I still remember the first column I wrote where readers responded with great enthusiasm and gratitude for what I’d shared. It was the October 1994 issue where I gave tips on specific system resources you could un-install so that you could still run media with 4 MB of RAM, instead of having to upgrade your system to 8 MB or (God-forbid) the unheard of 16 MB of RAM. Either option would cost hundreds of dollars plus an install fee from an approved technician. It’s hard for many people in today’s industry to believe that we were actually creating digital video files with those limited resources back then, but Adobe Premiere was already at version 4 by July of 1994.

But that’s the past; what does the future hold? Obviously, nobody knows for sure, but here are 10 things I think we’ll see in the next 15 years:

1. I think we’ll see video cameras where consumers don’t have to record video to tape or to a solid-state device (hard drive, flash memory) of any kind. Instead, video will be wirelessly recorded to a virtual storage service (think cloud computing) like we’re currently doing with Web mail.

2. Most handheld devices will have a built-in video camera that can wirelessly stream real-time video and record/post it to your website, home TV, or social media profile (Facebook/MySpace) as we can currently do with our cell phone pictures.

3. We’ll also be able to take that same real-time video stream and send it directly to one person or a select group of people, like we currently do with text messages.
4. I think we’ll be able to do most of our video editing directly on our camera or handheld device without having to load it onto a dedicated computer first.

5. Even though people have been predicting it for years, I think mobile video will finally become commonplace and accepted by the masses in the next few years. It seems that every major new handheld device has video playback (both streaming and recorded) as a major component of its feature set.

6. I believe that my friend Philip Hodgetts is right when he states that video will become just another form of literacy in the near future: www.philiphodgetts.com/2009/02/22.

7. I think creating multimedia presentations with video will be as routine for students in the future as typing on a computer keyboard is today.

8. I believe the ability to keyword search a video file to playback a specific word or phrase will be as common as using Google to search for a specific word or phrase on a website.

9. I think after spending hundreds of millions of dollars, companies will finally stop building “destination video sites” to show and share their content and will realize that they need to go to the people rather than expect the people to come to them. All of my work and research for my clients the last 18 months has shown me that syndicating and distributing content to as many places as possible, to be seen by as many people as possible, is the best way to go for most situations.

10. I believe that there’s a teenager today with an idea that he’ll ponder and work on for the next 15 years that will absolutely revolutionize digital video in a manner that I can’t even fathom.

Well that’s a quick look at the past and the future of digital video. As for the present—this is my last “DVS” column in Layers magazine. It’s been an honor and a privilege to appear in every single issue printed in the last 15 years and to work with so many gifted writers, editors, and designers during that time. I want to specifically thank Scott Kelby for the opportunity and support, Chris Main for the brainstorming and excellent technical editing, and Felix Nelson and his team for all of the great design that they have given me and my columns throughout these many years. I’ll still be doing reviews and special assignments for Layers, but you can read any new articles (as well as old archives) at www.rodharlan.com and join in the conversation on my blog at www.dvconfidential.com. I hope to hear from you there!

I’ve used a number of disc publishers (machines that integrate disc duplication with disc printing) throughout the years. While not perfect, the Epson Discproducer PP-100 is the best disc publisher I’ve used to date.

Discproducer is a PC-only product that runs fine under Apple’s Boot Camp. It’s made up of two Pioneer burners that are capable of write speeds of 40x for CDs, 12x for DVD±R, and 8x for DVD±R DL (dual-layer). The unit connects to your PC using a single USB 2.0 cable (included). While not the speediest of burners in this class, they do burn simultaneously which can speed up the overall workflow. Underneath the two burners, Epson added the technology that makes this unit stand out: a six-color, single-disc inkjet printer capable of printing up to 1440×1440 dpi on regular-sized discs only. The six cartridges (cyan, light cyan, magenta, light magenta, yellow, and black) have an astonishingly long life and can be replaced individually, unlike the integrated cartridges used by all other systems.

The unit can duplicate and print up to 100 discs unattended. It does this by using a series of stacker trays and an automated robotic arm that grabs a disc, inserts it into one of the burners, then moves it to the printer, and finally to an output tray. The whole system is managed by the Epson Total Disc Maker software that has three main sections: Disc, Label, and Publish.

All the specs in the world don’t mean much if the final product isn’t up to par, so here’s the bottom line: Every disc printed and copied without any errors. Discproducer is a capable disc duplicator with impressive print quality on both watershield and glossy media. As a complete package, it’s the unit to beat in its price range for ease of use and print quality.—Rod Harlan

Company: Epson America, Inc.
Price: $2,695
Web: http://discproducer.epson.com
Rating: 4

Hot: 6-color ink printer; excellent print quality
Not: Disc burners could be faster; Windows only

Digital Juice Fonts is a new multivolume collection of layered graphic fonts that can be endlessly customized and used in all of your print, video, and Web projects. Currently, there are three collections containing more than 4,000 individual graphic presets and community fonts (see below): Collection 1 contains 35 font families (2,500+ fonts), Collection 2 has 10 font families (1,000+ fonts), and Collection 3 has 12 font families (850+ fonts). An illustrator has drawn each graphic font, and the results for some are absolutely gorgeous. And each font is separated into 5 to 12 layers so you can easily turn on and off layers, as well as add effects to each layer, using the included Juicer software.

