a lot more competently and even the worst sound was rendered somewhat usable. 

the video can really be pushed, despite bad lighting conditions

Mike also helped me with some drawing advice for another project and was really kind and just gave me a couple of his original drawings , one of which was up on the wall minutes after the left for home. 

Oh and now the doc is called « the picnic » apparently. 

What Makes a Good Tutorial?

Tutorials online have become an amazing resource to learn just about anything you want to learn. From installing a fence to learning new features in a complicated software package to making your own clothes, you can find it all online and usually for free. But what is it that makes a good tutorial, good? 

Here is a small list of general things I look for in a tutorial

Concise and to the point descriptions about the subject. Far too many people making tutorials spend up to ⅓ the length of the video just rambling about things not connected to the subject and takes away from what they are trying teach at  the moment. Get right into what your video is about and don’t muck around telling people how to turn the computer on, open the software… basically avoid the things anyone who wants to watch your lesson should already know. 

Uses editing of sound and video.  There is a tendency to think when making a tutorial that you have dot do it all in one go. I can be much better to film doing the thing apart from the narration which gives you the ability to take out the « umm and ahhs » present in normal speech and to refine what you are saying to be as clear as possible. You can also edit the  filming of the activity so it includes just the basic steps, not every second it takes to complete the task. Some people are using video to show of a creative process which would include how you fix mistakes and come up on the fly, but that’s a small percentage of what’s out there in my experience. 

The teacher speaks clearly and strikes a good balance between being a robot and a comedian. We all like to here a likeable voice and some witty remarks but when you are trying to learn something complicated, too many jokes and asides can make it impossible while a droning, colourless voice will just put you to sleep. If you have a strong accent, be sure it’s not so strong that no one can understand  what you are trying to say. 

Tells how to do something, not what to do exactly. I am sure there are plenty of exceptions to this but if you are going to show how to draw something that will look exactly like what you drew with no way to apply that knowledge into anything else, it’s sort of a waste. I find the best videos show me how not just to do something but how to use techniques I can use elsewhere and encourages me to find different uses for them on my own. 

Doesn’t play loud music in the background! This might be just a pet peeve on mine, but I don’t think so. Music drowning out the speaker’s voice can be very distracting, not to mention copyright infringing. So shut off the tunes while you are recording your narration! 

I am sure there is plenty else to talk about but these are the items I seem to look for the most when seeking help with something in the form of online tutorials. Really good lessons, especially for something you really need to know well for work are worth paying for and it’s just mean to be hyper critical to someone who is trying to give out information for free. So be kind in your comments to people trying to help you out and be constructive not cruel if you feel the need to critique what they’ve put online. 

Secure or Paranoid or Marketing Ploy?

Recently I have been driven up tree by all the security hoops I have to jump through to do almost anything online. Things that  were just easy and never thought of, like checking email my from my mail app on my main computer can now take a ton of time out of my day as I have to re-enter passwords, reconnect to accounts or verify that the thing I want to do IS the thing I want to do. 

Google mMail might be the worst in terms of over protecting me from reading my mail while still letting all that SPAM into my account. I often have to re-type the passwords into my mail app and get messages far too often stating someone has been trying to use my account that it has been frozen and needs a new password. Now this sounds like one of those SPAM emails but it’s real. The problem is, the person trying to get access to my account is always ME from the computer I always use. 

Another issue is the ridiculously long passwords and serials numbers I have to enter not only to start up some software, but to access tutorials or forums related to them. Serial numbers and registrations do not help the end user really in any way shape or form in the era of safety. They are used to prevent piracy from the company who owns the software. eEven it it worked most of the time, its not like those companies would ever lower their prices because piracy was down. Apple has a system in place that won’t let you open a downloaded program without approving it, which isn’t a bad idea, but it’s an all or nothing sort of affair. I can approve everything or nothing except what I get from the apple App store. So I have to jump through hoops to approve the software I have whenever there are updates. 

Web sites are also going safety crazy. Often they won’t remember your sign-in info even when you tell them too. As someone with dyslexia, having to re-enter long series of numbers every time I check my bank balance for example is impossible and frustrating.

The thing is, I am not even remotely convinced all these security strategies help me stay safe at all. Man of then seem to do the thing I am wanting to project myself from. They seem like transparent attempts to get information from me to use and sell. As an example, almost everything wants me to give my cell phone number for verification, not just a phone number, my cell number so they can send text messages, etc. They all threaten not doing so might mean an end to the service ( gmail and yahoo imply or outright say this). I don’t actually have a cell phone, should I have to buy one just to read emails? Same goes for the sites that require you can get access only with an email from them. So you end up with google, yahoo, etc etc. I really don’t want a million emails and still have a ton despite spending a couple days every year trying to reduce them. It’s all about marketing, not safety in the end. 

