Digital Video Books

Mr Tone's book is informative, but not anything that cannot be found for nothing on the net for nothing. He is evidently well informed, possibly this is a prelude to something more substantial.

I found this book to be very helpful. It has a lot of information in one place that IÕve had only previously seen spread over three or four different books. It gets right to the point without any fluff. The tables that explain the different types of time code, how pull-downs work and the different types of digital audio alone make this worthwhile.

This is an excellent reference. It quickly and easily covers the main steps to getting through a project. It's short and to the point, which I liked. It doesn't go into great detail but it does give you a good overview of all the hows and whys for dealing with digital audio. Despite a few typos and its homegrown feel, it is well worth the money.

This book really only covers pull-down/pull-up in any depth, and that information is incorrect. It repeatedly refers to pulldown/pullup from film to video as being 1%, when it is actually .1%, a mistake by a factor of 10! That would make it hard to stay in sync! If you already know anything at all about film audio post, this book is too basic. If you don't, there are better sources, such as the Protools reference manual.

[A] review is in essence factually devoid of temporal limits. Like eXistenZ, a review is a continuing line extending ad infinitum into eternity.

i) This book does not possess much philosophy; thus not suited
for philosophy.

ii) This book does not possess much ontology; thus not suited
for ontology.

iii) Ergo, this book is philosophically and ontologically a
muddle of asymmetries and nomologics.

iv) Moreover, as a result of this, this asymmetrical,
nomological muddle is as well mirrored in prior reviews.

The poignancy of Vincent Mosco's Digital Sublime is its in-depth knowledge of the power of myth in investing our everyday lives & technologies with certain cultural meanings and aura. According to Mosco, it is myth, i.e. the aura of myths, which both enthralls and beckons enthusiasts and consumers alike towards new technologies and economies with utopian dreams; that in the end, time and time again, eternally return back to the mundane and the banality of everyday life. For Mosco, it is when these mythic cycles manifest and dissipate, both literally and figuratively, that we as humans begin to realize and understand the power of myth in enshrining our everyday lives and technologies with sacredness. This sacredness is distinctively the product of our human desire to transcend and is an intimate feature of human existence. Enjoy.

WORST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ

In 'The Digital Sublime', Vincent Mosco presents a delightfully written and wide-ranging look at the rise of cyberspace and the Internet. As a native New Yorker, he brings a unique and informed perspective to the task.

Drawing on the power of 'myth' to both explain the world as it is and create a vision for the future, Mosco provides an engaging historical look at the mythical language of technological progress.

Whether the telegraph, electricity, radio, t.v., cable, or of course the Internet; all were said usher in the 'end' of history, politics, or geography. The rhetoric of promise for each of these developments was heralded in terms that today we find quaint, even amusing. But Mosco shows how all of these echo in the modern myths of cyberspace.

Mosco points out how quickly promises like these collapse into banality; into the routine of everyday "so what?" Only in doing so however, is their social impact the greatest. Electricity may have been hailed with rapturous and magical wonder at first; but it literally had to disappear into the woodwork before it mattered at all.

I won't ruin the last chapter, except to say it makes the previous five indispensable, and vice versa.

Thought-provoking, and laugh out loud funny at times ["you call that jumpy little picture on my desktop a video?"], readers will find it hard to put down.

A treat for those at all familiar with Mosco's academic work, and a wonderful point of entry for those who aren't.

This book is more for inspiration, praises and introduction for the motion graphics works done by 18+ experts in the field.

Most examples are not really explained or guiding you in details. Many folders in the companion DVD do not contain the actual examples for you to follow. (This may be because as the book title said that these are studio secrets).

Read this book for leisure only but do not dwell on it.

I put the companion CD into one of my CD players and it doesn't work. I put it in another one of my CD players and it works fine...Some of the files on the CD are absolutely worthless...more fluff than substance...I will wait for Creating Motion Graphics with After Efects Volume 2 which is due out in March, 2003...Trish and Chris Meyer whose first book is excellent...continue with their expertise in the subject of After Effects and explain various applications that can be used with this application...Don't waste your time with this book...If there was a 0 star rating I would have given it that...but 1 is the lowest Amazon.com allows...

