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A while back I visited an animation exhibit in Vancouver which included actual props and characters from Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 animated feature film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed.  This was the first true feature animated film that came out 11 years before Disney’s Snow White in 1937.  As with Snow White, this film used a multi-plane camera and just simply spectacular backgrounds that appear to be ever moving watercolors.  Now the big difference is that The Adventures of Prince Achmed has no dialogue.  It was also never recognized as the first feature-length animated film.

Ever since viewing the characters and film clips, I have wanted to make a short film homage in her style.   I even purchased the film on DVD to study it and I’m enthralled by her watercolor backgrounds each time I watch it. You can see some of Act II here and I encourage you to purchase the entire movie.

Well now I want to move forward and actually create this short film.  Probably 7-12 minutes, it’ll be a silent film, music only, just like the original.  We’ll create the main characters in shadow puppet form just like the original and animate them either for real in stop action or in a stop action look.  The only reason to make this film is just because we want to.  The plan is to utilize Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects for the bulk of the art and animation.  Either Premiere Pro or possibly DaVinci Resolve for the editing so we can edit and color grade in the timeline.   There’s no budget, no pay, just something to have some fun on the side and create a good film to submit to short film festivals.

You notice I keep saying “we” and not “me.”  See I’m looking for help from those who want to join me and make something for fun.  Scriptwriters, artists, animators, photographers, editors, composers, professionals, students, hobbyists, you name it, if you want to join the team, let me know.   Doesn’t matter where you live, we can all work remotely.

I’m going to start kicking around ideas with the hope to start into pre-production after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.  So what do you say?  Wanna make an animation?

Ping me walter (at) biscardicreative (d0t) com and put animated short in the subject line.

The post Let’s Make An Animated Short Film appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

As a long time animator myself, what makes this film so incredible for me is first and foremost, the story is king.  This is not a straight telling of The Little Prince, it’s a story within a story framed around the pressures of a little girl to become a successful adult according to well laid plans of her mother. 

“The Little Prince” is the story of, well, a little prince who lives on a tiny planet, an asteroid really, whose tale is told to us by the aviator met the prince after a plane crash.  In this modern retelling of the story we meet the Aviator as the eccentric next door neighbor of a very rigid, modern single mom who has instilled a ridiculous “life plan” for her young daughter.  This mom and her plan would rival one of those “tiger moms.”  Naturally the daughter is intrigued by and befriends the old man who keeps a dilapidated airplane in his back yard.

What differentiates really good filmmaking is the story and storytelling.  “It’s the Story Stupid” is a well known refrain throughout our creative industry, yet it’s rare that we see a film actually put the story first.  This is one reason I’m so drawn to most things Pixar because of the strength of their storytelling with the first 20 minutes of “Wall-E” the pinnacle example.  The storytelling is where the magic of “The Little Prince” is born.  This isn’t simple a retelling of the original book, that would been spectacular in and of itself with the animation styles, but it’s in the addition of the “modern world” and modern insecurities with the Mom and daughter that makes the story much more enriching.   

The world where Mom, the little girl and the Aviator lives is a very drab and very precise town.  The color palate is muted, lots of sharp angles, perfect squares of land, perfect square houses, even the greenery is trimmed into square shapes.  Their lives are monotonous.  Wake up, brush your teeth, drive to work, go home, eat, go to bed, repeat. Mom is set on getting the little girl into the top prep school, aptly named Werth Academie, with an interview process that feels more like an interrogation than an interview.   It seems the way of the world today.  The kids have to get ahead so they can get into the best schools, best teams, so they are constantly  training and learning.  The pressure to perform, even at a young age means some kids just don’t have the time to be…. well, kids.   

The lone splash of color in this world is, of course, the Aviator’s house.   He’s the eccentric town kook well known to the local police as a nuisance to the uptight neighbors, but completely harmless.  The story of “The Little Prince” is revealed as the little girl comes to know the Aviator.  It’s this little addition of the modern world as losing sight of imagination and fun that, for me, completely enhances the story and message of the original book.

What makes this film so visually striking is the incredible use of multiple animation styles that are used to perfection to tell different parts of the story and to transport us back and forth from “reality.”  Or, perhaps it’s all reality and we just see different parts of reality in different ways.    I love to mix animation styles in my work and I just love how seamlessly the styles of animation blend together in this film.

The film starts with animated pencil and brush strokes as the Aviator begins the tale.  It’s the Aviator’s drawings that took us through the original book and the style, along with Jeff Bridges’  delivery draws you immediately into the story.  Stop action appears when we are listening to the Aviator’s story of the prince and the stories he was told.  There is what I would call the “Pixar look,” 3D animation with caricature versions of humans that still look quite realistic.  Sure, previous films have mixed animation styles and they’re usually for flashbacks, but no film that I can recall has ever employed mixed animation so incredibly as part of the storytelling process.  This required a lot of thought and planning in the story development phase to make this a seamless storytelling experience across the mixed media. 

The stop action elements are simply breathtaking at times.  The characters look like living, hand carved puppets which pay beautiful homage to the original drawings in the book.  The fox almost seems as if he is constructed from wire and paper, he has such a unique look about him. There is a translucency to much of the stop action world with beautiful lighting and lighting effects.  The fabric on the plane’s wings seem to flutter in the air.  The desert world where the Aviator and Little Prince meet is simply stunning both in the daylight and evening.  The stars dangling on a string are reminiscent of a child’s puppet theater.   As someone who has made stop action for many MANY years, (starting with 8mm film) this work is very close to my heart and I’m incredibly inspired by the work.  

The “real world,” by contrast is rather lifeless.  Sure the sun may be out, but there’s a coldness to the world.  No stone or blade of grass is out of place, there’s no initiative to do anything differently.  In fact, different is frowned upon.  This world comes to life in living color whenever the Aviator is a part of it.   He’s “that guy” that the neighbors openly despise but secretly wish they could be.  There is a familiarity to this world and a subtle nuance with the actions of the characters that makes the world believable.  These are characters you would find in your neighborhood, your world if you look around.    That’s when animation transcends from “just a cartoon” to a true animated feature story.

