2009 FCP New Year Meeting Update

2009 is on it's way!
We have had some awesome meetings and their are several exciting opportunities coming our way in the new year as well!
You definitely want to be at this next meeting. Not only do we have a great line up of presenters but there are some exciting things going on behind the scenes that I will update everyone on!

So enough chit chat...here it is:
Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library
300 Park Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73102 (405) 231- 8650
4th floor
TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2009 - 6P.M.


6p.m. - 6:30p.m. Open Discussion:
We will be open for Q&A as well as Show & Tell. If you have something you have been working on and want to show it off....bring it! This is a free for all, if you are working on something and need some insight, hopefully we’ll have someone there who can help out.

6:30p.m. - 7:00p.m.
AUDIO, AUDIO, AUDIO.....What to do, where to go!
Paul Thomas is going to bring out some mics and give us a run down on the never ending battle of quality vs. price. There is also the difficulty of selecting the right mic depending on how windy it may be or whether you are in a studio setting, outside, in a large hall, there is a never ending list of obstacles you can run into on the audio side of this world. Never fear, Paul Thomas is here! He will help light the way through this treacherous audio minefield.



7:00p.m. - 7:20p.m. Chris Martin - In Living Color
Chris is going to show basic Apple Color techniques covering round robin workflow from Final Cut to Color and back. We’ll cover entry level color grading and picture enhancement. I don’t know about you guys but I haven’t even opened this program up yet. I am definitely in need of a Color kick start!






7:20p.m. - 7:40p.m. Critical Mass - David Callahan & Don Stephens

We'll be discussing the challenges of creating the OU Pregame Stadium video in 32x9 format.





7:40p.m. - 8:00p.m. Story Time with DVD Studio Pro:
 I am going to go over a DVD project I got into and didn’t really know how to address when I was first asked if it could be done. I had never even heard of a “Story” in DVD studio Pro. After figuring out some of what you could do with them, they have really opened up some creative and diverse ways for me to build DVDs now. They add some flexibility to your menus and also come in handy if you are running low on disk space.



This is gong to be a great meeting, I hope you can make it out! We have some great presenters lining up for March already as well, but please be thinking of being a part of our next meeting. And even if you don’t want to or can’t, maybe you know someone who could. Just let me know and we’ll get the ball rolling!

Everybody remember to get some “Behind the Scenes” footage of you and your families at Christmas. Nothing big but it would be fun to see you guys with the fam!

Everybody be sure to have Tuesday, Jan 13th marked on your calendars. We ended 2008 with a great meeting, let’s kick off 2009 with one even better!!

November 2008 Meeting Update

Man! I don’t know about you guys but I had a great time at our last meeting. A special thanks to everyone who made it out! We had a little bit of everything at the last meeting. Product demos, tutorials, job opportunity (even though it’s in Texas). Thanks to everyone who gave presentations.

A special congrats to Rick Lippert who was the winner of our door prize from our most excellent sponsor Ribbit Films!

www.ribbitfilms.com





Congratulations Rick. You are a winner!! (No matter what anyone else might say!:)
We still have 2 more prizes from Ribbit Films so don’t count yourself out just yet!


ODOT brought out a ton of fun stuff. Nick demonstrated their Steady Cam.

I was a little surprised at how quickly it went together. This thing, with there Panasonic camera mounted weighs in at about 60lbs. It doesn’t take long to wear an operator out. There is some versatility to it that I wasn’t aware of. Like mounting the camera upside on the bottom and getting those low, through the grass type shots...pretty cool. It can also be mounted to trucks, dollies, etc. with the right mount attached. Pretty awesome piece of equipment. This one comes in around the $30,000 mark.

ODOT also brought out the Sticky Pod (Sorry forgot to get a pic). This mount uses up to 3 arms with big suction cups that you can mount to just about any flat surface. Great for tight fits, you can mount it to windows, vehicles, tables, and get some unique looks that are impossible without putting yourself into serious danger, I don’t know.....like hanging out of a car window while your “buddy” holds onto your shirt!

These guys also brought out there Anycast. Pretty cool little 6 input all-in-one switcher that is very portable. One of the coolest things about it is that it can webcast to up to 20 locations without needing to use a service to provide your stream! That’s pretty cool for those who do conferencing and those sorts of things. As well as there EX-1. Thanks ODOT for an awesome presentation!

Darrin Hill showed a clever and quick way to use Compressor and Cinematools to create much better and more realistic slow-mo footage. I was seriously impressed with the results! This is one of those things that might seem cumbersome at first but once you get your workflow down, this is really a simple way to make some really good looking slow motion footage. If you want a clean looking slow down, this is the way to go!

Darrin also showed a quick way to use Motion to do a simple fly-in effect while adding Z-field depth to your images and keeping your images in the same aspect as your camera. Quick and neat way to light up an end slate or opener. Add some depth of field and dissolves and you have a clean look in no time at all.
Tutorials will be posted on OKCFCPUG.com as soon as possible!

