‘Solipsist’ – an Experimental Short That Beautifully Blends Practical and CG Effects using Autodesk Maya

What do you get when you mix experimental film with fantasy via Jim Henson?  Andrew Huang’s new short film, Solipsist, provides a beautiful and vaguely disturbing mind-trip of an answer.  Some of you may recognize Huang’s name from his earlier viral short —Doll Face.  For a film that started as a Kickstarter project last summer, it’s pretty impressive to see how quickly Solipsist was finished and released — especially considering Huang did a large chunk of the post-production himself.  Coming off its recent win of the “Special Jury Prize for Experimental Short” at Slamdance, the short is now available to watch in full, along with some very intriguing “making of” footage that reveals some surprising use of practical effects:

 

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Beyond being a beautiful piece of visual art, it’s another great example of how far one can go with today’s available tools.  Shot on a RED camera against green screens, the short is a mixture of practical and CG effects composited in Maya.  Now here’s the kicker — you may think the majority of the effects are CG, but according to Jason Sondhi of Short of the Week, Huang assured him that practically 99% of the effects were practical.  Needless to say, it takes careful pre-planning, testing, and most importantly, skillful compositing of the various elements, to pull it all off.  Don’t believe it?  See for yourself:

For Huang’s thoughts about the piece as well as how he has navigated his career choices since his first breakout short check out this “Director’s Notes” interview.  It brings back theearlier debate about the importance of short films as calling cards for directors — even for relatively established ones like Huang.

Have you watched any other recent experimental shorts that put special and visual effects to great use?

 

This article was written by E.M. Taboada  Nofilmschool.com

 

[via Short of the Week and Motionographer]

14 Academy Award-Nominated Movies: One Thing in Common

Digital Artists Worldwide Used Autodesk Digital Entertainment Creation Software to Create 2011’s Most Celebrated Movies