That believability is further enhanced by perfect voice casting and directing.  There’s a “who’s who” of voice talent in the film and they all just work.  Not only the voice itself, but how they act.  There’s a tendency for the “bad guy” in feature animation to be over the top cartoonish in the “bad guy” delivery.  There’s really none of that here and the overall story is presented much more as live action delivery vs. a child’s cartoon delivery.    Just really well done and beyond the interaction between the little girl and the Aviator, I do love Ricky Gervais as the Conceited Man. 

At times the film reminded me of “Up” and “Ratatouille” in the subtle nuances of the characters, facial expressions and reactions.  They’re real people in a real world completely made up in fantasy.  There is a point at which the worlds collide and and it’s all just works.  Are we in reality?  Are we in a fantasy or a dream?  It all feels real and it all fits.  I love when filmmakers can take fantasy and just make it so believable and real.  

This film, the storytelling and the technical achievements in animation all deserve an opportunity to be judged for an Oscar.  I was pleased to learn that Netflix screened the film in some theaters to make it eligible for Oscar consideration.  In fact, thanks to Netflix for rescuing this film after Paramount dropped it just one week before its release.  It would have been a shame to see this film lost from public viewing.

If you are a fan of good storytelling, regardless of whether you typically watch animation, I would highly encourage you to get a bowl of popcorn and settle in for “The Little Prince.”  It’s a masterful piece of filmmaking and one that inspires me to keep animating.

More details on the film are available on IMDB.

The post “The Little Prince” – An Animation Classic delivered by Netflix appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

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It’s Day Three of my “real world” editing on DaVinci Resolve 12.5 and this is going to be the longest blog yet as I want to show you guys a lot of the “little things” that are making editing in Resolve a pleasure.   I know there are a lot of questions still out there whether this is really a professional editor.  For me it’s the small things that separate the applications making life efficient and fun for the the editor.   I also had a pleasant surprise today.  Alexis Van Hurkman, the man who literally wrote the manual on Resolve, called to point out some of the editing specific features that I might not be aware were there.

Day Three Editing.

Today I realized that DaVinci Resolve as an NLE is really the sum of all of its parts.  The Edit Panel alone is NOT the editor.  It’s the entire application working together.  So if all you do is look at the Edit Panel and say “well this is missing a lot of stuff” (like I initially did), you’re missing out on so much more that’s available, particularly in the Color Panel.   I looked at the Color Panel as what comes AFTER editing, but in reality, it’s part of the editing process.  Now that I realize that some of the elements I thought Resolve needed are actually in the app, they’re just in a different place.  Of course having Alexis walk me through a bunch of features for 30 minutes REALLY opened my eyes to a bunch of stuff I didn’t realize was there.   More on that soon.

Exporting

In the edit I started putting a bit more polish on the project, getting it to the point where we should be about ready to move to finish next Monday.  The biggest thing I had to figure out was the round trip to / from After Effects to create a few animated graphics.   Time being of the essence and me being new to Resolve, I reverted to my old FCP workflow.   Export audio guides (clips) from Resolve and use those to build the AE comps.  Very simple.

Resolve does NOT have your standard File > Export command like most NLEs out there.  The Deliver Panel is primarily set up to deliver finished files at the end of the process, but you can also use that panel to export individual clips and selections for approvals and sending to other apps like AE.

First thing I discovered is that In / Out points set in the Edit Panel do NOT transfer over to Deliver Panel.   I set them first in the Edit Panel and when I went over to the Deliver Panel, they were gone.  Alexis explained the reasoning why and it has to do with the fact that the Deliver Panel can output many variations from the same timeline including different combinations of In/Out points.  So the Deliver Panel controls its own set of In/Out points.  Sounds a little confusing to read I know, but in practice it makes sense.   Setting up the video to export is pretty straight forward.    Here  you can see the controls are what you’d expect.  At the top you see you can render a single clip or if you have multiple clips selected, export them as individual clips.  In the File tab, you can either use the name of the timeline or set a custom file name.
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Deliver Panel: Video Format Settings
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And below is one of my guides in After Effects on the bottom most layer (Layer 4).  No fuss, no muss, super easy and then I just rendered a ProRes out of After Effects to send back to Resolve.   If I have to make changes I’ll render them as the same name and let Resolve reconnect to the new file.  Yes, Blackmagic has Fusion, but one application at a time……
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Resolve exported guide files on Layer 4 in After Effects
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Window Burns

Yesterday I could not figure out to get a window burn on my Approval copies.  That’s because I was looking in the wrong place.  Turns out window burn controls in the Color Panel under the Data Burn controls.  See what I mean about the ENTIRE application being the editor?  BMD is not cramming every feature into an “editor” and then having the “color grading” act like a separate app.  It’s all designed to work together.
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Data Burn panel in the Color Panel
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As you can see the options available in Data (Window) Burn go WAY beyond most NLE’s in what you can have displayed on screen.  In fact, most EVERY field of Metadata is available to be displayed on screen via the Custom Text options.  You can see that I have Codec_Scene_Take in my custom text as contextual items.  Every clip that has metadata information in the Codec, Source and Take fields will automatically be displayed as a burned in window on my output as you can see below.
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Data Burn panel in the Color Panel
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Very very slick.  So you set up you Data Burn info in the Color Panel and then you go over to the Deliver Panel to output.  After I did this one time, it was second nature.   For the purposes of this project I just output the Timeline name and the timecode.  This is one example of how the entire application is the editor, not just the Edit Panel.

