2006 10 Digital Juice Magazine

OCTOBER 2006

TOOLS, TIPS AND TECHNIQUES FOR USING

CREATIVE CONTENT

introducing

DJTV

what is it? what’s on it? why watch it?

INSPIRATION INSIDE!

VIDEOTRAXX Gallery & Idea Book

PLUS:

Juice in Use at Daytona • DIY PowerPoint Templates • Church Media Solutions How to Apply Mattes in Premiere, Vegas and FCP • In Use @ Juice: We Rate the Varicam

PUBLISHERS: David Hebel, Viv T. Beason, Jr. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Chuck Peters

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Juice Insider: A good name by Viv T. Beason Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Talk Back: Reader letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Juice News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

20

Introducing DJTV: On the “air” @ digitaljuice.com

26

10

by The Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Juice in Use: MRN Radio/Nextel Vision by Chuck Peters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Volume Spotlight

Juice Drops Vol. 45: halloweenHAUNTS . . . . . . . . . 23

In Use @ Juice: The Panasonic Varicam

by Perry Jenkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

24

Juice Drops for TV: Juice media in a production cycle

by Rick Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

34

VideoTraxx Idea Book and Gallery:

Design ideas from our Film & Video library . . . . . . . 29

Webcasting DJTV

SENIOR EDITOR: D. Eric Franks ART DIRECTOR: Jacqui Dawson CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS: Geetesh Bajaj, Viv T. Beason, Jr., Graham Cohen, Dave Cross, Jacqui Dawson, Jeff Earley, D. Eric Franks, Chris Gates, Rick Green, David Hebel, Michael Hill, Perry Jenkins, Robert Leitch, Matt Leone, Kevin Lerner, Matt Janowsky, Brent Milby, Chuck Peters, Brian Pogue, Jeff Schell, Kevin Sherman, David Slater and David Traube

by The Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

46

38

Simple Solutions to Church Media Mistakes

by Chuck Peters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

DIY PowerPoint Templates with Juice Drops

by Michael Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Education Nation: Teaching editing with VideoTraxx by Chris Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Surfin’ DigitalJuice.com

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS & ILLUSTRATORS: Brent Milby, Saritha Sugunan, P. Gururaj, V. Sridhar PHOTOGRAPHY: Perry Jenkins

10 reasons to hang (ten) at digitaljuice.com by Matt Janowsky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Take 5: Five tips for lighting talent

by Chuck Peters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Going to the Matte: How to apply ETK mattes in

Premiere, FCP and Vegas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

DIGITAL JUICE, INC.

DIGITAL JUICE PRODUCT CATALOG . . . . . . . 47

1736 NE 25TH AVE. OCALA, FL 34470 1.800.525.2203 352.369.0930 www.digitaljuice.com

Juice Box: DJTV—Think big but grow slow

by David Hebel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

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DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

Monday–Friday 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST

1-800-525-2203 TO ORDER ONLINE 24 HOURS A DAY: www.digitaljuice.com

HAVING TROUBLE? Most problems can be solved by visiting our extensive online support area at www.digitaljuice.com or you can email the Digital Juice Tech Support Team at [email protected] or the Tech Team is available by phone Monday-Friday 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST

1-800-525-2203

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JUICEINSIDER A GOOD NAME LETS A COMPANY EXPAND ITS BRAND by Viv T. Beason, Jr.

I

still remember getting that phone call almost ten years ago. It was Dave calling to tell me that he had come up with the perfect company name: Digital Juice. At first the words sounded strange to me. Saying them felt even stranger. But you know, by the end of the conversation the name had grown on me. What was really cool about it was that it possessed the two qualities that are essential in a good business name. The most important thing is that it be easy to remember. A good name should make a quick impression. The second most important thing is that it should not restrict growth, but allow for future extension of the brand. I believe it’s safe to assume that of those two points, we have the first one covered. It’s tough to forget the name Digital Juice once you’ve heard it. So let’s break down the name Digital Juice to see what exactly that does or does not mean in terms of potential growth. For starters, on the face of it, the name identifies very little about the core competency of the company. This is actually a good thing. The name does suggest that digital data is involved, and it implies that something in the high tech arena is likely. So far, so good. The word “juice” suggests energizing or adding pizzazz to something. Now that we’ve broken down it’s meaning, we can ask, “What can a company with that sort of name provide?” A better question would be, “What CAN’T a company with this name provide?” The answer is that as long as you identify with, and stick to, a broad, basic category, which in our case is media production, the sky’s the limit. That wouldn’t be true if the name of the company was Amazing Animations, Musical Magic, or World Wide Stock Footage. Names like these, in my opinion, lack imagination. And worse than that, they don’t allow expansion of the brand into other areas of the industry. It wouldn’t be a logical leap for Amazing Animations to all of a sudden sell music, would it? Nothing at Digital Juice happens accidentally. Every move of the company has been planned years in advance. Not necessarily planned to the smallest detail. Believe me, we’re not quite that organized, but planned in a big picture sense. Starting this journey as a background animation source only, we’ve systematically branched out into many more areas of the content space. Music, stock footage, and sound effects hopefully now come to mind when you think of Digital Juice. Looking to the future, the name Digital Juice will allow us to go well beyond being just a content provider, and, in due time, we will. In the coming months and years don’t be surprised to see Digital Juice serving more and more of your needs. Evidence of this is our newly-launched Digital Juice Television (DJTV). This is yet another bold move forward, extending the brand to include information and training. So where does it all end? That’s a question I can’t answer right now. If one day you own a video camera, projector or printer that reads Digital Juice, I’d say we’re pretty close. Viv T. Beason, Jr. is the President of Digital Juice and the co-publisher of Digital Juice magazine.

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

with Chuck Peters—Editor in Chief, Digital Juice Magazine

Your Chance To Make Your Voice Heard Got a question, comment or suggestion? We would love to hear it. just non-circular geometric shapes the way the piece showed in the ideas library. Was something more added that wasn’t mentioned? I am not a graphic designer and don’t pretend to be one, but I would like help to produce nice coordinated marketing materials. —Tricia A. Allen, Training Program Manager, Polycom, Milpitas, CA

If you would like to ask a question, sing our praises, bend our ear, or just say ‘Hi,’ drop us an email at [email protected] and you could see it here in the magazine. You can also interact with Digital Juice and other users in our user forums @ www.digitaljuice.com/ community_forums

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This Juice Drops sample design was created based on JD #1261 (left) from JD12: retroFRESH and not #1217 (above) from the same volume, as was incorrectly indicated in the Juice Drops Idea Book from our May/June 2006 magazine.

JUICE DROPS MISTAKEN IDENTITY

A

fter reviewing the Juice Drops DVD that came with the last issue of DJ Mag, I decided to purchase a 10 volume set of Juice Drops. I am responsible for e-learning for Polycom and I have my own photography business as well. The DVD with the interactive application was a GREAT idea! It provided the impetus to purchase. I have a question about something I saw in the Idea Book example on page JD04 of the May/June issue. The “Eight Fashion Days” design that used JD#1217 from JD12: retroFRESH. I didn’t see the same elements of

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

You may not be a graphic designer but you do have a sharp eye, Tricia. The wrong Juice Drop background was indicated and shown as being the basis for this design in the Juice Drops Idea Book in our May/June magazine. Although some inspiration was taken from JD #1217 for this design, the basis, as can clearly be seen at left, was JD #1261 from the same Juice Drops volume. To this background we added some external elements such as a pink horizontal color bar, the outline of a woman’s figure, the headline text and the logo of the design school.—CP

MAKING A CASE OUT OF IT

I

’ve been a long-time user of Digital Juice products. So long, in fact, that my Editor's Toolkit 1 is in ten large Alpha cases, not the pretty, sleek wallets that your products come in now. Is it possible for me to purchase a case for my old ETK1 discs so that it takes up less room on my shelf, and so the other collections I own will stop laughing and pointing at #1's outdated wardrobe? I mean... come on... it's embarrassing for the big guy. It’s bad enough that he's getting a little older, he should at least be able to wear the latest fashion!—Brent Altomare, Executive Producer, Groovy Like a Movie, San Diego, CA

As a matter of fact, you CAN get some new threads for those old discs, Brent! Just like the fashion trends, the style of our Toolkit cases has changed over the years. We’ve had four different case designs since our first Toolkit came out. You can update your cases for a nominal fee (less than 15 bucks) so your shelves will look good and none of your Toolkits will feel self-conscious about their clothes. Bear in mind, our new ETKs have fewer DVDs, so the new cases have fewer pockets. Give us a call at 800-525-2203 to make sure you get a proper fit.—CP

STX IDEA

I

’d like to encourage you to create a classical masterpieces collection of StackTraxx with harpsichord, strings, piano, woodwinds, maybe some brass and timpani. As a husband and wife production team, we find your products to be extremely useful, easy to use, and very pleasing to our limited clientele. Keep up the great work!—Margie Smith, [email protected] Thanks for sharing your idea, Margie. We are now producing new StackTraxx volumes at a blistering pace (with new volumes coming out every month, and hopes of making them even faster). We are always interested in hearing what our customers would like us to produce. As a matter of fact, Classical, Orchestral and Romance Stacks are all ideas that we’re considering now. While I can’t promise that we’ll drop everything to crank out Classical Stacks next month, rest assured that we’ll give the idea full consideration as we plan upcoming music volumes.—CP

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

SEE COMPLETE PRODUCT GALLERIES

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

TRICK OR TREAT?

J

ust in time for your haunted

DJTV BOOSTS

JUICE’S ALEXA RANK

Halloween productions, we’re

W

unveiling four boo-tiful volumes of music, animations and layered graphics. StackTraxx 16: Spooky Stacks, boasts a collection of 20 ominously awesome compositions so you can create supernatural soundtracks. Juice Drops 45:

OFFICE

BESTSELLERS

Digital Juice has expanded by adding a new office in Orlando. Our brand new O-Town team is looking for a few talented staff members. If you’re a creative professional living in the Orlando area, we’d like to get to know you. Please email your resume and samples of your work to: [email protected]

Digital Juice Television online. The response has been great. In fact, it was so successful that it catapulted our Alexa ranking, pushing digitaljuice.com into the top 12,000 sites in THE WORLD! Alexa (owned by Amazon) ranks the top sites on the Web. Yahoo, MSN, and Google take the top spots, followed by

selection of ghastly graphics. And Jump

everyone else. This includes all sites from around the world. We've steadily

Backs 35 & HD 15: All Hallows Eve, give

been rising in rank from about 100,000 in 2003 to 28,000 a few weeks ago.

Don’t be afraid, this collection of creepy

ORLANDO

The jump to a rank of 12,790 was a real surprise to us. It encourages us to

content is guaranteed to help you scare up

keep working hard to make more and more great episodes of DJTV and to

some business this October.

keep enhancing our Website to keep you wanting to visit more often.

WHERE’S JUICER 3?

J

ust a word about Juicer 3, it is coming along nicely. We've hit a

flexible expandable Render Engine than we had in Juicer 2. What that

few snags here and there that have slowed down our ability to get it

means for you is that exciting new product lines are coming.

released, but it won't be long now. Among the improvements are the

The new version will also allow you to stream previews of Juice

ability to select an arbitrary angle of rotation (unlike Juicer 2 that only

animations right from the Web without having to own the volumes or have

allowed rotation in 90-degree increments) and a much improved colorize

them installed! Hat's off to our programmers and testers who are putting in

effect where you can actually pick multiple colors instead of just one.

some long hours so that Juicer 3 can ship and Digital Juice can get onto

These may seem like simple things, but what they represent is a more

our next generation product lines.

Backs Volumes* 10 Jump

TOP

Volumes* 10 StackTraxx

TOP

Drops Volumes* 10 Juice

TOP

01. JB32: Base Camp

Impact Stacks 01. STX15: JB 25: Subtle All Music

01. JD42: highIMPACT IV

02. JB31: Maximum Impact

Stacks 02. STX12: JB 24: Corporate Tunnel Vision

02. JD41: frescoVITA

03. JB30: Simply Useful

03. STX10: JB 22: Broadcast Global Impact Stacks

03. JD27: glassEDGE

04. JB24: Tunnel Vision

04. STX14: JB 15: Rock Weather & the Elements Stacks 05. JB 21: High Impact 05. STX11: Epic Stacks VIII

04. JD36: naturalCUTS

06. JB 30: Serious Simply Useful 06. STX03: Stacks 07. JB 12: Corp/Ind Time & Money 07. STX04: Smooth Stacks

06. JD37: sportsCUTS

05. JB28: Subtle Impact II 06. JB33: In the Round 07. JB22: Global Impact 08. JB25: All Music 09. JB13: All Church

* Data from 2006Impact Sales 10.June/July JB21: High

first episodes of

halloweenHAUNTS, gives you a great

you a magnificent mix of eerie animations.

