Digital Video Books

This book is pretty specific for the following post production programs:
1. Pinnacle Studio 2. MyDVD6 3. DVDit5
If you use these programs you'll find this book to be very helpful. If you don't use any of these programs you'll find that the step by step instructions don't really help all that much.

In Sams Teach Yourself Digital Video And DVD Authoring All In One, digital video and DVD expert Jeff Sengstack shows precisely how to how to capture memories with this cutting edge recording technology. Sengstack takes the reader step-by-step, from selecting the best equipment, to shooting great video, to authoring one's own DVDs. A complete, comprehensive, and enthusiastically recommended course of instruction, Sams Teach Yourself Digital Video And DVD Authoring All In One covers multiple products and technologies, so whether using Movie Maker 2, Studio 9, Premiere Elements, Sonic's MyDVD or DVDit!, even the most novice reader will benefit from the accessible lessons comprised in this easy-to-understand, easy to work from 800-page instruction manual. Learn techniques for taking all kinds of videos with a digital video camera, loading them onto the computer and then trimming, splicing and adding special effects using video editing software. The result will be professional-quality DVDs that will keep memories, special projects and documentaries safe for a lifetime.

This is a great book. I totally disagree with the previous customer review. I found the book very helpful, it got me up and running fast with the software, and the pictures really showed me what was going on each step of the way. I am a very visual learner, so I'm looking for clarity in the illustrations, which this book offers. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to start tackling Premiere 6 in a matter of moments.

There seems to be a lot of "Teach Yourself Visually" books on the market these days, so I guess the format works for some, but it definately didn't do much for me.

It was boring, lacked detailed information, and seemed to start in the middle of what you'd need to know to get started, so I lost interest quickly.

The entire book is basically written in point form, with not so helpful screenshots to guide you through, but it never gives any detailed information on anything - instead assuming that the reader just wants to learn where to point the mouse. If that's all you DO want, maybe this is for you. If you want to really LEARN about using this professional software, look somewhere else.

I have been looking for a book on this subject that explains the technical details behind visual special effects. This book described techniques used to make special effects for Television and movies. The book describes techniques such as morphing photos, blending surfaces together smoothly and making complex scenes that contain many effects all at the same time.

The book includes good information. However, you will feel inclined to dig deep into the source code included on the CD to find it. It is a suitable book for those who do not like to know how to program their own effects, but rather use the included Image Compositing Toolkit to generate the effects. It does talk about commercials, but it is not code-related discussions. However, good books are hard to find, especially those with formulas and code that comes along with each example, so if you do not require such a book, but something which included a ICT that you will have to build yourself in visual C++, then this book might be for you. Like said, I did not find any source code I wanted to dwell into. I'm too short on time to look in the source code of the ICT project.

I have to be honest and admit that I never saw this book. But I did see the CD that comes with it. It has 6 hours of instruction and for someone who knew nothing about After Effects, it really brought me up to speed.

I went to her website, www.lynda.com, and for $25 you can have access to all the tutorial training videos from this book. Not only that but you can see all the videos from all her other books. I've been spending days learning tons of stuff.

I don't know if I can tell someone to buy a $100 book. But her site is awesome.

How welcome to see interest revived in the dazzling CGI series which premiered on ABC in the fall of 1994, and which was kicked off the air at the height of its ratings when Disney bought Capitol Cities/ ABC. At that time Claster Television packaged the first two seasons and syndicated it to over one hundred independent stations. Freed of the restraints of ABC's Standards and Practices code, The ReBoot studio in Vancouver B.C. made a third season that was a bit wilder, although I think still OK for kids, and with one continuous story arc. But the Disney cancellation meant that the many imaginative ReBoot toys made by Irwin failed to sell. The third season was never seen in the US until at the request of fans, Cartoon Network ran it along with seasons one and two.

Throwing caution to the wind, the studio- Mainframe Productions/ BLT/ Alliance made a fourth season, such as it was, actually two feature length episodes. What the shows gain in edginess they lose in the innocence that made the original series an instant winner, and ReBoot, known for parodying popular culture, largely became a parody of itself. Both season four shows are simply badly- written. There were also two IMAX rides created. At one time season three was available on four DVDs, but even then fans would write asking how to get seasons one and two. Like so many animated shows, ReBoot misjudged its audience, which would far prefer the innocent shows over the new "edgy" ones.

The Art of ReBoot is a long overdue tribute to the world's first all CGI show. It's a hardback about 10 X 7, about a hundred full color slick pages. There is no text except small comments from designers worked around the montage style pages. It's published by Arcana Studio/ Beach Studio/ DMF, with Jim Su listed as producer, not of the ReBoot series, that was Chris Brough, but of this book. Su's idea was to give credit to all the animators and designers behind the scenes, reversing the policy of early cartoon studios of witholding credit. This approach gives readers an insiders' view of ReBoot from the artists' perspective.

Inluded are numerous character and set designs by Brendan McCarthy, along with color shots from the show of the final versions. The final fourteen pages, titled ReBoot Re-Imagined, show the ReBoot characters reversioned in various styles of graphic novels. Many of these artists are better known for other properties, including Spiderman, Transformers, Marvel Comics, and X- Men. Some also work for DMF, a Toronto comic book/ graphic novel company, and the Arcana Studio. This book is a dazzling tribute to a series many viewers remember fondly. Hopefully revived interest will spur the first two seasons' release on DVD, and maybe even reboot ReBoot back to the air (in its classic form, not an 'edgier' one).

This is a very good book for newcomers to the fields of video compression and networking, covering the basics of Broadband ISDN, ATM and MPEG-2. Ideas are very clearly explained, although the book doesn't go into a lot of technical detail.

Avid Made Easy is an interesting read for those new to non-linear editing and to the Avid system in particular. The author, Jamie Fowler, prepares you well with the history of NLE and Avid before you do your first exercise. However, torward the end of the book, your practice exercise is left unfinished despite the author's earlier promise to clean it up. Also, installing the companion disk can be a bit confusing. It's best to download and install Avid Free DV from the Avid website, then follow the book's directions for for installing the exercise and its related files from the companion CD. Other than that, Avid Made Easy is a great tool for learning the basics of the Avid editing system.

I had to purchase this book for a college developmental algebra class. Though we've only been in class a few weeks, so far, the book is helpful in its explanations of how to work out problems presented.

Jackman takes us thru the steps in doing professional bluescreen usage for movies. Easy explanations, with accompanying descriptions of the typical equipment needed. It does not seem hard at all.

Numerous tips are given, about how to arrange lighting, what the people being filmed should wear, etc. In general, given a choice of furniture and ambient lighting, the colours of clothing need to be optimally chosen.

The book also shows how to do simple post editing. Using Adobe After Effects as the editor. Nowadays, this can help you do a lot of cleanup and enhancements on your video and stills.

If you find watching a video with clear on-screen illustrations of the camera's various features - than this is well worth the price. Having decided on Canon 20D SLR, I wanted to get quickly familiar with its many options. Thus I bought this video BEFORE I took delivery of the camera. Since then I have gone back to refresh on one or two points. It is far easier to read the manual after watching the video. If you already have extensive experience with another digital SLR (point-and-shoot does not count), than you may be able to skip this without too much loss. Otherwise - money well spent. The only reason I did not give it five stars --- I was greedy and wanted even more advanced material. But it is a very good value.