Digital Video Books

This book is incredibly dense and content-rich. It features "from the horse's mouth" articles from some of the top minds in interactive entertainment. Two years after its publication, it's still cutting edge. It provides excellent groundwork for software designers, virtual reality designers or anyone working in the theme park industry. I teach interacive design at the University level throughout the world and I always recommend this book as a "must read" for my students.

This is an excellent overview of all of the areas where simulation and virtual reality are penetrating our culture. The authors of each chapter focus on entertainment and defense. Though I read the book searching for background material on military simulation, I was fascinated by the use of simulation technologies in entertainment. Each author presented a very different application. Many thanks to Clark Dodsworth for pulling all of this material together.

Clark Dodsworth has made an enormous contribution to this subject by combining chapters from all the big thinkers in this industry.

Some chapters did not appeal, others enthralled me and as I hilited gems along the way through this book I realised that my own concepts of perception and communication were evolving. It was nice to find support and to be challenged as well in the many contributions of this book.

Dodsworth insight and experience helps to stitch all of the contributions and any loose ends together.

Digital Illusions provides many benefits to any reader who has an interest in this industry. I found the investment of my time worthwhile.

Before you read Final Cut Express Solutions or invest in the Final Cut Express software, it's important to realize that Final Cut Express is not for everyone. Some people are quite happy with iMovie. And yet others want more latitude in their creativity. Final Cut Express does just that and Final Cut Express Solutions will show you how.

Personally, I find Final Cut Express to be intimidating. It's not as novice friendly as iMovie, but that's the price you pay when you get more creative options. Final Cut Express Solutions does a great job of walking you through the process of creating your own movie. The book has a nice flow to it; it doesn't just jump in with all the neat stuff you can do with footage. Final Cut Express Solutions tells you exactly what the steps are in creating a movie and explains what you're seeing, right from the very first time you open Final Cut Express.

The book uses a combination of text and screen shots to guide you through the various features of Final Cut Express. I find screen captures to be an absolute must in any software tutorial. And this book is heavy on screen captures, pretty much one for every command or feature that is being shown. There is also a CD-ROM that accompanies the Final Cut Express Solutions text, which provides project footage to show what the various features of Final Cut Express can do. You can even edit the footage for practice. In fact, the book refers to the footage as it shows you various features. I would recommend using the CD-ROM along with the book as indicated in the text of Final Cut Express Solutions.

Final Cut Express Solutions is organized extremely well and serves as a quick reference for various functions of creating a movie. Chapters follow a roughly chronological order in the process of making a movie, focusing on topics such as importing footage, editing, audio, and many more.

One requirement that is spelled out right from the start is that you'll need QuickTime Pro. You can buy QuickTime Pro directly from Apple (www.apple.com/quicktime) for $29.99. Final Cut Express works seamlessly with QuickTime Pro and is necessary for some of the topics that the book covers.

This is the only Final Cut Express guide I have reviewed, but I have reviewed one other Sybex book, iMovie 3 Solutions, an excellent book. Final Cut Express Solutions follows an identical format and feel and is also an excellent book.

Final Cut Express is not a book that you will read and then just put away on the shelf. It is an excellent reference book that you will need frequently as you delve more into the advanced features of Final Cut Express.

After completing several projects using various versions of iMovie, I've recently made the switch to Final Cut Express to increase my editing capabilities.

I'm disappointed in this book, which was offered for $40 at the Apple store when buying the Final Cut Express software.

The text lacks in-depth information about FCE's video and audio filters, and fails to adequately cover the software basics. The authors' suggest their own website for more information, but there's nothing on it.

I'm going to try Tom Wolsky's book and hope for a better guide.

I had been using iMovie for about three years and started feeling that I had pretty much mastered it. Not that my movies were going to win any Oscars, but rather, my creativity was limited by what iMovie would allow me to do.

Apple must have heard me grumbling about iMovie and must have known I couldn't afford Final Cut Pro, so they created Final Cut Express. When I finally received this software, I realized I was over my head; I didn't even know how to begin using it. My solution was getting the book "Final Cut Express Solutions" by Jason Cranford Teague and David Teague.

One of my initial observations was the full-color pages throughout the book. Most software books are black and white and boring. I found myself looking forward to the next chapter because each chapter builds on previous chapters. As I progressed through the book, I used the project files and clips provided on the Companion DVD to help me learn each chapter.