NEW

e recently debuted the

VIII

08. JB 14: World Med./Health, 08. STX09: Stacks Educ. & Science 09. JB 13: All Church 09. STX02: Power Stacks 10. JB 20: Subtle Impact 10. STX13: High Impact Stacks

05. JD21: businessIMPACT 07. JD10: ultra3D 08. JD24: geoIMPACT 09. JD23: cleanCUTS III 10. JD35: futureTECH * Data from August 2006 Sales

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DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

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DJTV

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

INTRODUCING ON THE “AIR” @ DigitalJuice.com

by The Editors

“ We want DJTV to be a place where anyone can instantly receive fresh programming with an emphasis on creativity. It’s our people and their knowledge that makes

”

these shows special.

—Viv T. Beason Jr., President The DJTV Crew (left to right) Billy Allan, Special Projects; Viv T. Beason Jr., President; Brent Milby, Senior Animator; D. Eric Franks, Director of Technical Education; Chris “Ace” Gates, Associate Producer; Jeff Earley, Director of Audio Products; Perry Jenkins, Senior Producer/Director; and Chuck Peters, VP of Media and Publications

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DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

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DJTV

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

DJTV

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

I

MAGINE IF THERE WAS A TV NETWORK DESIGNED JUST FOR YOU. Now there is! It’s DJTV! DJTV is Digital

Juice’s new Web-based television network. Don’t dismiss DJTV as just another poorlyproduced, talking-head, vidcast. DJTV is built on a completely different model. Just like HGTV and the Food Network, DJTV is designed to reach a targeted audience, in our case, creative professionals, like you, with high quality, highly-produced, programming that is interesting, informative, instructional, inspiring and entertaining. DJTV isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen on the Web before. In this article the guys that make DJTV will tell you what they’re thinking, what they’re planning and why you should watch.

(continued on page 12)

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DJTV

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Introducing DJTV (continued from page 11)

WHY MAKE DJTV? “At Digital Juice we have a philosophy of doing whatever can be done internally. This includes everything from the production of this magazine to the manufacturing of the boxes that hold our products. The by-product of this thinking is an in-house pool of talent that is as versatile as it is deep. So, armed with people who possess skills and knowledge ranging from audio mixing, to technical writing, to photography and on-camera presentation, to building a complete production studio—and with Internet bandwidth sitting there for the taking—we decided to create an industry-first Internet Network. The goal was to create a watering hole for media professionals and enthusiasts. We want DJTV to be a place where anyone can instantly receive fresh programming with an emphasis on creativity. While producing DJTV is no small task, it wasn’t all that difficult for us because what we’re really doing is sharing the tips, tricks, techniques, rules and principles that we follow in order to complete our daily and weekly tasks here at Juice.” —Viv T. Beason Jr., President

KEEPING IT FRESH & KEEPING THE PACE

whatever it takes to get our shows done.

video, we really shoot, light and edit, we

Chris Gates shoots and edits the shows,

really do graphic design, and we really

Brent Milby builds the custom animated

give presentations. We do it well, and we

“Our goal is to post at least three new

opens and Jeff Earley oversees the final

do it all out in the open. You can see our

episodes to DJTV every week, one of

audio mixes. Our schedule has us

work every week on DJTV.” —Chuck

each of our main shows. We also want to

shooting 3 or 4 episodes a week on

Peters, VP of Media and Publications

turn out special episodes as often as

Thursdays and Fridays so

WHERE CAN I SEE DJTV?

possible, so we’re running around like

Chris can edit on Monday,

crazy around here. It’s not an easy pace

Tuesday and Wednesday. He

AN UNCONVENTIONAL APPROACH

We’re posting at least three new episodes of DJTV each and every week! You can check out the latest shows at www.digitaljuice.com/ djtv/default.asp. You can also watch past episodes in our episode archives, which you can search, sort and filter to find shows on topics of special interest to you.

to maintain. The biggest challenge is

hands off the approved edits

“Another goal that we have is for the experience

maintaining the high level of production

before he leaves Wednesday

to be fun. In addition to being an innovative

quality and creativity that we want. Just a

night and we just keep going

handful of talented guys do all the

and going. We have to

creative work to get these shows out

manage our time really well to

every week. We meet as a team every

get it all done. We know what

Monday to brainstorm ideas and lay out a

it’s like to have to be creative

plan of attack for the week. Perry, Eric

week after week on deadline.

and I write our own scripts, spec out our

Unlike some other companies

It’s our people and their knowledge that makes these

own B-roll, get our own props, iron our

out there, believe me, the

shows special.” —Viv T. Beason Jr., President

own shirts and do our own makeup;

people at Juice really make

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DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

company, we’re also proud of our reputation for maintaining quality. So, high production value is key, along with talented and polished delivery from show hosts. I feel these things are absent or severely lacking in most industry training today.

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VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

DJTV

WHO IS PERRY JENKINS?

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

PERRY’s desire to produce video came at age 14

studied every frame of some great

when his dad bought a VHS camcorder. He

filmmakers like the Coen brothers, Sam Raimi

produced silly short ‘films’ and by the time high

and Scorsese. I try to put this love of film into

school was over, he had either entertained or

everything I produce. From stock footage, to

offended most of the students in his small,

promotional videos, to my DJTV episodes; my

California hometown. What he really wanted to do

approach is always cinematic. I also love

was shoot film, which is exactly what he did. After

cooking and cooking shows. The style of a

producing a full-length 16mm feature and a

Food Network show that I watch all the time

handful of short films, he concluded that he

got me thinking one day that it might

couldn’t afford to shoot on that medium anymore.

translate well to teaching people about

He spent two years shooting news at NBC affiliate

making video. It’s my self-appointed job to try

KCPM, and then accepted a position at a national

to create my show, Production Notes, in an

magazine that focuses on producing video. There

entertaining manner. I’m not an Emmy award

he produced instructional videos and shot

winning producer, and I haven’t received

photographs for the print magazine for seven

props from any film festivals. My reward is

years before coming to Juice.

hearing, ‘hey, that shot looks pretty cool’ or just a plain old ‘Wow!’ ”—Perry Jenkins,

“I love movies. One of my first jobs was in a

Senior Producer/Director

video store. At one count, I had seen all but about 200 films in the store’s 3500+ library. I

WHO IS CHUCK PETERS? Having produced commercials, sports, TV talk shows,

position as a magazine editor. While there, he produced

broadcast news, corporate, weddings, and instructional

and appeared in instructional videos, lectured at Expos,

programs, CHUCK PETERS has made a lot of video. He

taught hands-on Workshops and wrote numerous articles

started as a freelance cameraman for National Video

about video and video production. He has been with Digital

Yearbooks and shooting weddings and events in New

Juice since March 2004.

Jersey. From 1989-1995 he was head cameramen at Monmouth Park Racetrack where he shot horse racing. He did a short stint at the Meadowlands Racetrack and as a substitute cameraman for the jumbo screen at Giants Stadium. In 1992 he started TRICEP Productions with a Toaster Flyer system (the only NLE around at that time) and a $10,000 professional Hi8 camera. In 1995 he and his wife headed to California, where he took a job producing cheesy infomercials about incredible golf-ball washing devices, magnetic earrings and advanced hightech snake oils. If you had insomnia in the mid-90s you may have seen one of them. He did time in broadcast as a Commercial/Promotions producer for NBC station, KCPM, where he first worked with Perry Jenkins. Next he took a

“I watched a lot of TV as a kid, and the idea that I could

make a living making TV was just too cool to me. I was one of those kids that made up radio shows on my tape recorder when I was 8 years old and made funny music videos to Weird Al songs when I was in high school. I’m an energetic, fun, upbeat kind of guy with a lot to share, and my show Take 5 let’s me cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. For me, the only thing better than getting paid to make cool videos is teaching someone else how to make cool videos. We’re not about becoming stars here. We’re just regular guys that love making TV. DJTV is hard work, but it’s a ton of fun.”—Chuck Peters, VP of Media and Publications

(continued on page 14)

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DJTV

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

TEAM TALK

WHO IS ERIC FRANKS?

It takes a team attack to turn out DJTV, and the production crew at Digital Juice is a talented cast of characters. BRENT MILBY is a master animator who has been with Juice since its beginning. Brent studied computer animation in college and graduated with top honors. He was one of just four animators who worked

Audio engineer,

on the first Jump Backs volumes and

JEFF EARLEY,

helped define that product line. He’s also

has an ear for

the guy that created many of the Juice

excellence. Jeff

product logos that you’re familiar with

has a background

including the famous Digital Juice orb.

in syndicated radio

“We want DJTV to look like a TV network. D. ERIC FRANKS is a professional writer,

however, so I try to provide pragmatic

The animated opens that I create for our

technology journalist and multimedia

‘Why is this important’ and ‘How can I use

shows are about drawing people in, really.

maven. His most recent book is ACID Pro

this information’ in every segment. I don’t

Good shows need good packaging, just

6 Power!, although most of his work has

want to shy away from hardcore details,

like good products. I’ll be doing my own

been as the anonymous pen behind such

but I also want to be completely accessible

compositing show too, not every week,

exciting publications as The Vegas Video

to complete novices. I assume my

but periodically. I want to take advanced

User Manual and The Users Guide to

audience is smart, but each segment

techniques and break them down to show

Ulead Media Studio Pro. Prior to Digital

needs to be completely self-contained.

people simple tricks that are easy to

Juice, Eric was the Technical Editor for a

There are no prerequisites for TechKnow.

accomplish. A few simple tricks can go a

production having worked on shows for ABC and FOX to name just two. A talented musician as well as an audio engineer, Jeff is the driving force behind the concept and production of StackTraxx (Digital Juice’s layered production music) and the massive Digital Juice Sound FX Library. He’s also the ‘voice of Juice,’ serving as narrator for many DJ productions.

national video production magazine,

There’s nothing intuitive about using digital

long way to help even a novice achieve

“I approach video in a way where the

where he also traveled around the

media in the 21st century. We want to

expert-looking results.”—Brent Milby,

music (audio) comes first, like you’d

country leading seminars and teaching

make sure beginners get a foundation and

Senior Animator

workshops. A world traveler who speaks

experts learn something new. People often

shoot a music video. This is the opposite of how the average video producer looks

Chinese and can sing drinking songs in

think that if they just bought this software

at things. Most videographers just throw

Hakka, Eric enjoys nothing more than

or that computer that all of their problems

a mic on someone and hope for the best.

reading a trashy science fiction novel on

would be solved. With TechKnow, we seek

They don’t put a lot of thought into

a beach in southern Thailand. He also

to show how technology can work for

evaluating the quality of the audio they’re

has a fondness for monkeys, mimes, and

everyone. I try to pepper the conversation

recording. In reality, it’s just as important

talking like a Pirate.

with plenty of examples and practical tips

for a video to sound good as it is to look

“My show, TechKnow, covers modern

to help creative professionals get the

good. Bad audio will ruin a good shot,

multimedia technology, for video, audio

highest quality results with their digital

and may even force you to have to re-

and print. I love all of the arcane, obscure

media, so they can concentrate on what

shoot a scene. I want to help producers

and sometimes strange details behind the

they do best: art.”—Eric Franks, Director

get their audio right the first time, so

technology. I know not everyone does,

of Technical Education

they can look good, and sound good.” —Jeff Earley, Director of Audio Products

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DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

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Introducing DJTV (continued from page 13)

CHRIS “ACE” GATES is the newest member of the team, having joined Juice in July of 2006. “Coming to Juice has been a ‘hit-the-ground-running’ sort of thing. It’s intense; not a bad intense, a fun intense. My schedule is packed every single day. I’m never working on just one project. I’m simultaneously shooting, editing and planning multiple projects at a time. I love the fast pace. There’s an expectation of quality here. Every day I’m pushed to excel. One of the things that I love is that the team that we have makes this environment conducive to creativity. And right now we’re just scratching

BILLY ALLAN is a gifted and talented man and is an extremely important part of the DJTV team, even though he has no video, audio or graphic design experience at all. So what does Billy bring? Billy turns thoughts into things. He’s a genius with a hammer, a saw and a screwdriver. Billy can design and build just about anything you can describe to him— whether you need soundproofing, a custom set, a chromakey wall or a pop filter. (If you own any of our newer products, you’re already familiar with Billy’s work. He’s the guy that designed and made the wallets and boxes that our volumes are packaged in.) This allows the production team to be creative without limitation and helps the DJTV team make the most of the production budget. Watch for a new DJTV show featuring Billy’s Blueprints in the months to come!

the surface. I can’t wait to see what we come up with next.” —Chris “Ace” Gates, Associate Producer

"People spend a lot of money on production equipment and accessories. It can add up fast. But there’s almost always more than one way to get where you need to be. We don’t want to spend lots of money buying what we can build ourselves. I’d say 90 to 95% of the things we use here were built with materials from the Home hardware store. We take what anyone could get and turn it into what we need. The hard part isn’t the building part, it's knowing what to do and where to start. I like seeing other people’s dreams and turning them into something concrete. I’m not the guy with the ideas, but I know what it takes to make what the other guys need.”—Billy Allan, Director of Special Projects

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DJTV

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Introducing DJTV (continued from page 15) WHAT’S ON DJTV? DJTV isn’t merely a branded corporate Webcast, it’s a bona fide network with multiple shows, hosted by expert producers, artists and presenters. The Season One line-up includes three weekly programs and a few special episodes. Here’s what you can see on DJTV right now: PRODUCTION NOTES In each episode of Production Notes, Producer/Editor Perry Jenkins takes you behind the scenes on the set to share with you the secrets he has learned producing TV, film and video, so you too can produce like a pro. His cinematic style and off-beat delivery are sure to make this series a favorite. TAKE 5 In each episode of Take 5, industry expert, Chuck Peters, shares production tips, tricks, tools and techniques by the handful in a fun and fast-paced style. Chuck draws on his 17 years of experience as a broadcast producer, writer, editor and instructor to share professional tips in a manner that’s easy for anyone to understand. TECHKNOW What is it? How does it work? What do I need to know? These are the questions that veteran technical author and expert D. Eric Franks answers in each edition of TechKnow. Eric articulates important intellectual insights and information about tools and technology to keep you up to speed and in the know in terms of standards, settings and technical solutions. JUICE IN USE DJTV’s special Juice in Use episodes feature interviews with interesting and exciting high-profile producers who use Digital Juice media in their productions. In each episode we’ll take you inside the edit bays, and into the minds of top Juiceusing pros to see how they put Juice to Use in their productions every day. TRY THIS Looking for detailed step-by-step tips and techniques for editing with Digital Juice graphics, video and production music? That’s exactly what you’ll find in each episode of Try This! Sit down with a variety of expert editors for an upclose click-by-click class showing how they create all kinds of effects. Tips will range from basic to advanced, and will be taught on a variety of platforms and programs. Looking for clear and creative instruction? Try This! COMING SOON And that’s just the beginning! We have more shows currently in development. Stay tuned for programs dedicated to the art of audio, step-by-step editing techniques, graphic design, making more powerful presentations and DIY video props and production tools.

