I just created my first plugin!

With all the hard work done by Alex Gollner from the Editing Organized blog.  He makes it very simple to cut and paste the code and create a new generator for Final Cut Pro.  In this case the example is white.  

How many times to find yourself selecting Matte>Color and changing the color to white?  There’s no way to change the default color but this handy little trick creates a whole new generator with the color white.  In the past I’ve just imported a frame of white I created in Photoshop.  Follow his very simple instructions here. I think I’ll make one for black too!

Magic GarageBand – Get your free music tracks!

 

Was watching MacBreak Studio last night and learned something I thought was really cool.

How many times are you in a pinch for a music track and don’t have the time to look for or the $$ for a library cut?  Now we all know about GarageBand, but when was the last time you opened it up? Well the newest version that comes with iLife ‘08 has a cool new feature called Magic GarageBand.  If you have a new Mac then you already have iLife ‘08.  If you’ve got an older Mac then you might need to upgrade to get this new feature. Basically, Magic GarageBand lets you select a genre of music, pick the types of instruments and presto…instant music tracks for free.

 

 

Rather than get too much into how it works and what it does, I recommend taking a look at the episode of MacBreak Studio.  

I think you’ll be surprised how easy a process it is to create your own music to the desired length you need.  Be sure to stop by PixelCorps for more podcasts too!

 

 

 

Digital Heaven announces Loader

Here’s a cool little app from Digital Heaven the same people that brought you those free grid generators as well as many other useful plugins

Loader makes it easy to bring in music, sound effects and graphic files to your open Final Cut Pro projects. It converts mp3s to aif for you and places the clip into your choice of open FCP project.  Take a look here…

 Digital Heaven – The Hottest Tools for the Coolest Apps

FCP Rescue: Here to save the day

FCP Rescue is an indispensable tool I’ve been using for years and I recommend for anyone using Final Cut Pro.  It makes the task of trashing and restoring your preferences easy and painless.  There are versions for FCP 4, 5 & 6 and yes it’s FREE!  Of course like any freeware, if you use it, consider a donation to developer Anders Holck.

Pull Color Schemes from Web or Any File

 

Here is a great tool for pulling color schemes from any website, or image on the web or any file you have stored locally.

Choose Image

First choose the url or load your own image. This site will create a myriad of different color schemes from the image, or you can choose from a selection of available colors pulled from the image.

Samples All Colors in Image

The site also manages the schemes created into a searchable database, so you can look for schemes that are “blue” or remind you of the “desert” or are tagged as “Obama’s Ears”.

Color Schemes

 Check it out at http://www.colr.org/.

Olympic Highlights You May Have Missed

 

Olympic Rings - Easy

 

OK, so I got sucked into watching a huge amount of the Olympics, more than I ever have. No doubt this is entirely due to the incredibly sophisticated coverage that NBC pulled off flawlessly, and even more so by the spectacle that China designed on such a massive scale. The artistry of Zhang Yimou’s opening ceremony, the stunning architecture of the olympic venues, and the amazing landscapes that China seemed to be sharing with the world for the first time ever. I was blown away. Good Luck, London!

While I grew to respect badminton and even get sucked in to watching the bikini-clad beach volleyball team win a gold on Beijing’s rock-n-roll beach, there were still events that it seems I missed.

Did you happen to catch any of these?

For all the photos, check out Gizmodo!

Watch out for…..The Levelator!

Watch out Arnold…The Levelator is here.

Here’s a cool little app that will take your mixes, or other discreet tracks from Final Cut and levelate them.  Or in other words, it will even the dynamic range of your audio.  I think this is especially cool for those times when you can’t have Gerrard mix your work and you really want to even out some dialogue.  Export an aif file of the audio you want to affect, drop the file on to the Levelator app window and it automatically will create a new aif file with nice even audio levels. Download and try it for yourself!

The Levelator from The Conversations Network

Have you Twittered today?

I have.  Well that’s probably because I’m a geek.  Twitter is one of the newest ways of communicating what you’re doing to not only your friends but anyone and everyone who cares to follow you.  Check out the Twitter website and take a look at this explanation in Plain English below.  Oh yeah…if you want to follow me you can click right here.