The first chapter, "The Hardware Setup," was very informative. The authors take the time to advise what hardware is important to the success of your editing in Final Cut Express. Since then, I've purchased additional memory (I now have 768 MB SDRAM) and a 160 GB external FireWire hard disk for my iMac.

Audio is an area I need the most training with. Chapter 8 "Adding Audio," gives me exactly what I need to be able to fully utilize all the audio control Final Cut Express has to offer. I learned about room tone and world tone; recorded silence in interior and exterior areas respectively.

Titles! I was so limited with iMovie titles, that all my movies had the same look. Chapter 9 "Adding Titles and Finishing Up," offers a wealth of titling options. The authors even provided a section on "Creating Final Cut Express Titles in Photoshop."

A very unique and very powerful tool the authors use is the "Movie Night!" feature. At the end of each chapter (except Chapter 10), you'll find a purple box that highlights a movie where the authors talk about some unique editing features of that particular movie. What's really cool is how the authors use each movie to further discuss that chapters' topic. For example, in Chapter 9 "Adding Titles and Finishing Up," the authors explain how Alfred Hitchcock used a title sequence to capture the audience at the beginning of the movie "Vertigo."

I'm not a Final Cut Express expert yet, but with the guidance found in "Final Cut Express Solutions," I find my movie making abilities far beyond what I was doing with iMovie. The authors say it best, "That is what you will get out of this book: a thorough understanding of what it takes to get a movie made." If you have Final Cut Express, get this book. If you don't have Final Cut Express yet, get it soon, then get this book.

The On The Spot format is a great way to take a quick but deep dive and come away with improved methods in Final Cut Studio.

New material in this edition includes great tips on HD technology and new features in Final Cut Studio 2.

I have both "Final Cut Pro on the Spot" and just recently bought "Final Cut Studio on the Spot." (The difference between the two is that "Final Cut Studio" goes into the other studio applications)

I'm a self-taught editor and have an entire bookcase full of Final Cut Studio training books and DVDs and am also a subscriber to several on-line training classes. Of all the training materials I've collected, I use these two books most.

Whether you are well-seasoned in Final Cut or just getting started as an editor, you will absolutely love this little book. It's full of great tips and tricks on cool techniques, time saving shortcuts, maintenance guides and more. I would have to spend hours wading through tons of material to glean just some the pearls condensed in these publications. The authors took the most useful material and assembled it in this handy, quick little reference tool. The layout is great. It's well written, easy to comprehend and fun to read.

You don't have to read it cover to cover (although I did). You can just flip to the section you need at the time. Just recently I was looking for some new and interesting transitions. I remembered there was a section on transitions, looked it up and quickly learned a bunch of new techniques to jazz up my sequence.

The other great thing about this book is that is so portable. I take it down to the pool with me or to Dr.'s appointments, and when I travel, so I can always be learning new stuff while I'm relaxing or sitting in the waiting room, flying, etc.

Of all the money I've spent on training materials, these two little books were by far the best return on my investment. The information is priceless.

I'm grateful to the editors, Richard Harrington, Abba Shapiro and Robbie Carman for sharing all their wisdom and creating these wonderful little books. It has taken my editing to a whole new level.

This is a great book, full of numerous helpful tips and tricks for anyone who's got past the basics of Final Cut.

I've learned heaps from it, and many of the tips have led me to find other new features and ways of doing things with the program. Most of the tips are simple and will save time or make minor improvements in your editing. Some are profound.

Although titled Final Cut Studio On the Spot, the book is strongest by far on Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro, with some coverage of Color, and much less emphasis on Motion 3 and Compressor.

The only niggle I have with 'Final Cut Studio On the Spot' (3rd edition) is that it desperately needs an index. With so much information, it's just begging for a better way to navigate it all. Otherwise, highly recommended.

If you need to get up to speed on Final Cut and new features --- this guide gives you concise information and visual backup to explain a complicated edit process minus having to wade through a typical 600-800 page manual (use the official manuals as a reference when you have time!) --- plus the size makes it portable enough to take with your laptop on the job. This is my 4th Rick Young manual --- his choices and descriptions have never disappointed me - I have referred many novice editors to his books. The feedback has been positive.