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SHAKING THINGS UP “I’d like to believe that Digital Juice has gained a reputation for “shaking things up”, “thinking outside the box”, or “rewriting the rules of the game.” So, it only stands to reason that we would take a different approach to training. Most of the professional training out there today is a boring detailed rehash of the user’s manual, explaining each and every button of a program’s interface in agonizing detail. Our take on training is to give the viewer something he or she can quickly absorb then apply to a project. We’ve learned from personal experience that you don’t have to be familiar with every function or feature of a particular application to create something cool and useful. Sometimes you just need to have a few buttons explained and you can be reproducing the latest special effects fad. So, quick concise, bite-sized programming is our mission.”—Viv T. Beason Jr., President

DON’T JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT... DJTV is about giving you want you want; tips, tricks, techniques and creative ideas to inspire you to keep doing high level work. While we can tell you how good we think DJTV is, the comments that viewers have written on the DJTV comments pages say it best. Here’s what they had to say:

“Nice work. I’m learning new things and reinforcing stuff I already know. You guys rock. Thanks for continuing to take care of your customers! ” Posted by Mark Moss

“Perry’s pieces, like Chuck Peters’, offer an upbeat way to bring the topic to those of us who lack the industry knowledge and understanding that professionals possess. Digital Juice is clearly reaching out to every potential DJ consumer with a great degree of attention being given to that large number of novices and amateurs who seek to professionalize their work with great products at the fraction of the costs of others.” Posted by Samuel Davis

“Great job picking then demonstrating easy

“This is proving to be an awesome resource. to use tips. Thanks for your efforts—5 stars! ” Posted by Bill Channell I'm a hobbiest morphing toward pro and I need every tip I can get. BTW, good business model. Quality content produces quality users and quality users need quality resources, and Digital Juice stands ready to supply them.” Posted by Locke Morgan

“Love DJTV!! Great way to help us average Joe's. This way of teaching your customers is really a big help. It's all about bettering our industry. Thanks! ” Posted by Patricia Kondreck

WHAT’S NEXT?

Juice Television will depart only slightly “Digital Juice was created after identifying from that model, in that it is totally free for the taking. And our current programs an obvious hole in the industry. Some years ago, when computers were clearly are only the beginning. With an initial bent towards video, the plan is to quickly taking over all tasks in the video postproduction process, it was high time broaden the scope of the network to someone created affordable, quality, stock include all other areas of interest. This will include, but not be limited to, print animation. Since then we’ve identified design, presentation, compositing, sound several other holes in the industry and design and 3D. Our plan is not to ever we’ve done our best to patch them. stop adding programming.”—Viv T. Typically this involves offering an extremely high cost-to-value ratio. Digital Beason Jr., President ◗

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USER PROFILE

“ Nextel Vision is designed to give everyone in the complex a front row seat and an up-close look at the action on

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JUICE in use

”

the track.

Editing in High Gear @ MRN Radio/Nextel Vision by Chuck Peters

E

verything about NASCAR Nextel Cup stock car racing is big. Every weekend big-name drivers race for big-time sponsors

on big tracks at big speeds in front of really, really big crowds. Over the course of the year it’s estimated that more than six million spectators will fill grandstands, suites and infields at NASCAR races across the country. Super speedways like Daytona and Talladega have seating to accommodate more than 150,000 fans. Attendance at the 2006 Daytona 500 alone was over 225,000 (by comparison, just 68,000 fans attended last year’s Super Bowl XL). In venues this big, the cars can look awfully small, particularly when they’re racing down the backstretch more than a half mile away. Fortunately, there are some other big things at these big speedways; big screens. BIG CROWDS/BIG SCREENS

Nextel Vision is designed to give everyone in the complex a front row seat and an up-close look at the action on the track. Gigantic portable NASCAR Nextel Vision screens are erected around each of the race tracks on the tour. On a typical race day, these massive

Nextel Vision monitors are alive with content for more than 10 hours; informing and entertaining the audience from the time the gates open, until the winner pops the champagne in Victory Lane. During that time, Nextel Vision monitors display a wide variety of pre-produced and live programming.

Fred Armstrong, Director of Creative Services at MRN Radio, looks to Digital Juice to help his team create the network look they need in a short amount of time.

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USER PROFILE

Jump Back 019, from Vol 1, High Impact1, is used straight off the disc to anchor the Nextel Vision logo. Juice's Backgrounds, Overlay Mattes, MDEs, and Transitions combine to give Nextel Vision a cutting-edge look for high-energy edits, and driver IDs.

The content for this network of Nextel Vision jumbo-screens (and handheld “FanView” units) that entertain fans at this year’s 36 Nextel Cup races (as well as Busch and Craftsman Truck series events), is created by a small-but-talented MRN Radio production crew. MRN (Motor Racing Network) Radio has been known as “The Voice of NASCAR” for years, with broadcasts reaching millions of listeners each week. A few years ago, they expanded their offerings to reach the eyes of the fans, as well as their ears. The MRN crew produces hours of content for Nextel Vision each and every race week, including (but not limited to): sponsor logo graphics, driver head-turns for driver introductions, short and long driver profiles, live interviews, recaps of the previous week’s highlights, a rundown of the week’s top 10 drivers in the point standings, and energetic music videos designed to get the fans out of their seats and onto their feet. SOUND BITES

The guys at MRN use Digital Juice Jump Backs and Editor’s Toolkit elements to create the compelling, high-energy, highquality content that they play for hundreds of thousands of fans each

week. We sat down with Fred Armstrong, Director of Creative Services for MRN, and Producer Josh Lieberman, tell find out how they put Digital Juice to use. “Our look has to be big, bold and visually stimulating,” says Armstrong. “Because we flow in and out of Network, our stuff has to look as good as what the fans see on the networks. There is an expectation of quality that people have. Jump Backs enable us to run our work side-by-side with the work being done by networks like ESPN and the Speed Channel, who both have huge crews and big budgets. In my opinion, Network has nothing on Digital Juice. The best part is that Digital Juice has done the work and we get to take the credit.” The speed and flexibility of Digital Juice graphics are key considerations for Fred and his team. “When you need to put a logo on the screen and dress it up for a sponsor, Jump Backs provide great eye candy. They let us create a dynamic look in no time. Just snap your fingers and drop it in, pop a logo on top and you’re done. Sometimes it’s just that easy. But

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the beauty of Jump Backs is that you can customize them. Change the color, use them as parts of composites. I’m always amazed at the work that my editor, Josh, does and the way he uses Jump Backs and Toolkit elements in his edits. Jump Backs actually make him more creative. We get a better, more creative production. Digital Juice has revolutionized the way we produce our segments.” “I use ETK mattes and overlays on pretty much everything I do,” says MRN Producer, Josh Lieberman. “A lot of times, Jump Backs and Editor’s Toolkits are my creative inspiration for an edit. I’ll browse through the Juicer for a couple minutes and I’ll see something that creates inspiration.” Josh particularly likes using Editor’s Toolkit’s mattes with his Jump Backs. “I use mattes and overlays more than anything. And Motion Design Elements are huge. I lay a matte over some video, apply a texture from a Jump Back and I can have a high-end broadcast look pretty quickly.”

Jump Back 267, from Vol 7 High Impact V, was colorized before being used as a foundation for the MRN logo.

Digital Juice backgrounds are also used for driver graphics, seen here on one of the Nextel Vision truck-top screens.

(continued on page 22) Nextel Vision monitors keep fans entertained and informed at NASCAR Nextel Cup races across the country.

OCTOBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 21

USER PROFILE

SEE COMPLETE PRODUCT GALLERIES

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Juice in Use (continued from page 21)

Our biggest issue is time,” says “ Lieberman. We just couldn’t do what we do without Digital Juice. ”

Producer/Editor, Josh Lieberman, creates impressive composites by combining Digital Juice's animations and elements with race footage.

“If you’re creative, you use Digital Juice’s elements as building blocks,” says Armstrong. They’re like Bisquick. You don’t just use Bisquick to make pancakes. You can make it into whatever you want. There’s no limit to what you can make of it. Digital Juice is like visual Bisquick. It’s a starting point that we build on, but it’s an important part of every recipe.”

single day. And Juice helps them create great looking productions within budget and under pressing deadlines.

TIME TRIALS

Chuck Peters is Vice President of Media and Publications at Digital Juice and Editor of Digital Juice Magazine.

The MRN Radio/Nextel Vision crew is a great example of a high-end team that puts Digital Juice media to use every

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DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

“Our biggest issue is time,” says Lieberman. “We have more than 100,000 people to entertain every weekend. And we have to create a lot of new content for the show every week. We just couldn’t do what we do without Digital Juice.”

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JD45:halloweenHAUNTS This is just a small sampling of the 75 different layered designs in this volume.

INSPIRATION

Volume Spotlight Volume 45 of the Juice Drops library, halloweenHAUNTS, is devoted to the scary, fun, festive season of Halloween. Witches, bats, mummies, monsters, jack-o’-lanterns and trick-or-treaters are all represented in a variety of illustration styles. There is something here for every type of Halloween design situation—whether it’s a children’s party, corporate event or neighborhood get-together. As with all Juice Drops volumes, these illustrations are provided in layered Photoshop PSD format so you can isolate individual elements from the designs or rearrange the existing art to suit your purposes. Check out a few examples of what’s in the volume and how it can be used at left and below.

SPOOKY DESIGN halloweenHAUNTS illustrations in use in everyday design projects—in a poster for a model search with a twist (above, using JD #4521 & JD #4528; on a series of postcards for a real estate agency (top, using JD #4502 and top left, using JD #4507 & JD #4511); as the hero element in a poster for a local theater troupe (left, using JD #4524); and finally, as the main illustration on the cover of a book about wine (far left, using JD #4509). In all of these designs some minor modifications were made to the illustrations to customize them. For example, in the case of the realtor’s postcards and the Bewitching Witches poster, elements from two different Juice Drops designs were combined, and in the case of the book cover the whole image was tinted a wine color.

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OCTOBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 23

REVIEW

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The Panasonic VariCam: In Use @ Juice TECHNICAL

by Perry Jenkins

SPECIFICATIONS

I

was really jazzed when we decided to purchase the HVX200 P2

Panasonic AJ-HDC27H VariCam® Variable Frame Rate 16:9 HD CinemaTM

camera from Panasonic a few months back, but when I got the

Camera with CineGammaTM Software ($65,900) z

Three 2/3-inch 1.1-Million Pixel CCDs

z

Recording Format: DVCPRO HD

go ahead to buy the VariCam, I just about lost it. The camera caught our interest for many reasons, one being its variable frame rate

(720/60P, 720P/59.94P) z

z

Frame Rates: 4-60P (in single frame increments)

frame increments in between, and this is great, because now true fast- and slow-

Lens: Interchangeable, 2/3"

motion can be obtained straight from the lens. There’s nothing that screams cinema

bayonet mount z

ability. It can capture in frame rates from 4fps to 60fps with single

Record Time: 33 Minutes on

more than a cool shot in slow motion.

