MAC's in the House

Rumor is, Three-23 Media has a new rig in the house. My feelings are that video production may be in full swing before long. My goodness those new iMacs look nice, like REALLY nice (I was a big fan of apple bringing in the black accents to their product line)... I think S.O.M.B.S. is in remission, at least for the time being... I'm taking this screen shot to mean that Darryl's visits to my blog are a truce, albeit a shaky one. Many congrats Darryl- here's to many more wonderful films!

iPhone's Competition: Google Android Platform

Wow- this definitely ups the competition for Apple's iPhone. You're going to be seeing a lot of innovation and expansion in the cell phone technology market very soon me'thinks. That's a snappy interface!



Speaking of iPhone competition, check out this "iClone"... basically, it's a direct knock-off of the iPhone, but for MUCH cheaper at around $150-200 (some sources claim that this phone actually came out 6 months before the iPhone however). It's made by a Chinese company called CECT. They actually have quite a few iPhone knock-offs in their line-up (P168, A380i, S688, 599, U8800). If having an iPhone is completely a status symbol for you, these might be a nice alternative and would save you money. They work with any SIM card style mobile service (think T-Mobile and AT&T). However, these really aren't TRUE iPhone knock-offs as many on the web would have you believe. The reason the iPhone is amazing, in my opinion, is due primarily to the way it handles Web (a true browser, not WEP), integrates music and movies (these knock-offs have inferior frame rates), and deals with e-mail.

And while we're on the subject- my biggest complaint about these new touch-screen phones? The keyboard. Touch-interface is great, but how in the world is anyone supposed to compose email comfortably on that interface? For that matter, why do most of the PDA-style phones on the market right now have a small vertical-style keyboard smashed into them at the very bottom? That's just not comfortable my friends! In a time where cell phones are becoming more and more used for email, you'd think that providing a horizontal-style pull-out (or slide-out) keyboard interface would be a primary objective in the design phase. Weird!

Has anyone noticed a growing trend? My posts have been geeky recently... really geeky. I need to regroup and post something 'non-nerdish' soon...

Magic Bullet Looks vs. Photoshop For Video

Okay, so just before I left for Photoshop World last week, I become incredibly enthusiastic about Magic Bullet Looks. Rather than try to describe to you what Magic Bullet does, here is how Red Giant Software (the developer) describes it:

“Traditionally achieved with filters, filming techniques or chemical processes, a "look" was any treatment applied to film stock to lend it a color, appearance, or mood. With digital editing, many more sophisticated effects are now possible. Often referred to as color correction, the process is similar to working in a virtual darkroom. Ordinary footage can be made to look like old films or TV, colors can be adjusted to turn a daytime shoot into film noir, and camera tricks can be simulated digitally.”

I can honestly say that Magic Bullets does a great job at helping you achieve that ‘filmic’ look. I was impressed with the designer’s interface and ease of use. I downloaded the demo version, which plugs in to After Effects. After playing around with it and spitting out some footage I decided that this would need to be an eventual ‘must buy’ for my future film endeavors. However, at a price tag of $399, I realized that this was something that would have to wait for a while. Its hard to justify an expenditure like that when its for just a plug-in (albeit a cool one). I resigned myself to saving up the money and waiting.

Then I went to Photoshop World and learned a lot about using Photoshop CS3’s new, powerful video editing capabilities. The skills and techniques I learned at some of the classes opened my eyes to a few new possibilities.

I began to realize that, while Magic Bullet Looks is indeed a fantastic program, I could achieve the same effects for free using Photoshop CS3 Extended (let me re-emphasize this: this will only work in CS3 Extended, not standard) by importing the footage and editing it. Furthermore, I could create my own personalized ‘looks’ (much like Magic Bullet) and make them reusable by recording actions in Photoshop that would ‘process’ the footage the same way every time. I was thrilled to discover this because, not only does it save me $399, but it also allows me to be more precise in the way I process my footage. I can now dial in my edits using the interface that I’ve come to know and love over the past 10 years.

Don’t get me wrong, Magic Bullet Looks has a wonderful interface for editing and it is extremely customizable. If you are a beginner to intermediate user of Photoshop, you may still want to stick with Magic Bullet. However, if you are further a long in your Photoshop knowledge, I’d suggest you check this alternative method out. Smart Filters, masking, adjustment layers, advanced color adjustment, etc. all make this a very enticing option for editing the look of your footage. The great part about this? If you set up your workflow properly, you can nondestructively edit your footage, so that you can go back and re-edit the look of it at any given time. For the advanced Photoshop users out there: just think about what you could do with actions and batching files. Imagine shooting all of your footage, editing it down in your editor of choice, and then running a batch command in Photoshop to apply your customized film effect to your footage. With a click of a button, Photoshop would apply the same effect to all of the designated pieces of film and you could walk away while it renders. Pretty cool.

I am posting a video below for your reference. Please forgive the poor quality- the upload utility in blogger severely degrades quality. This video contains 1) the stock, unaltered footage, 2) a customized look I created using Magic Bullet (notice the lovely, red ‘x’ that stripes the footage due to the fact that I’m using the demo version for this), and 3) a custom setting I created using Photoshop (I tried to somewhat match this look to the MB one, though it is not a perfect copy). Anyway, these are rough, but hopefully they give you a better idea of what the new Video capabilities can do in Photoshop.

