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Essential Reading for DV Filmmakers

A comprehensive guide to software training materials.

Lessons on color theory and the main tools of color correctionmake Color Correction for Digital Video a great resource forfilmmakers.

Software, training materials, and resources are taking advantage ofnew distribution media, namely CD, DVD, and online subscription-basedclasses. Whether it's information on After Effects, Maya, or Final CutPro, there are many suppliers of training materials, including freetutorials available from user group websites.

Generally, entry-level or intermediate training is more widelyavailable than professional-level training. That's because the money isin quantity sales, and that means novice and intermediate users.Fortunately, books like Kim Lee's Inside 3ds Max 4 and AfterEffects 5.5 Magic from New Riders Publishing, and the Masters ofVisual Effects series from Pinnacle Systems are aimed at theadvanced user market. But these are exceptions and they still don'taddress the needs of the true professional.

There's a continuing need for detailed high-end training forcharacter animation, procedural materials, rigging, digital mattepainting, greenscreen cleanup, and matchmoving, to name a fewchallenging areas of digital effects. Still, even professionals willsometimes find themselves at the entry level with a new piece ofsoftware, and a few hours of reading tutorials can save several days ofsearching menus and manuals. So here is my annual roundup of trainingmaterials for popular software applications, beginning with a generalupdate followed by more specific reviews.

This is the year that DVDs and CDs for training began to replace VHStapes. There are several flavors of training materials in theseformats, from collections of QuickTime movies to integrated digitallessons of the type provided by The Intelligent Assistant series. Mostbooks also provide supplementary CD tutorial files with projects andthe necessary files to teach effects compositing, such as greenscreenshots and background plates. Some publishers provide updated materialonline to help prolong the shelf life of their books when softwareupdates and new versions appear.

Streaming feature films over the Internet was an idea ahead of itstime (and broadband throughput), but using the Internet to accessQuickTime training movies works just fine. Lynda.com (www.lynda.com) andGnomon Online, (www.gnomononline.com) provide subscription-basedQuickTime tutorials at their respective sites, along with traditionalmaterials for purchase, including books, CD-ROMs, and classes with reallive instructors. Online schools work well with CGI subjects becauseyou can simultaneously run a software tutorial while the application isrunning. Scrolling to repeat a section works perfectly with a fastInternet connection. I tested various training sites using a cablemodem, and in all cases the tutorials began playing within two secondsof being selected. This is a great delivery system and it's clear thatInternet training is going to grow rapidly.

• Lynda.com

  Lynda Weinman is a designer-turned-educator responsible for thepopular Flashforward conference. In addition to several books on webgraphics, Lynda provides an Online Training Movie Library. For a $25monthly fee, subscribers have access to more than 1,800 QuickTime movietutorials for Flash, FireWorks, Quark XPress, Dreamweaver, AmorphiumPro, After Effects, OS X, Photoshop, Illustrator, and most of Adobe'sgraphics products. The online movies are also formatted on CD-ROMs thatare available for purchase on the site. That's the choice: online or athome. For intermediate users looking to learn web tools and catch up onthe latest Photoshop, the online deal is quite reasonable.

  Right now I'm looking at an introductory QuickTime for AfterEffects. Access to the streamed QuickTime files is practicallyinstantaneous on my cable modem, and the audio and movies(640×480) are very clear. The Photoshop and OS X instructors tendto hover over basic concepts, and there's a lack of high-endinformation for After Effects and Photoshop. I would like to seetutorials for sophisticated retouching or matte painting in Photoshopor Expressions in AE. Overall, the training consists of dependablefeature-by-feature introductions for popular programs. For high-endskill building or sophisticated application of various features, youwill have to look elsewhere. The material here is thorough butintroductory.

• Gnomon

  The Gnomon School of Visual Effects is essentially a trade schoolfor digital artists, although related drawing and production designtraining are also offered. The site was founded by working effectsartists, and that's a big plus. There are four 10-week terms in variousaspects of 2D and 3D design and animation using Maya, After Effects,and Shake. The school also hosts the Los Angeles Maya user group.Gnomon is located in Hollywood and has close relationships with manyvisual effects studios. The faculty is made up of industryprofessionals and the emphasis is on projects and preparation for filmand television careers in effects.

