I created a new logo bumper for Whale of a Tale Productions in 4K

For quite some time I have been wanting a new Whale of a Tale Productions logo, and I have need for one in 4K as I have been posting some of my DJI Osmo Test Footage on YouTube.I had recently upgraded a really old logo that had been NTSC to 4K, but wasn't too impressed with the results, so I decided to create a new one that more closely resembled my new Business card.So I went to trusty After Effects CC 2017 14.2, as well as Element 3D and Red Giant Tsunami and created the following logo bumper for Whale of a Tale Productions.Someday I will tackle one in full 3D where the logo can interact with the water, but not right now. For now I am pretty happy with this one.

Adobe Feature Request Add X-Rite Video ColorChecker color Matching to Lumetri Color

Since Adobe has gotten rid of it's professional Color Grading software SpeedGrade to instead just use the less powerful Lumetri Color within Premiere Pro (and now After Effects) it is missing powerful color correction tools. And it could really use some.So I made a Adobe Creative Cloud feature request on adding support for X-Rite ColorChecker for Video to Lumetri. This would add a very powerful color matching tool, and alleviate me from having to go out to DaVinci Resolve as often.Here is my feature request text:Since removing SpeedGrade from Adobe Creative Cloud, there is only the less powerful Lumetri controls within Premiere Pro and After Effects there are not full pro color correction features within the creative Cloud. Now i have gone back to using DaVinci Resolve for complex grades and a tool that I use all the time is color matching using X-Rite ColorChecker for Video as well as the Passport model. It is an extremely powerful tool for color correction and really helps with color matching between various cameras. The addition of X-Rite color matching would greatly increase the power of Lumetri color tools. And it would alleviate me having to go out to DaVinci for a full grade as often.

I made new feedback to Adobe to bring SpeedGrade back to Creative Cloud

Anyone who reads my blog (I know there are not many of you, but there are some) should know how much I miss SpeedGrade. Creative Cloud used to have a full professional Color Program, and it's replacement Lumetri is not a full replacement, but a small feature set. The ability to have a full feature set in a color correction suite and have it come back via direct link as a plug in was a huge asset that Adobe thew away completely.So I made this comment in the Adobe Feedback Form.Lumetri is great and all, but it is still barely a small feature set of Creative Cloud. And the old ability to create a full grade and have it come back in as a Lumetri effect was essential, especially for new features in the future. Before SpeedGrade I had used DaVinci resolve to finish a project because of it's great power, but with SpeedGrade I was able to do everything and leave the effect not pre-rendered into footage after a grade. On some small projects I am able to use Lumetri, but it is not powerful enough. The Creative Cloud suite needs a full professional color suite, and it had one, and it is a huge loss missing it.

Adobe has updated Creative Cloud Video Apps in advance of NAB 2017

Adobe has beat NAB 2017 this year and updated all of it's video tools.You can check out the playlist of 23 videos about all the new features across the full suite.Adobe Blogs also has info on all the updates.I am most excited to see the Essential Sound Panel makes it way to Premiere Pro!Having full Lumetri in After Effects is also very cool, and will be quite helpful, though as you know I still mourn the loss of SpeedGrade as Lumetri is not nearly as powerful. And that in many cases means I have to go to DaVinci instead of being able to finish within Creative Cloud. I am also interested in the Essential Graphics Panel, which brings both direct graphics creation on the timelines as well as changes to templates made in After Effects.I am also interested in seeing Camera Shake DeBlur and seeing how it does with Warp Stabilized Footage.The new Multi-Channel tools in Audition are also intriguing, though I would be happier having them in Premiere (especially if I could automatically move multiracks to multiple tracks instead of a single track), as while I do finish some jobs using Audition and it's Essential Sound Panel, but mostly I go to a mixer using ProTools.And having Pond 5 in the Adobe Stock panel is a great addition.Overall I always look forward to playing with the new features, and am glad they come out as often as they do.

Color Correction Test with DJI OSMO+, Canon 60D and iPhone 6S and Visual Effects of Gun Shots

I shot some test footage with 3 of my cameras, my DJI OSMO+ my Canon 60D and my iPhone 6S. I color corrected the footage using DaVinci Resolve 12.5 and did the Visual Effects in Adobe After Effects.The visual effects include adding the gun shots, light flashes, and color correcting the orange tip of my gun so it is gray.I was trying to show my ability to color match the footage from such different 3 cameras, as well as add the visual effects to make an interesting little sequence.Let me know what you think!

Adobe has released Premiere Pro 2017 Update fixing the Title Tool Crash and Captions Issues

Meagan Keane at Adobe Creative Cloud blog has the info on the latest release update. This is a big one for me since I did just did a big captioning job and had issues with Captions not being editable in many Workspaces, so hopefully this has fixed that. And the whole Title tool crashing if you copy within it is another big one.I was able to work around all these issues, but having them fixed is a big plus.

Safari no longer supporting 4K videos on YouTube

AppleInsider has this article on what is going on. It seems that for all videos uploaded as of December 6, 2016 Adobe has moved from the paid to license H265 Codec to the free VP9 codec, and Safari does not support VP9. Previously the 4K videos had been encoded in H264, but both H265 and VP9 require much more power to playback and it will drain battery life, and use some serious processing power.Obviously using a free encoder vs a paid license will help the bottom line for Google, as will videos that take up half the hard drive space, but users take a hit because people who don't have the latest Machines will take a hit and be unable to playback 4K because it is so processor intensive. Seems a little soon, but Google has already made the switch.If you want to encode VP9, Fnord has a free plug in for Adobe Premier Pro and Media Encoder.

Adobe needs to fix OMF export from Premiere Pro 2017 with multiple bit rate audio!

The project I have been working on of late has 16 bit 48 hz audio for the most part, but our VO guy gives us amazing 24 bit audio, but because of this the OMF's that Premiere Pro kicks out do not sync up when the audio guy gets them. Some tracks go out of sync, and not others. And this keeps happening.And there is a workaround. You need to use the Edit in Adobe Audition: Sequence command and then use Audition to export the OMF correctly.This is a feature that needs to be pulled out of audition and put into Premiere pro, working OMF export, otherwise why have the feature there at all?Come on Adobe. And I see they have had this issue for a long time from posts online! FIX THIS!EDIT:I have been told that basically Adobe has given up on OMF and now focuses on AAF, so next time I will see if the mixer can take AAF.