My favorite part of the whole collection is that Digital Juice has built a community aspect into the product that allows users to design and share their own presets. This means you can collect even more graphic fonts for absolutely free. What’s more, many of the community fonts are so good they’re actually worth paying for!

The Digital Juice website has also added a number of much-needed training videos that extends the life of the product. Training includes using Juicer, as well as using DJ Fonts in Adobe Premiere, After Effects, and Photoshop; Apple Motion and Final Cut Pro; and Sony Vegas. With output options from Juicer that includes PNG, JPEG, Targa, TIFF, BMP, and PSD, you’re pretty much guaranteed compatibility with most video, animation, Web, or print applications. Both Mac and Windows OS are fully supported.

All in all, this is a terrific collection for anyone who’s tired of the same old Photoshop layer styles and wants to put a little “art” back into their typography.—Rod Harlan

Company: Digital Juice, Inc.
Price: $149.95–499.95
Web: www.digitaljuice.com
Rating: 4.5

Hot: Quality selection of graphic fonts
Not: Additional activation

Troubleshooting A New Version Install
Anytime you upgrade to a new version of any software, you run the risk of transforming a perfectly stable system into one that has myriad little glitches—for no apparent reason. Nonlinear-editing systems seem especially vulnerable to these quirks, regardless of which operating system you’re running. Some common problems that can occur after upgrading your video-editing application may include a frozen screen, frozen cursor, flickering dialog, completely blank dialog, or a number of error messages, such as: (1) API failure. (2) Illegal instruction. (3) Unhandled exception detected. Application will be terminated. (4) Sorry, a serious error has occurred that requires [this application] to shut down. (5) The application has unexpectedly quit. The system and other applications have not been affected.

There are a number of specific steps you can take to minimize the chance of this occurring or fix the problems once they’ve taken hold of your system. In this article we’ll look at both Mac and Windows systems and give you specific strategies to follow to get a clean editing system up and running as efficiently as possible.

Basic Troubleshooting
Many times you can get a system error or frozen screen because you don’t have enough RAM for your new application. Or there’s a driver conflict or even a corrupt file. To ensure that your installation was completed smoothly (i.e., no corruption of files) and that you have the necessary hardware requirements to run the new software, here are a few suggestions:

Make sure that your old system meets your new software’s system requirements. I recommend always going above the minimum system requirements suggested. Your system will always run better.

Update your video card driver. More and more applications are offloading their processor-intensive tasks from the computer’s CPU to the graphics card GPU. Checking that you have a properly updated graphics card will make a world of difference in your system’s performance.

Do you have the correct version of QuickTime installed? Sometimes you need the very latest version; other times, the newest version will really mess up your system. Make sure you know which version you need.

And do you have a working QuickTime file installed? You could have a damaged QuickTime file, so to be safe, remove QuickTime, delete any QuickTime files or folders remaining on your system, and then reinstall the QuickTime software—better safe than sorry.

Check for dust on your CD/DVD and CD-/DVD-ROM drive. Dust or dirt on a CD/DVD can seriously corrupt an installation or at least interfere with a CD-/DVD-ROM drive’s ability to recognize parts of the media. Examine your install media disc for dirt, dust, and (the dreaded) oily fingerprints, then gently wipe the bottom of the disc from the center outward with a soft, lint-free cloth. Also, examine your loading tray to make sure that it’s free of any kind of dirt, dust, or debris.

Optimize and check your hard drives for damage. This includes your scratch disks! There are a ton of disk utilities for checking drives for disk fragmentation and general damage. Use any of them to check your system on a regular basis.

Disconnect peripheral devices. This includes any device connected by FireWire, USB, Serial ATA, IDE, or SCSI. Always disconnect these devices one at a time so that you can find the specific one that’s giving you the problem. Also, it may not be the device that’s the problem; it might be the cable connecting the device.

Troubleshoot third-party plug-ins. Frequently, third-party plug-ins won’t be compatible with your new version of software until they’ve been updated. Simply remove them from the plug-ins folder and then restart your application. If the problem recurs, then they weren’t part of the problem. If it doesn’t recur, then contact the manufacturer or programmer for an update to the plug-in.

Specific troubleshooting tips for Mac
The following tips are specific to any troubleshooting on the Mac:

Log in as a user with administrator privileges. It’s been my experience that installs run more smoothly in this mode.

Start the system in Safe Boot mode. Press-and-hold the Shift key immediately after you hear the start-up tone, then release the Shift key when the Apple logo appears. Safe Boot appears on the Mac OS X start-up screen.