Keyframing & Curves

One thing that’s not available yet is initiating key framing in the timeline.   You have to start the first keyframe up in the Inspector and then once that’s set, you can alter the settings in the timeline and keyframes are added as you would expect.  I’ve filed a feature request to allow for key framing to start in the timeline such as with a pen tool like so many other NLEs.  However, the Keyframe viewer in the timeline is awesome.
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Keyframe Viewer in the Edit Panel Timeline
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Just like how easy it is to see the labeling of the clips themselves, it’s very easy to see and edit keyframes in the Keyframe Viewer.  This is very nicely done.  Click that little half circle on the right side of the clip or the keyframe viewer and you now have access to the Curves where you can add bezier curves to the keyframes.
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Keyframe Curves controls
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You can see in the dropdown on the left some of the parameters I can add keyframes and curves to.   At the top of the screen you can see there are four curve options giving me a ton of control over the actions of the keyframes.

Composite Controls

Composite controls are located in the Inspector panel and they’re what you would expect to find in a professional NLE.
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Composite Controls in the Inspector
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I use a LOT of Rampant Design Tools in my day to day work so I’m using compositing all the time to overlay these elements on my work.  One thing I’ve requested as a future feature request is the ability to have the composite mode available via right click in the timeline.  That would be a little faster than going up to the Inspector.

Crop, Lens Distortion and More in the Inspector

Speaking of the Inspector, I love how many controls are at our fingertips without the need to add additional filters or effects.
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Additional controls in the Inspector Panel
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I have missed having the Crop controls right there along with the ability to feather the crop.  It always felt like a needless stop to grab a crop filter in other NLEs because it’s something I seem to use ALL the time.  It’s one less thing I have to go get and adds to the efficiency of an edit.

The addition of a Lens Distortion control right in the Inspector is a nice touch.  Obviously a nod to all the GoPro and small cameras that use wide angle lenses.  No need to grab a filter, you can make adjustments to the image right there in the inspector.  There’s also Retiming Controls right there as well.  I have NOT played with these yet, so I can’t comment on how and how well they work.

Transform, Crop and Dynamic Zoom Directly in Monitors

If you’re like me and you like to just want to make quick adjustments in the Source and Record Monitors, changes to scale, position and crop, this is easily done in Resolve, you just have to activate the controls in the lower left of the monitors.
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Transform, Crop and Dynamic Zoom activation control in the Source and Program Monitors
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With the those controls active, you’ll now see you have options to make changes right in the monitors.  Change the scale, crop, position and you can play with the dynamic zoom.  Dynamic zoom is especially great for you FCPX users who like the Ken Burns effects.  Dynamic zoom interprets those movements correctly and allow you to make adjustments to them.
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Transform controls active, moving the video in the monitor.
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Crop Controls active in the monitor, can now make changes within the monitor.
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The ability to just grab and make quick adjustments in the Source / Record monitor is something I’ve missed since switching to Premiere Pro.  It’s in that app, just not as easy to use.  I’ve really missed this from FCP and it just one of those little things that make editing so much faster and efficient.

Drag and Drop Editing

If you’re a Drag and Drop Editor who likes to edit by dragging your clips from the Source to the Record Monitor, you’ll find all your usual overwrite and insert options along with some new ones when you drag your Source clip into the Record monitor.
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Editing options for drag and drop editing.
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I like the Place On Top option so it lays the video on a layer above where the playhead is sitting which is handy when I’m laying in all my Rampant Design effects.  Or if I want to stage multiple takes one above the other, Place On Top means I don’t have to go making track selections with each edit.  You also see the Append to End which is handy if your playhead isn’t at the end of the timeline.  Ripple Overwrite I’ll explain in detail towards the end.  It’s awesome.

Transition Options in the Timeline

Transitions have some nice ‘little things’ that make for an efficient edit.  Right clicking at the head, tail, or between clips not only brings up a transition dialogue, but OPTIONS for those transitions lengths
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Audio Cross Fade Controls
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Video Cross Dissolve Controls
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You can see there’s four options for both Video and Audio transitions right there from 6 to 48 frames.  How convenient is this?   I usually have a default transition set up to 1 second for my projects, but there’s always particular dissolves or cross fades I want to be faster / slower.  No need for that extra step to change the transition duration, I have four choices right there.  Done.  This ‘little thing’ I REALLY like a lot.

As you would expect, you can slide the transitions forward and back in the timeline to make them start, split and a end on the edit or you can make the adjustments in the Inspector.  Feathers and Ease controls can be added to wipes easily in the Inspector.  

Change the Transition Type In the Inspector

Changing the Transition can be done quickly in the Inspector.  
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Transition Controls in the Inspector Panel
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You can see the in drop down box, all the Resolve transition are available so I can just flip through them and adjust on the fly rather than having to drag them one by one to pick the one I want.

For additional filters and effects beyond what Resolve has natively, the application supports Open FX effects but again, the entire application works together as the editor.  Transition effects are found in the Edit Panel while filters are found in the Color Panel.  Both under the Open FX tab.
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Red Giant Universe Transitions in the Open FX tab in the Edit Panel
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Filters and Effects in the Open FX tab in the Color Panel
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I installed the Red Giant Universe filter package which gave me transitions and filters to play with.  I have not gotten the point of applying any filters yet in the Color Panel.  But at first I thought I was missing all the filters and effects, but Alexis pointed me to the Open FX tab in the Color Panel.

I should note that the New Blue FX filters crashed Resolve 12.5.  I honestly don’t use those filters at the moment and forgot they were installed, they installed as part of my Avid installation.  But after uninstalling the New Blue FX everything started working correctly.    Hopefully New Blue FX is updating their products to keep working with Resolve.

Switch To Timeline After Edit controls

Here’s a neat little setting that Alexis pointed me towards.  In the Edit Menu, there is a Switch to Timeline After Edit option that can be disabled.
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Switch to Timeline Option
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When the control is enabled, which is a default for any editing system, when you make an edit from the Source Window, your keyboard control automatically follow the edit to the Timeline.   The assumption is you just made an edit, so now you want to control the Timeline.

But in the case of long rolls with multiple takes, interviews or just longer files that we want to string out, we can turn OFF the automatic switching and the controls will remain with the Source Window.   Mark In / Out, Insert the clip, scroll in the Source, Mark In / Out, Insert the Clip, etc…. without the need to keep re-selecting the Source Window.  That’s actually pretty cool and Alexis was saying this was developed primarily for keyboard editors.