On the DVD accompanies this book in CHAPTERS folder many foldres are
empties

This book won't teach you the basics of Premiere and After Effects. What it does is look into the heads of 21 top artists. Very inspiring! These techniques could help me take my own digital art to a higher level.

If you use the Macintrash and has tons of money for high-end software, this may be for you. For 99% of the world, this book doesn't give you anything you can put to use. Avoid.

I have been using a camera for many years (... has my boating/flying clips), know how FireWire Macs work, can throw a decent amateur home video together, and now with my PowerMac G4 and Apple's movie making magic apps I am begining to expand my horizons. So, I was pleasantly surprised at how much useful information I got from this book. I think the title is a bit misleading. FireWire has nothing to do with film making, IMHO. After all, that is like saying that I can become a better writer if I have DSL at home instead of a dial-up connection. (I do have DSL, and believe me, it did not make me a better writer ;-) ).

So, it is more appropriate to say that is is an excellent book for people planning to use FireWire ENABLED devices to get into the art, business or hobby of making movies. (Interesting that we still call it Film making when in fact most of the stuff we do on these technologies will never see a frame of film).

The book simplifies many of the mysteries that novice moviemakers may face as they not only try to learn how to use things like Final Cut Pro (or iMovie/iDVD etc. from Apple {... is a great resource)) but also figuring out what and how FireWire can do for them. This book simplifies that part quite a bit. I do most of my moviemaking with a decent consumer FireWire equipped Panasonic DV-701 and found this book helpful in deciding what level of camera to buy, for example, and why some day I will want to buy a 3-CCD camera instead of the one this camera is based on. It helped me understand what kind of techniques I could use in making movies with my equipment. It helped me understand some of the issues I would face if I wanted to make movies that would play in non-US parts of the world that use a different standard, etc. In short, I found the book extremely useful, extremely easy to read, detailed enough to be useful, not so detailed as to be boring and left unread or put on a shelf and forgotten.

If you are looking into making movies, ideally with a FireWire equipped set of tools, this is a great book, but even for people not ready to invest in all that FireWire equipment yet, the book will be a useful addition to their toolset.

This is overall a good book, although I did not find it too
useful for myself or my son (he is 12 and into moviemaking).
Not useful for two major reasons:
- mostly (if not exclusevely) oriented towards Mac hardware
and software (and higher end software),
- is for more advanced users, since it discusses semi-pro and
pro video equipment, and more than trivial editing tricks
and effects.
Nevertheless it is entertaining and educational to read and
includes a DVD ...

From After Effects to Flash Poetry in Motion Graphics
By Tom Green and Tiago Dias
Publisher: Friends of Ed
Copyright 2006
ISBN:-130pkb:978-1-59059-748-4

Sometimes video can be seen as a very difficult area of Flash. This book gives you the courage to go forward. The author's refer to video as uncharted or "Dragon Country" They cite an artic map of the 1500's that has wording on it stating "Here be dragons"

The book tells you how Flash and After Effects play well together and how to avoid dragons. After Effects functionality really beefs up what can be accomplished with Flash.

Tom Green describes the creative process as learning the fundamentals and then "driving a truck through it" He talks about how the lines are blurred between what is a video and what is an animation.

The authors teach through causing you to ask, "How did they do that?" They give you a completed project and you reverse engineer it and answer for yourself how it was done.

This book helps you decide when to encode the FLV in After Effects and when it is better to use the Flash FLV encoder.

Of course the fundamental maxim of DV is "data rate controls quality." Other maxims are "Bandwidth controls the user experience" and "always keep an eye on the pipe." The Flash developer must have a solid bandwidth strategy in place for the user, the sever and the video.

Tom Green shows you how simple it is to make a custom video player with pause/play rewind, scrubber and on/off buttons. The simple steps are: CONNECT, STREAM, and PLAY.

The book shows you how to create a rich media ad with Illustrator content. Then it moves the file to After Effects for the Raining Characters, Drop Bounce and Boomerang, Wiggle and Chaotic preset effects. Then it brings the files into Flash and makes them FLV's. Then they show you how to use a glow effect to turn on a light bulb.

