Bask in its Power!
Reviewtorial: Discreet Edit 6
by Charlie White
Come along for a tutorial tour around Edit 6.0, and you'll get a feel for what it's like to use this powerful software. You'll also get Digital Media Net Senior Producer Charlie White's impressions of this now-mature editing package that Discreet says is the biggest upgrade of Edit yet.

Subtle Editing
Sending a Different Kind of Love Letter
A new 30 second spot for Disaronno Amaretto tells the story of a distant love and manages it beautifully, without a single word of spoken dialog. It is engrossing, without any quick cuts, CGI effects or pumping electronic soundtrack.

Avid Symphony in Action
Mammoth Discovery At Matchframe Post Facility
Matchframe, the Burbank post facility, provided on-line finishing, effects compositing and tape-to-tape color correction on Land of the Mammoth, a Discovery Channel special which aired throughout March. The 96-minute documentary, shot in PAL 16:9 on location in Siberia, followed a team of scientists investigating a 20,000-year-old woolly mammoth recovered from the frozen tundra in 1999. Here's how it was done.

How To Control DV Camcorders And VCRs From Any Video Editing System
Independent filmmakers are saving thousands of dollars by controlling low-cost DV camcorders and VCRs directly from their editing systems without using FireWire.  By eliminating the need for expensive VTR rentals, purchases and tape duplications, the money saved can be put to much better uses -- such as paying yourself.

Create Chrome Text in Photoshop
In this lesson from Total Photoshop 6, Deke McClelland demonstrates a sophisticated technique for creating chrome type. Deke takes you step by step through choosing appropriate Layer Effects, grouping the Text layer with a Gradient layer, and then applying the Curves command on an Adjustment Layer. The end result is amazing realistic chrome type, but that's not all! Deke shows how you can completely alter the look of the chrome afterwards with one simple drag of the mouse! After watching this clip, you'll agree: There's No Typeface Like Chrome.

Need a Batch of Outputs? Make a List!
Making Batch Movie Outputs Using dpsVelocity
In this tutorial, Bob Bolson of dps shows you how to output different formats of video in one easy operation using dpsVelocity. That format could be Windows Media, AVI, Real Media, Quicktime, or MPEG. Whatever your clients want, dpsVelocity has you covered. In fact, now you can learn how to output all of these formats in one step, with just a couple clicks of the mouse.

Keying Different Aspect Ratios
Total Training's Brian Maffitt shows you how to key objects with different aspect ratios In Adobe Premiere. In this streaming QuickTime video example, Brian keys a graphic with a narrow aspect ratio created in Adobe Illustrator over another piece of video while adapting its aspect ratio in Premiere.

"Running Lights" Effect
Use Adobe Photoshop and After Effects to simulate a "running lights" effect. This QuickTime tutorial is hosted by Total Training's Brian Maffitt.

Using Motion Math in After Effects
Total Training's Brian Maffitt shows you how to use motion math and layers in Adobe After Effects to establish a moving relationship between two objects.

Premiere Tutorial: Abstract Background
Special for Adobe Premiere 5.1 users: Total Premiere trainer Brian Maffitt shows you how to use virtual clips and an image matte to create an attractive abstract background.

Up In Smoke: After Effects Tutorial
The illusion of making something go up in smoke tends to be a real crowd-pleaser. Tobias Lind of Motion FX Studios in Sweden provides a tutorial on how to create this illusion in Adobe After Effects.

Adobe Premiere Picture-In-Picture Effects
Here's a streaming video tutorial showing you how to create picture-in-picture effects in Adobe Premiere. It's hosted by Brian Maffitt, one of the founders of Total Training and author of Classroom in a Book for After Effects.

Advanced particle effects energize titles
Sands of Time: A Boris Graffiti Tutorial
Many products can handle the creation of static titles. They are as numerous as grains of sand. Among those are a solid handful that can create some pretty creative animation. Boris Graffiti kicks sand in all their faces.

Not Just For Streamers
Media 100 i: Hands On, Part 1
Tim Wilson's first response after taking Media 100 i for a two-hour spin? His head is still spinning. It exceeded his expectations in every way. Join him for this hands-on report.

Turnkey Editing for Screen and Web
iFinish v80 Powergrade by Charlie White
It's a review! It's a tutorial! It's a, uh, "Reviewtorial!" In a new kind of article, Charlie White writes about iFinish v80, with tips and techniques mixed with value judgements of this highly versatile editing system from the makers of Media 100.