One less click, one less motion to make as you’re editing.  Another ‘little thing.’

Ok, let’s talk about the Ripple Overwrite.

I saw this when I tested the Drag and Drop editing and honestly ignored it.  Then Alexis called and this is the one feature he really wanted to show me because it’s super SUPER amazing and efficient.  Basically what Ripple Overwrite does is allow you to replace a shot in your timeline with one of a different length, and Resolve will automatically ripple your entire timeline keeping all of your edit points and edit timing intact.  Your shot can be longer or shorter and Ripple Overwrite will re-assemble your timeline.   Here it is in action.

I have an edited timeline, music is timed to fade out where I want it, SFX are timed to the action on the screen, Rampant style effects are located at each edit point and even titles are in the timeline.  This is a 4:30 timeline and the 17 second shot highlighted has to be replaced.
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Ripple Overwrite Step One – 17 second clip needs to be replaced with a shorter one.
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If you look up there at the previous image, note especially how I have my music fading out exactly where we want it as the SFX comes in.  Now the replacement clip is only 7:16.  About a 10 second difference.
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Ripple Overwrite Step Two – Replacement shot is 7:16. 10 seconds shorter than the original clip.
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Now, I simply drag the 7:16 clip over to the Record Monitor, lay it onto Ripple Overwrite and…..
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Ripple Overwrite Step Three – Edit is completed and the entire timeline is rippled holding all my timing points automatically.
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The 17 second clip is replaced by the 7:16 clip and all of my timing remains completely intact.  Note the music fade is still precisely lined up with the SFX.   The Rampant Design overlays are still exactly lined up.   In fact my entire timeline is still perfectly and all it took was one click.  This works both for shorter clips and longer clips, the integrity of your timeline and your edit points are held.

Now I will point out that Resolve made a cut edit in my music in order to shorten it up and keep the fade out lined up.  So I have to go back in and make some adjustments to that to ensure that the music remains on the beat.  I’m going to be asking if there’s any way to make the edits more intelligent whereby that fade in the music can be rolled back or forward to accommodate the ripple, instead of cutting it.   BUT one click, ripple my entire timeline and all I have to do is slip my music a bit.   That’s efficiency and something I wish I’ve had for a long time.

Relative Adjustments to Multiple Clips

Here’s another neat feature Alexis pointed out, Relative Adjustments to Multiple Clips.  So if I have clips in the timeline that are Scaled 70%, 80% and 50%.   I can select all three of them and make a Scale reduction of 10% and Resolve will make that change relative to their original sizes.  Making the three clips 60%, 70% and 40% scale.  I can do an absolute change to make them all 10% scale, but this relative changing of multiple clips, is pretty neat.

My Impressions and Next Steps

Well I think if you’ve read all three of these blogs you can tell I’m pretty darn impressed with DaVinci Resolve 12.5.  I have barely scratched the surface and continue to review Alexis’ tutorial on the features.   Is Resolve 12.5 a professional non-linear editing platform?   I would honestly say “Yes” with this release.  I’ve gotten pushback on forums from folks who have tried 12.0 and didn’t feel it could edit well.  I totally agree, it was a step in the right direction, but wasn’t there yet.  I suppose the .5 moniker makes folks thing it’s just an update.   12.5 is an entirely new release that probably should have been called Resolve 13.   This is a solid editing tool that I have enjoyed cutting in and again, I have barely figured this thing out yet.  It’s very feature rich and each time I use it, I’m discovering another one of “those things I wish Resolve had.”

I’ll be finishing the corporate piece this week and I’ve now committed a reality television pilot to Resolve 12.5 next.  I think it’s up to the task.  We have seven episodes of this series shot and one of those will become the pilot.   I’m running the entire series through Resolve.   One thing I’ve been advised on is to keep the project sizes manageable.  HUGE projects with thousands upon thousands of clips can get unwieldy. So I’ll employ the same workflow we used for Good Eats and This American Land where each episode is its own project.

As far as video editing for narrative, corporate, commercial, etc….  Resolve 12.5 is a great tool.  Very efficiently designed and all of the features I’ve found so far are the “little things” that make life easier.   I found myself having fun again in the edit suite.

Look this entire blog series isn’t about “My NLE is better than Your NLE” and the other NLEs suck.   This blog series is about DaVinci Resolve being another option for video editors.  It is a tool that can do the job today.  Whether you choose to use it, well that’s entirely up to you.  I’ll still be using Adobe Premiere Pro for projects because it’s a solid system and Resolve works well with it.  But Resolve is something that is now going to take a bigger place in the toolbox.  Kudos to Peter, Rohit, Alexis, Paul and of course Grant Petty for having a vision to make Resolve more than just one of the best color grading tools on the planet.  And for doing it right, making this a useful tool.

With that, these “Day” blogs on Resolve are done.   I’ll definitely chime back in when we get rolling on the reality series.   Thanks for reading and have an awesome day!
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The post Day Three: Editing on DaVinci Resolve 12.5 appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Some updates on the issues from Day One.

The need to Transcode to ProRes.  Paul Saccone from Blackmagic Design reached out to me and told me I didn’t need to transcode the 4k H264 to ProRes to get better performance.  I can use “Generate Optimized Media” instead.

This basically makes a proxy file that’s easy on the playback and editing but then I can simply switch back to the original H264 files for color grading at the end of the process.   Yes, I still have to generate another set of files, but these go pretty darn quickly and are much much smaller than the ProRes files I generated yesterday.   I thought the Generate Optimized Media was really for use with large files like RAW, but it looks like it’s just as useful with the DSLR stuff too.

Not Automatically Scaling my 4k to 1080 HD

I knew this was a setting that I wasn’t finding and thanks to Dmitry Kitsov’s response on Twitter, I now know where the “magic button” is.   It’s in Project Settings > Image Scaling Preset.

