Pro Editing @ Home

One thing that can make or break a piece that you are editing is music. It can drive your piece, or bring though an emotion that you want the viewer to feel, but here's the problem. With stock music becoming more and more common as companies sel their "generic" music bundles (sports, corporate, country, etc), you might think you've found the right piece of music for your show or promo, and then you go home, turn the TV on, and hear the exact same piece of music in the latest burger commercial. It can be frustrating, but that's where a company like Abaltat comes in. What? You haven't heard of Abaltat? Well, I had the chance to talk to Mark Altekruse, Director of Sales and Marketing for Abaltat, about their company and Muse 2.0, their flagship music creation program and how it can take the color information from your edited piece, and turn it into music!

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It's not very often that a member of the editing and/or graphics community gets a chance to talk to one of the people who spearhead the move forward in such an influencial program like Adobe's After Effects CS4, so I have to say that of all the interview's I've done, this was the one I looked forward to the most. I have used After Effects since version 3.1 on the Mac, and I have had some burning questions that I NEEDED answered, and thankfully, Michael Coleman, Product Manager for After Effects CS4 agreed to answer them for me....and you!

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In tough economic times, like today, every decision you make in regards to how you spend your money is important. I have always been a very huge fan of self-paced training, as it not only helps everyone from beginners to advanced users alike, but the discs (or books) are very handy to have on your shelf if you need a quick refresher. I had the chance to talk to Paul Holtz, who is not only the President of Class On Demand, a California based company that offers self-paced DVD training on a variety of topics from Adobe's Production Premium CS4 to Final Cut Pro to Vegas to Media Composer, but he is also an instructor on COD's Pinnacle training series. Let's see what Paul had to say about his company and what their training has to offer.

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One of the best aspects of my job is working with plug-ins. Plug-ins can take an ordinary project, and make it extrodinary. When it comes to talking plug-ins, there are few better companies to look to than Red Giant Software. Not only do they have a stellar line-up of plug-ins themselves (Magic Bullet Suite), but they have recently aquired effects powerhouse Digital Anarchy, and as of recently, are the publisher of all of Trapcode's suite of plug-ins. I had the chance to talk to Sean Safreed, Director of Product Management and Co-Founder of Red Giant Software about their plug-ins, their company and what they can offer us, the user, that other plug-in companies can't.

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As people who read my articles know, I am a huge fan of 3D animation, and 3D programs in general. The problem is they can be very hard to learn, and by the time you've figured everything out, a newer version has come along. People have been hoping for "true" 3D in Adobe's After Effects for a long time, but until now, we are still working in a 3D world, with 2D objects. That's were Zaxwerks 3D Invigerator and the new Pro Animator FX for Final Cut Pro's FXPlug architecture come in. You can now work in a true 3D world, with some awesome looking results. I thought I would talk to Zax Dow, President of Zaxwerks to get a bit of history on the company, and a look at the new Pro Animator FX plug-in for Final Cut Pro.

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