Re-create the application’s Preferences files. You can do this by going to Users>[Username]>Library>Application Support>[App Company Name]>[App Name] and then dragging that folder or file to the Trash. This eliminates any problems caused by a damaged Preferences file and it restores settings to their defaults when you re-create the Preferences files. If the problem recurs after you re-create the Preferences files, then the problem isn’t related to Preferences files.

Set up a default printer in the Printer Setup Utility. I know this sounds stupid, but you’d be amazed at how many times this works! You can find it in Applications>Utilities>Printer Setup Utility, or if you’re running Leopard, go to System Preferences>Print & Fax.

Repair disk permissions by running Disk Utility. Also found in the Utilities folder is the Disk Utility. If you log in to an account with administrator privileges, but are still unable to install or run your program, then your disk permissions may be damaged.

Specific troubleshooting tips for Windows
The following are specific tips for troubleshooting Windows systems. First, three quick things that you probably already know how to do: Install current Windows service packs and other updates; disable start-up items and services; and verify that all of your device drivers are compatible.

Then, three things you may have to Google to find out how to do them on your specific (XP or Vista) system: Troubleshoot your codecs; set the virtual memory paging file to the default size; and optimize the handling of temporary files using Disk Cleanup Utility.

Install the application from the desktop. Some system components, such as device drivers and virus protection utilities, can conflict with an installer and result in an incomplete or failed installation. To prevent these conflicts, install from the desktop. Simply copy the application install folder from the install disc to the desktop, then double-click the Setup.exe file, and follow the onscreen instructions as usual.

Run the application in a new user account. Create a new user account that has the same permissions as the account that you use when the problem occurs. If the problem doesn’t recur, then the original user account may be damaged. For instructions on creating a new user account, click on the Windows Help tab and check out “To add a new user to the computer.”

Scorched earth
If all else fails and you’re running an Adobe application, it may be time for “scorched earth.” Adobe provides a simple program called Clean Script for both Macs and Windows that removes all existing Adobe programs from your system.

When you launch the script, you’re given the choice of Level 1 or 2 for removing Adobe items from your system; however, if you really want to get every trace of Adobe software from your system so you can do a super-clean reinstall, then you want to type in the number 4. It’s a hidden level that basically tears a rip in the space/time continuum, returning you to a time when Adobe wasn’t even available on this planet. Really, it removes every hidden file that could possibly be linked to an Adobe application.

Unfortunately, this level is only available in the CS3 version of Clean Script. The CS4 version allows you to uninstall only a specific Adobe bundle.

Remember, this script wipes everything off your drive so make sure that you’ve made a backup of your Lightroom galleries, Acrobat documents, PSD files, etc. If this is the level of clean that you need, check out www.adobe.com/support/contact/cs3clean.html and www.adobe.com/support/contact/cs4clean.html.

The release of the Nikon D90 and the Canon EOS 5D Mark II saw the introduction of video capture to digital SLRs. This convergence of media acquisition has a lot of people wondering what the future will hold for these kinds of hybrid photo/video devices. A glimpse into a possible future direction for this new category of devices has been announced by RED Digital Cinema. RED is the brainchild of Oakley Sunglasses founder Jim Jannard, and until this announcement, was primarily considered to be a technology company that was focused on revolutionizing the video and cinema industries with its RED ONE video camera. The RED ONE camera was unique because it could shoot video at a resolution of 4,000 pixels (much higher than HD) in a very compact and modular unit. Now it looks like the company has their eye on the digital photography market with their DSMC system (Digital Still and Motion Cameras) that they’re looking to begin releasing in Spring/Summer of 2009.

If I only had a brain
The whole DSMC system revolves around two new camera systems named Scarlet and Epic. Combined, these two systems have a choice of using one of eight different sensors as the “brain” of each device. Conventional wisdom suggests the larger the sensor, the less noise and shallower depth of field you’re likely to have. The 2/3″ sensor is capable of a pretty average 4.9 megapixels. The S35 sensor can do 13.8 megapixels. The FF35 can do 24 megapixels. The Epic 645 sensor can capture 65 megapixels. And the Epic 617 sensor tops out at 261 megapixels—and no, that’s not a typo!

While going through all of the tech specs, I found that the various sensors had a dynamic range of up to 13 or more stops. That’s huge and I think redefines the term high dynamic range (or HDR for short). Right now we can only accomplish HDR by combining multiple exposures, or on the film side, by scanning color negative film (a process I don’t fully understand). These sensors basically capture all of that information right inside the camera from the moment you take a picture or record a piece of footage. In practical terms, it means you’ll never have blown-out highlights again!