Synthetic Aperture Releases Echo Fire 1.1
by Tim Wilson
Get real time previews of After Effects, Photoshop and other applications. Finally, see your work now on an external video monitor via FireWire. Synthetic Aperture, makers of the Video Finesse plug-ins for Adobe Premiere, delivers all this and more -- including far more significant new features than its "point one" designation might suggest. In short, Echo Fire is a crucial tool for artists and editors whose work is bound for video.

Streaming Video Exclusive
Puffin Designs Commotion 3.0
Sean Safreed, Senior Product Manager demonstrates the compositing and effects technology within Commotion 3.0. The integrated compositing function allows the user to work with an unlimited number of resolution-independent layers, apply pixel-accurate FlowBlur camera real motion blur and paint directly on a clip or in the composite window with Two-Way Paint.

Working Together: Photoshop and Premiere
by Charlie White
If you happen to have a copy of Adobe Photoshop living somewhere on your hard disk and you're a Premiere user, it's time to take a look at the ease with which these two sister programs can cooperate. Here are some tips that will help you get the most out of both these powerful software packages.

Tutorial: PowerCG Plus Production veteran David John Devoucoux shows us around the CG application that's as versitile as it is powerful. And, the new version is even easier to use.

2000strong Symbolizes Apocalyptic World in New Promo
What if you were caught in time between the world that we know today and the world that is about to diminish tomorrow? How would you see the sky, water, wind or love on the last day for human kind? These are the creative elements that production company 2000strong, winner of New York Festival's 1999 Grand and Gold Awards, explored while creating the promotional teaser for the Showtime Original Mini-Series, On The Beach, an apocalyptic love story set to premiere on Showtime on May 28, 2000.

Scitex Cube and TurboCube: Making an Old Editing Box Do New Tricks by Warren Baker I've been editing non-linear for several years, and I'll always remember my first. It was a beauty. I used and abused it. Expected so much of it, and it rarely complained. My Mac 7100 did most of the complaining. It's still chugging along with the TLC of another editor, but I miss it. It was reliable and strong and a little on the loud side. It was a TurboCube. If you've either inherited one or are still plugging along with the original real-time non-linear box, I offer these keystrokes of kindness that you can bestow on your Cube.

Masters of Compositing
Charlex Drives Jeep through M.C. Escher Country
To everything, there is a season. For today's Jeep enthusiasts that season is spring. In its new advertising campaign for its four-wheel drive vehicles, Daimler-Chrysler emphasizes the transition from winter to spring with dazzling effects produced by Charlex, a design and post production boutique in New York. Let's take a look at the process Charlex artists used in the production, editing and compositing of this unique spot.

Frequently Asked Questions
What's Up With Boris RED?Tim Wilson, the Worldwide Users Group's BorisFX host, answers some of the many questions about Boris RED that he's heard while doing demos and other presentations around the country. He also answers some questions that he only thinks he heard, some that he wishes he'd heard, and others we're pretty sure he just made up.

Fast Studio XL: a Tutorial It's the software that is now included with Fast's MPEG2 editor, six-o-one. Read along for a guided tour through many of Fast Studio XL's new enhancements, and along the way you'll find undocumented tips and techniques from Fast Multimedia’s finest designers, editors and developers. Also, a special treat: we take a new piece of Fast hardware (still in Beta) out for a spin -- It's called InTime.

How to Make Lightning-Fast Timelines Using dpsVelocity
One thing that none of us have enough of nowadays is time. With this in mind, DPS developed its next generation of NLE, dpsVelocity. Learn how to make your editing even faster in this tutorial by Bob Bolson.

ReelTime and Premiere RT 5.1: Join Charlie White as he takes a great software/hardware combination out for a spin. Finally, Adobe's gotten it right: Premiere RT 5.1 is the ultimate version of the venerable editing stalwart. Let's take a close look at this software and a board with which it closely works, the Pinnacle ReelTime Nitro capture and accelerator card.

Commotion 2.1: One of the more helpful and valuable tools to leap over to the Windows side of the desktop revolution of visual effects is certainly Puffin Designs Commotion 2.1. Learn how to use it in this tutorial by Sherry Hitch, Supervising VFX Compositor at Foundation Imaging.