Convert Color Video To Black And White

Here's a free PDF tutorial  from Chris and Trish Meyer at Artbeats on converting color footage to black and white using After Effects.

Hint: the best results require more than simply desaturating the clip. 

After Effects Shape Layers Tutorial

Here's a cool tutorial on creating animated shape layers in After Effects.  This is all built into After Effects - no additional plugins required.  

 Check out all After Effects Tutorials With Mikey Borup here.

Adobe's 64-Bit Commitment

You may have read about this elsewhere, but it's worth noting that future versions of Premiere Pro and After Effects will only run on 64-bit operating systems. In my view this is a smart decision by Adobe and should serve to make your work flow faster and better able to support HD video formats.

64-bit computing has been around a long time but Microsoft Windows and processors from Intel and AMD have matured to the point where upgrading to a 64-bit system is relatively affordable and bug-free.

Adobe boasts performancegains of up to 227%
using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 on a 64-bit system
with more memory.

But what are the advantages of 64-bit computing for video makers? The main advantage is performance.

Adobe notes in its FAQ: "With a 64-bit operating systems you get a wider address system and data path, providing access to essentially unlimited RAM. On 32-bit systems, each application is limited to 4GB of RAM (and in practice this number is actually smaller). More RAM means applications can manipulate larger chunks of data, cache more information, and handle a wide range of tasks more efficiently."

At EventDV, Jan Ozer documents the performance gains, "...the 64-bit system was 67% faster on my standard DV test file, up to 63% faster on HDV-related tests, up to 50% faster on AVCHD tests, and up to 227% faster on tests using footage from the RED camera."

Now with the new release of Windows 7, 64-bit computing looks even more promising. Microsoft received nearly universal and well-deserved atomic dope slaps for its awful Vista operating system. However, having recently installed and worked with Windows 7, I'd say things are looking up. I'm in the process of building a new computer build based on the Videoguys DIY-7 specifications. I'll follow up with a review after I've tested this 64-bit monster.

Video Introduction to Premiere Pro CS4

Here's an informative tour of Premiere Pro CS4 by Adobe's Senior Business Development Manager for Video and Imaging Products, Dave Helmly. You can check out his blog, DAV’s Tech Table here.

The video demonstrates Premiere Pro CS4's support for AVCHD as well as the application's tight integration with After Effects and Adobe Encore.

More Free After Effects Tutorials

Here's another site that offers excellent free Adobe After Effects tutorials and animation presets. The site is VideoCopilot. Humorous and engaging tutorials are presented by founder, Andrew Kramer. In this example he demonstrates how to create the popular earth zoom out effect:



VideoCopilot also offers fun and useful After Effects plug-ins at very affordable prices. I've been working with Twitch for about a week now and am very impressed. It's easy to run and at $50, really cheap . Click here to see what Twitch can do.

Free After Effects Tutorials

I won't spend a lot of time on motion graphics software because they tend to be a bit beyond the reach of a novice video maker. (According to Wikipedia, "Motion graphics are graphics that use video and/or animation technology to create the illusion of motion or a transforming appearance.")

However, while Adobe After Effects is the most popular program available, the ability to animate still graphics has crept into most non-linear editing programs.

Here's a great After Effects tutorial web site - rhys-works.com. The site was created by Rhys Enniks, a native of the UK.



In addition to being a gifted motion graphics artist, Rhys also has a knack for presenting complex technical information in an easy-to-understand way. And the fact that he's only 20 years old make his web site and work all the more impressive.