Digital artists devoted days and years behind the scenes to help create the movie magic seen in many of this year’s Academy Award-nominated films. In the categories for Best Visual Effects and Best Animated Film (Feature and Short) in particular, many artists relied on the same set of tools — Digital Entertainment Creation (DEC) software from Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK). “Great films depend on great storytelling and our technology is designed to enable artistic vision,” said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “We congratulate the multitalented teams of artists from North America, New Zealand, Europe and Asia, and we are proud of Autodesk software’s role in helping them create these extraordinary movies.” Best Visual Effects “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” — UK-based visual effects (VFX) studios Double Negative, MPC and Framestore each used Autodesk Maya 3D animation and rendering software to help create the visually extravagant effects for this final installment in the Harry Potter franchise. Double Negative VFX Supervisor David Vickery said, “Maya has been the lynchpin of our pipeline since ‘Goblet of Fire.’ For this film, Maya helped us build a fully computer-generated (CG) Hogwarts in a massive 3D environment, including a spectacular mountain range and an animated fire-breathing dragon digitally modeled with Autodesk Mudbox software.” MPC VFX Supervisor Greg Butler added, “From the first film in the ‘Potter’ series through to this film’s final shot, MPC has relied on Maya for modeling, rigging and lighting.” Andy Kind, Framestore VFX supervisor said, “Autodesk’s Maya once again was our go-to tool, enabling us to bring to life the magic of the Chamber of Secrets for Ron and Hermione’s first kiss, as well as Harry’s vision of Heaven. We couldn’t have done any of the eight films without it!” “Hugo” — VFX studio Pixomondo managed a global production team across 10 of its 11 facilities in North America, Europe and Asia for this richly detailed reimagining of 1930s Paris. The worldwide team worked for over a year using a production pipeline comprised of Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max for animation, rendering, character rigging and modeling; as well as Autodesk MotionBuilder for motion capture and animation. VFX Supervisor Ben Grossmann said, “The interoperability of Autodesk tools helped us meet tight deadlines and bring Martin Scorsese’s magical vision to the big screen.” “Real Steel” — Visual effects powerhouse Digital Domain, motion-capture specialists Giant Studios and virtual production innovators Technoprops delivered “Real Steel” within an impressively efficient 71-day production schedule. The close collaboration between the three companies and an Autodesk toolset helped create this realistic and thrilling action movie with a believable and captivating robot and human relationship. VFX Supervisor Erik Nash said, “The on-set real-time interoperability of Maya and MotionBuilder enabled tremendous creative freedom for the entire production team.” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” — Caesar, the CG chimpanzee performed by Andy Serkis is a creative milestone for Weta Digital in New Zealand. Weta used Maya and MotionBuilder as the core of its creative production pipelines for its groundbreaking visual effects and performance capture. Sebastian Sylwan, chief technology officer at Weta said, “Creating a believable and realistic CG character like Caesar required providing our artists with the right tools and innovative technology that allowed them to iterate and express their creativity. We developed our own software to perfect performance capture, hair, eyes and muscles amongst others, using Maya and MotionBuilder as a backbone.” Canada-based Image Engine contributed previsualization for the film and also took advantage of a Maya-based pipeline. “Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon” — The extraordinarily detailed Transformer robots contain up to 50,000 million polygons rendered in stereoscopic 3D by lead visual effects houses Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) with studios in San Francisco and Singapore and Digital Domain. ILM used the following Autodesk DEC software tools in its pipeline: 3ds Max for digital environment work; Autodesk Flame as part of its proprietary SABRE high-speed compositing system; and Maya as the core tool for animation, rigging and layout. Scott Farrar, visual effects supervisor on ‘Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon’ said, “As effects work continues to grow in complexity, it is more important than ever that our artists have access to best of breed tools and by using Autodesk’s Digital Entertainment Creation software, ILM is able to continue to create groundbreaking visual effects.” Best Animated Feature Film “Kung Fu Panda 2” and “Puss in Boots” — Both movies earned not only Academy Award nominations for Animated Feature Film for Dreamworks Animation (DWA), but also were two of the top three grossing animated films of 2011.* DWA continues to creatively push technology to imbue animated characters with huge personalities, and both films used Maya. Phil McNally, stereoscopic supervisor on both movies said, “Either on our own or in concert with Autodesk, we can develop tools in Maya to specifically address the challenges of stereoscopic 3D. Maya gives us that intuitive flexibility, or the ability to see what we’re doing — while we’re doing it — in 3D.” “Rango” “Rango,” the story of a weird lizard’s quest for identity, was ILM’s first animated feature. The film presented some daunting creative and technical challenges: Rango’s face alone required over 300 controllers to achieve the range of performance needed for the 1,100 shots he appears in. On top of which, Rango was just one of well over 100 characters that populated the film. “All of these characters had some combination of scales, feathers, or fur and all had clothing. We strove to create a very tactile world for Rango,” said ILM’s Hal Hickel, animator director on the film. “We wanted to create the illusion that if you could reach out and touch objects in the frame you’d know exactly what they would feel like, so it was very important that our software enable us to show as much detail as possible at each phase of the process. This allowed us to make certain the performances would translate to the big screen. Maya was great at letting us do that.” Other Categories “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” — nominated for Short Film (animated) — Moonbot Studios in Louisiana used Maya to help create this poignant and humorous allegorical film. “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” — nominated for five awards — Digital Domain created digital doubles, matte paintings, animation and set extensions using both Maya and 3ds Max. Method Studios contributed to 101 VFX shots, including a fully CG train sequence through a snow-covered landscape using Maya, Flame and Autodesk Flare software. Blur Studios created the amazing title sequence using a combination of 3ds Max for animation and Autodesk Softimage for keyframing. “La Luna” — nominated for Short Film (animated) — Pixar used Maya and Pixar’s own Renderman to create this mystical coming-of-age story. “The Muppets” — nominated for Original Song — LOOK Effects used a combination of Flame, Flare and Maya to help bring these beloved characters to life in this box-office hit. “The Tree of Life” — nominated for three awards including Best Picture — Method Studios used Maya to help create the fully CG 4K (4096 × 3112 pixels per frame) sequence for the film’s “Microbial” section, which plays effectively alongside practical and mixed-technique approaches. Method’s EVP Dan Glass was also the film’s overall senior visual effects supervisor. Prime Focus used Maya, 3ds Max and Mudbox to create the wonderfully realistic dinosaur sequences, dedicating a team of 50 artists to achieving Terrence Malick’s vision for these scenes. “War Horse” — nominated for six awards including Best Picture — UK-based Framestore used Maya to help create the equine digital double, barbwire VFX integration, digital environments and clean-up on 200 shots for Steven Spielberg’s epic drama. Hollywood and London-based The Third Floor also previsualized key sequences using a toolset that includes Maya. About Autodesk Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries – including the last 16 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects – use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visithttp://www.autodesk.com. * Source: Box Office Mojo Creativecow.net