To be sure, we need security in place to access the digital world, there are too many ways hackers and crooks can get into our systems, but I am not sure what passes for security now, on the end user level at least, is really protecting us, but could be simply a way to get our information « legally ». 

new drawing

more acrobats in pen and ink style. A couple weeks to draw and set up. I am hoping to get a to more references this July when Montreal Complement Cirque is happening again. It is my only chance to get what I need since its free, nearby and I don't exactly have the clout to just walk into a cirque school and ask to take reference photos for my work.

Final Cut Pro 10,2

After a long wait, Apple has released an updated version of not only Final Cut, but Compressor and Motion. Final Cut being the centre point the others are attached to, it makes sense to mostly talk about how it's changed.

Not much really.

To be fair, they did handle some issues and it is much faster. The interface is easier to navigate and the long standing requests to have multiple scope displays for colour correcting have been answered. It also has some interesting new features like drawing masks, automatic smart collections created when you start a project and the big one... 3D titles.

The new 3d titles is an interesting, well thought out feature no one asked for and frankly isn't going to interest professionals in film production. I can see it being more helpful to what is now FCPs apparent new core base, makers of industry films, seminar videos and the like. Apple is making a huge deal of this feature which is even better implemented in Motion where it belongs more than in a non linear editing program.

Unfortunately, this leaves the functions editors have been begging for still left undone. There is no separate audio track so you can time a project to music, like for a music video as an example ( there are work arounds, but in my opinion a workaround solution just says Apple has fail to provide a real solution to an everyday need for many editors). The timeline doesn't slide with the playhead as it does even in iMovie yet and there is not send to Motion command to add affects to a clip you are working on which should have been in the software day one. Despite many proponents taking every little incremental step forward as a sure sign Apple has not abandoned professional film makers, this new update does nothing to support those claims.

Motion has also been updated and the new 3D titles fit in better with it's set of tools but more importantly, Apple seems to have.. at least on my system, been finally.. finally.. able to get much better real time playback and the software opens right away now. Those two little things have kept me form using Motion over After Effects since I first bought Motion as a stand alone product years ago.

Compressor I don't use, or I haven't used since the Final Cut 7 version so I can't really say much about it except the last few versions have not been all that well received. The ability to export directly to iTunes to sell your video does seems like a great feature once you've jumped through all the hurdles of getting approved and the rights to sell your stuff in the iTunes store.

X Particles 3 for Cinema 4D

What is it?

It’s a particle generator that goes far beyond the native systems in C4d allowing more control, more options and (with version 3) liquid, smoke and fire effects.

How good is it?

In brief, very good. Fairly easy to use and learn for something that has an infinite number of variations and options. While is clearly states it’s liquids and smoke effects are not cinema quality, they certainly can be used for cinematic projects. Rendering of the particles is very fast in the viewport and many things can be altered on the fly saving time and allowing you to play around before committing to anything. This plugin has great flocking controls and allows particles to collide with other particles, spawn new particles on collision… pretty much anything you would need to do… it does. Mograph and other native Cinema 4 functions and modifiers will work seamlessly with it as well which really gives it more power even professional users will ever need.

What are the limitation?

Like most particle simulators, looking at the particles in the viewport isn’t a problem… rendering them out is. Version 3 was released with a lot of very simple helpful tutorials for registered users but they were lacking in some very basic areas… in my opinion. The biggest issue for me is the smoke and fire rendering. For some reason, if you set up their automatic system heir achy, the gaseous shader they provide won't always render. More to the point - getting a decent looking and fast render is really difficult to accomplish. There needs to be a fire, smoke preset of something that gets you up and running quickly and I would prefer some feature that automatically helps sets up render settings, maybe a low-medium-high systems like Maxon’s physical render engine has for motion blur to help you simplify the stupefying amount of factors you need to navigate to get a final result that looks good but renders quickly enough to actually be useful in project. The gaseous shader is a brand new feature, so I expect it will be greatly improved on as X particles is not noted for sitting on hands for very long when it comes to improving the product. 

In summary

is it worth it? Yes it is despite any problems it may have at present. It is light years above the horrible pyrocluster feature in C4D which even deleted the one feature that made it usable (the ability to post render which was very fast) and it has so many useful features from simple to complex that the normal emitter is pretty much useless.

x particles tests from Vincent-louis Apruzzese on Vimeo.

Nitro 4D plugins for Cinema 4D

http://nitro4d.com/blog/

It’s only fair I think to point of those who go far above what is expected of them and give the rest of us advantages we wouldn’t have otherwise. One example would be people who writ plugins, most of the time for free or ask only a donation that vastly improve a software we work on all the time. One of these people is Lazaros at Nitro 4D. I have bought (donated to) 2 of his excellent plugins recently but I also have quite a  few of his many freebies, some of which save me so much time and effort, it’s amazing that Maxon hasn’t integrated them into C4D years ago.

