Premiere Bro has an awesome in depth article on using Motion Graphics Templates in the latest version of After Effects. It is in depth on using the Essential Graphics Panel and sharing the files that you make! Well worth the read.
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.
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 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.
If you have been reading my blog you will know that I moved Firefox to MultiProcessor E10s support, and because of that I gave up on Xmarks, since it doesn’t support E10s.
I have had years of issue with Xmarks Sync, which constantly messed up my Bookmarks especially between Firefox and Safari. The fact that iCloud Sync doesn’t have a reset or the ability to easily erase your online bookmarks and clean them up.
So I decided to try using the iCloud Bookmarks sync plug in which works on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome on windows on my Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and then use Firefox and Chrome Sync. And it seemed to work for a while.
But as of today I looked at my bookmarks and they were completely messed up yet again.
Now I constantly keep backups of my Firefox bookmarks on my Mac, because of all the issues I have had. So I was able to restore my Firefox bookmarks, so I can restore them.
The problem is that I have to run my Surface to get my bookmarks to sync, and we will see how it goes from the Firefox backup. Or maybe I will see how my Parallels works with the sync.
I will update to let you know how it goes.
EDIT:
HA! Thought I might be able to fix my bookmarks easily, but after re-importing my Firefox bookmarks, my bookmarks are messed up all over all browsers and all operating systems.
EDIT 2:
I just imported my bookmarks into Firefox in Parallels and we will see how the sync goes now.
EDIT 3:
Ha! I was kidding myself. My bookmarks in Safari were so messed up it was a joke! I exported them as an HTML from Firefox, cleared my Safari ones and imported them again.
EDIT 4:
Even better! After replacing my safari bookmarks with clean imported bookmarks I walked away for a few minutes and when I came back the bookmarks were all gone! So I had to import them again, and see what happens.
EDIT 5:
AND IT DID IT AGAIN! What the hell!
So Apple held a little event with Reporters to talk about it’s plans for the MacPro and Pros in general. TechCrunch has a long article on the event.
Finally Apple is saying that there is a pro future with Apple. That they realize they did wrong with the MacPro Trash can, as it was not easily upgradeable, even for them to release an upgraded model (which they finally released at the event along with a price cut, though this should have come out in 2014). They basically admit that they bet it all on dual processor gpus, which has not proved to be what people want (they didn’t mention that they were custom designed connectors that can’t be replaced, or that NVIDIA is moving away from dual GPU’s). And they made a Machine based around thermal constraints, but couldn’t upgrade it because of that afterwards.
They say they have started working on a new modular system that will include a Pro Display, to release not in 2017, which could mean years. They don’t say anything about user upradeable though, just more easily upgradable by Apple, which is good, but not great. I want to be able to use any PC graphics card, like I can in my old MacPro, and have addition PCI slots as well as Thunderbolt 3, USB 3 and the like, and I wouldn’t mind a Firewire 800 port, though I doubt it. Honestly I want an old MacPro tower with new Tech, not Apple once again trying to prove it’s inovation like it did with the trashcan release.
In the interim they have said there are going to make more Pro iMacs. No idea what that means. More cores? Real desktop graphics? NVIDIA instead of AMD!? I doubt it. User upgradeable? Doubt it? Have to get an Origin Omni for that.
I love Mac, and would love to stay Mac. The question is does Apple really understand what Video Pros want? They sure haven’t since around 2010. Still if I can make my 2009 MacPro last until the new MacPro is released, I can see if I can stay Mac.
I would love to stay Mac, and this gives me sone glimmer of hope, but I still worry as if they were so interested in the Pro user they should be much farther along than not in 2017. Must be a very recent decision. I bet with so many Pros moving to Windows they got scared, though not scared enough to add pen support to laptops!
So my MacPro has been slowly getting harder to power up of late. I could get it to work, but I had to unplug the power for over 30 seconds, then plug it back in and it would usually power up, though sometimes it was not so easy.
Well last week it stopped powering up at all. If I unplugged the power and plugged it in and hit the power I got a RED LED from inside, but that was it. Not white light and no power.
Luckily I have the Service Manual for my MacPro 4,1. I went through the checklist in the service manual, and didn’t get far. Basically plugged the computer in, and hit the diagnostic button, and the only light i got was the 2 red leds, and I didn’t get the 5V STBY light. So it was either the power supply or the backplane board.
Now I thought it was the powersupply and not the backplane board. I have been running an NVIDIA Geforce and multiple PCI cards, and it is a 2009 macpro, so I figured it was the power supply.