Piece by piece
As impressive as the sensors may be, it’s the modularity of the two systems that has most people excited. You start with one of the sensors as your central module and then build the rest of your camera around it, from the handle to the view screen to the lens mount, and everything in between. The cameras are said to be able to take any Nikon and Canon lenses, as well as a special line of RED camera lenses, and Mamiya, Linhof, and ALPA cinema mounts on the high end. This means that your existing investment in lenses is reusable with this system, and if you ever want to trade up to a larger sensor, all you have to do is swap out the central “brain” module while keeping all your other accessories and modules intact. However, none of this will come cheap, with base configurations starting around $3,000 and easily going over $100,000 for the largest sensor with appropriate modules. (You can see a full set of images and tech specs by going to: www.red.com/epic_scarlet.)

With the modular RED DSMC system, you can go from a digital SLR to a high-end cinema camera.

The Adobe workflow
Adobe has announced a long-term partnership with RED Digital Cinema and has released an importer plug-in (currently in beta) bringing native support for RED R3D files to Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, Adobe Encore CS4, and Adobe After Effects CS4. This allows 4K resolution native R3D video files to be dropped straight onto the timeline without transcoding or rewrapping. I would expect (although I don’t have any specific knowledge) that by the time CS5 comes out, all of the other programs (such as Photoshop, Flash, and maybe even Lightroom) will have direct access to the Redcode RAW format that RED uses to capture all of its images for both stills and video. That would certainly make the format easier to work with.

With photography, videography, and cinematography being siblings of the same art form, it was bound to happen that someone would eventually bring all the components of the various disciplines under one roof. While we’re not quite there yet, I’m betting that 10 years from now these types of devices will be common in the hands of artists all over the world. Here’s to an exciting and ever-changing future!

• HD DVD: This format was developed by Toshiba and NEC and is supported by the DVD Forum. The DVD Forum defined the DVD specification we have today. Even though the DVD Forum has an extensive membership, the HD DVD specification is mainly being driven by Toshiba and NEC. Supporters of the HD DVD format include HP, Intel, Microsoft, Paramount, Toshiba, and Universal.

• Blu-ray Disc: This format was developed by Sony and the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). Members of the BDA include Apple Computer, LG, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson.

With either of the new high definition formats for DVD, content creators and DVD authors are free from the bonds of using just one compression method, like there is with standard definition DVDs (MPEG-2). Both competing formats offer the choice of three video codecs: MPEG-2, Microsoft’s VC-1, and H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these new formats and try to answer some of your questions while also pointing out some key resources.

HD DVD format
There are two kinds of single-sided HD DVD discs for content playback: the 15-GB single-layer disc, and the dual-layer disc with double the capacity at a full 30 GB. Using the latest compression technologies, the 30-GB disc can store up to 8 hours (playback time depends on the data transfer rate) of 1080-line high definition images. Today’s standard definition DVD has a capacity of 8.5 GB and can contain roughly 4 hours of 525-line standard definition images. As for rewriteable formats, the DVD Forum has defined the standard for a single-sided, single-layer HD DVD-Rewritable disc with 20-GB capacity, which can accommodate about 5.5 hours of HD content. Why can you put 20 GB on a single-layer rewritable HD DVD disc, but only put 15 GB on a regular single-layer HD DVD disc? Your guess is as good as mine.

To learn more about authoring in the HD DVD format, check out the HD DVD Interactivity Authoring Forum on the Microsoft website located at http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/hddvd/threads/.

Blu-ray format
The Blu-ray format can store 25 GB on a single-layer disc, or 50 GB on a dual-layer, single-sided disc. This is about 5–10 times the capacity of standard definition DVDs. What makes Blu-ray so interesting to DVD creators is its two authoring modes.

HDMV mode offers all of the features of regular DVD-Video and streamlines the production of both Blu-ray Disc as well as DVD-Video titles since the production process incorporates many identical phases. It offers improvements in navigational and menu features, graphics and animation, subtitling support, and new features like browsable slide shows.

In regular DVD-Video, playback is interrupted each time a new menu screen is called. However, authoring in HDMV mode allows for multipage menus so that users can browse through the menu pages or select different menu paths while the audio and video remain playing in the background.

BD-J mode is based on the Java runtime environment and allows for extensive interactive applications including Internet connectivity. It’s based on Java 2 Micro Edition, so experienced programmers will quickly be familiar with the programming environment for BD-J. Every Blu-ray Disc player will be equipped with a Java interpreter, so that it’s capable of running discs authored in BD-J mode. This mode supports basic Internet protocols such as TCP/IP and HTTP, so it’s possible to connect to the disc publishers website to unlock content on the disc (after certain conditions, like payment, are met), or dynamically display information (e.g., local theater playing schedules for a movie) onscreen. It can even stream new audio/visual content.

For a complete list of all the new features available in both HDMV and BD-J modes, visit www.blu-raydisc.com/Section-13470/Section-13627/Index.html.

The rest of your questions
As of this writing, Adobe has not announced its support for either the HD DVD or Blu-ray format. We can probably expect that announcement around the time that they announce their next release of the Adobe Production Studio.

