Motion Graphics

Discount Code for GV Expo in Washington, DC

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I'll be speaking at the Government Video Expo’s Digital D.C. Conference!

The event takes place November 29th – December 1st at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

The Digital Media DC conference is DC's leading training event for professionals in the TV, video, film, motion graphics and New Media industries. Now in its seventh year, DMDC offers 3 full days of sessions in four parallel tracks and includes 48 unique sessions focusing on the latest techniques and practices for editors, motion graphics designers, new media professionals and video producers.

DMDC is produced by Future Media Concepts, the nation’s leading training organization and features the world's best Certified Instructors, award-winning editors, authors and power users. This year, with one Full Pass, attendees may move freely between all the tracks and attend sessions of their choice.

I'm happy to offer a 10% discount code for all those who attend. Just type ‘FMC’ in the customer code on the registration form to secure your discount.

Visit www.gvexpo.com for more information.

Adobe Sneak Peek – Video Meshes

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In this video, Sylvain Paris will show you a sneak peak of a potential feature for editing videos, including the ability to create 3D fly-throughs of 2D videos and change focus and depth of field.

Rich's Take:

  • This has some serious potential for compositing
  • RotoBrush, Content Aware Fill… apparently Adobe wants to take every hard job and make it easy.

Using Content Aware Scaling to Resize Images

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Photoshop and AE: Content Aware Scale

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In this installment of Photoshop and AE Video Adrenaline, Richard Harrington demonstrates how to combine Photoshop and After Effects to look at a great feature called Content Aware Scale. In Photoshop, you can detect skin tones or choose to protect a selected area from transform, but be able to completely re-scale an image while leaving the selected area unchanged. Richard then brings these concepts into After Effects for video in the next installment of Video Adrenaline for Photoshop and After Effects.

Get My Motion Graphics book for $10

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Adobe Press has my new Motion Graphics book on sale for this week only!

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Motion Graphics with Adobe Creative Suite 5 Studio Techniques
 By Richard Harrington, Ian Robinson
Published by Adobe Press
Series: Studio Techniques
Pages: 456
Watermarked eBook

Almost all motion graphics artists today use After Effects, Photoshop, or Illustrator to some degree in their projects. But how do they decide which tool is best for the job and how can they utilize the various components in the Creative Suite together for the most efficient and effective workflow? This book cuts to the chase and shows readers an in-depth view of the various components in the Creative Suite as best utilized in professional motion graphics projects.

Sale ends on Sunday at 10/2 at 12:01 AM PST

This includes a link to download exercise files as well.

Setting Up Photoshop for Video and Motion Graphics Part 2

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This is part two on setting up Photoshop for a video workflow. Be sure to see part one posted yesterday.

Units & Rulers

Figure ch01-08
Under Units & Rulers, modify Photoshop’s measuring system to match video. If you work in a print environment, you can quickly jump back and change your measurement units by double-clicking on the ruler.

  • Set Rulers to pixels.
  • Set Type to points.
  • Ensure that screen resolution is set to 72 pixels/inch.
  • Ensure that the Point/Pica Size is set to PostScript (72 points/inch) so that type acts like other video applications.
  • Click Next.

Guides, Grid, & Slices


Figure ch01-09
The next category helps you precisely align design elements.

  • I find that a Light Red guide is easier to see than the default Cyan.
  • Set up a grid using Lines with a gridline every 40 pixels and 4 subdivisions. You can now turn the grid off and on from the View menu or from the keyboard using Cmd+" (Ctrl+").
  • Disable Show Slice Numbers unless you are doing a lot of web work. Slices are used with rollover graphics to trigger button effects on web pages.
  • Click Next.

Plug-Ins


Figure ch01-10

  • If you need to travel with your plug-ins on a removable drive (for example a freelance assignment) then you can specify an Additional Plug-Ins Folder.
  • Click Next.

Type


Figure ch01-11
The Type category consolidates several important type options into one area.

  • Check the box next to use Smart Quotes if you’ll need true quote marks and apostrophes more than foot and inch marks.
  • Leave Enable Missing Glyph Protection checked
  • Choose to Show Font Names in English (or the native language of your software).
  • Check Font Preview Size and specify a size that you like. The Huge size is helpful if a producer or client frequently sits over your shoulder.
  • Click Next.

3D


Figure ch01-12
The 3D category controls both the performance and the appearance of Photoshop’s 3D toolset. Stick with the defaults until you master these tools.

  • Click OK.