DVCPRO Cassette with 18 micron

“ Overall, this camera is phenomenal.”

recording format. Viewfinder ($3,145) Fujinon HA 18x7.6 HD Lens ($16,000)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The camera body itself is pretty lightweight, which is good, because by the time you attach a big battery and a hefty

lens, the thing is heavy enough to wear you out quick. The controls are easily accessible on the body. If you’ve shot with other professional cameras, you’ll have no problem finding your way around the common controls like white balance and so on. The in-camera menus, on the other hand, are a bit more complex. This isn’t to Panasonic’s fault, mind you, there are just a lot of functions that this camera performs, so there are several pages of internal menus to get around. After walking through a simple series of setup procedures I was ready to roll tape. CINEGAMMA

One of the things that make this camera special is that it features Panasonic’s CineGammaTM software. CineGamma increases the camera's dynamic range, especially in the highlight areas. According to Panasonic, CineGamma “provides the user with a much closer approximation of

film’s renowned ability to maintain smooth image tonality even when gently compressing extreme highlights. Cinematographers are able through the CineGamma feature to control the camera's gamma transfer function to best optimize control over tonality, from extreme highlights to the lowest of shadow areas.” FRAME RATES & SUCH

Now, this next topic is where things can get a little confusing, but in the long run it’s actually brilliant. The VTR portion of the camera operates at a constant 60fps, meaning that it’s always capturing 60 frames every second. When you tell the camera portion to record at 30fps, a duplicate frame is recorded to ensure 60fps. When you shoot at 24fps it performs a 3:2 type pull down where one frame gets recorded 3 times and the next frame twice. This process results in redundant frames adding up to 60fps. What this all means

Perry Jenkins behind the VariCam while shooting a DJTV episode of Juice in Use at Daytona Int'l speedway.

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is that in post you need a way to weed out the redundant or duplicate frames for your 24fps projects. Fortunately, this process is simple with our Final Cut Pro HD system. Because duplicate frames are flagged differently, Final Cut can read those flags and pull out the correct ones to create 24fps media. See, it’s brilliant. For off speed footage, slow motion or shot at 60fps, I simply downloaded a frame rate converter, then applied it to my captured footage and it performed all the necessary functions for my clips to play back at slow motion. SHOOTING WITH THE VARICAM

Overall, this camera is phenomenal. At the time of this writing, I’ve only been

able to scratch the surface in terms of the abilities of this camera. At this point, I’ve shot some cool slow motion footage of some silk fabric being blown by a fan for use as an element in a Jump Backs volume we’re working on, and a DJTV show called Juice in Use @ Daytona. Look for it on DJTV to see the images I’ve shot with this camera.

REVIEW

The controls on the VariCam are well-placed and easy to access.

I really look forward to taking advantage of the CineGamma feature to create to establish a style and create unique shots. For now, I just marvel in the fact that my cinematic dreams are coming true.

Perry Jenkins is Senior Producer/Director at Digital Juice

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A matte box is an excellent accessory. It not only shades the lens, it holds filters for in-camera effects.

OCTOBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 25

PRODUCTION

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Juice Drops for TV

Using Juice Media in a Production Cycle by Rick Green

W

hen you run a small-to-medium sized broadcast production facility, there are basically three steps to every

project: (1) Get the gig, (2) Create the project, and (3) Get paid. This article will walk you through all three steps in the process, using a recent example from my company, The PowerPlant. Digital Juice was a great help through all three phases, from the initial bid

Figure 1

until ten days later, when the first spots aired on television.

Juice Drops 28: freshFORM #2806 Juice Drops 28: freshFORM #2820

We spent our valuable time producing and creating the motion “ for the TV spots, instead of endless hours designing the elements. ” GET THE GIG

Figure 2

Juice Drops 28: freshFORM #2894

Figure 3

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We enjoy a wonderful working relationship with our loyal clients, but even our regulars want to know what they’re getting into before they commit to a specific project. Along with a budget proposal, they want to see specs and storyboards to make sure we understand their vision for the project, although many times we’re actively creating that vision for them through the storyboard process. Sometimes this involves a budget-bid and sometimes the process involves a creative pitch. More often than not, the process involves both. Our recent “Columbus Alive” project was one of those “both” scenarios. The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio’s oldest and most prestigious daily newspaper, is a client of The PowerPlant. We have created dozens of television and radio spots for them in the past. We love working with their marketing department, because they give us a lot of freedom and because they like to have fun with their product. The Dispatch recently purchased an edgy local weekly called “Columbus Alive.” They freshened it up and then asked The

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

PowerPlant to help them market the relaunch. Before we began production, they wanted to see storyboards to make sure they liked our design and direction. We use images and elements from Juice Drops layered Photoshop graphics to storyboard projects all the time. We’ll pull layers, graphic elements, segments, colors and backgrounds from a particular Juice Drops image to help with our storyboard process. Often times, just looking through the huge Juice Drops library gives us style and design ideas for a project. I started by grabbing three Juice Drops images and used them to create three completely different looks. I have talented designers on staff, but it wasn’t necessary to take them away from more important work at this phase. Although I’m not exactly a Photoshop expert, and I’m not a designer, I was still able to quickly put together three professional-looking, distinctly different storyboard specs to help us pitch, and ultimately get, this great high-profile television gig. Having Juice Drops to create professional looking storyboards and high-quality design elements was a huge factor in getting the job.

CREATE THE PROJECT

We created three pretty cool looking specs and our budget numbers were in the right ballpark, so we got the job. Next, we sat face-to-face with the client for a second time to discuss what they liked or did not like about each of the three spec storyboards. As with most projects, we found that the direction we’d take would be a combination of two of the ideas created in the storyboard process. Juice Drops are wonderful for this, since it’s a snap to simply pull graphic elements from one Juice Drops image and combine them with elements from another to build your own new project. In this case, the “Columbus Alive” crew loved the flat, 2D style and color breaks from spec 1 (Figure 1), the geometric shapes and curved graphic arcs from spec 2 (Figure 2), and the abstract city-like shapes from spec 3 (Figure 3). We had to work within the “Alive” color palette, which is kind of a ketchup-and-mustard scheme, but changing palettes is trivial in our editing software. Thanks to Juice Drops, we spent our valuable time producing and creating the motion for the TV spots, instead of endless hours designing the elements.

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PRESENTATIONS

Jump Backs Vol. 25: All Music #1025

Figure 4 To create the final product, we simply imported the layered Photoshop files from the Juice Drops discs that we needed and began to keyframe the movement in Adobe After Effects. Tony Stewart, The PowerPlant’s Graphic Designer and Animator noted, “The high-quality Juice Drops images [are] way beyond the resolution we need for television, even beyond High Def resolution. We created dynamic and professional animations in a fraction of the time it would have taken if we had to design and construct all those elements ourselves.” Since “Columbus Alive” is “fresh, fun coverage of the music, arts, food and nightlife,” we decided to add a couple of live-action elements to give the spot some energy. Once again, we turned to Digital Juice to save our time and assets. We used a garbage mask in After Effects to cut out a dancer from Jump Backs animation #1025 from Volume 25: All Music. For the sax player, it was even easier: We grabbed our VideoTraxx 3 Film & Video Library and, in the Music & Dance category, we found clip #8074. The clip is a saxophone player that was shot over green screen, so we keyed out the background and then filled that with the “Alive” red to get a live-action shot without shooting a single frame. Although

we certainly have the capability to shoot this stuff ourselves, our time and budget often don’t allow for it. I think one of the coolest things about the finished spot is that it looks nothing like any of the three original Juice Drops we started with (Figure 4), even though it’s made from elements that came from all of them. GET PAID

As a business-owner, the “Get Paid” phase is certainly necessary. It’s important because it allows The PowerPlant Creative Team to move on to the next project. The role Digital Juice plays in this final step shouldn’t be overlooked. Whether clients pay by the hour or per project, they are ultimately paying for a finished, professional production. The better the product, the better they feel about paying for it and the more likely they are to hire you again. Starting with Digital Juice media allows The PowerPlant to deliver a highquality, professional product in a timely manner. That helps strengthen our relationships, increases our margins and makes for a healthier bottom line. Digital Juice products allow us to be more creative, quicker, more efficient, and ultimately help us make more money.

Rick Green is CCO of The PowerPlant Multimedia Studios in Columbus, Ohio.

COLUMBUS ALIVE! The 30-second Alive TV finished product can be seen in the Digital Juice magazine section of digitaljuice.com. You can also check out the “Columbus Alive” magazine’s Website at www.columbusalive.com

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DIGITAL JUICE MARCH 2005

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Idea Book & Gallery DIGITAL JUICE FILM & VIDEO LIBRARY DIGITAL JUICE VIDEOTRAXX FILM & VIDEO LIBRARY

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MARCH 2005 DIGITAL JUICE | 29

VideoTraxx

Film & Video Library

Idea Book

VideoTraxx 1

MEDIA USED: VTX1–Fitness #00292,

JD35: futureTECH #3338

PROJECT NOTES: VideoTraxx clips

are professionally produced, so action shots are ready to be used in your high-end broadcast composites, saving you time and making you money. Here a VTX clip is combined with a high-energy Juice Drops background to create an edgey, artsy look.

MEDIA USED: VTX1–Business #01001 & JD44: frameCUTS II 4442 PROJECT NOTES: Commercials come alive with VideoTraxx. Whether you need smiling faces or interesting places, VideoTraxx has the shots you need to kick out spectacular spots.

MEDIA USED: VTX1–Sports #00303,

JD37: sportsCUTS 3701 & JD40: frameCUTS #4030

PROJECT NOTES: Adding video filters, color

effects and slow motion to VTX clips makes them excellent resources for editors who want to build better backgrounds for their graphics. Elements from Juice Drops were used here to add a broadcast look and feel to this youth soccer video.

VTX 02

Digital Juice Magazine • October 2006

VideoTraxx

Film & Video Library

Idea Book

VideoTraxx 2 MEDIA USED: VTX2–Expressions #04387 & JD44: frameCUTS II #4464 PROJECT NOTES: The expressive

people shots in VideoTraxx give you access to professional models without the hassle of having to work with an agency. Animated and still “frame” graphics from Juice Drops and MDE Frames volumes add instant impact.

MEDIA USED: VTX2–People

#05766 & JD31: foodFUSION #3165

PROJECT NOTES: VTX clips were shot with editing in mind. Many clips are framed to the side, so you can simply add graphics.

MEDIA USED:

VTX2–People #05766, JD35: futureTECH #3501 & JD37: sportsCUTS #3791 (horse shape in logo)

PROJECT NOTES: VideoTraxx

clips cover all kinds of topics. Whether you need a shot of a horse and rider, school children, or international images, VideoTraxx delivers.

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VTX 03

VideoTraxx

Film & Video Library

Idea Book

VideoTraxx 3

MEDIA USED: VTX3–Holidays #07695 & JD40: frameCUTS II #4427

PROJECT NOTES: Uses for VideoTraxx

are only limited by your creativity. Here, a Holiday clip serves as the inspiration for a jeweler’s seasonal TV spot.

MEDIA USED: VTX3–Drugs, Medicine & Emergency #07179 & JD32: templateCUTS #3269 PROJECT NOTES: VideoTraxx made this important PSA powerful. There’s no end to the concepts you can communicate with the 10,000+ clips in the VideoTraxx collection.

MEDIA USED: VTX3–Exercise #07331 &

JD42: highIMPACT IV #4282

PROJECT NOTES: VTX clips are professionally produced, with great attention given to lighting and shot composition, making VideoTraxx the perfect complement to your high-end edits.

VTX 04

Digital Juice Magazine • October 2006

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MARCH 2005 DIGITAL JUICE | 33

VIDEO FOR WEB

WHAT THE

HECK IS

H.264?

Although the technical spec for

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Webcasting DJTV by The Editors

geeky jargon for MPEG-4. Born of

H

a partnership between the ITU-T

galleries and our promotional videos illustrate two approaches that we’ve tried in

Video Coding Experts Group and

the past. Our new DJTV project, however, required a complete rethinking of our

H.264 is as complex and detailed as it needs to be, it’s really just

the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), the H.264

ere at Digital Juice we’ve been posting video to the Internet as long as we’ve had a Web presence. The play-in-place samples of our product

video strategy, not only in terms of content, but also in terms of technical delivery.

standard and the MPEG-4, part

In this article, we’re going to tell you how we prep our shows to get them on the

10 standard are technically

virtual airwaves of the Web.

identical. And if you don’t like calling the standard H.264 or MPEG-4, you can go ahead and call it Advanced Video Coding (AVC): it’s all the same thing.

APPLE COMPRESSOR & SORENSON SQUEEZE Want to find out more about the encoding apps we use for DJTV? z Apple Compressor is a part of the Final Cut Studio suite of applications for the Mac and has an MSRP of $1,299. http://www.apple.com z The Sorenson Video 3 Pro codec has an MSRP of $299 and works with your editing software, but is also included with the Sorenson Video 4 Compression Suite, which retails for $449 and works on both Windows machines and Macs.

For DJTV, we felt that it was important to deliver the highest “quality video at the lowest possible data rates. — J.P. Shook ”

PRODUCTION

The mission of DJTV is to create short shows that effectively inform, instruct and (hopefully) entertain the production community on a wide variety of topics. Because the video is primarily distributed on the Internet, we need small, highly compressed clips, but one goal right from the start was to shoot in the highest quality format that was practical. “We went with our Panasonic HVX200 in 720p HD mode at 24fps,” explained Senior Producer, Perry Jenkins. “The camera’s small size and convenient operation made it possible for all of our producers to jump right in and start shooting.” The finished video that the production department provides to the Web team is very high quality, uncompressed, progressive HD source. COMPRESSION GURUS

The task of getting DJTV onto the digitaljuice.com Website falls to IT Director, Michael Mullings, and Director of Internet Development, J.P. Shook. Each wears many hats at the company, but both are well versed in the many challenges of Internet video.