FMC Orlando: Adobe Premiere Pro User Group

Please join us for an evening of presentation and Q&A with FMC’s certified instructors Luisa Winters & Katie Houghton or other Adobe certified instructor (depending on location).

Date: Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
Topic: Multicamera Editing:If you work with more than one camera the topic says it all.
Come see how Premiere Pro handles these multicamera events.
Networking: 6:00 – 6:30pm
Presentation Start: 6:30-8:30pm
The attendance is FREE but space is limited, so REGISTER TODAY!

Endless Possibilities

How They Did It: Bringing Creatures to Life in Discovery Networks’ Online Promos Making Big Fish Swim Outside YouTube’s Box

They’re ferocious, vicious, dangerous and they’re headed straight for you … online. Discovery Network’s Web promos for hit shows River Monsters andShark Week offer up a heart-pounding view of some frightening underwater creatures brought to life with Maxon’s Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects.
River Monsters host Jeremy Wade stands atop a banner ad talking about underwater creatures as they swim past him in the online promo. Known for presenting informative and entertaining programming on the unusual and unseen lives of animals and insects around the world, Discovery Network looked to New York City-based 3D animator Jean Marco Ruesta to create the imaginative River Monsters promo in which creatures appear to swim out of the frame. “I like doing stuff that makes me think outside of the box,” says Ruesta, who teaches C4D classes at the New York’s School of the Arts and works at Alien Kung Fu in Manhattan. Admitting that he doesn’t sleep much, Ruesta says he is also a busy freelance 3D artist who takes on as many projects as he can manage. “I take on jobs without thinking about how something can be done, and then I run around like a chicken without a head trying to figure out how to do it.” Given just five weeks to complete the River Monsters project, Ruesta began working when Discovery Network gave him some reference boards, a basic YouTube page created by their in-house design team, and footage of the show’s host, Jeremy Wade, standing in front of a green screen on a sound stage in London. With all of that for inspiration he came up with an online promo that at first looks like a typical YouTube page with one main player window and several River Monsters videos to click on.
The net Wade appears to pull across the screen was created by 3D animator Jean Marco Ruesta in Cinema 4D. Suddenly, the action ramps up when Wade steps out of a nearby banner ad, grabs a fishing net and throws it across the screen. Catching the play button for the main video, Wade fast-forwards to footage of an episode of the show in which he struggles to hold on to a giant salamander as it writhes and twists in his hands. “This is the good bit,” he says, smiling at the memory. Perched atop the ad, Wade warns, “Stay away from the ‘Flesh Ripper’ — it likes to bite off certain male body parts,” as the fish swims past menacingly. Next, the dreaded “Chainsaw Predator” swims into view, followed by the giant salamander. Once the parade of critters is safely out of the way, Wade jumps down off the banner into the unseen river below, sending water splashing every which-way on the page. (See the full spot live on YouTube.) An eel swims gracefully along a spline path created by Ruesta in the “River Monsters” online promo. In the promo, Wade’s toss of the net looks effortless. In fact, it was a bit of a challenge for Ruesta to pull off. Though he had green screen-footage of Wade actually throwing the net and pretending to throw it, none of the shots worked well in Ruesta’s overall design plan. So he reached out to the online C4D community for help with creating a net for the host to throw. It took a couple of tests, but soon the ideas he got from everyone came together and he was able to make a net by creating a plane and an Atom Array Object. After applying Cloth Dynamics to the plane, he constrained points of the net to a few control objects and began animating. “Without my gurus Jack Myers and Dr. Sassi from Ciniversity, I would have been lost,” recalls Ruesta. Ruesta used a variety of approaches to create the show’s creatures. The giant salamander model, for example, was purchased on TurboSquid and refined by Ori Gellman, one of his C4D students. After adjusting the lighting and reflections, Ruesta used BodyPaint 3D for the salamander’s body. Animating the salamander went smoothly, with Ruesta using the Spline Wrap deformer to define the path