Setting Up Photoshop for Video and Motion Graphics Part 1

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Photoshop has its roots as a video and film application. The print—and more recently, web—industries have claimed it as their own. Now it’s our turn. Digital video has emerged as the fastest growing technology area; more and more books and applications are popping up on the shelves, promising solutions for all skill levels. It is my goal to help you reclaim Photoshop and learn to harness its diverse imaging abilities to enhance your video projects.

Photoshop has all the tools you need (and many you don’t). Let’s get started by setting up Photoshop to work with our video applications. First we’ll modify its preferences which control how the application functions. To begin, call up your Preferences panel by pressing Cmd+K (Ctrl+K). These Preferences suggestions are based on Photoshop CS5. Most of these options exist in earlier versions of Photoshop, but naming conventions may vary.

General

Figure ch01-02
In the General category, choose:

  • Adobe Color Picker (a consistent, cross-platform color selection tool).
  • Image Interpolation set to Bicubic (best for smooth gradients).
  • Use Shift Key for Tool Switch unchecked.
  • Resize Image During Place checked.
  • Zoom Resizes Windows checked.
  • Zoom with Scroll Wheel checked.
  • Click Next.

Interface

Figure ch01-03
The Interface category groups several preferences together that affect the application’s appearance.

  • Set UI Font Size set to Medium or Large depending upon the resolution of your display. Use a larger size for bigger monitors.
  • Leave Show Channels in Color unchecked. This option affects how your channels and images are viewed and diminish the on-screen viewing quality.
  • Uncheck Enable Gestures if using a laptop (unless you love them).
  • Click Next.

File Handling

Figure ch01-04
In the File Handling category, you need to make some changes to ensure cross-platform functionality. Even if your shop only uses Macs or PCs, you will work with others who are on other operating systems. Be cross-platform compliant when saving your Photoshop files.

  • Always choose the Save an Icon and Macintosh or Windows Thumbnail options. This will allow you to quickly locate files through visual cues.
  • Always append file extension with lower case tags.
  • Set Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility to Always.
  • Click Next.

Performance


Figure ch01-05
The performance category groups several options together which manage your installed RAM and hard drives.

  • Memory Usage identifies how much RAM you have installed. Photoshop has a minimum requirement of 1 GB for CS5.
  • Allow at least 20 History States (levels of Undo). You will vary this number based on RAM and personal experience as you grow less dependent on undos.
  • Memory will generally not be a big deal because you’ll work primarily with low-resolution sources in this book. However, if you have extra (local) drives, make Photoshop aware of them. Set your emptiest drive as the First Scratch Disk. Ideally you will choose a drive that is not the system (boot) drive.
  • If you have a robust video card and will be doing a lot of image clean up, then check the boxes for Enable OpenGL Drawing.
  • Click Next.

Cursors


Figure ch01-06
Photoshop uses specialized cursors to make it easier to know which tool is in use.

  • Set Painting Cursors to Normal Brush Tip. I personally prefer to check Show Crosshair in Brush Tip. (The Caps Lock key disables this preview feature.)
  • Set Other Cursors to Precise. This way, you can actually see your sample point for your Eyedropper and Stamp tools.
  • Click Next.

Transparency & Gamut

Figure ch01-07
Under Transparency & Gamut, you can generally leave these options alone. Personal preferences do vary however.

  • You can change the grid size to make it easier to see transparent pixels.
  • You can change the grid color if you despise light gray. You can also disable the grid altogether. Remember, the grid will not print or show up in your video graphics.
  • Click Next.

Using Anti-aliasing in Photoshop for Screen Graphics

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aliasing
The image on the left is aliased, notice the jagged stair-step edges. The image on the right has anti-aliasing applied to the text.

Did you ever play with Lego building blocks as a child? Perhaps you noticed how hard it was to build an arch or a curve. The best you could achieve still had noticeable stair stepping. Guess what, pixels are just like those building blocks. Curved or diagonal lines will not look good at low resolutions, and you must soften the edge.
By choosing to use an Anti-aliasing method, Photoshop will generate smoother results—especially when using selection tools (such as the Quick Selection tool) or vector-based type. Anti-aliasing works by softening the color transition between edge pixels.

Since only the edge pixels are changed, you lose no detail in the image itself. Anti-aliasing is a useful option for creating text, making selections for filters, or copying and pasting. It will be a recurrent topic throughout this book. You can adjust the anti-aliasing for many tools directly in the Options bar. You should apply this option before a selection is made.

This post is sponsored by iStockphoto – 
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