A very Happy Holiday to you!
I've read that this holiday time is both joyful and stressful - I can identify with both. Still, it is important for all of us to take a deep breath, push the stress away for a day or two and enjoy the season; even if this simply means spending a little extra time during a cup of coffee to sit quietly and watch the clouds drift by.
My goal for this week is to rewrite my university course on visual communication. Starting next semester, I'm teaching this in two versions: one class for freshmen and the other for seniors. I'm curious to see the differences between the two groups. In today's world, more and more communication is visual and our kids are not prepared to understand the images washing over them. I think of this course as "visual self-defense." Should be fun. (This class was the foundation for the "
Edit Skills - Final Cut" and "
Edit Skills - Premiere" series I released last year.)
Thinking of fun, I have
three new articles for you this week. The first, on whether the new MacBook Pro is fast enough for video editing, took two weeks of research. It was eye-opening and I was surprised by what I learned. Even if you aren't in the market for new hardware, take time to read this. Regardless of what system you use for editing, you'll learn something you didn't know - I certainly did. For instance, I discovered what REALLY puts your computer under a load.
Next, one of the frequent requests I get is for assistance in configuring a computer for editing. So, I've created an article that will help configure the new MacBook Pro. This computer has been maligned for its price, performance and battery life. So, I went into this article asking what do we REALLY need for video editing and how much do we really need to spend. Again, the answers surprised me.
Finally, a couple of weeks ago,
Richard Deeble asked me to explain particle effects in Motion. First, I realized that this topic was way too big for an email. Second, I discovered that I've never written an article about this. So, today, I have an introduction to particle effects in Motion 5. This is a fun subject - you can happily create complete chaos on the screen. Its one of those effects where you can gleefully say: "I wonder what happens if I move... this?"
The
Digital Production Buzz is going full-steam with an excellent interview on photographing food with
Joel Lipton, discussion of what monitoring HDR video really means with
Bram Desmet and
Randi Altman returning after a too-long absence to share her thoughts on 2016; plus much more.
Which reminds me, the entire Buzz team is getting together this Thursday to look back at technology during the last year. It promises to be a fun show - be sure to put it on your calendar. You can always listen later
via iTunes. It would be great to have you in the audience.
Enjoy the holiday - get some extra rest. When this is done, I'm getting another cup of tea and munch some popcorn. Chat with you again next week - in the meantime, edit well.