Pandora vs. Last.fm

I had, until recently, been unaware of the existence of the music service Last.fm (thanks Brett for showing me this!). Basically, Last.fm is the direct competitor to Pandora. As many of you know, Pandora has been my online music service of choice for creating customizable and adaptable radio stations. So when I heard that there was another service doing the same thing, I was excited to check it out. Let me preface this post by saying that there is already an excellent posting written by Steve Krause concerning the differences between these two services. If you want the nitty-gritty details of what is different between these two services, check out his post first.


While I think Last.fm is a great service, I am still going to stick with Pandora. I say this lightly, as it is only a personal preference. It really depends on how you like to listen to music and what fits your musical personality.

Something that Steve Krause touches on in his article is the way music is picked and added to the radio stations you create. Pandora relies on comparing musical characteristics of a song to pick music that it ‘thinks’ you will like. Musicians at Pandora listen to each song and then diagram it into ‘genes’. These ‘genes’ are the qualities of the song that give it shape and form. Examples of these qualities are speed, volume, voicing, key changes, tonal quality, genre styling, etc. On the flipside of this, Last.fm uses social nuances to classify and suggest music. This means that songs are picked for you based on how society in general groups them, not how they musically correspond. As a musician I prefer Pandora because it is not influenced by social likes/dislikes. It looks at the raw music and does not account for popularity.

As far as aesthetics and interface go, both have their strong points. I tend to opt for the simple, straightforward approach of Pandora. Pandora can be accessed through any web browser, does not have standalone software, and every part of the service can be accessed through one static panel. Last.fm is much more robust in the options department, but borders on chaotic and confusing at times in my opinion. There is somewhat of a learning curve getting used to it’s interface. There are many, many ways this service can be used and there is also standalone software that can be downloaded to run the service outside of your browser window.

Both seem to be amazing services and for those of you not yet utilizing one of these, I’d strongly suggest you check them out. However, this blogger is sticking with Pandora for now.

Expect an influx of blog postings soon...

Wow. I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Orlando. There is so much to talk about; so much to discuss. A quick recap: Photoshop World was a blast and was extremely informative. I will post my own person insights and opinions in an upcoming blog. My initial take is this- the new abilities gained by Photoshop in CS3 are amazing. Some classes were a bit remedial, but doing research on the instructors and the classes themselves really helped me to plan out my course schedule. I feel like I definitely got my money's worth and would do it again in the future in a heartbeat.

So until further blogging occurs, here are a few random (yet extremely cool) things to check-out:

1) Intelligent elephants that paint self-portraits!

2) Flying motorcycles that allow you to hop traffic jams!

3) Designer Geeks recreating the D-Day battle! Thanks go to Celeste's cousin, Brett, for showing me this while in Orlando- this is amazing stuff.

4) Photoshop express- eat your heart out Flickr! Do yourself a favor and register for an account here- it'll change the way you upload and display photos online. This was also one of the big 'reveals' at Photoshop World this year.

Look out (Photoshop) World, Here I Come!

My plane departs in less than 4 hours... the wife and I haven't slept at all this past night due to the fact that we have been forced to pack last minute (guess what we'll be doing on the plane- sleep... that or catching up on Battlestar Galactica episodes... oh did I mention that I'm geek?). Its surprisingly difficult to move into your new place, attempt to set up everything you own, and then turn around and pack for a week long conference visit to Orlando! Oh, but its so worth it. I'll post updates as I have wi-fi access... hopefully.

Welcome Home.

I celebrated another year of life yesterday with my wife, and I must say... it's great to be married. Food tastes better, the company is prettier, and the experience is much more memorable. We headed over to Shabu Fondue for a wonderful birthday dinner surprise. I was fairly excited about this because I had not had 'real' fondue before in a restaurant setting. The atmosphere was great and the restaurant was themed pretty well; distinctly Asian-decor (think lots of red and black). The food was fantastic, albeit a little on the pricey side (especially since you're the one cooking half of your meal...). All-in-all a great experience, and one I would recommend in moderation (your wallet will thank me).

We are also picking up the keys to our finished condo today! After nearly a year of waiting, the place is finally built and ready for the newlyweds to move-in. I must say, with this being my first piece of non-rental property, I'm quite excited. Celeste and I are both keenly aware of the fact that this, along with many other things, is a blessing from the Lord. We are so very thankful to our God for giving us this opportunity and pray that we are able to honor Him through the use of our home and lives together.

During the course of the next two weeks, I'll be traveling a lot. Next Tuesday we will be heading over to Orlando Florida for the Photoshop World Conference with our friends Vinny and Elizabeth from Xaris Studio. Upon returning, I'll be preparing for another trip with my Creative Services team at Food for the Hungry. We are having our annual vision planning trip which will help us brainstorm new ways to be productive and innovative with our branding and marketing during the course of this next year.

It's a busy time in our lives, but I wouldn't change it for the world.