Have you ever wanted to explore the depths of After Effects but felt overwhelmed by the possibilities? Well it's time to step up to The Anvel.
Dean Velez hosts a website for his amazing After Effects tutorials at www.TheAnvel.com. The name comes from his own name (deAN VELez). Once there, you can browse around the many tutorials he publishes throughout the year. Additionally, there are an astounding number of completely FREE After Effects projects available for you to download. These are fully-modifiable projects and assets that you can use as-is or customize to your own needs.
The main purpose of the project resources is for you to observe the techniques Dean has used in producing the projects and then apply them to your own compositions. Additionally, there is a pay program available for you to take part in the regularly released advanced training from Dean. More information is available on his site.
I just felt like this is a wonderful resource for all of us who constanly look to sharpen our skills on one of the more complex tools we use - After Effects. You can look all over the Internet and find many more learning options for After Effects (some of them free, some not), but few of them are as interesting or reasonably priced as the ones offered from The Anvel.
Go check it out, learn something new!
5.23.2006
Avid Liquid on Tour
Avid, having completed their aquisition of Pinnacle and also completed the merger of the formerly separate product lines, is parading their recently released Avid Liquid product out for the masses here in the US. More information here:
http://www.avid.com/events/bigsplashtour/index.asp
If you haven't had a chance to check out Liquid past or present, it is a capable product worth your consideration. I would argue that the Liquid line of NLE software and hardware doesn't necessarily break any new ground, but instead finds ways to simplify common tasks and enables smoother workflow from aquisition to output.
Have a look at the product and check out the tour if you have the chance.
http://www.avid.com/events/bigsplashtour/index.asp
If you haven't had a chance to check out Liquid past or present, it is a capable product worth your consideration. I would argue that the Liquid line of NLE software and hardware doesn't necessarily break any new ground, but instead finds ways to simplify common tasks and enables smoother workflow from aquisition to output.
Have a look at the product and check out the tour if you have the chance.
4.18.2006
Safeguarding Your Creative Work
All you need to do is simply type "Copy DVD" into a Google search to see how easy it would be for anyone to create copies - legal or illegal - of any DVD (or CD) on the market today. It's a point of much debate for both Hollywood studios and independent content creators. The idea behind the technology of copy protection is to simply prevent someone from having what they did not purchase. More importantly, the goal is to prevent loss of profits that occur as unauthorized copies are purchased or downloaded. Clearly, no Hollywood studio is afraid of there being too many copies of their product in circulation - thus, the driving force is money.
So how do you go about copy-protecting your work on a DVD or CD? Macrovision is the standard for DVD Video, but there are two issues you may want to consider. First, you cannot use Macrovision protection on writable media (DVD+/-R/RW, CD-R/RW). It is only available on replicated discs - those made typically in the 1,000s by a factory manufacturing process. This is because there are very few similarities in the actual media used in your computer's DVD burner and the media the replicator uses. The second - and perhaps more important issue - is that Macrovision is easily defeated (again, simply do a Google search and you will find many ways to do this). This is Hollywood's standard protection and consumers can toss it aside. The rule that applies here is this: if you can play it in your player, then you can copy it. When you play the disc, the player is handling the decryption of the Macrovision. When you put 2 and 2 together, you can see why this method has been so easily defeated.
So again, what do you do? Macrovision doesn't work, so what else can you try? The answer is probably "nothing." As I stated above, writable media does not accept Macromedia protection. What would have been more accurate is to say "writable media does not accept ANY copy protection." If you are using a replicator to manufacture your discs, you can use a couple of options (including Macrovision) but I am going to recommend that you save your money and not spend a single dime on digital copy protection.
Let's all ask one more time - so what do you do?
Knowing that the odds are great that you will not be able to prevent unauthorized duplication, let's think of some alternatives to digital protection, and call it "insurance," or may "copy resistance." Start by writing some method of copyright agreement into your contracts and/or on the disc surface itself, such as "Copyright 2006 My Fun Production Company. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of Federal law. Violators will be prosecuted." While your average software or movie pirate is going to be unimpressed, your typical customer might think twice. Most people will not find the risk worthwhile, knowing that it would be easier for a smaller production company to become wary of the duplication efforts than that distant Hollywood studio. Hollywood doesn't waste much money prosecuting individual consumers duplicating their DVDs, but by stating this upfront you may have been able to imply that you might find it worthwhile - after all, a single duplication may represent a significant percentage of the work you earned in the first place.