along which the creature moved. He also added a few nulls to the surface of the salamander, and with the help of the C4D-to-After-Effects connection tools, he was able to get the nulls’ position data into After Effects. Bubbles streaming off the surface of the salamander were created using Trapcode’s Particular. Shark Week Ruesta’s work on River Monsters surpassed the client’s expectations, and he was soon asked to create another online promo for Discovery’s Shark Week. More ambitious than the first project, this promo again used green screen footage, this time of actor Andy Samberg standing in a room talking to viewers about Shark Week. He’s interrupted when two big bumps shake the room just before a shark bursts through the wall, shakes his head back and forth and swims off the screen and out of sight leaving Samberg drenched. (Watch the promo live on YouTube.) Ruesta animated the shark’s movements by hand using Cinema 4D. To get the shark’s movement right, Ruesta watched several videos of them doing things like swimming and biting. Like he did with “River Monsters,” Ruesta bought a shark model on TurboSquid. Though it was already rigged and animated, the movement wasn’t what Discovery was looking for so Ruesta re-animated the shark from scratch using C4D. Ruesta designed the wood panels the shark bursts through to realistically burst apart and float away. A large, hidden sphere was animated to “bump” into the wall from behind just before the shark comes crashing through. “I animated the shark as if it were swimming in place,” he explains. “Once I did that, I used the same technique as I did for River Monsters, where I used a spline wrap to create a path and then I had that shark follow along that path and swim past the audience.” Using the C4D-to-After-Effects connection, Ruesta was able to bring the position data of the crumbling wall pieces into After Effects to enable the YouTube interface to break apart along with the wall. One of the biggest challenges Ruesta faced was figuring out how the shark would break through the website interface as though it were breaking through a wall. For this he relied on C4D’s dynamics tools for a natural breaking and crumbling effect. Using the YouTube interface as a template, he modeled and textured a wall of wooden planks and then broke them up in the area that the shark would burst through. Ruesta added tags to all the pieces so their position data would be available in After Effects. Water footage and plugins in After Effects were used to create the illusion of the comments washing away and bobbing around on the page. After Effects was used to create the water that fills the screen after the shark’s dramatic entrance. Ruesta used an image of the sea as the background behind the C4D renders of the wall so when it broke away the sea was revealed. Footage of water falling and splashing also helped add to the final look. Bubbles were added with Trapcode’s Particular and Wondertouch’s particleIllusion 3.0. Happy but exhausted after completing both projects, Ruesta says he “can’t wait till they put a chip in my head so I can work while I’m sleeping.” Check out the River Monsters promo live on YouTube:www.youtube.com/rivermonsters. Check out the Shark Week promo live on YouTube:www.youtube.com/discoverysharkweek.   This Article was written by:   Scott Strohmaier Studiodaily.com

Tippett Studio Mixes Up CG And Live Action For ‘Immortals’ using Autodesk Maya

New York/San Francisco-based content creation/production company Bodega’s roster VFX studio, Tippett Studio, delivers live action-packed intensity fused with CG ferocity in the fantasy action ‘Immortals’ directed by Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall) and starring Henry Cavill (The Tudors) and Mickey Rourke.

In their first foray into motion capture technology, Tippett Studio worked with Singh to combine live actors with CG characters, elevating the on-screen images to a higher level of realism.

In order to make the epic battle scene between the Gods and the Titans as outrageously graphic as possible, Tippett used motion capture technology to not only make the fighting and gore as realistic as possible, but also to maintain on-point fight choreography throughout the sequence. They used fluid dynamics in Houdini and Maya to create enhanced blood effects in the scene, in addition to practical fluids, in order to maintain more control and art direction over the appearance of the fluids in the film. In addition, body parts, guts, etc. were all modeled and integrated into the special rigs for the wounds.