To get more advanced training, you’ll have to spend some money because it’s not available online. You’ll need to get the spec books for each format at a cost of $5,000+ each. You could also spend $100,000 to join the Sonic HDAA (High Definition Authoring Alliance). Here’s where the real players hang out to hone their craft!

A cheaper alternative is to buy a player and some discs and watch them repeatedly. With players running between $500–1,500 and discs running $40–60 each, you can drop a few thousand dollars relatively quickly. I expect that in 2007, we’ll see computer makers adding cheaper drives to their systems and companies like Adobe, Apple, and Ulead adding more authoring support to their existing programs. As with all new technology, the longer you can wait, the cheaper it will be…just don’t miss the boat and wait too long!

What Consumers Want To Know
Many people have been asking the following question: “Will high definition DVDs make my collection of regular DVDs useless?” While high definition discs won’t play on an existing DVD player, a high definition player is capable of playing your standard definition DVDs, so you won’t have to replace your entire collection. Also, if you’re not ready to invest in a high definition player, high definition DVDs can play on computer DVD drives with the right software upgrades.

Get Your Video Online
Everyone should jump on the online video bandwagon as soon as possible. I know that’s a bold statement, but to say that online video today is exploding in both business and consumer spaces would be the understatement of the year. Photographers are making musical slide shows of their photos and posting them online to both inspire others and get themselves more work. Videographers are filming behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes and posting them online to both educate young filmmakers and draw new audiences to their work. Businesspeople are using video to introduce their companies and show off their products, while both parents and kids use video to stay connected with extended family and friends.

Powerful Promotion
Does that mean that you should abandon your still camera for a video camera and never look back? Absolutely not! What it does mean, however, is that even if you’ve never shot a single second of video, you should at least package your best images into a compelling slide show, add a little music, save it out as a video file, and then distribute it on the Web. Every decent program that can create a slide show also has the capability to save out that slide show in Apple QuickTime, Windows Media, or Adobe Flash format. And this is all you need to upload your work to a potential audience of millions. At worst, your video slide show is an inspiration to someone else aspiring to do the same thing. At best, you’ve just doubled your marketing and picked up a wealth of new clients for your business (whatever it may be).

If you’ve ever seen a slide show presentation set to music at Photoshop World by a world-class photographer such as Moose Peterson, Vincent Versace, Jim DiVitale, John Paul Caponigro, Eddie Tapp, Laurie Excell, Joe Glyda, Ben Willmore, or any of the many, many others, you know just how powerful it can be for both inspiration and for sales. Just ask any one of them how many more books, DVDs, or seminar tickets they sell after a showing.

So the next step would be to upload your video to one of the many video sharing sites that have exploded onto the Web in the last couple of years, but which one? Everyone’s heard of YouTube, but is it the best choice for you? Well, for the last year I’ve been researching and answering those exact same questions for my clients who hire me as a consultant and as a distributor of their online content. In that time I’ve compiled a list of the top 12 sites I like for distributing video online. It’s a lengthy report I usually only share with clients, but I’m going to share some of the key points with you today.

Rod’s top 12 video distribution sites

This list also includes a little bit about each site’s Web traffic and audience demographics (compiled from Google searches and TubeMogul analytics) so that you can decide if the video distribution site is a good fit for you.

YouTube (www.youtube.com): The Mac Daddy of all video distribution sites.
Traffic averages: Nearly 70 million monthly unique visitors; 74 pages viewed per person; 0:55:52 minutes spent on site.
Demographics: Evenly female/male audience; largest age cluster in 20–40 year-old range.

MySpace (www.myspace.com): Primarily a social networking site. The video component is not promoted, but is widely used.
Traffic averages: 12.5 million monthly unique visitors; 12 pages viewed per person; 0:07:03 minutes spent on site.
Demographics: Surprisingly, the audience only slants slightly younger; roughly even male/female; relatively less educated.

Revver (http://revver.com): This site employs an ad sharing revenue system similar to Google’s AdWords, but for video.
Traffic averages: More than 8 million monthly unique visitors; 16 pages viewed per person; 0:08:07 minutes spent on site.
Demographics: Slightly more male viewers; age slants relatively older.

Dailymotion (www.dailymotion.com): Popular video sharing site out of Europe.
Traffic averages: Almost 5.5 million monthly unique visitors; 10 pages viewed per person; 0:04:49 minutes spent on site.
Demographics: International audience; high age and income level; slants white male.

Veoh (www.veoh.com): Focused on full-screen video programming for anyone with a broadband connection.
Traffic averages: 3.6 million monthly unique visitors; 30 pages viewed per person; 0:41:29 minutes spent on site.
Demographics: Slightly more male viewers; even distribution across age categories.

Metacafe (www.metacafe.com): Popular worldwide video destination. Prides itself on quality over quantity.
Traffic averages: 3.5 million monthly unique visitors; 15 pages viewed per person; 0:07:10 minutes spent on site.
Demographics: Almost 3:1 male-to-female ratio; relatively even education and income.