Another option is to just price your business around the original work, and consider any additional discs that you may sell as icing on the cake. Then, you can price additional copies either at or just barely above your costs of duplication. The success rate here assumes that you are going to be able to duplicate the discs for the client at a much lower cost than they would incur by doing it themselves. You are able to get bulk rates on media and cases that your customer likely cannot get by purchasing a 10 pack of DVD-R from the local store. If it costs you $0.35 per disc, $0.50 per case and around $1.20 for ink and paper usage on the disc and insert, then your material cost is only $2.00. If it takes you 15 minutes to burn, print and assemble this all, then figure 1/4 of your hourly rate (this kind of work can pull anywhere from $10/hour to $40/hour). So you're talking about no more than $4 to $12 dollars for an additional copy. Charge them about that much for duplicates and they won't think twice about copying it themselves.
The biggest success, however, may be in promoting your work itself. Make an attractive package inside and out, but make them stick on the outside. If they duplicate your disc, they will easily get the creativity that you put into the disc itself. More difficult for them will be copying the artwork that you assembled on the cover and the artwork for the disc (sidenote: if you are not doing printing on the disc and are instead using disc labels or no printing at all, WAKE UP!). Again, most pirates will either not care about the pretty packaging or will find a close-enough copy to do the insert and disc printing. We aren't dealing with pirates, though, and they probably don't care that much about the corporate video you produced or little Jimmy's bar mitzvah.
All you are trying to do is encourage the client to come back to you for additional copies. If you do good work and make it look very attractive, then you can justify higher costs of duplication for your clients. In fact, if you really worked hard and pulled off a great job, you probably earned a customer for life. Even if the client could assemble the parts and pieces for less money than paying you to press another copy, they may think twice if it means it won't look as good. That look is, after all, usually part of what they paid you for in the first place.
So how do you go about copy-protecting your work on a DVD or CD? Macrovision is the standard for DVD Video, but there are two issues you may want to consider. First, you cannot use Macrovision protection on writable media (DVD+/-R/RW, CD-R/RW). It is only available on replicated discs - those made typically in the 1,000s by a factory manufacturing process. This is because there are very few similarities in the actual media used in your computer's DVD burner and the media the replicator uses. The second - and perhaps more important issue - is that Macrovision is easily defeated (again, simply do a Google search and you will find many ways to do this). This is Hollywood's standard protection and consumers can toss it aside. The rule that applies here is this: if you can play it in your player, then you can copy it. When you play the disc, the player is handling the decryption of the Macrovision. When you put 2 and 2 together, you can see why this method has been so easily defeated.
So again, what do you do? Macrovision doesn't work, so what else can you try? The answer is probably "nothing." As I stated above, writable media does not accept Macromedia protection. What would have been more accurate is to say "writable media does not accept ANY copy protection." If you are using a replicator to manufacture your discs, you can use a couple of options (including Macrovision) but I am going to recommend that you save your money and not spend a single dime on digital copy protection.
Let's all ask one more time - so what do you do?
Knowing that the odds are great that you will not be able to prevent unauthorized duplication, let's think of some alternatives to digital protection, and call it "insurance," or may "copy resistance." Start by writing some method of copyright agreement into your contracts and/or on the disc surface itself, such as "Copyright 2006 My Fun Production Company. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of Federal law. Violators will be prosecuted." While your average software or movie pirate is going to be unimpressed, your typical customer might think twice. Most people will not find the risk worthwhile, knowing that it would be easier for a smaller production company to become wary of the duplication efforts than that distant Hollywood studio. Hollywood doesn't waste much money prosecuting individual consumers duplicating their DVDs, but by stating this upfront you may have been able to imply that you might find it worthwhile - after all, a single duplication may represent a significant percentage of the work you earned in the first place.