  Gnomon Online was launched last year and provides QuickTime-streamedlessons varying in length from 12 to 40 minutes in the following sevencategories: modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering, animation,character, and effects. The online tutorials are available for slow,medium, and fast connections. I used the fastest connection, whichallowed me to play and scrub QuickTime movies smoothly, though theimage became pixilated during fast motion. The image quality was notequal to the movies at Lynda.com, but they were certainly acceptable.While the lessons cover very specific Maya-related solutions, some ofthe basic techniques would work in any full-featured 3D application.Scene files for many of the tutorials are downloadable. The site iseasy to use and the information is well presented. I would like to seeGnomon's online approach applied to a specific project carried fromstart to finish over a series of QuickTime tutorials.

  The Gnomon site also provides free written tutorials anddownloadable scene files.

  The video workshops and written tutorials for Maya are on VHS andDVD, with new tapes created each quarter. Currently, Gnomon is shipping28 Maya training videos (13 DVDs) of approximately 100-plus minuteseach. The tapes vary in price from $39.95 to $79.95, and there arebundle discounts with various sets, such as the Character bundle for$590. Also, there are several Maya web forums that can be accessed fromthe Gnomon site.

• Combustion 2 Series

  From Technical Animations & Video, Inc.

  The value of the series of eight training DVDs for Discreet'sCombustion 2 is greatly increased by the fact that it has nocompetition. At the moment it is the only DVD, CD, or VHS trainingavailable for Combustion 2. Add to this the fact that Discreet'smanuals and tutorials are adequate, but hardly inspiring, and thisseries of tapes is made that much more valuable.

  Right off the bat, the DVDs crashed both my Mac G4s. However, theyworked fine on my home DVD player, but I lost the advantage of havingCombustion available while I watched the lessons. The content of theseDVDs is very thorough, but the pacing and visual variation are slow,and often the Combustion interface is sitting on the screen for up to10 minutes with only the VO and a moving cursor to amuse you. As thetape moves into the individual features, the pace picks up and actualproduction problems and projects are presented.

  The sections on bit-depth and color management are a goodintroduction to the subject, but the information tends to be a bitscattered because it's interspersed with so much additional informationabout the interface. It would have been better if the basic theory ofcolor correction had been presented first, along with some contextualcomments about the goal of the current demonstration. An overview ofthe task at hand would make understanding the interface much easier.Since this is the only DVD series on the subject, it's a usefulintroduction and reference guide.

• After Effects in Production

  By Trish and Chris Meyer

  After Effects in Production is the follow up to thedefinitive After Effects textbook Creating Motion Graphics WithAfter Effects. The first book is the benchmark for computertraining manuals. It's abundantly illustrated and packed withhard-learned information from two expert users. Building on thecomprehensive examination of AE in the first book, After Effects inProduction is a collection of 12 tutorials by top motion graphicsdesigners. The 12 projects fully explore key motion graphics conceptsand many of the latest features of After Effects 5.0. Design projectsare favored over pure visual effects techniques and the book is aimedat experienced AE users. One of the best aspects of the book is thatthe projects are terrific looking, something that is unusual incomputer training textbooks. Trish and Chris Meyer are great teachers,and you can see the effort that went into every page.

  I can make this short review even shorter by telling you to buy bothof the Meyers' books. If you want to have a career in motion graphicsand plan to use After Effects, these books are the best investment youcan make.

• After Effects 5.5 Magic

  By Nathan Moody, Editor

  Any CGI training material with magic in the title usuallyworries me, but this book and accompanying CD from New RidersPublishing is actually quite good. The book is handsomely designed, butits main virtues are that the contributors are sophisticated workingartists and the tutorials are aimed at intermediate to advanced users.For example, with the many books and tapes covering After Effects,green- and bluescreen keying are almost always dumbed down forbeginners and taught by artists who are not visual effects compositors.After Effects 5.5 Magic has three tutorials on keying, and ifyou go through them a few times and improvise with the techniques, youwill have learned several ways to tackle pernicious keying projects.The same is true for the matchmoving section and the tutorials onexpressions.