Rick Lippert gave some insight to the simplicity of using Motion to create Drop Zone Templates that can be used in FCP. You do all of the “dirty work” animating and such in Motion. Get the look you want and all of your animation set. Then turn your video/image elements you want to be able to replace into Drop Zones. Save as a template and then you will be able to access your template straight from FCP. Throw it on your timeline and open the controls. All of your drop zones will be there and you can just drag and drop the updated shots/images in.




Next Time Around:
We have a Color and DVDSP Tutorial lined up for January. I am hoping to get Paul Thomas to go over some different kinds of mics and their applications as well. If anyone is interested in doing a presentation or if you wanted to demo a product or a project you have done, please let me know.

Thanks again to everyone who made it out. If you missed, you missed it. But make it in January!!

So, our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for January 13th. As we come closer to CHRISTmas, we will finalize everything. Which reminds me, I thought of something fun we could do. When you are celebrating the Holidays, see if you can’t get some footage of you with your family. If you have time, throw a little 2 minute montage together and show us some “behind the scenes” footage of yourself! It will be fun! E-mail me back if you are in....also if you think that is stupid and have a better idea.

Meeting Pics:


Gregory D. Kuhn
Without Counsel, plans are frustrated, But with many counselors they succeed.
Proverbs 15:22

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Weeeeeee’rrreee BACK! September Meeting Details

We just finished up an awesome OKCFCPUG meeting! Thanks to everyone who came out! The more people we have, the richer and fuller our meetings will be. Also, a special thanks to everyone who spoke. PL Studios was great to have and offered us some opportunities to be involved in what they are doing (I’ll detail that more below). Andrew showed us his HV20 and some of the things he has done and the tutorials were good as well.

We have also started a freelance sign up list. If you are interested in freelancing, send me your name, contact information and what you are qualified in, i.e. Camera, editing, effects, etc. Please consider your skill level, we definitely want everyone to participate, but we need confident, competent people on the list to make sure to keep a strong sense of integrity in our group.

Below is a brief description of the speakers and a very preliminary overview of what we have lined up for November 11, 2008.

PL Studios
Thanks to Sandip and Sarah from PL Studios for making time for us. They have a great training program going and specialize in training for 3D modeling and animation. They are considering starting up training for FCP, Motion and After Effects as well. If you have any footage, feel free to send it their way. PL Studios is open to anything you have, green screen, scenery, good or bad footage that they can use in their training resources. You will get full credit if they use your footage. Standard Def, HD, anything you wouldn’t mind sharing. Here is their contact information if you are interested in sending something their way:
DIGITAL-TUTORS | PL STUDIOS, INC.
501 N.Walker Ave., Suite 160
Oklahoma City, OK 73102
LOCAL: 405.601.4806
FAX: 405.601.2472
CELL: 405.818.1112


Andrew Smith brought out his HV20 and showed us some of the projects he has put together with it. This camera makes a beautiful picture for the price. You sacrifice some manual controls but with the amount of accessories you can get for this thing, you can really get some incredible footage. Andrew also brought out his Merlin (Pictured above) steady cam for cameras under 5 pounds and showed off some nice shots he got using it as well.


Jody demonstrated the Replace Media function in Motion. It is a simple and very useful function that allows you to make quick updates and logo changes without making new layers or copying and pasting filters. To see a review of this tutorial:

http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/index.php?c=5&mforum=okcfcpug



Greg Kuhn showed a quick way to take a flat 2D image and use Photoshop and Illustrator to create a vector path that can then be used in any 3D application to add extrusion and turn a 2D image into a 3D object to add an extra level of dimension to your project. To see a review of this tutorial:

http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32&mforum=okcfcpug



Alright everyone, our next meeting is scheduled for November 18, 2008 6 – 8p.m.
Same bat time, same bat place:






Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library
300 Park Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73102
(405) 231- 8650
4th Floor
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2008 - 6P.M.

I am working on speakers now. We will have a great Motion tutorial from Darrin Hill and we are looking at the possibility of a couple of great product demos. Member participation is crucial to the survival and depth of this group.
We are looking for someone to do a DVD Studio Pro or Soundtrack tutorial. If anyone has any tips or tricks they would like to share with these programs, please let me know.


WEBSITE:

Don’t forget to check out our website and visit our forum. There is a link to our forum on the right side of our website. Our forum has a tutorial section now. Feel free to post any tutorials of your own or even links to good tutorials you have found. Let’s do our best to keep the posts in good order. If there is another section needed, just let me know.




Jody has also started an OKCFCPUG Facebook page:
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5903377818

Last But Not Least:
As always, even if you are not on the list, bring any projects or ideas you have been working on with you. The first 30 minutes of the meeting is basically brainstorming and show and tell.
Also, if you have any questions or input for the meetings, ideas and what not, please let us know! Just send a reply and we’ll check it out as soon as we can. I hope everyone can make this next meeting. We are all very excited to gear back up for the Fall. Please invite a friend and bring them along!

Greg Kuhn
Without Counsel, plans are frustrated, But with many counselors they succeed.

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