Another option is to just price your business around the original work, and consider any additional discs that you may sell as icing on the cake. Then, you can price additional copies either at or just barely above your costs of duplication. The success rate here assumes that you are going to be able to duplicate the discs for the client at a much lower cost than they would incur by doing it themselves. You are able to get bulk rates on media and cases that your customer likely cannot get by purchasing a 10 pack of DVD-R from the local store. If it costs you $0.35 per disc, $0.50 per case and around $1.20 for ink and paper usage on the disc and insert, then your material cost is only $2.00. If it takes you 15 minutes to burn, print and assemble this all, then figure 1/4 of your hourly rate (this kind of work can pull anywhere from $10/hour to $40/hour). So you're talking about no more than $4 to $12 dollars for an additional copy. Charge them about that much for duplicates and they won't think twice about copying it themselves.
The biggest success, however, may be in promoting your work itself. Make an attractive package inside and out, but make them stick on the outside. If they duplicate your disc, they will easily get the creativity that you put into the disc itself. More difficult for them will be copying the artwork that you assembled on the cover and the artwork for the disc (sidenote: if you are not doing printing on the disc and are instead using disc labels or no printing at all, WAKE UP!). Again, most pirates will either not care about the pretty packaging or will find a close-enough copy to do the insert and disc printing. We aren't dealing with pirates, though, and they probably don't care that much about the corporate video you produced or little Jimmy's bar mitzvah.
All you are trying to do is encourage the client to come back to you for additional copies. If you do good work and make it look very attractive, then you can justify higher costs of duplication for your clients. In fact, if you really worked hard and pulled off a great job, you probably earned a customer for life. Even if the client could assemble the parts and pieces for less money than paying you to press another copy, they may think twice if it means it won't look as good. That look is, after all, usually part of what they paid you for in the first place.
3.20.2006
Royalty-Free Music from Stock20
Just found out about a new group today that is offering royalty-free, unlimited drop production music for $7/track. The company is Stock20 and you get your first track free. The account is free as well, no annual fees for access.
Now, with the big promo line out of the way, what's the value? Well, having browsed through the selections myself:
I'll leave you to make your own judgements, but my opinion is this: for $7.00, you aren't going to get John Williams. Ever. It's legal, unlimited uses for a single price, so no more breaking (or bending) the law to make your work that looks professional sound professional. And hey, sure it sounds like production music, but it's decent production music at a seemingly impossible low price with no annual contracts or commitments.
At the very least, go find one track you think you could use and sign up for your free account to download it. Good luck to them, they're definitely on the right track.
UPDATE: Two updates actually. First, they have just released 6 new tracks for March. Secondly, if you use my referral code, we both get an extra $7 in free music.
Here's how:
1) Click this link to use me as your referral, then create a free account (it takes about a minute).
2) Your new account will automatically be credited with $7 (enough to get a free song).
Then you will get an additional gift certificate by e-mail, just for creating an account. $14 worth of free music...pretty snazzy.
Now, with the big promo line out of the way, what's the value? Well, having browsed through the selections myself:
- the library is quite small so far (clearly a new endeavor)
- the music sounds like production music
- all tracks are available for multiple intervals (0:30, 1:00, 1:35, 2:00, 2:40, etc) all for the single purchase price
- it's $7.00 per track.
I'll leave you to make your own judgements, but my opinion is this: for $7.00, you aren't going to get John Williams. Ever. It's legal, unlimited uses for a single price, so no more breaking (or bending) the law to make your work that looks professional sound professional. And hey, sure it sounds like production music, but it's decent production music at a seemingly impossible low price with no annual contracts or commitments.
At the very least, go find one track you think you could use and sign up for your free account to download it. Good luck to them, they're definitely on the right track.
UPDATE: Two updates actually. First, they have just released 6 new tracks for March. Secondly, if you use my referral code, we both get an extra $7 in free music.
Here's how:
1) Click this link to use me as your referral, then create a free account (it takes about a minute).
2) Your new account will automatically be credited with $7 (enough to get a free song).
Then you will get an additional gift certificate by e-mail, just for creating an account. $14 worth of free music...pretty snazzy.
3.15.2006
Adobe Production Studio Premium - What Will We Find?
I picked up the upgrade for the Adobe Production Studio Premium a little while back, and have yet to install it due to a bit of other work I'm trying to wrap up on the old versions first. I really do not want to chance flubbing the computer until I know it would be okay to do so.