Yahoo! Video (http://video.yahoo.com): A sleek, entertainment-oriented video site. Not yet fully integrated with all of Yahoo!’s community destinations.
Traffic averages: 3.2 million monthly unique visitors; 4 pages viewed per person; 0:02:76 minutes spent on site.
Demographics: Slightly more male viewers; slants older in age.

blip.tv (http://blip.tv): Publisher-friendly video sharing and distribution site.
Traffic averages: 1.3 million monthly unique visitors; 3 pages viewed per person; 0:02:43 minutes spent on site.
Demographics: Slightly more male; educated and higher income.

Vimeo (www.vimeo.com): Hip, user-generated content.
Traffic averages: 1.3 million monthly unique visitors; 5 pages viewed per person.
Demographics: 2:1 male-to-female ratio; high income and college educated.

Google Video (http://video.google.com): One of the first video sharing sites to offer ad revenue sharing with publishers.
Traffic averages: 436,000 monthly unique visitors; 3 pages viewed per person; 0:02:34 minutes spent on site.

Viddler (www.viddler.com): Newer site with cool features like comments tied to a particular time in the video and automatic webcam sync.
Demographics: Slightly more male; college educated.

Facebook (www.facebook.com): Another major social networking site with more than 100 million users. It’s also the fourth most trafficked website in the world. Need I say more?

So what can online video do for you?

Online video can expose your art, personality, business, and product to a whole new audience that might otherwise not see it. It can inspire others as it inspires you. It can encourage collaboration with people from other disciplines. And it can increase your business and sales so that you can continue to do whatever it is that you love most. Now doesn’t that sound like a good reason to get into online video distribution?

One of my YouTube clips has more than 127,000 views.

1. They’re Photoshop addicts and they want to learn everything this program can possibly do.
2. They want to assign certain work (such as simple animations, title slides, and lower thirds) to interns, while freeing up their main animators for more intensive work.
3. And they don’t want to invest in After Effects.

To help with these requests, I’ve created a full After Effects-like motion design animation that involves playing video inside an iPhone graphic. This includes a full motion video background and a reflection of the iPhone with video playing inside the reflection as well. Here’s how you do it in Photoshop CS3 Extended.

[If you’d like to download the project files used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, click here to download the practice files.]

STEP ONE:

Find BlueRadialSquare.mov in the project files that you downloaded from the Layers website and open it in Photoshop Extended. You can also use your own animated video backdrop (like the kind you can get from Artbeats or Digital Juice). Click the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel, drag it below the movie layer, and fill it with white.

STEP TWO:

With the video layer active, press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to bring up Free Transform. Photoshop will ask you if you want to convert your video layer to a smart object. Click Convert. Drag the bottom middle control point up until the Height value in the Option Bar reads 75%. Click Return (PC: Enter) to commit the transformation.

CREDIT: ROD HARLAN

STEP THREE:

To blend the bottom of the video clip into the white background, you need to add a gradient layer mask. Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to add a mask to your video layer. Grab the Gradient tool (G) and select the Foreground to Transparent gradient in the Gradient Picker in Options Bar. Make sure your Foreground color is black in the Toolbox, and then drag the Gradient tool from the bottom edge of the video layer to the top of your document. Tip: Depending on the look you’re trying to achieve, you could also try dragging the Gradient tool a shorter distance. Feel free to experiment.

STEP FOUR:

Bring in an object that has a screen where you can play your video (e.g., iPod, iPhone, PSP, etc.). Convert it to a smart object (Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object), and then drag it to the Create a New Layer icon to duplicate the layer.
We converted the object into a smart object before we duplicated it because when we embed our video clip later in the tutorial, the embedded clip will automatically update in all copies of the smart object.

STEP FIVE:

Using the Move tool (V), hold the Shift key and drag the duplicate object down below the main object to create the reflection. Then, choose Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical to flip the duplicate object so that it mirrors the original object above it.

STEP SIX:

Add another gradient layer mask (see Step Three) to the duplicate object layer to blend the object into the white background. Drag the Gradient from the bottom of the duplicate object to just above the top edge of the object.

CREDIT: FELIX NELSON

STEP SEVEN:

Open your original smart object layer by double-clicking on its thumbnail in the Layers panel. Use the Rectangular Marquee tool (M) to select the screen area where you want your video clip to play. Then, press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to put this selection on its own layer.

STEP EIGHT:

Open the video clip that you want to play inside this object (LayersTVopen.m4v in this example). Use the Move tool to drag this video into the smart object document and position it above the screen area. If you need to, use Free Transform to scale the video to fill the screen area. Option-click (PC: Alt-click) between the video layer and screen layer in the Layers panel to create a clipping mask. This will “clip” away any excess video outside the screen area. Close the smart object window and click Save when prompted.