VFX Supervisor Matt Jacobs found creating the look of the sequence to be a concerted group effort. He notes, “Tarsem was very open and let us incorporate ideas we thought would make the shots the best they could be. Immortals was a very collaborative experience for us.”

In addition to the 70-shot Titan battle, Tippett also animated a canine creature, “the mongrel,” which appears in many shots in the scene. Also, they contributed to the “Sistine Chapel” shot at the end comprised of numerous Titans and gods battling in the sky. Singh requested that Tippett integrate some of the Titan footage to further enhance the scene.

Upcoming work out of Tippett includes work on the recently released The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, work for Singh’s Snow White film entitled Mirror, Mirror (March 2012), Philip Kaufman’s Hemmingway and Gellhorn (2012) starring Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen and Seth McFarlane’s upcoming film Ted (July 2012).

To Sign up for Auto Desk Maya Training Courses… click here

Original article written by Creativecow.net

Avid Introduces Media Composer 6

November 3rd, Avid announced new versions of its flagship video editing systems—Media Composer® version 6, NewsCutter® version 10 and Symphony® version 6. Building upon more than 20 years of product innovation and commitment to its professional users, these industry-leading professional editing systems today deliver new levels of openness, performance, collaboration and productivity—enabling independent professionals, post-production houses, broadcasters and all media companies to get their work done faster, work together on projects more effectively and reduce costs through greater productivity.

What’s New
Media Composer version 6, Symphony version 6 and NewsCutter version 10 are rebuilt from the core on an entirely new open, 64-bit architecture that raises the bar for performance, flexibility and productivity. With this version, Avid is also introducing a sleek, new User Interface—designed to speed workflows while simultaneously preserving the same functionality that so many professionals have built their careers on. In addition, these systems include support for third-party hardware, AVCHD and Red Epic support with Avid Media Access (AMA), an Avid DNxHD® 444 codec, and support for Avid Artist Color.

Together with existing Avid innovations such as AMA, for direct access to file-based media; Avid PhraseFind, powered by Nexidia, and Avid ScriptSync®, for phonetic searching and editing; and real-time Mix and Match, allowing multiple formats in the same timeline—this major release reinforces Media Composer, NewsCutter and Symphony systems as the ultimate professional editors on the market, specifically designed to meet the creative and technical demands of the broadest array of editing workflows.

More Open, More Flexible

• Leverage existing hardware investments and easily add Avid editing systems into current workflow configurations thanks to the new Avid Open I/O, which enables support for popular video and audio cards from AJA Video Systems, Blackmagic Design, Bluefish444, Matrox and MOTU.
• Easily incorporate Avid’s high-performance hardware video accelerator, Avid Nitris ® DX—the most versatile and powerful video hardware system optimized for Avid editing systems—into high-profile film or TV workflows through its availability as a standalone hardware purchase at a new, reduced price. Nitris DX is available with one or two Avid DNxHD or AVC-Intra chips and supports full resolution and full frame stereoscopic workflows.
• With Symphony software, experience greater flexibility and choice for on-set and mobile editorial and color work, or meet increased facility capacity—now available as a software-only solution, at a lower cost.

Enhanced Integration for the Most Demanding Post Production Workflows

• Increase flexibility for editorial and finishing with enhanced Pro Tools® integration and 5.1/7.1 surround and extensive metadata management, which allows the transfer of more session data from Media Composer to Pro Tools. Additional metadata is available in the AAF interchange format. Extensive 5.1/7.1 surround support is also fully compatible with Pro Tools through the improved AAF capabilities.
• Maintain a familiar and trusted editorial process with new, industry-defining 3D stereoscopic workflows that offer full resolution, real-time editing, mixed eye workflows as well as a deep toolset, with title and conversion control. Editors can also easily export metadata into Avid or other third-party finishing systems for grading and high-end effects.
• Preserve full color information from HD RGB 4:4:4 sources without compromising system performance or storage through the new Avid DNxHD 444, a high-quality HD codec. Avid DNxHD 444 can help significantly enhance real-time HD production productivity with the highest color detail possible, is suitable for the most demanding productions, and is also an ideal archiving format.