What the larger Apple manuals are great at --- is providing practice material and step by step instruction --- sometimes it's best to start from page 1 --- especially as a newbie to editing. However --- Rick Young's series of condensed guides --- serves as a tremendous handy abridgment with the MOST important details needed for most conditions when you don't have time to drag out the BIG books. His manuals are written from an editor's perspective with brevity in mind. Think of it as a "greatest hits" version of editing information. You won't be disappointed.

I hate using macs but as final cut is only on these computers, I had to learn how to use the software, this book gave a very well excuted instructions. The author did a very good job explaining this over rated software, if you have to use final cut software than this is the book for you.

I'm a video editor with 3 years of experience in Final Cut Pro. When I spotted this slim volume at my bookstore, I was intrigued and picked it up to look through - then I bought it on the spot and went home and read it. The explanations are very clear and well illustrated. The tips I picked up have already saved me a good bit of time and frustration during my editing. I wish I had found this book earlier!

This book also does a great job of going over what you need to get started in Final Cut Pro - installation, settings, etc. While this book is not a "load this clip from the CD and now push this button" type book, the examples are very clear, and can be done with any video clip on your computer.

There is definitely material here for even experienced Final Cut Pro users - for example, I'd never really understood some of the rendering and format options (AIC, ProRes 422, etc) and this explains them, and shows how to use them to your advantage. Heck, the explanation on page 24 of how to put custom buttons on your toolbars, or the one on page 85 on how to use the select track tool, have probably saved me 5 or 10 minutes an hour since I learned to use them.

Hope you enjoy this book as much as I have!

This is far more than a book of glossy game art pics, and certainly not a coffee table prop. Appropriately the book has a number of layers and themes which together provide an absorbing insight into the history of computer games. The text is free from the gushing sycophantic praise that blemishes many of the genre art books. Instead the authors produce a clear categorisation of games with illustrations in support. Comments from game designers are likewise intelligent, thoughtful and devoid of self agrandisement. What the reader gets is a book of useful illustrations, clear game categorisation by features, useful insights into game creation and an indication of where the genre is probably headed. Overall there is a subtle intellectual tone to the book which makes it both a pleasure to flick through but a much more profound pleasure to read.

If the book as any underdeveloped theme it is arguably the absence of game postmortems. What went right? What went wrong? This would have rounded out the book very nicely. However, if you are interested in game design and the role of art in creating various immersive experiences, then this is a book to buy and revisit from time to time.

Game Art by Dave Morris and Leo Harris is one of the best ways I have found to learn about the history of video games. There are great drawings and pictures of many different games from Pong to Halo. This book has a lot of great information.
There is a whole section about a game called Fable, which is the second most popular on X-Box. Fable allows the player to make choices and each choice leads to a different destiny. It's possible to take over the world and rule with an iron fist or you can save it. This is somewhat like the book, The Pearl, because the main character must choose between the pearl and his family. In this book, the pearl represents greed and evil, and the family is happiness.
Overall, this is a nicely done book. I would recommend it to anyone that likes video games, or wants to know more about them. This is not just a book with a lot of pictures. It's like portal that shows you about lots and lots of video game and information for every one.

I've never been an avid computer games player (wrong generation, mostly), but their progressive development, and especially the continuing quest for verisimilitude, fascinate me. I remember when Asteroids and Pac-Man and Space Invaders first appeared (in the lobbies of movie theaters, when "arcade" still meant pinball), and how addicted my adolescent kids quickly became. But that level of 2-D was nothing, of course, compared to the MYST series and to god/simulations like SimCity 3 -- not to mention keyframe animation and real-time interaction and detailed storyboarding that wouldn't be out of place in Hollywood. This is the first book I've seen that really gets into all aspects of video game art and design (there wouldn't have been enough to say even a few years ago), and it succeeds nicely both in its glossy-paper graphics and in the discursive text, which includes numerous interviews with designers.

If you have ever struggled with making a digital video, struggle no more. This book is an easy to read, easy to follow method for making a digital video that includes both Adobe Premiere and MGI Videowave programs on an enclosed CD. Both programs are demonstrated throughout the book, with information on how each video maker is used and their weak or strong points. The only thing better than this book might be your own tutor or instruction by CD showing actual examples of video constrction. I found the book to be better written, with more concise description than any other text I have evaluated.