STEP NINE:

Press the Spacebar to play the clip. The video is playing in both the main iPhone object as well as the reflection. Very cool! Now simply go to File>Export>Render Video to render to the format of your choosing.

Note: You’ll notice that the final movie also has sound with it. Even though Photoshop CS3 Extended doesn’t have direct support for an audio layer, it doesn’t strip out audio layers. So if you have a video clip with audio attached, it will both import and export through Photoshop untouched.

ToonIt! is an Adobe After Effects plug-in that comes with four filters for achieving a cartoon look without the time-consuming exercise of rotoscoping and painting frame-by-frame. ToonIt! uses the render code from Toonamation, licensed by Digital Anarchy specifically for animators and video editors. The filters—Roto Toon (the one you’ll use the most), Outlines Only (my favorite), Goth Toon, and Blacklight Edges—won’t give you the “Charles Schwab Commercial” look (which uses a different process); however, they’ll allow you to create great pen-and-ink looks, flat cartoon styles, line art, graphic novel, and comic-noir styles of animation.

Using After Effects 7 on a dual-core, 2.6-GHz Intel Mac Pro, it took on average 2 minutes to render every second of footage with ToonIt! filters applied—or about 1 hour of rendering for every 30-second clip. A speed demon this plug-in is not! But when I used After Effects CS3 on a quad-core, 2.8-GHz Intel Mac Pro, it cut the render time in half. This is because After Effects CS3 has a Render Frames Simultaneously checkbox in its Preferences (turn this on!) that renders multiple frames on each of the individual processors, provided you have enough RAM.

Digital Anarchy points out that “ToonIt! will never be a real-time or even a semi real-time product, so please plan your render time accordingly.” However, the company is planning a free 1.1 version that will include speed upgrades and optimization, along with multiprocessing support.
—Rod Harlan

PRICE: $295
FROM: Digital Anarchy
WEB: www.digitalanarchy.com
RATING: 4

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT Easy to use
NOT Slow render times

I love the look of 3D layers and traveling through an animation in 3D space but as a motion graphics animator, I hate spending time animating the position and orientation of all those layers to get the right 3D look. So here’s my secret! 3D Assistants from Digital Anarchy—a collection of 16 After Effects keyframe assistants for arranging and managing layers in 3D space. This allows you to create layer clusters in the shape of cubes, tunnels, circles, spheres—all from your own layers of graphics, photos, and video clips.

Using the assistants, you can easily turn 10 layers into 100 (or more) replicated layers and work them all within After Effects 3D space. You can make a 3D wall of video clips in a matter of minutes and, because these are keyframe assistants (not filters), there’s no additional render time. You can arrange, re-arrange, re-position, and re-arrange again: If you don’t like one configuration, change a few parameters and re-adjust the layers. Or press Undo to go back to your original layout. You can even use an After Effects 3D camera to fly around the layers that 3D Assistants has positioned. While you can’t make the Assistants work directly on Camera or Light layers, they work on Text layers for some very cool effects. The Digital Anarchy website provides several great tutorials for working with 3D Assistants, including project files and support material.

For tackling the tedious process of managing 3D layers in After Effects, I can’t recommend 3D Assistants enough!—Rod Harlan

PRICE: $199
FROM: Digital Anarchy
WEB: www.digitalanarchy.com
RATING: 5

LAYERS VERDICT
HOT Manages hundreds of 3D layers with ease
NOT Mac upgrade to CS3 is $25, Win is free

While I’ll use a specific set of filters in this tutorial, you’ll find that using any of the Render choices under the Filter menu and combining them with at least one choice from the Distort folder will always yield interesting results. So, let’s begin.

STEP ONE: In Photoshop CS3 Extended, create a new document (File>New) at the size you want your final output to be (720×480 pixels in this example). In the Layers panel, this will give you a locked Background layer that you need to convert to a smart object: Click on the Layer menu, go under Smart Objects, and choose Convert to Smart Object.

STEP TWO: Double-click on the Smart Object icon that appears on the layer in the Layers panel to work “inside” that smart object. Next we’ll fill the smart object with 50% gray. Press Shift-Delete (PC: Shift-Backspace) to open the Fill dialog. Make sure Use: 50% Gray is selected then click OK.

STEP THREE: Press D to set your Foreground color to black, then go to the Filter menu and choose Render>Fibers. In the dialog, type in 15 for Variance and 10 for Strength. These low settings will give you smoother-looking fibers with more “white” areas. Click on the Randomize button until you see about a 50:50 ratio of black to white fibers in the Preview, then click OK.

STEP FOUR: Now we’ll add a motion blur (Filter>Blur>Motion Blur) with the following settings: Angle 90˚; Distance 100. Click
OK to close the dialog.