Destructive cue points that are hard wired into Flash (not removable) and non-destructive cue points (removeable) which are done with code are discussed. Discussion of playing multiple videos in a Flash movie by using multiple net streams is mentioned.

Practical tips are given such as: how to trim down the dimensions of an After Effects file and bring it into Flash to avoid slowing down the video.

Sine wave animation is done in After Effects without complex coding. Using a ramp filter to make gradients, blinking and melting text, and a strobe light effect is described. Use of plugins for After Effects by Cycore demonstrate how to shatter everything and blow it up. 3d - the Holy Grail of Flash and how to get a creative jolt with After Effects is previewed.

This book is helpful whether you are thinking of learning After Effects or would just like to know how to work with an After Effect expert when doing Flash movies.

Another great book for the beginner. Not so great for the experienced. Those familiar with Flash and just getting started with After Effects will enjoy this tour of possibilty. You CAN use these two powerful tools together to get more done in a better way for the medium you choose. The message of the book is clearly: 'Use the Right Tool for the Job'. There's a lot you can do with Flash that's just easier with After Effects and vice versa. Why make life difficult for yourself? Buy this book. Lighten your load. (Or borrow it from a library. Or just read it at the store.)

When is it best to use After Effects or Flash? And why? Don't expect this book to answer those questions for you. Oftentimes, choosing the right tool depends on your situation. And the examples given in the book focus mostly on neat, yet basic, effects exported from After Effects and delivered through Flash. All good starting points for the motion graphic artist, but not necessarily finished to a fine... erm, point. (As media converges, so do my metaphors.)

The authors walk us through the basic steps of working in After Effects. But, an After Effects book this is not. It simply points the way. And the way is convergence. (See?) After reading this book I feel the need to read a lot more books. Or get an AE expert and Flash guru in the same room and interrogate them aggressively.

Many techniques are touched upon, but not much is dissected in a truly deep manner. There are three chapters on text effects, much about particle effects, masks are explained as are track mattes. Even a little about 3D, and some Illustrator tips, too. Also, a chapter on audio for good measure. When you bite off that much, you really have to chew for a long time.

All that being said, it is a well-written and useful book for those of us just starting out with this stuff. And the can-do, fun tone of the authors is always appreciated.

By now, everyone knows the great enhancements to working with video that Flash 8 brought with it. As someone who works closely with a motion animator in After Effects, I figured it'd be a great idea to check this book out and see what others are doing with it. I have to admit, I was sorely disappointed with what this book had to offer. To its credit, the book never did state that it was going to show me any groundbreaking After Effects stuff and how to leverage it in Flash to create a crazy, dynamic, animation driven website. However, when I think of the stuff that has been done with AE and Flash over the past year or two, I don't really consider the awesomeness of the text animation and lens flares (Chapter 5) and exploding Flash text (Chapter 7).

There is much more to working with After Effects and Flash than things like this which were possible to do 5 years ago. I look at sites created by companies such as Big Spaceship and North Kingdom and always wonder, how did they do that. I know that they used video/After Effects for some of this stuff but I'm not quite sure how to wrap my head around the process of doing it since I'm not extremely familiar with AE and how to compress everything properly to bring into Flash for ease of use.

I'd like to see even something as simple as a particle system effect from AE used in a Flash button, which hundreds of sites are doing these days, or a particle system on a preloader (which always puzzles me since you have to keep the size of the preloader really small so that you don't have to make a preloader for a preloader), but instead we get fed with some drivel about preset text effects in AE (Chapter 3) and masking videos (Chapter 9). That now makes a total of 3 chapters that are talking about text. I'm not sure about you, but I don't spend a plethora of hours on each project trying to figure out how I want the text to animate in on an intro animation (one reason being that I very rarely ever create intro animations unless a client just flat out insists on having one, but still...).

This title would have been better served being labeled a Foundation title which friends of ED usually dishes out to introductory level books. It doesn't have the pizzazz that I was hoping from a title this misleading and I would not recommend this book unless you are absolutely just starting out using video in Flash 8 and After Effects (although, if you're a Flash guy, I'd suggest their other video title, Foundation Flash 8 Video, which could be the reason why this book didn't get the Foundation stamp in the first place).