I'm thinking of getting a digital camcorder and I wanted to see what I would be able to do with it. From that perspective, the book is a success. First it discusses the equipment: the basics of using a camcorder, and setting up your computer for video. The book then goes through tasks of basic editing, titles (including effects such as rolling), audio, and working with still images (I learned video tools can also be used for making slide shows). Finally, now that you have your video, the book covers producing videotape, publishing to the Web or CD-ROM, and adding video to PowerPoint presentations. The book is organized into chapters that cover various tasks such as adding titles or making credits roll. The book also has four projects that serve to tie the tasks together. The book comes with a CD-ROM that includes trial versions of the software discussed in the book (including video editors MGI VideoWave and Adobe Premiere). While the book is targeted towards readers who already have a camcorder, for my use the book would have been stronger if it discussed purchasing a camcorder. And, since I don't yet have a camcorder, it would have been nice if the CD-ROM included sample videos so I could try the various techniques described in the book. Overall, the book showed me what I could do with a camcorder, and that tools such as VideoWave make the process fairly straightforward.

This is a book for beginners of digital video production and editing. With hundreds of pictures illustrating the "how-to", the book gives you a much rewarding hands-on experience. In a learner-freindly environment, readers are led step-by-step into a fun digital audio-vidual world, and yet it allows readers to create professional-looking video with their own imagination. The information keeps you current with the most popular programs of digital programs -- Macromedia Premiere and MGI VideoWave III. The skills you learn will go far beyond these two software applications -- they can be easily adapted to other programs. The only drawback seems that the explanation is too dearth for those who enjoy detailed verbal instruction.

I have read this and the "iMovie 2: The Missing Manual". I like the Visual Quickstart Guide a bit better because it is very concise but not lacking in information (true of the series).

The thing with iMovie is that is seems like it should do more than it seems. While some of the techniques are not obvious, there are few of these (most presented in this book) that will definetly get your movies going. Get this book and look in the internet for additional sources of information.

Great for novices wanting to make their first iMovie (that was me) to those people wanting answers that don't come up until you start to really dig into iMovie and want more, more more (that is me now).

I spent an hour reviewing 4 versions at the bookstore, took this home, and think it's great. Very simple, very short, very much to the point, this is a great reference as well as a beginning tutorial.

So, it has depth, clarity, and brevity, admirable qualities all.

iMovie seems a very simple application (with a wonderfully simple interface) but there are a lot of neat tips and tricks to create very cool movies, videos, whatever.Cheers,

BilFish

Great for novices wanting to make their first iMovie (that was me) to those people wanting answers that don't come up until you start to really dig into iMovie and want more, more more (that is me now).

I spent an hour reviewing 4 versions at the bookstore, took this home, and think it's great. Very simple, very short, very much to the point, this is a great reference as well as a beginning tutorial.

So, it has depth, clarity, and brevity, admirable qualities all.

iMovie seems a very simple application (with a wonderfully simple interface) but there are a lot of neat tips and tricks to create very cool movies, videos, whatever.

Cheers,

BilFish

One of the most popular Internet activities to make a splash on our screens recently has been that of "webcamming." Just about anyone can now set up a suitable camera, including a video camera, and publish nearly real-time audio and video clips online for a variety of purposes for profit, fun, and pleasure. Elisabeth Parker has written The Little Web Cam Book to give members of the online community some real insight into how they can make creative use of this latest Web craze.

Webcamming has really taken off during the last two years. Schools, businesses, companies, corporations, and news reporting services have gone online to provide a number of essential services such as news and weather reporting, online education, building security, Webcasting, Webconferencing, and the monitoring of children at home and in daycare facilities. Imagine if you will, being able to log on the Internet and check up on your kids at home or as they are being cared for by others from the comfort of your office! Other family members will be able to keep in touch hundreds or thousands of miles away! Hobbyists have also provided some thoughtful uses as well, such as wiring homes, offices, and other sites with cameras to provide all sorts of intriguing, but sometimes highly suspect video coverage!

Webcamming has certainly made an impact on our society and Elisabeth Parker will walk her readers through the steps necessary to give them the opportunity experience this exciting technology firsthand. She makes a number of solid recommendations for buying cameras, software, and services, helping her readers to make the better choices and help them save time and money in the process. Many of the programs she reviews in the book are available online for immediate trial use. Buying, installation, and detailed operating instructions are provided to get readers up and running in the shortest amount of time. I can hardly wait to join in the fun myself!