The default was Scale Entire Image to Fit but what I really wanted was Center Crop with No Resizing.  Seems like a long mouthful but as you can see there are four different options for mismatched resolution files so I guess that’s the easiest way to describe it.

So on to Day Two.

Everything so far has been very intuitive, even in my sleep deprived state last night, I was finding new functions simply by doing what I always do with certain keystrokes.

Duplicate a clip is simply Option+drag which I used a LOT last night because I was duplicating the heck out of comedic sound effects.  You can see 09829_SFX down below duplicated 5 times to coincide with the action.

Speaking of those clips, see how CLEARLY labeled the audio clips are?  There’s a delineation between the clip name and user controls that’s fabulous.   With Premiere Pro, the audio labeling frequently disappears with the audio clips so I have to double click them back up into the Source Monitor to confirm the clip name.  The labelling is also plenty large and easy to read.  Really nicely done.

I mentioned last night how the volume / level control in the timeline is super useful because you have full control of the amount of level rather than being limited to just 6db +/- like in Premiere Pro.  Below you see an audio clip that clearly has low audio, it’s a manufacturing floor with audio from the camera mic.  What Resolve does is shrink and enlarge the audio waveforms giving you a really good representation of the amount of volume in a clip at a quick glance.

And here’s that same clip with the clip volume raised.

You can see visually how much louder the clip is now vs. the original picture above.   At first I thought this was gimmicky when I saw it in the online demos, but actually it’s really handy to be able to just look at the timeline and without even seeing the volume control settings, I can tell what’s full volume and what’s not.

I finally played with the Text Tool and it’s quite good and useful.  Is it as feature rich as Adobe’s?  Not by a long shot, but can you create titles with it?  Absolutely.   You actually find the titles in the same place as the effects.     They have them laid out to be pre-positioned for ease of use, but I generally just start with Text.

You drag a title out onto the timeline and then the Title Panel becomes active.

As you can see, all the basic controls you’d expect and all the fonts on my Mac loaded up.   I’ve only used it for placeholders so far, but will create some titles for the final.

I mentioned yesterday the ease of video and audio track assignments.  Here’s a look at that.

Just a single control to turn the track on and off.  Renaming the tracks is as simple as double-clicking the name and naming it as you can see I did with the audio tracks.  It’s intuitive and easy.

The Wacom Tablet Works!!!

I had to bold that one because if you’re a user of Adobe Premiere Pro and you use a Wacom tablet, then you know the joy of the “jittery pen.”   Basically any adjustment you make with a Wacom tablet in Premiere Pro results in the keyframe / parameter changing when you release the pen.   Completely maddening to say the least, so many of us resort to using a mouse when doing fine tuning such as audio mixing.  But in Resolve, I’ve found the pen to be very accurate and stable.  It’s little things like this that really make a long long day in the edit suite pleasant.

A  little thing that’s functional but could be more efficient.  Right now the only way to send out a burned in timecode copy to a client is via the Color Panel.   I couldn’t even find this last night (this morning) so I went out of Resolve and into Adobe Media Encoder.  But if you open the timeline in the Color panel, you’ll find options for timecode and other things to burn into the media.  I made a request to the Resolve team to consider either making a filter for TC Window or simply adding the option to the Delivery panel.   When editing, I definitely don’t think much about Color and I never even thought to look at the Color panel just to find TC burn-in.   So it’s there, but I’m hopeful it might be a bit more intuitive for editors who have no interest in using the Color panel.

One other thing that’s not working quite as it should is the ability to double click a parameter in the Inspector Panel and change it.   If you go back up at look at that Title Panel and I want to double click the Size to change it from 74 to 50.   If I try to double click it, the numbers simply change say up to 80 or down to 63 and they keep changing every time I double click.  Or the last number will be selected but not all of them.  So I have to manually backspace, backspace then type.   Most likely a Beta issue and remember this IS beta software right now.  Remarkably STABLE beta software too I might add.   Had to restart the machine twice last night because the system got a little wonky but the software is not crashing, it’s not disappearing, just gets a little “tired” from time to time so I just reboot and keep going.

Here’s a look at my timeline so far.  Nothing remarkable as you can see, just your good old fashioned basic timeline but sitting inside one of the most powerful color grading tools on the planet.   It’s been super easy and quite pleasant cutting.

What’s continued to impress me is how efficiently the workspace is laid out and how intuitive all of the necessary panels are.  I’m editing on a SINGLE monitor.  I HATE editing on a single monitor, I love having all that extra real estate for all those windows I need open.   But here I am, editing away in Resolve and when I need to access a panel, it’s there.  Panels move and replace themselves as you set about doing different functions while editing.  It’s so well thought out and I’m not searching for windows, or dragging more windows out, or losing windows under windows.  Granted I have a 5k Retina iMac, but the interface is so efficient I have no need for the second window.   It’s absolutely remarkable so far.   Keep in mind I am doing a pretty simple project right now, but this does give me an insight as to how the app will work for larger projects.   The interface seems to have really been thought out from the editor’s perspective first and not from an engineering / coding standpoint.   It’s a very light and nimble application.

Somebody asked me today “why does editing in Resolve interest you?”   Well it is my color grading tool of choice.  It’s completely free, and by the way, I’m cutting this project using the free version of Resolve.  My Studio version sits on another machine.

So if I find the Resolve can handle the bulk of our editorial load and especially if I get my new Contemporary Living Network funded, we can have every editor, no matter where they are, no matter which NLE they currently cut with editing on Resolve.  Why?  We can completely eliminate XMLs and any issues that arise with moving projects between NLEs and Resolve.  Now we’re simply passing project files back and forth and staying inside the same application.

The workflow to / from Photoshop and After Effects will be different and not as elegant as the Adobe Suite for sure, but then we had a really good workflow between the old FCP and After Effects in the past and I can draw upon that knowledge to create a simple workflow as needed.  BUT completely eliminating XMLs from our editorial to editorial workflow and from our editorial to color workflow makes the idea of cutting inside Resolve very appealing.   Now when I want to work with my colleague who is an AMAZING 30 years (and counting) colorist it’s as simple as hand him the project file.

