EVF Tutorial – Title Tool Shortcuts in Avid Media Composer

This tutorial is on a few useful shortcuts in Avid Media Composer’s Title Tool. We’ll cover how to center an object horizontally and vertically, creating a shape, how to change an object’s stacking order and how to add a soft drop shadow. Let me know if you have any questions on the Title Tool, on … Read more

A Few Updates!

Updates-Aug2015

Hey! I just wanted to give you a couple updates on what’s going on here at EVF.

First off, I’m about to be busier than ever. I’m shooting every weekday until… August 29th. Yep. The rest of the month. I’ll be shooting in four different cities and on top of that I’ll have to be editing a lot of what I shoot at night.

I can’t tell if all this is coming at a good time or not. I would like to get my mind off things but at the same time want to be around for everyone. Over the past month I have lost two people very close to me, one very unexpectedly. Myself, my friends and my family have been weathering the storm admirably and I’m extremely proud of them, proud to be part of my circle of friends and proud to be a Short.

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Export Graphic from Avid Media Composer

ExportingStillsFromMediaComposer

The other day a new editor asked me how to export a still graphic, like a .jpg, from Avid Media Composer. By now it’s second nature how to export a graphic in Avid but once I started explaining it I realized there’s a lot more that goes into it than a couple keystrokes and some clicks I no longer have to think about.

Here’s how to export still graphics, like .jpg and .png, from Avid Media Composer:

1.   Selection

First, select the In Point and Out Point around the frame of video you want to export. Then select the track(s). You do not have to select every video track if you don’t want to. If you have your shot on V1 and just select that track and not V2 and V3 where titles and graphics could be, you will only export the shot. If you select all the tracks you’ll get the graphics and titles too.

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What’s Working for Me in Post – Summer 2015 Edition

 

WhatsWorkingInPost2015

Last summer I wrote a post called What’s working for me in post right now. In it I mentioned a handful of items, methods, services and more that I’ve been using which have been helping me tremendously in post production. I feel like it’s time to update it with what’s been working for me more recently in what I’m calling: What’s Working for Me in Post – Summer 2015 Edition.

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23 Posts about Video Production, Post Production, Avid and More

23 Posts on Post

I’ve been writing for my friends over at ScreenLight for…well…a long time. It’s been over two years and in the Internet world that’s a really long time. Over that time I’ve been able to stockpile a bunch of writings that I want to share with you today. 23 of them to be exact.

The posts range from Media Composer tips to the Pomodoro Technique for time management to Apps for Editors and so much more. I’ve broken them up into a couple of categories. At the very top are a few of my favorites and ones I think you should definitely read.

My Favorite Posts

The Edit Bay – A Romanticized View of One Editor’s Relationship With Four Walls

Video Editor is Not a Synonym for Motion Graphics Artist

Editor: The Amateur vs. The Professional

How to Setup a Video Company on a Realistic Budget

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Media Composer Keyboard Shortcut Quiz #1

Hey! Just to let you know I’ve made a 2nd and IMO a better overall keyboard shortcut quiz for Media Composer. You can find it here. — Hey there! This is my second product and my first quiz. This is a quiz for Media Composer editors who want to improve their keyboard shortcut skills. It’s a … Read more

Giving Unconditional Help and Why I Nearly Cried on Set Last Week

GivingUnconditionalHelp

Today is a huge day. A monumental day! Do you know what today is?

It is the one-year anniversary of Edit Video Faster. My blog birthday! 365 days ago I was up late one night and decided to stop waiting and just go after it. Here’s how it all started.

I’m not going to spend the rest of this post recapping what happened over the past year. Basically I can sum it up in that I wrote a bunch of posts and made a ton of tutorials with the goal of helping video editors or creative professionals like me. The results came in the form of overwhelming support from my readers, people actually bought products I created, new friends were made, I created a course for Tuts+, I started a podcast, I got new freelance clients and I pushed my abilities further than I ever thought I could. Oh, and last week just to top it all off… I got to write a post for Avid!

Read my post for Avid here!

Okay, okay. No more bragging. I promise. I feel very vain at the moment.

Being on Avid’s site seriously means so much to me. I was legit nearly brought to tears. However I was in the middle of a shoot when the article went live and thought it’d be a little inappropriate to start tearing up so I tried to keep my joy and excitement to a minimum, at least externally.

In today’s post I want to touch on what happens when you attempt to help people without expecting anything in return. Let’s call this unconditional help.

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Over the Editor’s Shoulder: Part IV

OverTheEditorsShoulderPartIV

This is Part IV and the final chapter in a series called Over the Editor’s Shoulder where I document my daily progress on a freelance editing project I’m working on. I chronicle what I do in the edit bay, what I learn, my struggles, failures, successes and more.

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Over the Editor’s Shoulder: Part II

OverTheEditorsShoulderPartII

Hey! Last week I started documenting my journey through a new freelance video project I’m working on. You can find Part I here. This is Part II of Over the Editor’s Shoulder and it will chronicle my progress, struggles, successes and more over the past week for this project.

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My Course is Live!

MyCourseIsLive

Hey guys! First off, I know I’m late on this week’s post. My bad…it’s been a hectic week. Long story short I had to make an unexpected mad dash to New York City on Monday and got there just in time for a shoot. Then I got to make a fool out of myself on national TV.

Me at the Yankees game on Monday giving a heart symbol to my wife watching from Virginia.
Me at the Yankees game on Monday giving a heart symbol to my wife watching from Virginia.

On the train ride back on Tuesday I was going in a complete different direction with this week’s post. I simply ran out of minutes Tuesday and Wednesday to finish it but it worked out in the end. I found out this morning that my Tuts+ course Introduction to Video Editing in Avid Media Composer went live!

In this post I’ll tell you about my course and how to watch it (and hundreds of other courses) for free.

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