Parker's instruction, laced with humor, her own personal interest, and the illustrations of John Grimes makes this book fun, enjoyful, and easy to read. Plenty of creative ideas and resource information is provided - be sure to checkout the list of Webcam sites located at the back of the book! This book serves as an excellent introduction to webcamming and is must reading for anyone interested in learning about this innovative technology and how it can be put to exciting and productive use!

Calling this book "The Little Web Cam Book" is a bit of a misnomer. The book is huge, totaling 356 pages including the index. It is crammed full of useful information, lists of webcam sites, and places where one can download everything you need except a camera.

This is a great book! Ms Parker's writing style makes it seem like she is right there with you, explaining each portion. More advanced users will know which parts to skip over, and most chapters stand on their own, so you don't have to read every word to make sense of later chapters.

This was good for me, since I was not the least bit interested in reading about the screen savers or how to make a photo my background. This part seemed to drag out, but that is from the viewpoint of an expert; if you have never done those things, you might need to spend the time reading about them. For that reason, the book spends quite a bit on the basics of these ideas. So if you still have the same background picture on your desktop that came with it, check out this portion of the book.

Other chapters cover tips for setting up the cam and choosing the best spots for broadcasting. If you want to start another "cat-cam" or other pet-related site, it is worth reading her tips on how to make it exciting for your viewers even when the animals don't feel like being photographed. There are also some other considerations you might want to read about before you invite anyone and everyone into your home or office through a live webcam.

Another section tells about how to use the still pictures you can capture with a cam to make GIF animations. This could be for fun, e-mail, or for your web page. The author also goes into creating and editing movies and how to insert GIF animations and movies into web pages. This could save you from tons of angry e-mail when your dog refuses to go near the webcam once it's live.

There is a chapter on troubleshooting problems and it seems to be rather complete. Just about every problem I can imagine occuring is listed here with possible solutions and resources.

I expected a list of other people who have webcam, but a nice feature I didn't expect was interviews with some of the pioneers and leaders in webcamming. This turned out to be quite a treat.

Supplementary information in the book about videoconferencing was great. I didn't expect to find it here either; the author could have written that separately and she and the publisher could have made a lot more money selling it as another book. They didn't, so I think a "hats off" is in order. Thanks!

If you want to get going with videoconferencing over Internet, and millions of people will in the next couple of years, this is the book to start with.

It's a decent book for one of the many CD/DVD media software programs, however the help panels are just as informative.

Now if they only wrote a book using Nero 6 Ultra Edition, the field would be widend.

This book starts with three basic assumptions:

First it presumes that you have or can acquire some sort of digital media which may be audio, photos, or video.

Second, it presumes that you have some kind of computer running Windows 2000 or XP, and the capability to record on CD's or better yet DVD's.

Third, there is the presumption that you want to take the digital media you have, alter it, modify it, combine it with other data, and produce some kind of media.

Most of the book is of tutorial format, that is, it leads you through various projects using a step-by-step approach. All of the major components of the Creator package are discussed. And then in the standard Part of Tens section that is common to most For Dummies books, this is turned around just a bit by looking at each of the ten components that make up the package to give you a better starting point when you have a project in mind.

I bought Creator 7 when I decided to start storing my grandmother's photos on CD and I bought this book on a whim to help me. Now I do alot more with Creator and this book has helped me figure it out. Hopefully it will help more people than me.

An excellent reference book. Covers a variety of computer graphics as well as analog and digital video topics. Includes a very good chapter on filtering and sampling, giving an in depth explanation of aliasing effects. I recommended this book in one of my recent JavaWorld "Media Programming" columns.

This book does a great job of explaining video concepts. You will love how Poynton starts with the basics, explains them, builds and then gets down to the nitty gritty (even down to the mathematical formulas). This book is complete & consistent.

It's perfect for technical folks who didn't know much about digital video (that was me) but needed a detailed understanding & explanation. I also think it's great for intermediate-advanced because they can always use this book as a reference. A co-worker of mine who is a video expert looked through it and was impressed. He wished there was a book like this back when he was learning.

It would have been nice if there was a section on digital video compression though.

This book is packed with technical information about the digital video format. Extremely detailed and thorough, it is a must-have for anyone with a serious interest in digital video. The chapters on digitized compression and image capture are priceless from the aspect of digital editing. However, because the information is so technical it is not a good book for a beginner who is still learning how to operate his or her camera.