Does Resolve have the rich feature set of Adobe Premiere Pro or Avid?   No, not even close.  Does Resolve have a very good, useful feature set that any editor can cut a narrative story and is easy to adapt you muscle memory to?  So far, from what I see, the answer is yes.  Especially with the latest additions with Resolve 12.5.

I really like that Blackmagic Design has spent a lot of time under the hood ensuring that the basic operation of editing is smooth and easy.  That’s the most any editor can ask for.   As for what comes next, well that all depends on what the editors ask for.  From what I’ve been told, Blackmagic Design is listening quite well to their editing base just like Adobe.

Two days in, call me impressed.

Read Day Three here:

The post Day Two – Editing on DaVinci Resolve 12.5 appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

When I first saw the new Mac Pro announced it reminded me of one thing.  The Cube.

The Cube was a “revolutionary machine,” putting a lot of power into a small, and very quiet space on your desktop.  It was a flop however because it just wasn’t very practical.  It was overpriced for what you got and it wasn’t very user upgradeable friendly.  Apple appeared to put design ahead of practicality.

Now after just returning from the NAB Show 2014 and having the opportunity to not only see the new Mac Pro, but also play with them, my feeling is Apple has done it again.   Created something for design first, practicality second.   Consider who the Mac Pro is really designed for.  It has it in its name.  “Pro.”  The casual desktop user is not going to buy this machine, they would purchase the extremely capable and quite powerful iMac.   If that’s too much, there’s the very capable Mini and of course the awesome MacBook Pro and Air laptops.

The Mac Pro simply exists for the “Pro” users out there who need the most power they can get from a desktop computer.  Generally Pros also want to get the most life they can get out of any purchase.  With traditional desktop computers, including the previous generation Mac Pro, this was pretty easy by simply upgrading internal components.   With today’s applications, that generally means adding RAM, adding a more powerful graphics card and adding the latest SSD drives to keep older machines useful and current.   I still have 2009 and 2010 Mac Pros operating everyday in our shop humming right along with the latest Adobe Premiere Pro CC because we’ve updated the graphics cards.   Taking some advice from folks at NAB, I’m going to add an SSD to all of them as well to get even more life out of them.

When I purchased a desktop in the past, I always went all out with the fastest processors available and either the max or close to max RAM for the time.   Including the Video Cards (AJA or Blackmagic) my Mac Pros usually came in between $8500 to $10,000.   Today, the maxed out Mac Pro by itself tops out over $10,000 US.

Granted, this is a much more powerful machine with more RAM and Graphics cards than any Mac Pro I’ve ever purchased.  So what’s the problem?    It’s the most powerful Mac Pro I could purchase today.  The new Mac Pro is simply not designed for easy, off the shelf, upgrade parts.  So what you purchase TODAY is pretty much what you’re going to get.

Looking at the size of the machine, it seems like it would have been so easy to simply make this thing a bit of a rectangle with standard PCI cards sitting vertically.   Remove the outer sleeve, unscrew the PCI cards and replace them.  Pop out the RAM and replace it.   It would have required a square / rectangle appearance from the outside, but it could have made all the difference in the world in the practical longevity of the machine.  There are already more powerful graphics cards on the market than the AMDs that are in the machine.  AMD and nVidia are both moving forward with updated designs and while it might be possible to replace the graphics cards in the future, (jury is still out on that one) based on what we see inside the Mac Pro, these cards would have to be custom designed to fit the tight space requirements.   Custom design + small quantity = overpriced graphics cards to cover the manufacturing costs plus a little profit.  Standard, off the shelf PCI cards that fit in standard off the shelf PCI slots should be a bit cheaper.

And speaking of PCI slots, they’re still faster than Thunderbolt ports.   Direct connecting a card to the computer is simply faster.  Thunderbolt certainly gives a lot more options since you can use the same product on your desktop and laptop for example.  But Thunderbolt is now available on the PC and of course the rest of the Apple line-up so that amazing Thunderbolt RAID will run just as well on a myriad of machines.  You might not have 6 T-Bolt ports like the new Mac Pro but do you need them?

Raising the machine up off the desktop by 4-6″ would have allowed all the cabling to come out underneath the machine rather than the 15 ports that stick out the back. (yes 15, you can count them below)   From a cleanliness standpoint, you could have one nice clean cable bundle coming out from under the machine vs. the various plugs that all hang off the back of the cylinder (reality in the right photo), cleverly hidden or non existent in all the slick marketing photos. (left photo.)  Let’s face it, when you see the machine in person with even only a few cables coming out the back, it’s gets ugly and defeats the entire “slick design” purpose.

At $10,000 this seems like an awful lot of money for a machine that will be current for 12 months at most.  If I knew for certain I was replacing my desktop computer every 12-24 months, then I would have no problem purchasing this machine today.  It will definitely serve anyone’s needs for 12 – 24 months.   After that, it will become long in the tooth and if the internal GPUs are upgradeable, well then you’ll get some more life out of the machine, albeit at a premium price.   If they are not, well you’ll be looking at a new machine purchase or a Thunderbolt PCI Expansion Chassis.

All in all, my personal opinion is the Mac Pro is an overpriced desktop and sacrifices user practicality for the sake of a design statement.   We already have one Dell Windows workstation in our office and the performance is so good, if I want to move forward with powerful desktops in our shop, it’ll be one of those machines.   Since they’re so easy to upgrade, I don’t even have to start with the “most powerful machine.”   I can start out with a LOT of RAM, SSD drive and a good graphics card.   See how it performs and then decide if we have to have more graphics card.  If we do, it’s as easy as sliding one into an available PCI slot.

If I was purchasing a brand new Mac today for editing, I would go with the 27″ iMac fully loaded.