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DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

“All of our promo videos were compressed using Sorenson Squeeze 3 on a five PC farm,” explains Mike Mullings. “It’s a great app. The Watch Folders feature was really convenient.” Five dedicated Windows computers were set up to perform the renders, with the Sorenson utility watching a particular folder that producers could drop their finished video into. The program would then automatically convert the videos placed into that folder without any additional intervention.

H.264 QUALITY

The Sorenson Video 3 Pro codec produced beautiful video for the Internet, but the Web/IT team decided to go with the next generation of video for DJTV. A number of solutions were explored, including one based on the H.264 standard, which has been implemented (with variations) by most of the big players, including Apple and Sorenson. Test renders using Apple Compressor and Sorenson Squeeze 4 proved that the H.264 codecs yielded better quality video than the older Sorenson Video 3 Pro codec. “For DJTV, we felt that it was important to deliver the highest quality video at the lowest possible data rates,” J.P. Shook said.

The one format that seemed to best meet our DJTV requirements was the QuickTime implementation of the H.264 codec. While not universally installed, the QuickTime player is on all Macs and has a very wide install base on Windows machines. While QuickTime is very common, not everyone has the latest (May 2005) version of QuickTime 7, which supports H.264. “To be honest,” J.P. admitted. “One of the reasons why we went with QuickTime 7 H.264 was that many studios use it for their movie trailers.”

ACCESSIBILITY

Besides balancing quality against data rate, DJTV needs to be viewable by the largest possible audience. So, for example, while DivX produces very high quality video, it is still a player that is not installed on as many computers as, say, the Flash video player. Flash video, on the other hand, although it does keep the data rate very low, does not hit the same quality levels that Sorenson Video 3 Pro does. To keep DJTV accessible to largest possible audience, the team chose to encode the medium- and low-quality versions of each show using Sorenson Video 3. Since this format is compatible

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1.

2.

3.

EACH EPISODE OF DJTV IS OFFERED AT FOUR QUALITY SETTINGS (1) 480x288 - High Quality (H.264) (2) 320x192 – Medium Quality (Sorenson) (3) 320x192 – Low Quality (Sorenson) (4) 320x240 – iPod (MPEG-4) 4.

with QuickTime 5 and above, almost everyone can play it back. And, not unimportantly, the quality is excellent. SOURCE AND SIZE

Another consideration in the choice of a file format and codec is scalability. At this time in Web video history, it’s important to offer different versions of our videos, from small and highly compressed to very large at high quality. H.264 encoding works equally well on postage-stamp sized video destined for portable players and on HD video for blue laser DVDs. The source for DJTV is 720p, which has a frame size of 1440x720. A number of different versions of each program segment are available to view or download, including 480x288, 320x192, and 320x240 for iPod. “We wanted to reach the largest audience possible,” J.P. continued. “Encoding multiple formats is a real challenge, but definitely worth it.” Broadband Distribution and Streaming Broadband infrastructure in the United States is getting better and better, but simply posting DJTV segments to a Web page is not enough. You also need the computers and Internet bandwidth to host and serve the content. “With multiple dedicated load-balanced Web servers connected to the global Internet

backbone, we have the capability to sustain over 200Mbps of concurrent traffic.” J.P. noted. “We expected to exceed 4TB of data transfer in the first month of the DJTV launch.” Real-time streaming video was one option that was considered and eventually rejected. “We decided to go with progressive download vs. real-time streaming servers to maintain the highest level of quality and user experience,” J.P. mused. “The performance is excellent and the videos begin playing almost immediately.” Streaming technology can also prevent people from downloading the video to their computer, which is an unnecessary limitation and an inconvenience for some viewers. READY FOR WEBCAST

Even though the technology is readily available, making a choice on how to distribute high-quality video on the Internet is not an easy one. Besides balancing quality against data rate, compatibility and convenience are difficult quantities to measure. Fortunately, given a fast enough Internet pipeline, experimentation is relatively easy. Even better, the potential audience of Web viewers is huge and growing larger by the day.

The Editors

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CHURCH MEDIA

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Simple Solutions to Church Media Mistakes by Chuck Peters

C

hurches of all shapes and sizes are making media a major

part if their ministries. Unfortunately, most people in ministry

have never “made” media. In a church setting, excellence has to be at heart of everything you do. Anything that distracts people from the focus of the church service is a major mistake. I’ve visited a lot of modern multimedia churches and I’ve seen the good, the bad and, sadly, the ugly. Along the way, I’ve identified some

common mistakes that are being made. Fortunately, you can learn from these miserable mistakes and avoid making them yourself. Hopefully this little list will help you keep your media ministry on the straight and narrow.

#1

CRAZY COLORS

The Goal: Treat each service as a continuous, coordinated presentation.

Figure 1

Figure 2

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The Problem: A lot of churches use different backgrounds or video clips behind the lyrics of each song. The first song’s lyrics might be projected over a blue animated color wash, the second over a video of billowing clouds, the third on a red one and the sermon notes over a still background (Figure 1). When you do this, the congregation is drawn to look for the changing background instead of concentrating on the content of the slide. The Solution: Instead of using a mishmash of backgrounds, choose a single color and style for each week, month or sermon series. This will provide continuity for all of the graphics (Figure 2). Songs are often selected to tie into the message of the morning, so consistent backgrounds also make the entire service seem more connected. You’ll find that the flow of the service is

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

much smoother. Save your creative variations for special music numbers.

#2

MISLEADING LYRICS

The Goal: If you project lyrics for your songs, you need to time the appearance of the text with the singing carefully. For a smooth presentation, it is essential that the slides lead, not follow, the singers. Timing is everything. The person running the slideshow has to be intimately familiar with the songs so that he or she can anticipate slide changes and lead the leaders and the congregation. The Problem: Improper and untimely slide changes are a major distraction to people trying to sing what you show. Never attempt to follow what they do on stage. This can trip-up your song leaders and your congregation. Lagging changes are just as bad as putting slides up in the wrong sequence. The Solution: Attend rehearsals and take good notes. Meet with the music leader in advance of the rehearsal so you have a full understanding of the order and flow of

the service. The person running the slides is as much a part of the music team as an instrumentalist or vocalist. Your job is to literally lead the singing. You need to know the songs as well as anyone on the platform. When I run graphics for lyrics, I always work from a script. Before rehearsal, I note every slide in order on paper and I write production notes like “musical interlude” or “repeat 3x.” A script gives you a roadmap so you never have to guess where the song leaders are going.

#3

BAD FONT CHOICES

The Goal: When it comes to selecting fonts, the goal is always readability. And, remember, the words need be easy to read from a distance. This means making good decisions in regard to size and style. They should also be consistent from one graphic to the next. The goal: keep it clean, clear and simple. The Problem: Narrow or swirly fonts are hard to read from a distance and should be avoided (Figure 3). Cartoonish fonts aren’t appropriate for most church settings (Figure 4). Their overly silly style can make your

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CHURCH MEDIA

Figure 4 Figure 3

graphics seem immature and can rob your content of the respect it is due. If your fonts change from slide to slide or song to song, you may cause your parishioners to pay more attention to your crazy presentation than the content of the message. The Solution: Simple, bold fonts are always the easiest to read from a distance. Thick sans serif fonts are often best for on-screen readability (Figure 5). While you may think serifs look classier, the primary goal is for the text to be legible from the back of the room. Avoid multiple fonts by finding a font family that you like and sticking with it. To keep continuity, use the same typeface for every graphic you create. Keep font variations subtle, changing only the style (regular, bold or italics) to create emphasis when necessary. Use a dark drop shadow or outline to help separate light text from light-colored backgrounds.

size type you use depends completely on the size of your screen and the size of your room. The best bet is to preview your slides from the back of the auditorium to make sure the text is large enough to easily read.

quickly and smoothly. This may mean scheduling a practice time to train your team. Think of your team like a NASCAR pit crew. See how CLUNKY TRANSITIONS quick and clean you can make your The Goal: The primary goal of transitions. Rather than figuring it out anything that goes up on the screen during during the service, preparing in advance a church service is to enhance the worship will help ensure that all goes smoothly. experience. The images that you project One of the best “covers” that I’ve found is onto your screens—whether edited videos to lead schedule the video after a prayer. or simple slides—have to be presented Lower the screen and dim the lights while smoothly, and transitions to and from your heads are bowed and eyes are closed. segments must be quick and smooth so as Cue the start of your clips on the “Amen.” to not distract those in attendance. Ironically, the ultimate goal of using media The Problem: If transitioning to or from a in a church setting is for the media itself to video clip or presentation involves a drawn be invisible: no one should realize you are TMI (TOO MUCH out process of closing window blinds, there and no one should notice your work. INFORMATION) dimming lights, raising and lowering If folks are squinting at poorly designed The Goal: Don’t put too much information screens or fumbling through startup graphics or gaping in amazement at the on a single slide. Putting too much menus or video inputs on your projector, stunning 3D animations you are projecting, information on the screen at once can you will surely disrupted the flow of the you are not doing your job. With your life overwhelm your audience. service. Blasts of video snow and audio and your service, a job well done should be The Problem: If you have a long chorus or feedback are simply not acceptable. Those its own reward. In a church setting, if you scripture verse to put on the screen, it can long, painful delays and awkward lulls of can’t do it with excellence, you need to silence while everyone waits for the be tempting to use small text to get it all decide whether you should be using on one slide (Figure 6). But, small type can screen to come down and the video to multimedia at all. come up should be avoided at all costs. be difficult to read from the back of the Ultimately, a disruptive presentation may auditorium, especially if there’s a lot of it. do more to harm a service than the video Chuck Peters is Vice President of Media and Promotions at Digital The Solution: Break long pieces of text does to help it. Juice and is the Editor of Digital into a series of slides so you can increase Juice Magazine. The Solution: Take time to prepare your the font size and make it easier for the equipment and your people so you can congregation to follow along (Figure 7). There’s no rule for setting font size. What transition to and from media segments

#5

Figure 5 Figure 6

#4

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Figure 7

OCTOBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 37

PRESENTATIONS

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DIY PowerPoint Templates with Juice Drops by Michael Hill Figure 1

W

Title slides can generally be more complex since they don’t display as much text. This sample was created by using all layers of Juice Drops image #1511 from JD15: highIMPACT III.

hile originally developed for print design, Juice Drops are also flexible enough to be used to create custom eye-

catching, PowerPoint templates.

such as templateCUTS, are an “ Some volumes, obvious choice for slides. ” READABILITY

The most important consideration when creating a custom PowerPoint template is readability. Some Juice Drops have intricate designs that can clutter your slides and make your text very hard to read. Some volumes, such as templateCUTS, are an obvious choice for slides; the ability to adjust individual layers means you can easily create clear copy areas. TWO TYPES OF SLIDES

Figure 2

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Content slides need to be simpler to allow the emphasis to be on text. In this sample, some of the layers were removed to create a simpler background while keeping the same look as the title slide.

I recommend creating at least two different backgrounds for each presentation: one for your Title slides and another for your Content slides. Title slides generally have only a few lines of text on them: the title of the overall presentation or section, and perhaps the date and presenter’s name. Also, the text used on these slides tends to be larger and bolder. Because of this, these backgrounds can be more complex (Figure 1).

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

Content slides should have two key areas: a header area and text area. The header area is used to present the slide’s title while the text area will be used for your content. These slides should generally have a simple, subtle background to ensure legibility (Figure 2).

the parts of the layers that are outside the image layer into the image for rescaling or adjustments. Experiment with adjusting the layers while trying to picture what the image would look like with text over it.

ADJUSTING THE IMAGE

Because they are layered files, Juice Drops have elements that can be moved around to create spaces for text. In this example, the filmstrip was moved, resized, rotated and adjusted to allow for the slide’s header to fit neatly into it (Figure 5). The shaded curves found in the shadedEDGE volume can also be used to create a header area (Figure 6). Don’t forget to experiment with mixing layers from other Juice Drops.

Before you start designing, you’ll need to make some adjustments to the image’s size and proportions. Because Juice Drops weren’t designed for screen use, they aren’t the correct dimensions for screen use. Select an image and opened the layered version in Photoshop. Next, select Image Size from the Image menu and make the height 768 pixels. Be sure the Constrain Proportions box is checked. Don’t worry about the width for now (it should automatically change). Click OK and wait for Photoshop to rescale your file (Figure 3). Now, select Canvas Size from the Image menu. Be sure the Relative checkbox is off, and enter 1024 pixels for the width. You’ll get a warning message; click Proceed (Figure 4). You’ll notice that the sides of the image have been chopped off — it’s important to remember, however, that you can still drag

REARRANGE

Another trick is to create a new layer with a colored box (usually white) that overlays the part of the slide where you plan to place text. Adjust the layer’s opacity to allow parts of the background to show through while still making sure the text remains legible (Figure 7). If you like, you can further customize your slides by adding a logo, URL or slogan. Once you’ve finalized the design, export the file as a TIFF or PNG.