Additional New Editorial Capabilities to Increase Workflow Speed and Productivity

• Gain greater power and flexibility in high performance color correction with support for the Avid Artist Color control surface within Avid editing systems.
• Speed time to editing by eliminating timely transcode, re-wrap, and log and transfer processes through expanded AMA, which now offers native support for AVCHD and RED Epic as well as the ability to encode Apple ProRes (Mac OS-based systems only).
• Ease and expedite workflows and toolset expansion with the new Avid Marketplace, which offers in-system access to stock footage from Thought Equity Motion. The Avid Marketplace also enables customers to browse available video and audio plugins along with other products in the Avid Store to complete a suite.
• Get questions answered quickly with a new Customer Assist Tool, offering direct, in-app access to guides, help, and configuration information.
• Gain up to 2.5 times faster encoding with Sorenson Squeeze v6.0.4, included with Media Composer, NewsCutter, and Symphony software.

“Time and creativity is money for our customers, and they are looking for solutions that can help them continue to advance the art of creative storytelling without adding technological complexity,” said Chris Gahagan, senior vice president of products and solutions at Avid. “As we debut the most open, accessible and highest-performance versions of Media Composer, Symphony and NewsCutter—ever—we are thrilled to take a significant leap forward in providing our customers with new industry standards in speed, ease and access that can help them do their jobs more effectively.”

What Customers are Saying

• “The real value of the new Media Composer and Symphony systems is enhanced interoperability and openness—it all comes down to labor,” said Terence Curren, colorist/editor, AlphaDogs (Life as We Know It, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Eagle Eye) “The bottom line is if you save 15 minutes a day, times four people, times 10 weeks, that’s a lot more than the difference in cost between any of these software systems.”
• “With Media Composer 6, those of us who invested in hardware for Final Cut Pro can transition to Avid, easily and painlessly. I’m pleased,” said Shane Ross, freelance editor.
• “Anyone who works in 3D is going to work on Media Composer going forward. It’s just THE system to do that on now,” said John Mauldin, director of operations and technology, Fotokem Non-Linear.

Avid Vantage
Concurrent with the launch of today’s announcement, Avid is introducing the Avid Vantage™ Program, an annual membership program for Media Composer and Symphony customers that provides many great benefits. The Avid Vantage Program—which is also available to Pro Tools customers—provides subscribers with unlimited online technical support, plus deeply discounted expert phone support when they need it. They also gain access to a great collection of NewBlueFX effects (for Media Composer or Symphony subscribers) or audio plug-ins (for Pro Tools subscribers). And, for a limited time, they’ll receive a high-value Avid Store coupon that can be applied to new software purchases or upgrades.

Webcast 
Avid plans to host a public webcast with a live Q&A to discuss the new capabilities of Media Composer, NewsCutter and Symphony software at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time today. To access the webcast, please click here.

Pricing and Availability
New versions of Media Composer, Symphony and NewsCutter software will be available on November 15, 2011. Beginning with these releases, NewsCutter will be available for the same price as Media Composer, Symphony 6.0 will be available as a standalone software option and Nitris DX will be available as a standalone hardware option.

• Pricing for Media Composer 6.0 starts at $2499 USD. Upgrade pricing starts at $299 USD.
• NewsCutter 10 starts at $2499 USD. Upgrade pricing starts at $499 USD.
• Pricing for Symphony 6.0 starts at $5,999 USD. Upgrade pricing starts at $499 USD.
• Nitris DX starts at $5,499 USD.
• Pricing for Media Composer Academic version 6.0 starts at $295 USMSRP for educational institutions and students.
• Final Cut Pro (excluding Final Cut Pro X) users can purchase Media Composer with free online training to help them move from Final Cut Pro to Media Composer, for $1499 USD.

Avid Vantage Program
The new Avid Vantage Program will be available during Q4 2011 to Media Composer, Symphony and Pro Tools users with all of the great benefits described above, for $149/year US MSRP.