Wait a minute, wait a minute…. the iMac is not easily user upgradeable either.   No it isn’t, but it’s also $3155 US.  Less than 1/3 the price of the Mac Pro.   And it’s a very capable editing system, even with Adobe Premiere Pro CC.  We have two 18 month old iMacs that are cutting on that tool every single day without any issues at all.     (Original Article: If you need to add more power to the iMac, well you can look at an Expansion Chassis to add more Graphics cards and you’ll still be well below the $10,000+ price tag of the Mac Pro.**  And that Expansion Chassis could be used on future iMacs or desktops as you need it.) UPDATE: Mac OS X does not allow for graphics cards to be used via Thunderbolt. In other words, the purchase of the iMac is more practical today from a business standpoint than the purchase of the Mac Pro.  Your return on investment will come back more quickly and at $3000 you really could replace this machine every two years or even every year.

Truth be told, I’m waiting on a Mac Mini update.   Yeah, you read that right, a Mac Mini.  The Mini is essentially the iMac but without the monitor and without the nicer graphics card.   It’s also $1500 US.

If Apple updates this to run 32GB of RAM I’m going to purchase one immediately and start testing out Premiere Pro on it.  From an editing standpoint, even my MacBook Air can edit all day long on PPro so this machine should be able to handle it as well.     I’ll definitely post on my testing if this happens.

So that’s pretty much my take on the new Mac Pro.  Powerful machine to be sure.  Fastest Mac Pro ever developed to be sure.  Just not as practical as the previous generation or the many other desktop choices available to today’s creative artist.

The post The “New” Mac Pro. Design vs. Practicality. appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Biscardi Creative Media partnered and collaborated for months with Lanier High School students coaching them on a real-world project. The outcome; a 90 second animation that will be featured this Fall in a documentary that will air on PBS. Who wouldn’t like that accolade on their resume prior to graduating from high school?

Read the Full Article by CreativeCOW.net

BISCARDI CREATIVE MEDIA is a full service digital media production company near Atlanta, Georgia with services that include Video Production, Sound Production, Sound Mixing, Graphic Design, Animation, Post Production, Video Editing, Color Grading, Finishing, Digital Asset Transfer, Digitizing and Archiving. Quite simply we’re the people who make video and media production easy for you.   No technobabble.  Just clear, concise and creative content delivered where and how you need it, on time and on budget.  Office and production space is also available for short and long term projects.  www.biscardicreative.com | 770-271-3427

The post Biscardi Creative Media Recognized for its Contribution to Educating the Next Generation appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Atlanta, Ga. — Biscardi Creative Media (BCM) was recognized twice at the 2013 Pinnacle Small Business Awards hosted by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. BCM was first recognized as one of the top 25 small businesses in Gwinnett County. The top 25 winners were announced late-March and invited to attend the annual Pinnacle Awards Ceremony held Friday, April 26. At the award ceremony the overall top winners of three categories were announced. The three categories included businesses with 1-9, 10-99 and 100+ employees. Biscardi Creative Media was recognized and honored as the overall winner in the 1-9 employee category.

“When I heard our name read by the MC, I was speechless, which as anyone who knows me can attest, that never happens!” said Walter Biscardi, Jr. “We’ve built Biscardi Creative Media from a simple idea, tell a good story and have fun doing it.  Through the wins and losses we’ve continued to grow and thrive in Gwinnett which culminated in our new facility that we opened last year. To have your community and its leaders recognize you for the work you’ve done and the positive impact that your existence has had on the community is truly moving. Even though I was the one to go on stage to accept the award, this is all about my amazing team that excels everyday at what we pride ourselves on, telling our clients’ stories. So here’s to the storytellers!”

The Pinnacle Awards were created to celebrate and honor Gwinnett’s small business owners and entrepreneurs. These businesses were recognized for not only surviving but thriving and serving as integral and key participants in the nation’s economy. Companies were selected based on steady and above average growth and profitability, growth in number of employees, contributions to the community, overcoming adversity, and original entrepreneurship.

For more information about the Pinnacle Awards visit http://pinnaclesmallbusinessawards.com/

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Media Contact

Walter Biscardi, Jr. 770.271.3427 walter@biscardicreative.com

BISCARDI CREATIVE MEDIA is a full service digital media production company near Atlanta, Georgia with services that include Video Production, Sound Production, Sound Mixing, Graphic Design, Animation, Post Production, Video Editing, Color Grading, Finishing, Digital Asset Transfer, Digitizing and Archiving. Quite simply we’re the people who make video and media production easy for you.   No technobabble.  Just clear, concise and creative content delivered where and how you need it, on time and on budget.  Office and production space is also available for short and long term projects.  www.biscardicreative.com | 770-271-3427

The post Biscardi Creative Media Honored as a Top Small Business appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

A Production Website Focused on the Creativity and Business Behind the Technique

Atlanta, Ga. — Millions of creatives the world over know editor & Post Production specialist Walter Biscardi, Jr. thanks to the CreativeCow.net website where he has shared knowledge and advice to countless people since 2000. Over 25,000 online posts later, Walter is sticking to his roots of helping to educate his production and entertainment peers. With the launch of WalterBiscardi.com, Biscardi will provide a robust platform of education and development to both budding professionals and veterans of the industry.

“I wanted to create a medium where people could learn from others who earn their living “in the trenches” day in, day out, meeting deadlines and having to push creative limits on a regular basis. So WalterBiscardi.com is brought to you not by professional trainers, but what I call professionally certified artists” said Walter Biscardi, Jr.  “What you absolutely will not find on this site is a professional trainer who does little more than read a manual and then regurgitate back to you and call it training. The idea here is to look beyond just the technical and get into the craft of what we do in all aspects of Production and Business.  Once you know how to push buttons, you need to know what to do next to have a successful career in this industry.  We plan to be that resource.”

WalterBiscardi.com expects to be an effective resource by not only offering webinars and on demand-based education, but live workshops in Atlanta, GA as well.  Such as the recent two day Blackmagic Cinema Camera workshop with Marco Solorio held at Biscardi Creative Media. Regardless of how participants learn best, online or in-person, Biscardi believes in making valuable knowledge accessible to everyone.