I searched for Power Supplies on Ebay and they all looked used but working, but I didn’t want another used power supply. So my dad pointed me to DV Warehouse. And they had a new power supply for the 4,1 and 5,1 for $228 plus shipping and tax. I got the new power supply today.
It was certainly not the easiest install. First off the 4 hex screws are pretty well hidden and there is not much room to turn them. It took me a good half hour to get the screws out and pull the old power supply. And it was literally filled with dust. LITERALLY FILLED WITH DUST! The problem with Apple hiding the power supply so well, is it is so hard to clean out. You only have access from the back panel and that leaves no place for the dust to leave. Honestly it should be easier to remove so it is easier to clean. I can bet many MacPro deaths are because of all the damn dust in the power supply.
So I put the new power supply in, took the time to put those damn hex screws back in, replaced my PCI cards and hard drives.
And it powered right up. It was the power supply.
So lets hope between that and the new video card I can easily get a few more years out of this machine before I have to replace it and it is time to move to Windows.
I seem to be hard to be hard things, because they don’t last. I used to use Bose overear headphones for my dog walks every morning, but after a year or so they stopped working with a microphone even with a change of cable.
For Christmas last year I was given a pear of Apple Beats Powerbeats3 Wireless headphones. I didn’t want the Apple Airpods, because I don’t trust that they won’t individually fall our or I will immediately lose one. The Beats seem like a much better idea because of the cord in between them and that they wrap around your ears.
Overall I have been mostly happy with them. The battery life is very good, the sounds is good, and after trying out all the earpieces I found ones that mostly stay in my ears, though I am constantly pushing them on more.
For me the major problem is the connection to my iPhone 6. I take my dogs for walks every morning, Indiana Bones for 45 minutes and JK for 30 minutes. And even with my phone and headphones fully charged, and my phone in a case on my hip I lose connection constantly. Mostly it just stops playing, and I can use the inline remote to start playing again, but about once a day it completely disconnects and I either have to wait for it to reconnect or go into bluetooth and force a reconnect. As I said I can usually start again quickly, but not always and sometimes I have to pull my phone out to get them to play again. And this is a real pain when I am being pulled by Indy and especially when I am also carrying a full dog poop bag as well. I just want them to not stop! Not only that the problem has been getting much worse. At first it was happening maybe twice a walk, but now it can happen up to 10 times a walk!
Also the microphone does not seem great. Partially I think it is because it on the cord that wraps back around your neck, so it is behind your mouth so has to be powerful and so it picks up a huge amount of wind noise. My mom is constantly complaining about the sound quality.
The range in my house is pretty good, especially if I have my iPhone in the middle of the house, it reaches pretty far, but can’t make it outside, or through too many walls for sure.
I have tried resetting my PowerBeats3 and have restarted my phone, but the stopping persists, especially when I am out and walking (seems to work better in my house). I contacted support and they are sending me a case and will check them out, and if they find a problem they will send me a like new pair, and if they don’t they will charge me for the inspection, even though it is still on warranty.
And maybe the issue is my iPhone, but I will find out. Just can’t stand the constantly stopping.
I do love not having the cord to my phone, especially when walking the dogs, and I really like the wire behind my neck to keep them safer, though it could be a little longer in my opinion. They are great when they are working, but when stopping all the time they are frustrating.
I bet they work much better on an iPhone 7 with the custom bluetooth hardware. And maybe it is interference from also having an apple watch? I just don’t know!
I will update once I hear from apple.
Red Shark has an article on Mac Pro users not caring about design, just wanting a powerful expandable box. I love the idea of a MacPro Classic with modern inards. Heck I would be OK with a PC box with Modern Mac innards, but the MacPro Classic is exactly what I want. Or honestly an even bigger box, with not only the 4 drive slots, but also a 4 drive raid with RAID hardware built in.
It isn’t going to happen though. Tim Cook does not get the Pro user or care about them at all. There hasn’t even been a speedramp on the Trashcan, and the video cards are old tech! Besides most pros want CUDA and NVIDIA.
Hell if Apple really cared enough they would let a 3rd party build a new MacPro. I want an Origin PC MacPro! And give me a choice of Xeon or i7 chips!
Once I can afford it my tower will become a PC, likely an Origin. I will likely keep my iPad and iPhone. They work great and do certain things better than my Surface 4 i5 can do.
This is some test footage with my DJI Osmo+ at Stony Point Park. It was shot with auto exposure as I have yet to get any ND filters to stop own the exposure. And the first shot was wrongly white balanced. It was shot with D-Log, Sharpness 0, Saturation -2 and Contrast -2.
This is the color corrected shot.
This is a comparison as shot and color corrected.