  Lynda.com offers QuickTime tutorials on a subscription basis.

  It is particularly useful that some of the topics are covered inmore than one tutorial so that you are moved through a subjectprogressively. There's a fair amount of background and general theoryin the book, though it's certainly not comprehensive in this regard.The underlying approach of the book, however, is to teach professionaltechniques used by the working artists who wrote the individuallessons. Most of the techniques are innovative solutions thatdemonstrate creative combinations of AE's features. The book includestopics such as 3D animation, virtual sets, keying, SWF (Flash) export,time remapping, audio synchronization, cel-style animation, motiontracking, and expressions.

• The Intelligent Assistant for After Effects CD

  From Intelligent Assistance

  The Intelligent Assistant expands on the idea of internal helpmenus, but only slightly when it comes to After Effects and Final CutPro. It loads QuickTime movies and text-based information into the OSso the information can be pulled up in AE, Media Cleaner, and Final CutPro. The product claims that it takes a “do it now,”direct-solution approach without dwelling on theory.

  Unfortunately, I found that the online help from Adobe was morethorough on any given AE subject. Intelligent Assistant has QuickTimemovies for basic keyframe and layer operations, but has virtually no“do it now” information for keying. By comparison, theAdobe online help covers each keying type with a step-by-stepexplanation on how to apply each one. The Intelligent Assistant isaimed at novice users, but with little added value compared to theonline help.

• Inside 3ds max 4

  By Kim Lee, Editor

  As has been proven so many times, expert users seem to write thebest software textbooks. Kim Lee is considered one of the premiere 3dsMax users, and in his first book he chose to share his productionexperience with a real life approach. Lee had the idea of basing theentire book on a single project designed to replicate the realities ofbeing in the production trenches. By the time you read through the lastchapter of this book, you will have finished a complete project andlearned techniques in modeling, tracking, animation, lighting, andtexture mapping. The project holds the reader to the high standards ofa reasonably complex animation designed to illustrate many of 3ds Max'sprimary features.

  Whereas there are more comprehensive books that cover every squareinch of 3ds Max's capabilities, the project-oriented approach is agreat way to test your skills before applying for a job. One caveat:this book covers version 4.0, and not the newly released version 5.0.The majority of the book, however, uses features that are unchanged innew versions or similar enough that obsolescence is not an issue.

• Total Training for Adobe Photoshop 7 DVD

  From Total Training

  Deke McClelland is one of the best-known and most prolific Photoshoptrainers, and this in-depth reference work on DVD is equal to two fullsemester courses at a community college. Total Training has the mostsumptuous and slick production values of the various video/CD/DVDseries, and McClelland uses the new training medium to its fullest.

  Aimed at novice, intermediate, and some professional users, the 26hours of training are a lot to absorb. The series consists of eight DVDdiscs and a training file CD. The approach is essentially an appliedmanual; the projects are demos of the basic function of just aboutevery tool and keystroke in Photoshop 7. The explanations are clear andauthoritative, although the simultaneous recitation of Windows and Mackeystroke is an unavoidable annoyance. Color theory, digital media, andrelated art subjects are mentioned, but the main goal of the series isto give you a visual demonstration for every nook and cranny inPhotoshop. I can't imagine a more direct way to be shown tools like thehealing brush, clone, and selection tools. But like all programs ofthis type, the projects are rudimentary and often a tool is bestunderstood when applied to a difficult problem. If you want to learnPhotoshop 7 thoroughly, this is the best product of its kindavailable.

• Photoshop Restoration and Retouching

  By Katrin Eismann

  Cross a Millimeter reader with a Photoshop user and what doyou get? A matte painter, colorist, animator, and 3D texture maker.Until the matte painting book comes out, Photoshop Restoration andRetouching is a good introduction to Photoshop skills that can beapplied to the needs of digital video and film production.

What's great about this book is that it is grounded in photographywith a nod to the Zone System and other photographic practices forobtaining and controlling exposure. This is important, because whilePhotoshop invites diving in without the manual and teaching yourselfthe tools, special effects and digital video production requireconsiderable discipline.