For more information about Media Composer, visit http://www.avid.com/mc. For more information about Avid Vantage, visit http://www.avid.com/avidvantage.

About Avid
Avid creates the digital audio and video technology used to make the most listened to, most watched and most loved media in the world – from the most prestigious and award-winning feature films, music recordings, television shows, live concert tours and news broadcasts, to music and movies made at home. Some of Avid’s most influential and pioneering solutions include Media Composer, Pro Tools, Interplay®, ISIS®, VENUE, Sibelius®, System 5, and Avid Studio. For more information about Avid solutions and services, visit http://www.avid.com

This article was written by CreativeCow.Com       

New Gadgets: Celluon Magic Cube – World’s only virtual projection keyboard and multi-touch mouse

The Celluon Magic Cube is among the first wave of virtual keyboards to hit the market, a device that projects keys of light on to any flat surface, interprets your finger-tapping and sends each p and q to any Bluetooth device.

Industry Innovator: Steve Jobs [1955-2011]

On behalf of all of us at Future Media Concepts, Steve Jobs will be missed. Our condolences to family, friends, and colleagues at Apple. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife and his children during this difficult time. Thanks for giving us the inspiration and tools to create Steve.

                                                                                  -Future Media Concepts| Orlando Branch

“We’ll Never Forget…

Steve Jobs, who died on Wednesday, was a singular figure in American business history. He will go in the pantheon of great American entrepreneurs, inventors, and innovators, alongside John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and Sam Walton.

Through it all, Steve Jobs gained millions of fans. His relaxed appearance and style during the frequent Apple keynotes is legendary, and even as new CEO Tim Cook takes over, we can’t help but miss the black shirts and blue jeans we were used to seeing for so many years.

Wednesday, pancreatic cancer claimed his life, a disease which he first announced to the public 2004. Through various treatments, Jobs continued to perform his duties at Apple, promising only to step down when he felt the time was right. Just a few short months ago, on August 24, Steve Jobs officially walked away from his post as CEO, and today he is no longer with us.

As the face of Apple for so many years, Jobs became part of the very fabric of the company’s products. His legacy will live on with every iPod, iPhone, Mac, and iPad that graces a desk or coffee table around the globe. The next time you power on your smartphone, tablet, or computer, spare a moment for Steve Jobs, one man who made advancing technology his life’s work.”

This article was written by Mike Wehner and originally appeared on Tecca                     

FMC Training: Transferring RED Media into Final Cut Pro

 

Robbie Carman, a Future Media Concepts instructor, shows how you can import RED footage into FCP thanks to a Final Cut Studio plugin.

Upcoming Classes

FCP 100 – An Overview of Final Cut Pro 7 2 days

• Orlando: 11/14/2011

FCP 101 – An Introduction to Final Cut Pro 7 3 days

• Orlando: 10/31/2011 , 12/19/2011

FCP 200 – A Comprehensive Study of Final Cut Pro 7 5 days

• Orlando: 10/24/2011

FCP 300 – Final Cut Pro 7 Advanced Editing 3 days

• Orlando: 11/7/2011 , 12/27/2011

Final Cut Pro 7 Level One End User Exam 1 day

• Orlando: 10/7/2011 , 11/4/2011 , 12/2/2011

Final Cut Pro 7 Level Two End User Exam 1 day

• Orlando: 10/7/2011 , 11/4/2011 , 12/2/2011

Contact CariJ@fmctraining.com or Call 407.354.4866

FREE Adobe Premiere Pro User Group… October 4, 2011

Please join us for an evening of presentation and Q&A September 20th 2011 with FMC’s certified instructor Sylus Green.

The attendance is FREE but space is limited, so REGISTER TODAY . See you there!

Topics Include:

*Edit 101 in Premiere: From Story to Masterpiece
*Easy Encore: Create that next splash DVD or Flash presentation in a few easy steps
*Premiere the best Storyboard Ever: Benefits of the Animate to Sequence feature
*Premiere the Composite Tool: After Effects is not the only place to create compelling composite shots. Learn how Premiere does it! 

Networking: 6:30 – 7pm
Presentation Start: 7:00 – 9pm

Click Here To Register…