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PRESENTATIONS

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Figure 3

Figure 4

WANT

MORE?

For more presentation tips and IMPORT TO POWERPOINT

Now you’ll need to import the file into a PowerPoint template. To do this, open PowerPoint and start a new, blank presentation. From the View menu, select Master/Slide Master, then select Image/From File from the Insert menu and locate the background you created for your Content slides. Once you have the image in PowerPoint, adjust it to fit the slide and then right click and select Send to Back from the Order option. Next, select New Title Master from the Insert menu. Repeat the process, this time inserting the Title slide background. Now you can adjust the fonts, text size, colors and other elements on the title and slide masters. When you’re satisfied, select Save As from the File menu. Change the Save As Type option to Design Template. PowerPoint will automatically navigate to the templates folder. Give your template a name and save the file.

techniques check out these

This sample was created using elements from Juice Drops illustration #2786 from JD27: glassEDGE.

Figure 5

articles in the DJ Mag archives at digitaljuice.com. z

September 2006: Cutting-

Edge PowerPoint Techniques: Revealing images and video within a single slide by Geetesh Bajaj z

May/June 2006: Killer

Presentations in 4 Hours or Less: Streamlining your PowerPoint Workflow by Kevin Lerner z

October 2005: Scores for

PowerPoint®: How to Add Music This sample was created using Juice Drops illustration #2543 from JD25: shadedEDGE. It features a header area created by rotating and scaling one of the shaded curves.

Figure 6

to Your PowerPoint® Presentations by Geetesh Bajaj z

April 2005: How to be a

Bad Presenter: 9 Vile Violations by Chuck Peters z

March 2005: Revealing

Secrets: Tips for Revealing Text in PowerPoint by Chuck Peters

THAT’S ALL FOLKS

z

To create your presentation, select File/New. In the right-hand toolbar, select General Templates and your template should now appear under the General tab. You can now type your text into the slides as you normally would.

Michael P. Hill is president and creative director of Clearhill Creative, a small graphic design agency. He also works in marketing and Web development for an Orlando-based company.

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February 2005: Visionary

Presentations: PTK Basics for Advanced Presentations by D. Eric Franks

This Juice Drop background, #1510 from JD15: highIMPACT III, is too complex to be used as a slide background. By adding a white, semi-transparent layer over it, you can create an area for text.

Figure 7

OCTOBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 39

TEACHING TIPS

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Education Nation Teaching Editing with VideoTraxx by Chris Gates

T

he first school computer lab that I stepped into as a kid was a converted janitor's closet. An A/V cart was placed into the

floor basin, and on that cart sat a lone Apple II connected to a television set, complete with separate VHF and UHF dials. I could just imagine the green hued ASCII images that were now possible for me to create. Ahh, 1981 did have its charm.

Digital Juice to be an excellent resource “forI found teaching kids to make video, especially the VideoTraxx collection. ” Computer technology has changed the classroom over the last twenty-five years. Now educators are faced with the challenges of developing curriculum to instruct their students in the creation of quality digital media. The art room is no longer limited to big tables covered in paper, and the technology classroom is no longer earmarked by the drill press. Computer savvy students are working in Photoshop, cutting video on various NLEs, and animating their imaginations into existence. What can be most frustrating for educators who teach media and video production, (other than the bad coffee in the teachers'

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DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

lounge) is keeping lessons focused and simple. With all the tools, techniques, and trivialities, it doesn't take much for student projects to grow out of control and become unmanageable. I found Digital Juice to be an excellent resource for teaching kids to make video, especially the VideoTraxx collection. Stock footage is an excellent resource for teaching the fundamentals of editing. Before VideoTraxx, stock clips were far too expensive for most schools to consider, but because of its low price it is actually accessible to educators, who have notoriously low budgets. If you teach video production, at any level, VideoTraxx is a resource that is well worth the investment. KEEPING IT SIMPLE

Early in my teaching career I discovered how a simple project that was meant to

familiarize my students with basic video editing could become an epic nightmare. My goal was simple enough: give the students a hands-on opportunity to use the school's edit bays so they would have introductory knowledge of our NLE. The students saw this as opportunity to make their cinematic proclamations. What started as an editing exercise soon became a full scale production involving everything from lighting and videography, to sound engineering and animation. All I was hoping for was a few simple cuts, what I got was the next D.W. Griffith. The lesson I learned can be summed up in one word, simplicity. My desire was for the students to not worry about their content at this point, but to understand the basics of utilizing content. Without even trying, I had successfully distracted them right from the start of the project by having them create their own content.

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The students became so concerned with their imagery and how it looked that the class didn't focus on the edit at all. The issues at hand brought me to rethink the project and come at it from a new approach. It’s a good rule of thumb to stay tightly focused on each specific task in any production. This is especially true for any project in the classroom. Since I wanted my students to learn to cut, editing would have to be all that we focused on for that lesson. Understanding how a montage works in the editing room is beneficial to anyone wanting to create great video. It is a tool that revolutionized the way we communicate through the moving image. It was time for the class to learn the secret art of the montage.

First we focused on the foundation of the montage, we sat down and dissected the Odessa steps sequence from Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. We moved forward and watched Godfrey Reggio's Powaqqatsi, another fine example of the montage. The students had now seen and talked enough about editing that they were ready to sit down and start cutting. THE STOCK SOLUTION

Instead of having my pupils shoot their own footage, I handed them the VideoTraxx library and the criteria that they could use any VideoTraxx clips they wanted to, as long as their individual pieces were exactly one minute in length and set to a single music bed. Later that

week, I had a compilation of some of the most absurd, creative, thought provoking, and interesting videos I have ever seen from first time editors. The lesson was a huge success. Simplicity, in and of itself was the most direct solution. Things may have been simple with the old Apple II in the janitor's closet. Truth is, amidst today's myriad applications and diverse possibilities they bring, things are still simple. All it takes is a little focus and the implementation of some good resources to bring out success.

Former high school teacher, Chris “Ace” Gates, is an Associate Producer at Digital Juice.

TEACHING TIPS

MY DJ

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Surfin’ DigitalJuice.com

10 Reasons to Hang (Ten) at digitaljuice.com

SURFER

by Matt Janowsky

SLANG

N

ext time you’re surfing the Web, catch the wave to

DigitalJuice.com and sign up for your free account.

HANG TEN: Riding a long board with both feet on the nose of the board.

Registering is easy, just click the create account link at the top of

STICK: Slang word for surfboard.

the Home Page and type in your info, it only takes a minute and

BARREL: Where the wave is hollow when it is breaking.

you'll be riding the waves in no time. Here are 10 totally cool things

CARVE/CARVING: Classic surfing move, turning on a wave.

you can do at DigitalJuice.com.

PIPELINE: Classic Hawaiian wave. SWELL: Waves, swell or groundswell, refers to real solid waves. TUBE: Where all surfers want to be, where the wave is hollow (the barrel).

The Customer Showcase is a great place to get feedback, ideas, “inspiration and even carve out a little recognition for yourself. ” 9 Community Forums: This is a great place to ask questions, get answers, meet some cool people, share your knowledge, and maybe even learn a few things. It's a veritable BARREL of fun.

DROP IN: When a surfer catches a wave they didn't have priority on, not cool. WIPE OUT: Falling on your board, also a classic surf song by the Ventures.

8

STOKED: Means very happy. LAYBACK: Extreme surfing trick where a surfer literally lays backwards on a wave. BOARD: The thing you stand on. ENDLESS SUMMER: A classic surf movie.

Figure 1

10

Digital Juice Magazine: Each month Juice publishes a great magazine (like the one you’re reading now) flooded with tips and tricks, interesting articles, info on all of your favorite juice products and much, much more (Figure 1). At DigitalJuice.com you can sign up for your free subscription, so you can STICK Digital Juice magazine on your shelf. You can also browse all the back issues in the DJ Mag online archives.

Customer Showcase: When you register you can upload your videos or images to the Customer Showcase (Figure 2). It's a great place to get feedback, ideas, inspiration, and even CARVE out a little recognition for yourself. You can even give your clients a free link to your own showcase page.

7

Email Offers: The CEO’s weekly email is your ticket to the PIPELINE of deals that Digital Juice has to offer. Email members not only get the inside scoop on the latest deals, they get customer profiles, and top-secret inside info from David Hebel himself.

Figure 2 Figure 3

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Figure 4

Figure 5

6

Product Galleries: Digital Juice’s online product galleries make it easy for you to preview all of the SWELL products Juice has to offer (Figure 3).

5

DJTV: Nothing on the TUBE? Head on over to DigitalJuice.com and check out DJTV (Figure 4). Here you’ll find original programs that are packed with tips and tricks. Look for new episodes every week.

4

Chat: DigitalJuice.com is the place to chat online with your new surfing buddies. Juice staffers have been known to DROP IN and give the skinny on upcoming new products.

3

Account Access: Once you register you can get access to your online order history, and with the pre-fill function your info won't be WIPED OUT next time you order online (Figure 5).

2

Killer Deals: Check the Home Page for all the latest deals and steals, with all the money you save you'll be STOKED.

1

Free Downloads: That’s Right! FREE DOWNLOADS! LAY BACK and enjoy as Digital Juice gives you royaltyfree content absolutely free (Figure 6).

Figure 6 What’s the catch? There is no catch. All you have to do is register for your free account. So grab your (key)BOARD and register for an ENDLESS SUMMER of fun surfin’ at DigitalJuice.com. Well, what are you waiting for!?

Matt Janowsky is a Video Production Specialist and a staff team member at our newest location, Digital Juice Orlando.

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LIGHTING TIPS

WATCH IT ON DJTV!

THIS ARTICLE IS ALSO A SHOW!

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Take 5

Five Tips for Lighting Talent by Chuck Peters

You can see all of the tips in this article demonstrated in full

T

motion on DJTV! Check out the Sept 11th episode of Take 5, Five Tips for Lighting Talent, and other

here’s no substitute for good lighting. I’m always surprised at how many producers count on software to fix poor lighting in

post. The GIGO principle certainly applies to lighting. The fact is, if

Take 5 episodes in the DJTV

you start with grainy, poorly-lit footage, your end result will be

section of digitaljuice.com.

compromised. No matter what people tell you, it doesn’t matter how good your camera and editing software may be, if you are a lazy lighter, your productions will suffer. Knowing this, the best thing you can do to

MONITOR MATTERS

When setting lights, it’s important to remember that your eye sees

increase the production quality of your videos is NOT to buy a better camera or a new color-corrector. The first thing you should do is learn to light. While these five tips can’t possibly cover all there is to know about lighting, my hope is that they will inspire you to learn to light like the pro that you are.

things differently than your camera does. You should always use a monitor (not your naked eye) when adjusting your lights.

It doesn’t matter how good your camera and editing software “may be, if you are a lazy lighter, your productions will suffer. ” #1 — SHOOT A THREE-POINTER

Three-point lighting is the time-tested standard for lighting talent for TV and film (Figure 1). A three-point setup consists of a key, a fill and a back light. The key light is typically positioned to the front of the subject, slightly to one side. It provides the primary source of illumination in this setup and its quality and characteristics help to establish the mood of the scene. The fill light is less powerful than the key light. It is positioned on the side opposite the key and serves to soften (or fill-in) the shadows created by the key light. The back light (or hair light) is positioned above and behind the subject so that it casts light on the subject’s head and shoulders. This adds Figure 1

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depth and separates him from the background. Learning and using three-point lighting isn’t difficult. It will make a huge difference in the look of your footage and in the overall professionalism of your productions. If you’re not using it, it’s time to start. #2 — SET THE MOOD WITH SHADOWS

When a bright key light is positioned close to the camera, the result is “flat” lighting (Figure 2a). Flat lighting is emotionally neutral. If you’re doing news, this may be fine. But if you want to add emotion, merely flooding your subject with bright, flat, light isn’t enough. Lighting can be used to move and manipulate shadows to create the

Three-point lighting consists of Key, Fill and Back lights.

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A key light positioned at the 4:30 (or 7:30) position adds the illusion of depth without being overly dramatic. This is the preferred position for the key in most three-point lighting setups.

A key light at the 6:00 position creates a flat, “ordinary” look that is absent of emotion. This look is often used for lighting news setups.