A quick effects test I did. Sorry for the distortion, the quicktime X software does a terrible job formatting and I didn't have time to run it through Final Cut X

nitroblast_test from Vincent-louis Apruzzese on Vimeo.

The paid for plugins I have are Nitroblast which is basically a way to explode and break apart objects in various ways, but also goes beyond that into helping out with making 3D motion graphics and transformations as well. The video (not mine) will give an idea what can be done.

The second paid plugin is Nitropose, which lets you save poses of characters of objects and insert them into an animation easily and quickly. While C4D has motion clips, this goes into a different area motion clips don’t cover as it saves animation as clips but not really separate poses. This plugin lets you save any pose you like in a handy windy to drag into a timeline as you like in any order you need. While it doesn’t help me in my current projects, I can see for game animations and repetitive movements for multiple characters and use them, say, over the course of a TV show. 

As for the freebies… here is a list of the ones I have currently:

Thrausi (breaks objects to pieces)

magic tree

magic snow

magic wedge tool

magic puzzle

magic replace

magic mesh

magic merge

magic tools

magic wireframe

magic slow motion

magic eye (and eye lid)

magic car

magic book

 There are many, many more and even the ones I have I haven’t explore completely. Most take something that would take awhile to set up manually and make it a click of a few buttons… saving hours of time.

acrobat - saute 01

I felt I was getting very stale doing the colour work, especially on the acrobat series and thought i should go back to what I really love, pen and ink (style - it's done digitally). I made it slightly more graphic by adding the circle in the back. I always wanted to make his body stand out with some grayscale painting or something behind him but decided something precise might work better.  I also wanted to balance the really dark lower half with the really light upper half.

Oddly, I think pen and ink has a lighter feel over grey scale colour drawing. I think because I am obsessed with doing skin tones in points of different sizes which to me, more or less adds a film grain look to the illustrations.

Affinity Photo Beta

I have been testing Affinity photo, which is being marketed as a viable alternative for Adobe Photoshop by Affinity, a Windows software company looking to enter the Mac marketplace with a suite of products on theApp Store. Affinity Designer is already released (to great reviews) as an Illustrator alternative. Mike Luce (a great artist IMO) has been trying it out and seems to like it but it lacks at least two features he can’t live without, mainly masks and bitmap vectorization.

With this in mind I started getting into the Affinity Photo beta, and fully expected something well done, but missing a few things I really need to do my work. Since it’s a beta, I also expected bugs, crashes and disabled functionality… all of which its most certainly has. The big surprise has been how well thought out what they have decided to include as features. I use Photoshop for a few different kinds of projects. Retouching and restoration is all I do for months sometimes and this software doesn’t seem to be lacking really any of the tools I want. Not all of them are implemented fully yet but they are there or on the way. The interface, while familiar will take some getting used, like all new software Professional photography is also something I am known to do and the RAW processor is much better than Photoshop’s in my opinion already and it looks like many of the plugins I use will be or are already supported. Some of the features are combinations of several separate features in Photoshop, the puppet tool is rolled into the mech distortion tools for example and I have to say… well done. I also draw on the computer, but not in always Photoshop because it’s brush situation is not up to what I need. Sketchbook Pro, which also recently went subscription (won’t be updating that one now either) has much more realistic pen and ink brushes in particular. Affinity Photo is lacking in this respect as well but they have told me they are working on it which is encouraging. 

Now there are and have been many « Photoshop killer » apps out there but none seem to make a dent in Adobe’s dominance. wWhy would tis one be any different? Well, for one thing, the timing is right. Face it, Adobe pissed off a lot of users, me included, with their subscription only scheme. Their mac support, in my experience, has declined to insulting over the years. T but the biggest thing might be something they often tout as a selling. The size and scope of the software is ginormous, it has gone far beyond image processing and manipulation and into video, 3d, animation… you name it. It’s a mess of things many people would rather see in separate software, done better. It’s slow to open and hasn’t been re-written in a very, very long time. Affinity has the advantage of being written for 64 bit, the latest OS and being very snappy and modern, ( a nice sprite was my fonts opened immediately - something photoshop takes and eternity to do) it seems to include all the key important features and leaves out the obscure legacy and unwanted crap that has snuck into Photoshop over the years. 

It’s likely to be 50$ with a a couple years of free updates included, no subscription and cloud nonsense and is going to be able to be used in unison with not only the released Designer app, but an upcoming Indesign alternative that I am really interested in seeing. If they do a web design and aAfter eEffects alternative I can dump everything from Adobe… providing they come through on the promise shown in these early efforts. Would I dump them?… yes I think I would.

Demo reel 2015

demo reel 2015 from Vincent-louis Apruzzese on Vimeo.