The author is a highly informed photographer and helps map out theuse of levels, curves, color modes, transfer functions, and Photoshop'sother tools within the context of photography. The book does not stresstheory or a basic understanding of Photoshop; that's expected. You willpick up lots of applied theory in the abundant examples.

One minor drawback is that while the book is well printed, thesubtleties of some of the before and after versions of demo images aredifficult to see. This, however, is a minor complaint about anexcellent book that will help you hone your digital video and filmpainting skills.

Sidebar

Essential Reading for DV Filmmakers

Writing the first book on a subject is not always a guarantee that aclassic will emerge, but it helps.

Color Correction for Digital Video: Using Desktop Tools toPerfect Your Image by Steve Hullfish and Jaime Fowler stakes outterritory that would have been aimed at a miniscule audience before2001, since the number of artists with direct access to a DaVinci orPogle system is in the dozens. With the advent of 16-bit color depthand sophisticated color engines in Final Cut Pro 3, Avid Symphony,Premiere, After Effects, and color correction plug-ins such as ColorFinesse, hundreds of thousands of desktop artists are invading the lastbastion of high-end post — tape-to-tape color correction.

The book begins with a solid explanation of color theory andperception and proceeds to the main tools of color correction for theremainder of the book. This pretty much boils down to discussions ofmonitors, waveform monitors, and vectorscopes along with the variouscurves, histograms, and other controls applied to the sourcefootage.

Learning how to read and evaluate an image on a vectorscope orwaveform monitor in their various permutations is a lot of what thisbook is about. This might be a rude awakening to the new generation ofdigital artists who just want to jump in and color their footage, butwhat works in a single Photoshop image does not necessarily work withmaterial destined for broadcast or a film-out prior to submission toSundance.

This is the first book on scopes aimed at the average desktopvideomaker, and the book skips most of the math and technical basis ofvideo. I was sorry it wasn't included, considering that there are fourchapters devoted to deciphering the patterns that appear on scopes. Thematerial is well presented and abundantly illustrated, but there aretimes when the book needs to explain basic terms and the layout of thescope with overlaid arrows and diagrams before proceeding. Most of theinformation is eventually given, but not necessarily at the moment it'sneeded.

Every few pages is a sidebar or mini-interview with an expertcolorist that provides excellent insight or observation. Infrequently,a sidebar with a technical point is too short, but much of the time,important concepts are conveyed clearly. For example, the explanationof the math behind Brightness and Gain (one adds, the other multiplies)will completely change the way you think about these controls. Thesudden clarification of some tool you've been unwittingly dialing upand down for years is one of the great values of this book.

Eventually the book begins to show the relationship between scopesettings, color controls, and actual images, and while this is veryuseful, the examples are not always larege enough to clearlydemonstrate the subtlety of the corrections. That's a matter of imagesize and the subtlety of the corrections. This is a problem with manyother books on color photograpy and image manipulations — aninherent drawback of the material. Fortunately there is an enclosed CDwith images you can use with your desktop color correction tool ofchoice. The book is software agnostic, and Avid Symphony, AfterEffects, Final Cut Pro, and several other software apps are discussedand used in various demonstrations. Some comparisons are made, but theauthors choose not to play favorites.

The book tends to approach color correction from the standpoint ofbroadcast, even though many of colorists interviewed are working onfilm. For example, bit-depth as it relates to film stock and Cineonfiles are under-discussed. The paradigm underlying digital colorcorrection, basically the 0 to 100 IRE range, dates back to analogbroadcast standards. A discussion of film stock, dynamic ranges, MTFs,etc., and how these standard concepts are ultimately related to thedigital color correction process would have been very useful. Not everydesktop artist today is ignorant of film technique.

Color Correction for Digital Video comes close to beingdefinitive, but at 200 pages, the book lacks the one or two additionalchapters of in-depth tutorials on color correction “looks”that would speed up the learning process. Some aspects of the book seema bit rushed, including the descriptions of the various colorcorrection software programs and the bibliography. I also miss seeingdiagrams showing the various parts of scopes and monitors. Many of thephotos of these instruments would be clearer if illustrative circlesand arrows had been used. Similarly, the captions could contain moreinformation.

Modest shortcomings aside, this is a terrific book that has no realcompetition. Want to learn to use After Effects or FCP 3's colorcorrection tools? This book is the best source on the subject. Just beprepared to read some chapters two and three times.