The site itself will house extended modules, tutorials and advice from creator Walter Biscardi, Jr. along with other hand-selected artists in the industry with varying focuses from Editorial, Sound Design, Color, Photography, Producer, Public Relations, Research & Development, and Business Development & Growth. One such contributor is colorist Ron Anderson whose impressive list of projects and credits span 30 years and range from the NASA Space Shuttle launches, to feature films, nationally syndicated television shows such as Tyler Perry’s “The House of Payne” and numerous commercial clients.

The caliber of knowledge visitors can expect is nothing short of the best. Said Walter of the site, “No one person can know and teach everything. The contributors that you will find on WalterBiscardi.com are the people I regularly look to learn from.  They understand not only the equipment and software, but how you need to operate in order to meet deadlines, specifications and manage time.  At the end of the day, this is a service based industry and to serve both yourself and your clients better, you need to better understand the craft and business side of our industry.   The team we’re assembling truly believes in quality and we all look forward to building a distinguished catalog over the next few months and years.”

WalterBiscardi.com is an initiative of Walter Biscardi, Jr. and Biscardi Creative Media. For more information visit www.walterbiscardi.com or www.biscardicreative.com

ABOUT WALTER BISCARDI, JR.

Walter’s career began with editing for a national and international audience at CNN. His experience grew as he took on new challenges over the years. In 2001 he started Biscardi Creative Media and in 2013 launched sister company, MTWD Entertainment to seek out and create original programming for all media. Biscardi has produced and edited programming that airs on The Food Network, NBC, The Weather Channel, Georgia Public Television, PBS, among others. A recognized industry leader, Walter has been recruited by companies such as Apple, Adobe, Autodesk, Panasonic, AJA Video Systems, ATTO  Technologies, and Small Tree Communications to test and find ways to improve hardware and software solutions for the film and video industry. He counts a national Emmy, Peabody, Regional Emmys, CableACE awards, Telly & Aurora awards among his many honors and credits.

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Media Contact

Walter Biscardi, Jr. 770.271.3427 walter@biscardicreative.com

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As many of you know, I’ve been a forum host on the CreativeCow.net communities since 2001.   If I had to pick ONE topic that comes up more than any other, year in, year out, it’s storage.   In fact I believe I’ve tested and reviewed more storage products than anything else in the 10 years I’ve been writing for the Cow.

Post always starts off with, “I’m about to start a new project / build a new system / open a new facility and I’m just not sure what storage to buy.” There are literally hundreds of storage combinations out there these days, it’s a veritable alphabet soup of FW, eSATA, USB, SAS, iSCSI, FibreChannel, Ethernet, Thunderbolt and so on.  1TB, 2TB, 3TB spinning platter drives plus Solid State Drives with no moving parts.  RAIDS that go from 2TB to 100TB and more.   RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10 hut one, hut two, hike!   It always amazes me just how many people really don’t understand what any of this means, but they just go along with what someone else tells them is the best option.

You are going to have a very rare opportunity to meet the guy who in my opinion is simply the most knowledgeable person in the industry who not only understands the inner workings of that entire alphabet soup above, but also understands how to explain it to all of us.  Steve Modica from Small Tree Communications is one of those guys who is a rarity in that he understands the inner workings of many of the computer models we all use and how best to pair up the right storage solution to give that particular system / facility the best performance.   He just gets it and I’m so thrilled he’s going to be there.

He’s going to give a presentation that should help all of you better understand all of the various elements of the alphabet soup.  From there you should be able to make very informed decisions moving forward as to what will be your best option for storage for your systems, from video editing to sound design to graphics and animation.   This is not a sales pitch for Small Tree, this is going to be your opportunity to get that basic knowledge that you never get from a sales rep or an online forum or that latest email blast.    In the long run, having the right knowledge before you purchase any storage system will end up giving you the best bang for your buck.

Now if you’ve been in the industry for even a little while, you’ve heard the name Quantum. They’ve been doing long term archiving since before it was cool.  Everyone I’ve ever asked about fail safe, long term storage always points to Quantum and LTO.    Now I know LTO is a tape based archive format, but that’s about the extent of my personal knowledge and quite honestly I really don’t know of any other options.  Once again, this is going to be a GREAT opportunity to learn about long term archiving and what options are out there these days.  Where is the archive industry headed moving forward?

Do you shoot with digital media these days?  Are you absolutely, 100% certain that you will able to access your material 2, 5, 10, 20 years from now if you needed a shot for a project or needed to bring an entire project back?   Remember, if you’re archiving camera originals, that’s it.  Your shots are entrusted to the digital ether, either you protect correctly or it’s gone.

How many of you have have had a hard drive fail?   Raise your hands, I’ve got mine up.  It’s a fact of life, hard drive DIE.  Often without warning and ALWAYS at the wrong time. This 2nd meeting will go a long ways towards giving you some great strategies and options to not only give you peace of mind for your main working environment, but also for the long term health of all those digital assets you’ve accumulated and will continue to accumulate moving forward.  I’m actually really excited to have Quantum presenting because I really need to get up to speed on what the latest options are for archiving.

Beyond all of this we have two great presentations from Founding Members of the Atlanta Cutters.

Kris Merkel will do a DSLR Best Practices Workflow. Who doesn’t like playing around with the DSLR cameras these days, but how you handle the data can be the difference between losing information and safely protecting it for future use.   This demo cuts across all NLE workflows.

Clay Asbury will kick off the 2nd half of the meeting with some Adobe Tips and Tricks from the Production Premium suite.  He’s a certified Adobe Trainer and this will be the first in our series of quick tips and tricks for each meeting.

So sign up today as this is one of those rare opportunities to gain a wealth of knowledge in one of the most important aspects of all of our businesses.   Protect yours and your client’s assets, you keep happy clients and grow your business.    Oh and don’t forget, we have awesome food from Endive Catering so if nothing else, you’re gonna have a great dinner!

See you next week!

Register here today!  Seating is limited.

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