Figure 2b

Figure 2a

illusion of depth on a two-dimensional screen. To add depth, position the key light so that it strikes your subject at an angle (Figure 2b). The size, angle and intensity of the shadows cast by the key help set the mood of the scene. As you move the key farther to the side, the mood becomes more and more dramatic (Figure 2c). Once the key is positioned appropriately, use the fill light to soften its shadows to your liking. #3 — SOFTEN UP

The hardness or softness of a light can be determined by examining the shadows that it casts on your subject. A hard light casts a dark shadow with a sharp edge transfer ((Figure 3a). Soft light casts lighter shadows with a wide gradient shadow-edge transfer (Figure 3b). Soft light is more flattering to the face than hard light and is preferred in most setups. Hard light can make a subject look intense and even wicked. Small, focused lamps cast hard light and shadows. Larger and more diffused lamps cast softer light and shadows. You can soften the effect of a light by adjusting its distance from the subject or by adding diffusion to spread the light. #4 — HANDLE HARD-TOLIGHT PEOPLE

Some people are inherently more difficult to light than others. The top three problems you’ll run into are: people wearing glasses, bald heads and dark skin. While the solutions are slightly different, the problem is essentially the same: bright reflections

LIGHTING TIPS

and specular highlights that create unattractive, glowing, hot-spots. When lighting a person with glasses, lights placed anywhere near the camera create specular highlights on the lenses of the subject’s specs (Figure 4a). Bald heads are less of a problem, but you’ll still get small hard light spots across the cranium. When you Figure 2c expose subjects with dark complexions properly, you often end up with hot spots on the tip of the nose, forehead, cheeks and chin. Figure 3a For glasses, the solution is to go up and out. Raise your lights higher and position them as far to the sides as possible until the reflections are gone (Figure 4b). People with bald heads or dark skin need to be lit with very large, very soft lights positioned very close. The goal is to make the specular highlight larger than the subject’s face, bathing them in soft light.

A key light at the 3:00 (or 9:00) position creates a very dramatic look and feel.

Hard light has a narrow shadow edge transfer and a dark, dramatic shadow

Lights positioned anywhere near the camera will create ugly, distracting reflections on the lenses of glasses.

Figure 4a

#5 — LIGHT THE WHOLE SHOT, NOT JUST THE SUBJECT

The job doesn’t end when your subject is lit. You’re not done until you’ve lit the whole shot. Save a light or two for your background. Pinch your barndoors down to create a shaft of light across the background or add a gel for a splash of color. Taking a little extra time to dress your set with light will greatly improve the look and feel of your shots.

Chuck Peters is Vice President of Media and Publications at Digital Juice and Editor of Digital Juice Magazine.

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Soft light has a wide shadow edge transfer and a softer, lighter shadow. Soft light is typically preferred for lighting faces

Figure 3b

Eliminate specular highlights in spectacles by moving lights out to the sides and raising them higher on their stands.

Figure 4b

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Going to the Matte HELP ME!

If you have specific questions

How to Apply ETK Mattes in Premiere, FCP & Vegas

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he mattes and transitional wipes in Digital Juice’s Editor's Toolkits are simply black and white gradient elements that are used to define transparency in

about how to apply mattes in

composited video. These elements don’t have built-in alpha channel transparency

your editing application, check

like ETKs overlays, lower thirds and transitions, so they’re a little more difficult to

out the online Support section of

use. The way you apply an ETK matte is slightly different depending on what editing

digitaljuice.com, post a question

app you use. Here’s how it’s done in three of the most popular editing applications.

in our Community Forums or email [email protected].

Video Source—VTX2: Autos & Motor Sports, #03494

IN ADOBE PREMIERE

Step 1—Arrange your clips on the timeline. Place a video clip on Video 1, a Jump Back animation on Video 2 and an ETK matte on Video 3.

Step 2—Add a Track Matte Key to the clip on Video 2. Toggle to the Effects tab in the Project window, then select Video Effects and expand the Keying effects. Find a Track Matte Key and drag it to the Jump Backs animation on Video 2.

Step 3—Set Up the Key. Select

Animation—JB30 Simply Useful:#1229 (Above), Matte—Matte #299 from ETK2 (Below)

the animation on Video 2 and open the Effect Controls window for the clip, select the Track Matte Key. Set the Matte to Video 3, and set the Composite Using mode to Matte Luma.

Step 4—Turn off the Track

Step 4—Render the composite.

Output. Back on the timeline, click the eyeball icon at the far left of the Video 3 track to turn the track off. Premiere NOTE: Turning a track off will make any and all video clips on the track invisible. You will need to dedicate a track for matte effects.

FCP NOTE: In most cases, you will need

IN FINAL CUT PRO

Step 1—Arrange your clips on the timeline. Place you video clip on the V1 track, an overlay matte on the V2 track and an animation on V3.

Step 2—Select the clip on V3 (the new background texture).

Step 3—Open the Modify menu. In the Modify menu, Select Composite Mode > Travel Matte – Luma

to render the effect to see the result. IN VEGAS VIDEO

Step 1—Arrange your clips on the timeline. Place your overlay matte on Track 1, your video clip on Track 2 and your animated background on Track 3.

Step 2—Click the Track FX button on Track 1 and select the Mask Generator tool. Step 3—Click the Mask Generator dialog and select a Luminance key from the Type dropdown. You may also need to click the Invert checkbox to get the effect you want.

Step 4—Click the Compositing Mode button in Track 1 and select "Multiply (Mask)" from the menu.

Step 5—Click the Make Compositing Child button in Track 2. Applying Matte effects isn’t difficult once you know how to arrange the clips on your editing application. You’ll find that a simple understanding of how to set up a Matte key will greatly expand the usefulness of your Editor’s Toolkits, and offer you a vast amount of creative options as you edit. Best yet, the results are sure to amaze your audiences and impress your clients.

Composite—Our video clip, animation and matte combine to make a cool composite.

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Halloween-Themed 4 New Volumes Now Shipping!

New This Halloween: JD45: halloweenHAUNTS, StackTraxx Vol. 16: Spooky Stacks, JB34: All Hallows Eve & JBHD14: All Hallows Eve he sights and sounds of Halloween are now at your fingertips thanks to Digital Juice. Choose one of the 75 colorful and scary Juice Drops illustrations from JD45: halloweenHAUNTS to dress up a party invitation. Edit a “Halloween Spooktacular Auto Auction” TV spot with one of the 25 creepy and fun animations in our standard and high definition Jump Backs volumes. Add a soundtrack with spooky musical melodies from StackTraxx 16: Spooky Stacks. Everything you need to make this Halloween season memorable in any medium is available to you now.

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Volume Spotlight

Asmall sample of the 100 Revealers in Volume 001 of the Motion Design Element Library

MDE 001: Revealers With a flash of color and motion, draw the viewer’s eyes and reveal a logo or text.

Below is an example of a revealer being used to add some sparkle to a corporate presentation by wiping on the company’s logo with a revealer. For more examples of Rebealers in use, check online.

he Revealers volume consists of 100 special Motion Design Elements that are designed to cover and reveal text, logos, photos or video clips in an interesting way.

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Motion Design Elements (MDEs) are a special type of overlay. They are isolated elements with alpha channel transparency that work with other onscreen graphics and draw attention to them. For example, MDEs are commonly used to add color, motion and sparkle behind what would otherwise be a static logo or station ID tag. Drop a small MDE animation behind a small logo in the corner of the screen and you can draw the viewer's attention to it quite effectively. What if we put that MDE on top of the logo, instead of behind it? Of course it would obscure the logo, which defeats the entire purpose of even having a logo on the screen in the first place. But what if we animated the MDE to fade in, cut the logo in behind it and then animated the MDE out? The flash of color and motion in the corner of the screen would draw the viewer’s eyes and then reveal the logo. In their simplest form, that is what our new Revealers are designed to do. Revealers come in all sorts of new patterns and designs that let you creatively bring text and logos onto the screen with flare, panache and sophistication.

FEATURES: • 100 Animations on DVD-ROM • Full printed index • Average length 1-5 seconds • QuickTime® format • 1080 x 1080 to 1920 x 1080 at 60 fps • Juicer resizes to NTSC D1, DV, PAL & more • Juicer uses an advanced algorithm to scale to PAL & NTSC

$249

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Editor’s Toolkit 1: Multipurpose Tools • 40+ GB, 6 DVD-ROMs

Editor’s Toolkits Complete Animated Graphics Packages for

• 50 Animated Jump Sets with matching animated background, template, overlay, and lower third • 50 Additional animated overlays and 50 additional animated lower thirds • 200 static lower thirds, 250 static mattes

Every Video Producer or Editor

• Thousands of stills in over 20 categories

Create a coordinated and professional look effortlessly with animations organized into matched sets. 10 Volumes • 100s of Animations per Volume • Backgrounds, Overlays, Lower Thirds, Wipes and Motion Design Elements Editor’s Toolkit 2: Multipurpose Tools 2 • 55+ GB, 10 DVD-ROMs • 15 Animated Jump Sets with matching animated background, template, overlay, lower third, full screen wipe & transition • 100+ Motion design elements • 100 Wipes and transitions to match ETK1 plus 50 additional wipes & transitions • 15 Additional lower thirds and overlays • Thousands of photos & photo objects

Editor’s Toolkit 3: Wedding Tools

Editor’s Toolkit 4: High Tech Tools

Editor’s Toolkit 5: Soft & Subtle Tools

• 70+ GB, 10 DVD-ROMs

• 80+ GB, 10 DVD-ROMs

• 80+ GB, 10 DVD-ROMs

• 20 Animated Jump Sets with matching animated background, template, overlay, lower third, full screen wipe & transition

• 20 Animated Super Sets with a High Tech edge, each with the following matching animated elements (at a minimum): 3 backgrounds, 2 overlays, 2 lower thirds, 2 full screen wipes,2 motion design elements, 1 transition wipe as well as 4 alpha channel mattes.

• 20 Animated Super Sets with a Soft & Subtle look, each with the following matching animated elements (at a minimum): 3 backgrounds, 2 overlays, 2 lower thirds, 2 full screen wipes,2 motion design elements, 1 transition wipe as well as 4 alpha channel mattes.

• More than 320 Animations in all

• More than 320 Animations in all

(formerly Wedding Editor’s Toolkit)

• 100+ Motion design elements • 20+ Additional animated backgrounds • 50+ Additional full screen animated wipes • 25 Bitstream™ Fonts

$399

Editor’s Toolkit 6: Corporate & Broadcast Tools

$399

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Editor’s Toolkit 7: Wedding Tools II

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• 80+ GB, 10 DVD-ROMs • 20 Animated Super Sets with a Corporate & Broadcast feel, each with the following matching animated elements (at a minimum): 3 backgrounds, 2 overlays, 2 lower thirds, 2 full screen wipes,2 motion design elements, 1 transition wipe as well as 4 alpha channel mattes. • More than 320 Animations in all

• 63+ GB, 8 DVD-ROMs • 15 Animated Super Sets with a Wedding theme, each with the following matching animated elements (at a minimum): 3 backgrounds, 2 overlays, 2 lower thirds, 2 full screen wipes, 2 motion design elements, 1 transition wipe as well as 4 alpha channel mattes. • More than 260 Animations in all

$399

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Editor’s Toolkit 8: Sports Tools • 70+ GB,10 DVD-ROMs • 54 Animated Jump Sets with a network sports feel, including individual animations for Basketball, Football, Baseball, Soccer, Golf, Hockey & Tennis. • Package also includes globe and multipurpose animated backgrounds for a wider appeal.

Editor’s Toolkit 10: Multipurpose Tools III Our BIGGEST and BEST Yet! 62% More Content for the Same Low Price.

• Each set in the package contains the following matching animated elements (at a minimum): 2 backgrounds, 1 overlay, 1 lower third, 1 full screen wipe and 1 motion design element • More than 320 Animations in all

$399 • 90+ GB of royalty-free content on 11 DVD-ROMs

Editor’s Toolkit 9: Christmas Tools • 90+ GB, 12 DVD-ROMs • 16 animated graphically matching Super Sets with a seasonal theme. • Each set in the package contains the following matching animated elements (at a minimum): 3 backgrounds, 2 overlays, 2 lower thirds, 2 full screen wipes, 1 transition wipe, 2 motion design elements and 4 animated alpha channel mattes. (Most sets also have several extra elements.) • Bonus holiday animated text elements. • Bonus video design elements with Santa Claus.

• 30 animated graphically matching Super Sets • Each set in the package contains the following matching animated elements (at a minimum): 3 backgrounds, 2 overlays, 2 lower thirds, 2 full screen wipes, 1 transition wipe, 2 motion design elements and 4 animated alpha channel mattes. (Most sets also have several extra elements.) • More than 500 Animations in all

$399

OR ADD TO ANY ORDER

199

FOR JUST $

EDITOR’S TOOLKIT HOT TIP:

DVD MENUS

• More than 350 Animations in all

TK Background animations (and Jump Backs) are ideal for DVD menu backgrounds. Most DVD authoring applications will automatically set the duration of the menu to match the video clip you drop into the background and loop it. Unfortunately, almost all DVD players pause for a moment when the menu repeats: this is unavoidable. One workaround is to make the menu longer so that most people never see it repeat. Just lay down multiple copies of your Jump Backs animation end to end to create a menu of any duration. Your only limitation is how much space you have on your DVD disc.

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$399

Animated Background #2 from Super Set #247 in Editor’s Toolkit 10 (at right) was used for this DVD menu for an annual report presentation. Easy matching buttons were also created using the Super Set’s Motion Design Element #1 (right, top).

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JUMP BACKS Standard Definition Network Quality Animation Library VOLUMES AVAILABLE:

Jump Backs

JB01: High Impact I

JB19: Extreme III

JB02: High Impact II

JB20: Subtle Impact

Network Quality Animation Library

JB03: High Impact III

JB21: High Impact VIII

The royalty-free collection that just keeps growing —more variety and more innovation all the time.