First off, a plug for the fine folks at Atlanta CAD Services (ACS) for getting me a good price on the upgrade. In total honesty, there were some Adobe-related shipping issues that delayed the software for a little while, but it arrived nonetheless and ACS kept me posted and did not charge me until I had the product in-hand - kudos to them for being good business people. When I picked it up, they talked to me briefly about some related 3rd party hardware and software, and warned me that it would take about 1.5 to 2 hours to install the whole package. ****UPDATE: Install only took about 45 minutes for all disc content on my machine END UPDATE**** Good information to know upfront. This is a good company to do business with and they can answer lots of questions for you before and after your purchase (though they are not a 24/7 tech-support, so don't expect that). Give them a look-see.
Some non-technical items....the packaging is sort of different from some other software vendors, though similar to packaging from Adobe in the past. The box has a clear plastic slip cover with a sturdy box holding all the user manuals and software. One side of the box is "open" which is nice. I found in the past that to access the user manuals (without just leaving them lying around) I had to pull out the box and slide out the holder to get to the manuals. Now the box sits on the shelf with easy 1-step access to the manuals whenever needed. A small consideration but interesting that they thought about that enough to change the design. Nice for people like me who tend to reference the manual frequently.
The discs are in two cases - 6 software applications in one case (5 discs) and training materials in another (2 discs). The training is from Total Training, and is a few hours worth I believe. The software discs are only labeled Disc 1, Disc 2, etc. Previously discs were labeled per the software that was contained on the disc and each software was installed one at a time. Now you pop in Disc 1 and it runs through the whole bundle install, apparently letting you know when to insert the next disc. Of course, users in the forums have been complaining that this prevents you from installing just that software that you want on machine #1 and the rest on machine #2 (leaving out software you don't plan to use). Maybe piracy is part of the reason for designing it this way, but it does seem intelligent for Adobe to decide - by design - how they would like the package to be installed and in what order everything is done. I have no qualms because I use all of the applicatons and they get installed completely on two machines.
Not a lot of substance to this post, but I thought someone may find it interesting what was "in the box" so I stuck it up here for your reading pleasure. Once I install it and run it a while I'll post back about any crashes/bugs as well as what 3rd party plugins are included this time. Judging by my workload right now, installation is still probably a week or so away.
First off, a plug for the fine folks at Atlanta CAD Services (ACS) for getting me a good price on the upgrade. In total honesty, there were some Adobe-related shipping issues that delayed the software for a little while, but it arrived nonetheless and ACS kept me posted and did not charge me until I had the product in-hand - kudos to them for being good business people. When I picked it up, they talked to me briefly about some related 3rd party hardware and software, and warned me that it would take about 1.5 to 2 hours to install the whole package. ****UPDATE: Install only took about 45 minutes for all disc content on my machine END UPDATE**** Good information to know upfront. This is a good company to do business with and they can answer lots of questions for you before and after your purchase (though they are not a 24/7 tech-support, so don't expect that). Give them a look-see.
Some non-technical items....the packaging is sort of different from some other software vendors, though similar to packaging from Adobe in the past. The box has a clear plastic slip cover with a sturdy box holding all the user manuals and software. One side of the box is "open" which is nice. I found in the past that to access the user manuals (without just leaving them lying around) I had to pull out the box and slide out the holder to get to the manuals. Now the box sits on the shelf with easy 1-step access to the manuals whenever needed. A small consideration but interesting that they thought about that enough to change the design. Nice for people like me who tend to reference the manual frequently.
The discs are in two cases - 6 software applications in one case (5 discs) and training materials in another (2 discs). The training is from Total Training, and is a few hours worth I believe. The software discs are only labeled Disc 1, Disc 2, etc. Previously discs were labeled per the software that was contained on the disc and each software was installed one at a time. Now you pop in Disc 1 and it runs through the whole bundle install, apparently letting you know when to insert the next disc. Of course, users in the forums have been complaining that this prevents you from installing just that software that you want on machine #1 and the rest on machine #2 (leaving out software you don't plan to use). Maybe piracy is part of the reason for designing it this way, but it does seem intelligent for Adobe to decide - by design - how they would like the package to be installed and in what order everything is done. I have no qualms because I use all of the applicatons and they get installed completely on two machines.
Not a lot of substance to this post, but I thought someone may find it interesting what was "in the box" so I stuck it up here for your reading pleasure. Once I install it and run it a while I'll post back about any crashes/bugs as well as what 3rd party plugins are included this time. Judging by my workload right now, installation is still probably a week or so away.
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