This book shows the power of combining many small images of the kind usually encountered in portable cheap consumer-end digital cameras. Steve Mann's text is a convenient and complete package containing the content of many of his research papers. As a text, there is added explanation and exercise work to further learning the material.

Well, Before reading my comments take a look at the book itself....

mannnn, this book sucked. Badly sucked. I just don't know what you were talking about...I hate to say this, but I have no idea how you wrote this....

--steve

After all this book seems to be just a combination of the science papers of Steve Mann. Those papers are great no offense but i had expected the book to be a bit more "readable". It has some additional content compared to the plain papers so its not senseless to buy it, if you have the money for it.

In my version there is an error on page 237 where the projective model is placed under the "non-chirping models" which is not correct. I think for a book THAT expensive errors such as this should not happen.

If one wants to learn jpeg2000, he can look for some papers and source codes which are better than this book.
If one wants to learn theory of image coding, he can read some other books much better than this book.

This book is only for fools.

The author of this book is a genius. His work should be required reading for all. Definatly one of the great minds in our time.

This book is quite good but any potential buyer should know exactly why he would buy it and if it really matches his expectations. Indeed, this book is hardly a helper in implementing jpeg2000, but more a reference book for highly skilled image processing professionals/researchers. It is divided in two parts: the first part is about general image processing topics and provide some explanation about the choices made for jpeg2000. It is the "theorical" part. The second part is about jpeg2000 itself. The latter could have been much more practical and better directed to implementors. In fact, I was thinking of this book being able to clarify some aspects of the norm that are quite blur, but I find the way it is written, even for the second part, overly complicated and scientifically oriented, not "engineering" oriented. Most of the topics are better explained in the norm itself than in this book, even if the latter is much more detailed. Clearly there is room for another book on the topic but this time directed to implementors, with less theory, less scientific notations, are more, much more, real world examples working on real bit-streams.

I think this was probably the first book on the market covering Adobe's new 6.5 version of Premiere and it's quite obvious.

Unfortunately even in the hands on "Quickstart" at the very beginning of the book there are several type-O's and incorrect wording. It's not spelling mistakes but incorrect words. As an example they tell you that you can preview the transition effect by "double-clicking the Transition icon in the Transition palette" when in fact you should double-click the Transition icon in the Timeline, NOT the Transition palette.

Additionally their numbers don't correspond when they tell you how long to make the example clips and where they should fall on the timeline.

There are several other examples just in the first few pages and for a newbie it makes following the example rather frustrating and confusing.

Since I'm only just this little bit into the book I can't say for certain if it gets better or worse or stays the same but it's very evident this book was rushed to market.

Funny enough too that even though the book is for Premiere 6.5 the CD includes a tryout version of Premiere 6.0!

There's no excuse for this kind of shoddy penmanship (typemanship??) and I highly recommend you wait for other books that are forthcoming - read: more thoroughly edited!

This book was very helpful in getting me started. I didn;t have a background in video but needed to do some work related projects. I found chapter 6 (editing audio) for seperating audio tracks helpful and chapter 7 (transitions) a big help for adding great effects to my videos!

It taught me what I needed to know about editting video with this powerful Adobe tool! Love the Bible series.

I think this book covers alot of subjects, but the depth of each subject is very shallow. if I didn't know many of these things before reading this book I wouldn't understand more than half the explanaisions.
I still havn't finished reading because it's just not informitive enough

This is a handy little book which covers many technical aspects of video in one volume. It's been a great resource for my work and I'd recommend it to anyone who is technically minded and is interested in what makes things work and why things are the way they are with digital and analogue video. The reason I've given this particular book only 3 stars is that it has started to shed pages after only having been moderately read. The binding glue is brittle and the pages come flying out. Other than that it is a great book.

If you send me a copy of this book I will write a review.

I read this book to refresh my basic grasp of television technology concepts, and for that purpose it worked perfectly. Organized into small sections which build slowly from simple ideas (electricity basics) to complex tools (video servers). The book also includes a useful list of further reading material and a reference glossary.