JB04: Wedding JB05: Sports JB06: High Impact IV

34 Volumes • 20+ Animations per Volume 15-30 Seconds per Animation • Seamlessly Loopable

JB22: Global Impact JB23: Clean Streak JB24: Tunnel Vision

JB07: High Impact V

JB25: All Music

JB08: High Impact VI

JB26: Future Tech

JB09: High Tech & Internet JB10: All American

JB27: International Flags JB28: Subtle Impact II

JB11: Retro Clean

JB29: US State Flags

JB12: Corporate/Industrial, Time & Money

JB30: Simply Useful

JB13: All Church JB14: Medical/Health, Education & Science JB15: Weather & The Elements JB16: High Impact VII JB17: Extreme I

JB31: Maximum Impact JB32: Base Camp JB33: In The Round NEW! JB34: All Hallows Eve

$249

per volume

JB18: Extreme II

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JUMP BACKS HD High Definition,Network Quality Animation Library • 14 volumes, 20 or more animations per volume • Full 1920x1080, 16:9 res. • 15-30 seconds per animation • Seamlessly loopable

JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN! JB34: All Hallows Eve Get ready to be spooked! Swooping bats, haunted houses, scary graveyards and armies of jack o’lanterns are all set to hit your screen this Halloween season.This volume goes from the simplicity of a cloudy moonlit sky to the complexity of a gothic haunted mansion at night. DVD 25 ANIMATIONS $249

VOLUMES AVAILABLE: JB HD 01: High Tech & Internet JB HD 02: Corporate/Industrial, Time & Money JB HD 03: Medical/Health, Education & Science JB HD 04: High Impact VI JB HD 05: Retro Clean JB HD 06: Extreme I JB HD 07: Extreme II JB HD 08: Subtle Impact JB HD 09: All Music JB HD 10: Simply Useful JB HD 11: Maximum Impact JB HD 12: Base Camp JB HD 13: In the Round NEW Volume! JB HD 14: All Hallows Eve

REGULARLY

$249 PER VOLUME

LIMITED TIME 10 for 1 OFFER! Expires OCTOBER 16TH at midnight

BUY VOLS. 1-10 OF JUMP BACKS HD FOR JUST

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VideoTraxx 1 Film & Video Library • • • • • •

3000+ Video Clips 34 DVDs • 220 GB 36 Categories Royalty-free NTSC/PAL Free Juicer Software

CATEGORIES INCLUDE: Aerials, Abstract, Agriculture, Business, Children, City Life, Elderly, Extreme Sports, Family, Farming, Fitness, Government, Health, Industry, International, Landscapes, Leisure, Music, Nature, People, Science, Sights, Sports, Suburbia, Technology, Urban, Weather, Work and more.

$599

VideoTraxx 2 Film & Video Library

CATEGORIES INCLUDE: Artisans & Crafts, Autos & Motor Sports, Cities & Architecture, Creation, Fitness & Medicine, International Life, Music, Night Life, Old War, Religion, Romance, Teens, What’s Cooking, Wildlife, Women’s Beauty, Youth Sports and more.

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3000+ Video Clips 34 DVDs • 220 GB 32 Categories Royalty-free NTSC/PAL Free Juicer Software

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VideoTraxx 3 Film & Video Library • • • • • •

3000+ Video Clips 34 DVDs • 220 GB 36 Categories Royalty-free NTSC/PAL Free Juicer Software

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CATEGORIES INCLUDE: Adrenaline, All In The Family, Animal Kingdom, Around the House, At The Park, Body Shots, Business & Economics, Casino, Couples, Drugs, Medicine & Emergency, Film, Photo & Video, Good Eats, Hands, International Culture, Music & Dance, New War, Scenics, Space, Team Sports & Athletics, Workshop & Garage and more.

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

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DIGITAL JUICE

SOUND FX StackTraxx LIBRARY Layered Digital Music Library The revolutionary production collection that puts you in control! Just $249 per volume or as low as $49 per

• 10,000+ SOUND EFFECTS in more than 170 categories and 4 main classes

volume in a 16-PAK Bundle.

• Superior 24-bit, 96kHz stereo

VOLUMES AVAILABLE:

• WAV format lossless quality audio

• Now 16 volumes to choose from!

Vol. 1: Extreme Stacks Vol. 2: Power Stacks

• 20-40 original full length songs per volume

• Keyword searchable • Over 55GB of content

Vol. 4: Smooth Stacks

he Digital Juice Sound FX Library is the most comprehensive collection of audio effects ever collected together into a single package. Produced by renowned industry-veteran sound designers and distributed at 24-bit/96kHz resolutions, the artistic and technical quality is state of the art. The keyword searchable index makes the over 10,000 clips eminently usable, like no other media library anywhere else.

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Using the included Juicer 3.0 software you can convert to virtually any sample depth and bit resolution you might need. Compatible with both Mac and PC, the software also make searches and previews a snap.

Vol. 5: Holiday Stacks

• 1 DVD with proprietary digital layered files plus up to 4 CDs per volume (CDs contain Standard Compact Disc Audio)

Vol. 6: Street Stacks

• 4-7 separate editable layers per song

Vol. 3: Serious Stacks

Vol. 7: Groovy Stacks

• 4 broadcast cuts per song—:10, :15, :30, & :60

Vol. 8: Fifties Stacks

• NEW! JUICER 3.0 COMPATIBILITY

Vol. 9: World Stacks Vol. 10: Broadcast Stacks Vol. 11: Epic Stacks

SOME OF THE CATEGORIES INCLUDE:

Vol. 12: Corporate Stacks

NOISE FX—Alarms • Beds • Bells • Bumpers Buttons • Descends • Feedbacks • Flashes • Growls Phasers• Ricochets • Stingers • Thumps • Transitions

Vol. 13: High Impact Vol. 14: Rock Stacks Vol. 15: Subtle Impact Stacks NEW! Vol. 16: Spooky Stacks

GENERAL FX—Animals • Crashes • Explosions Foley • Household • Impacts • Liquids • Sports Technology • Transportation • Weapons • Weather

$249 per volume

MUSICAL FX—Musical Logos • Musical Transitions Musical Textures • Musical Elements

Taking production music a step further, StackTraxx allows you to turn layers on or off creating original mixes or isolating individual tracks, using our free Juicer 3.0 software.

HUMAN FX—Attitudes • Business • Children Commercial • Common Greetings • News • Numbers Occasions • Sports • OnTheSet • Questions Responses... plus many more.

$599 $699 REG. PRICE

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BackTraxx 1 CD Music Library

S Get ALL 16 VOLUMES for just

$799

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Music to your ears and your budget! • 1000+ tracks of royalty-free music on 28 CDs • Full length tracks as well as :60, :30, and :15 broadcast cut versions • 16-bit, 44.1 kHz, standard CDDA format • Categories include: Atmospheric, Christmas, Classical, Corporate & Industrial, Country, Hi-Tech, Mellow, Nature, Piano, Rock, Sports, Suspense, Urban, Weddings and more.

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Image elements from Juice Drops #4519 from one of our newest volumes, Volume 45: halloweenHAUNTS.

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JUICE DROPS Layered Photoshop Design Library Print Resolution Art You Take Apart VOLUMES AVAILABLE: JD01: highIMPACT

JD35: futureTECH

JD02: techXTREME

JD36: naturalCUTS

JD03: cleanCUTS

JD37: sportsCUTS

WE ACCEPT any of these major credit cards as well as your check.

Presenter’s Toolkit The Ultimate Presentation Graphics Library $99 • 6 DVDs with 40+ GB of royalty-free content

• 4900+ graphic backgrounds (1600x1024, 300 dpi PNG)

JD04: ultraGRUNGE

JD38: pastelSKETCH

• 2000 photos and 2500 photo objects

JD05: subtleIMPACT

JD39: allFLAGS

• 3200+ video clips (320x240 MPEG1 Video 30 FPS)

JD40: frameCUTS

• 900+ music clips (128 kbps MP3)

JD41: frescoVITA

• 6700+ PowerToonZ illustrations

JD42: highIMPACT IV

• Free Juicer software for browsing,copying,special effects

JD43: popLIFE

• Compatible with PowerPoint, , SongShowPlus, Keynote, MediaShout, Sunday Plus as well as other presentation and worship software.

JD06: ultraFRESH JD07: hyperXTREME JD08: techIMPACT JD09: highIMPACT II JD10: ultra3D JD11: xtraGRUNGE

JD44: frameCUTS II NEW! JD45: halloweenHAUNTS

JD12: retroFRESH JD13: peopleEDGE JD14: subtleIMPACT II JD15: highIMPACT III JD16: ultraCUTS JD17: scienceIMPACT JD18: cleanCUTS II JD19: medicalIMPACT JD20: illustratedIMPACT JD21: businessIMPACT JD22: boundlessEDGE JD23: cleanCUTS III JD24: geoIMPACT JD25: shadedEDGE JD26: paperCUTS

TECHNICAL SPECS: • 100 royalty-free layered illustrations per volume • 1-4 DVDs per volume • 45 volumes available now

JD29: flowerPOWER JD30: lifeSHADES JD31: foodFUSION JD32: templateCUTS JD33: ethnicECHOES JD34: fluidFORM

Digital Juice 2.0

for PowerPoint and Multimedia The Best Selling Professional Presentation Graphics Library on 1 DVD!

• Unlimited possibilities— turn layers on and off in Photoshop, customize the design for every project

• 2600 graphic backgrounds

• All images are 17.25" x 11.25" at 300 DPI for a pixel resolution of 5175x3375.

• 54,600 photo and background remixes

JD27: glassEDGE JD28: freshFORM

GET BOTH PTK & DJ 2.0 FOR JUST $148

• 1100+ photos and photo objects

$199

• 50 video clips (320x240, MPEG1) • 60 animated elements (320x240, MPEG1) • Compatible with PowerPoint, , SongShowPlus, Keynote, MediaShout, Sunday Plus as well as other presentation and worship software.

• Files are delivered in layered Photoshop .psd & flattened RGB & CMYK .tif formats P R I N T / P R E S E N T A T I O N

$249

per volume

BUNDLE ALL 45

volumes for just

$2199

SAVE 80% just $49 a volume!

or BUNDLE ANY 10 Juice Drops Volumes for just $

699

Juice Drops Volumes can also be added to any MIX & MATCH

BUNDLE

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JUICE BOX

DJTV: Think Big but Grow Slow by David Hebel

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• Choosing Text & Formatting Fonts • Getting Files Ready for Print • How to Make Stock Elements Look Like Your Own • Extracting Heroes from Juice Drops PLUS: • How to Loop Jump Backs for Projected Sets • Capturing Interfaces for Editing 58

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DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2006

he ideas of Digital Juice Magazine and Digital Juice Television were floated, kicked around, and massaged for years before we hit upon the right combinations to make them doable, affordable, and above all useful to our customers. In 2002 we made our first ambitious attempts with both ideas but quickly determined we weren’t ready to really make it work. We tried to do too much, too fast, with too few resources and though I felt our pilot projects came out pretty good we just didn’t have anything that was sustainable. After all, our core business was and remains making professional royalty-free creative content, not producing TV and Magazines. We also felt that our initial efforts came off a bit over hyped, pretentious and self grandizing for a company that had been around so few years with so few products. So we went back to the drawing board. We decided to first concentrate on creating great products. First we’d try to strengthen our name as a product company and extend the ideas we had for Digital Juice that were beyond our products later. In December 2003 we relaunched the magazine but this time as essentially a catalog with a few tips and tricks. It was only 16 pages but we felt it better represented who we were and what we were capable of consistently putting out. Slowly but surely we expanded that catalog into the 60+ page magazine you see today. The vision remained steady throughout but we worked hard not to get ahead of who we were, and what we could do. It is bit like the philosophy of “under promise and over deliver” which is so prudent in business. Selling a product isn’t all that difficult. It’s easy to promise the sun and the moon and use a low price to move some units. But if the customer isn’t satisfied, he isn’t likely to come back and buy again. In the long run a company is better to first focus on creating quality and then educating the customer before and, even better, after the sale on how to extract the most value from their purchase. This is the whole idea behind both Digital Juice Magazine and DJTV.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now we’re extending this idea even further. We’re not only talking about Digital Juice products, but about anything and everything that our customers and customers-to-be find engaging and helpful. The new Digital Juice Television really is taking this concept and running with it. As of this writing we’ve released 12 shows and less than half of them focused on Digital Juice products. We feel Digital Juice is about more than just products. It’s about thinking creatively and obtaining high quality affordably. These are the two things that tie our customers and products together. Whether you create PowerPoint presentations, design print ads, stage concerts, or produce network television, at the end of the day you want something that shows off your company or your clients in the best light possible without breaking the bank. DJ Mag and DJTV will constantly evolve and grow to keep up with the times, the company, and with our customer’s needs. We can’t promise to get it right every time, but keeping our eye on these goals will help us stay true to who we are and give the company a mission that is beyond selling products; one of inspiring creativity.

David Hebel Founder/CEO, Digital Juice, Inc. David also writes the weekly Digital Juice eNewsletter, which is the place to find out about the latest products, specials, and FREE weekly downloads. To subscribe go to http://www.digitaljuice.com/subscribe/.

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