STEP FIVE: Press Command-Option-–(minus) (PC: Ctrl-Alt-–) to zoom out while keeping your window the same size. (You might also drag out one corner of your window for better visibility.)
Make sure your layer is unlocked. If it has a little padlock beside it in the Layers panel, then it’s locked, so double-click on the Background layer, rename it Layer 0, and click OK.
Now press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to bring up Free Transform. In the Options Bar, change the Width to 200% and the Height to 1600%. Press Return (PC: Enter) twice to commit the transformation. This stretches your “fibrous” object vertically 1600% and creates slightly fatter strands of fibers.

STEP SIX: Using the Move tool (V), drag the stretched fibers down so that the top of the object is aligned with the top of the canvas. This will be the starting point for your animation.
Open the Animation panel (Window>Animation) and twirl down the arrow beside Layer 0 to see the layer’s properties. Now, click on the Time-Vary Stopwatch beside Position to set a Keyframe at the 0 second mark in the Timeline.

STEP SEVEN: In the Animation panel, drag the Current Time Indicator (CTI) to the 10-second mark. Drag the stretched fibers straight up so that the tail end of the object is aligned with the bottom of the canvas. This should automatically add a keyframe for the Position property at 10 seconds.

STEP EIGHT: Close the smart object (Command-W [PC: Ctrl-W]) and Save your changes. You’re now back in your regular document with a single smart object layer containing your animation.
We’ll now add a layer to colorize the animation as well as bring dimensions to our background clip.

STEP NINE: To add a colorize layer, click on the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of
the Layers panel. Click on your Foreground color to bring up the Color Picker, choose the color you want to fill your layer (we used R:10, G:140, B:210), and click OK. Press Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) to fill the layer with your new color. Change the blend mode of this new layer from Normal to Screen in the Layers panel.

STEP TEN: Next, let’s apply the Polar Coordinates filter to the smart object layer. Click on that layer in the Layers panel to make it active, then go under the Filter menu and choose Distort>Polar Coordinates. In the dialog, click on the Rectangular to Polar radial button and click OK.

STEP ELEVEN: The trick to adding the cool vertical lines back into your animation is to edit the filter blending option for the Polar Coordinates control. To do this, double-click on the little “lines” icon to the right of the Polar Coordinates name in your Layers panel. Choose Darken or Darker Color for the Mode to get a similar effect to what’s shown here and click OK. As always, feel free to try the other blend modes for lots of different-looking results. Click the Play icon in the Animation panel to test your animation.

Question: When I send a PSD file with an embedded video layer to a friend, he can’t play the video. All he can see is the first still frame of the video. What gives?

Answer: Ah…the clue for me (hidden in your question) was when you said that you were sending the video file with an “embedded video layer.” I know Photoshop makes it look that way, but that’s not how it works. Photoshop is simply linking to the video file on your hard drive. By sending your PSD file to your buddy without the folder that contains the actual video file, you’ve broken the link so all that he can see is the “poster frame” of the video file. Send him the entire folder that contains both the PSD file and the video file(s) and you should be fine.

Question: Last year, when you were on PhotoshopUser TV, (www.photoshopusertv.com), you showed how to take a bunch of still images and turn them into a time-lapse video in Photoshop. Did you ever write that up as a tutorial?

Answer: No I never did, but here’s a quick step-by-step that should do the trick for you.

1. Select File>Open and navigate to your folder of images—make sure that they’re numbered in sequence.

2. Select the first image and then click the Image Sequence checkbox (circled).

3. Select your Frame Rate. This will also determine the overall duration of the clip, as it makes this calculation based on the frame rate. Click OK.

4. Click the Play button in the Animation Timeline or simply press the Spacebar to render the video clip into RAM.

Tip: Using large, 8–12-megapixel images allows you to create 4,000–5,000-pixel video files. This is many times larger than SD and HD video files. In fact, you can go out and shoot once, but then be able to chop up the resulting monster video file into 30–50 standard-definition video files.

Question: I was given a video file to use but when I brought it into Photoshop it looked like it had scan lines running through it. Any idea how to fix this?

Answer: It actually sounds like you have an interlace problem. Was this footage captured from the TV or off a VHS tape or other analog video source? If so, why don’t you give this a try?

1. Open the file that has the interlace problems in Photoshop.

2. Convert the layer to a Smart Object (Layer>Smart Objects>Convert to Smart Object). The reason for converting the layer to a smart object is because you want the filter that you’re about to apply to affect the whole video file and not just one single frame.

3. Apply the De-Interlace filter (Filter>Video>De-Interlace). Try the standard options first—they usually work best—and click OK.

Question: My friend and I have the exact same machine, but he’s able to work with 3D files (rotate, spin, position, scale, etc.) a lot faster than I am. Why is this?

Answer: If your friend really has the exact same CPU, RAM, hard drive, and graphics card as you do, then there’s only one real explanation: Your friend has enabled 3D Acceleration for his video graphics card (or he’s disabled yours and not told you about it.) To check if this is the case, go to Photoshop (PC: Edit)>Preferences>Performance and look for the Enable 3D Acceleration checkbox. If it’s not checked, click on it to turn it on.