• Producing Great Sound for Digital Video

  (2nd Edition) 428 pages (includes CD)
  By Jay Rose

  You have your script, a DV camera, and dozens of audio tracksavailable in Final Cut Pro 3. Eventually, you will get around to hiringa sound engineer, but if that's too expensive maybe you'll just savethe money and do the sound yourself. Hey, it's a lot easier thanlighting the set, right? Wrong. Shortchanging film sound is typical ofnew filmmakers, and the emphasis on picture over sound is a biasrunning through film schools and film publications — articles,books, and courses on visual subjects far outnumber those on filmsound. Author Jay Rose is single-handedly addressing the problem.

  Just released in its second edition, Rose's Producing Great Soundfor Digital Video is a comprehensive introduction to recordingaudio on location and editing the sound in postproduction. Acoustictheory and general recording strategies are discussed alongsidenumerous references to current software and cameras, presumably one ofthe reasons why a second edition has been released so soon after thebook's initial publication in 1999.

  Digital artists are very much hands-on, and Rose is the right man towrite audio books for this new generation of filmmakers. Rose operateshis own boutique sound studio and bridges the analog and digital eras— he's made the discoveries and mistakes that no one should haveto learn on the job. This direct experience with DV equipment andprojects is apparent throughout the book.

  The book presents a sound engineer's (and recorder's)responsibilities from start to finish for narrative, documentary, andcorporate projects. This includes all the organizational requirementssuch as budgeting and logging takes, recording sound on location, boomtechnique, ADR, looping, sound editing, sound effects generation,music, and mixing. Rose clearly aims his book at low-budget desktopfilmmakers, but his advice also includes the solutions available whenbudget is not a consideration and the reader is simply hiring a sounddesigner.

  The enclosed CD provides several useful tests and comparisons on,for example, sampling rates and filtered sound. These are included tohelp the reader refine his ability to judge sound. I particularlyappreciated the comparison of different microphone patterns and theirplacement relative to an actor.

  Audio is frequently the gotcha in low budget film productions. Roselargely succeeds in his mission to provide a one-stop source fordigital filmmakers to learn everything they need to know to get the jobdone. A careful reading of Producing Great Sound will help anyfilmmaker avoid huge disappointments in the edit room.

• Audio Postproduction for Digital Video

  429 pages (includes CD)
  By Jay Rose

  Audio Postproduction for Digital Video is the follow up toProducing Great Sound for Digital Video. The new book basicallyexpands on the postproduction chapter in the first book and as aresult, some of the material overlaps. But at more than 400 pages, itcontains so much essential new information that you may never noticethe similarity between a few chapters.

The book is structured with an opening salvo of digital audio FAQsthat offer a quick answer to a question or direct the reader to theappropriate chapter for a detailed treatment of the subject. AudioPostproduction for Digital Video is designed to help any motivatedfilmmaker take control of the audio production required for a film andlearn to produce professional results on and off a shoestringbudget.

Rose is smart about not overwhelming the reader, but insists thatbasic recording theory be understood. He also goes beyond the basicsfor the reader who may be considering a career in film sound. Did youknow, for instance, that at 30fps sound travels approximately 36ft.every frame (1/30 sec)? That means that if you mic your actor fromacross a wide street, the synch will be off by approximately oneframe.

The chapter on setting up a small studio demystifies this subject(Hendrix's Electric Ladyland Studio established the myth that a studiohad to be built on 10ft. of concrete with lead- and sand-filled,independently supported walls of depleted uranium). In addition, thisbook contains more practical advice and information about the actualprocess of ADR and sound effects editing than has been shared in anyone book.

Why I like Rose's books: Topics are not shortchanged. Rose has takenthe time and space to cover all aspects of the subject as it pertainsto a non-engineer. Rose knows what is required to get the job done andpresents it as if he's a consultant to your independent film company.The chapter on dialogue editing alone is worth the price of the book.The CD, in addition to a wide range of “ear training”exercises, contains dialogue samples to use, and tutorials are alsoincluded.

If you are producing your own DV or low-budget film, read thesebooks.