2006 11 Digital Juice Magazine

TOOLS, TIPS AND TECHNIQUES FOR USING CREATIVE CONTENT

NOVEMBER 2006

STOCK

REPORT

THE

the future of royalty-free content

BOOK EXCERPT INSIDE!

JUICEDROPS 101TIPS & TRICKS

SPECIAL PRINT ISSUE:

10 Font Facts • Formatting Files for Print • Juice Drops: Conception to Reality • Embedding Logos in Layered Designs

PLUS: Copyright Rights: Are you in Danger? 5 Creative Tips for Using Stock Video in your Edits Camtasia Studio: In Use @ Juice

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

8

Juice Insider: Bringing good ideas to life by Viv T. Beason Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

SENIOR EDITOR: D. Eric Franks

Talk Back: Reader letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

ART DIRECTOR: Jacqui Dawson

Juice News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

18

The Stock Report: The future of royalty-free content by The Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

22 14

The Making of a Juice Drop: Concept to reality

by Jacqui Dawson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Hooray for Heroes:

Using Juice Drop hero elements in your edits by Chuck Peters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

It’s in There: Embedding logos in your layered designs by Brent Milby. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

10

26

10 Font Facts: A designer’s guide to text treatments

by Michael Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Volume Spotlight

Juice Drops Vol. 46: thanksGIVING . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

27 40

101 Juice Drops Tips & Tricks (book excerpt)

compiled and edited by Jacqui Dawson . . . . . . . . . 27

Prepping for Print:

The fundamentals of formatting your files for print by Billy Nendza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

In Use @ Juice: Camtasia Studio

by Perry Jenkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Take 5: Five useful VideoTraxx uses

by Chuck Peters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Copyright Rights: Are You In Danger?

Cover image adapted from JD #2772 (included in Juice Drops Volume 27: glassEDGE) by Senior Animator Brent Milby.

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, Mark Levy, Matt Janowsky, Brent Milby, Billy Nendza, Chuck Peters, Brian Pogue, Jeff Schell, Kevin Sherman, David Slater, Dan Tolbertson and David Traube GRAPHIC DESIGNERS & ILLUSTRATORS: Brent Milby, Saritha Sugunan, P. Gururaj, V. Sridhar PHOTOGRAPHY: Perry Jenkins

A survey of music usage by event editors by Mark Levy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

The Making of a Winner:

The prizewinning Revealers contest video explained by Dan Tolbertson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Stuff I Can’t Live Without

by Jeff Earley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

DIGITAL JUICE PRODUCT CATALOG . . . . . . . 47 Juice Box: Your Comments Unleashed

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

IT’S FREE! To get every issue of Digital Juice Magazine ABSOLUTELY FREE, go to www.digitaljuice.com and click on FREE SUBSCRIPTION.

Don’t miss another issue!

4

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

ORDERING IS EASY! TO ORDER BY PHONE: Call one of our friendly customer service representatives Monday–Friday 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST

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

DIGITAL JUICE, INC. 1736 NE 25TH AVE. OCALA, FL 34470 1.800.525.2203 352.369.0930 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

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

JUICE INSIDER

BRINGING GOOD IDEAS TO LIFE by Viv T. Beason, Jr.

I

deas are great. Everything started with someone’s idea. Ideas are exciting. We spend countless hours thinking to ourselves, or discussing with family and friends how this will turn out or that will be so nice when finished. Most big ideas are very hard to see to completion, thus never getting past the idea stage. In business I’ve learned the lesson that it’s not all about the ideas, it’s really about people. Some of the best ideas in the world lie dormant waiting for the proper person or team to pick up the ball and sprint. Case in point: I’m hoping now I may be able to finally start on a product/project I’ve been “just a few weeks away” from starting for the past year now. The idea is to produce a cool new sort of product. The product is a new sort of video clip art, if you will. Trust me, it’ll be cool and you’ll want it. Knowing that, to make any idea a reality it takes a small single step forward. Thinking if a small step is good, a large one must be better, I had a full-blown green screen studio built and outfitted. I even labored over and made the decision of which camera and format to shoot in. Obviously something innovative and new needs to be acquired in the most versatile, highest quality available. So let’s see... we have a great idea, that I’m basically guaranteeing will be a hit with the public... we have a state of the art green screen studio built and ready. We have the hardware to create the product. Seems like we could start the project right away. Well, I guess we could, and other companies might. But at Juice there’s the added pressure that anything and everything has to be good, really good. To produce a good product you need talented craftsmen, real artists. People passionate about whatever it is they’re doing. The coolest part about my job is working with such a talented, dedicated, hardworking group of people. I marvel at each promotional video that’s produced. Every magazine that’s published. Each episode of DJTV. Every tech support or sales call that is taken. Getting back to the project, there are a few hundred thousand videographers and presenters out there unknowingly in need of this new and cool series of product based on this little idea I have. I’m happy to say that I’ve located one of the guys who will help make this new product idea a reality. By the time you read this, he’ll be on staff learning the ropes creating new episodes of DJTV and preparing to play a role in the creation of this new product line. I guess you’ll know in a few months how this all ends based on our video and presentation product line up. Stay tuned. Good ideas are about to come to life. 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. again!—Jean-Francois Drolet Production Notes is the best! It is entertaining and so useful, cheers a mill from Ireland! Thanks!—Donovan Delaney Please keep these coming! Sooo helpful. I can’t wait for next week.—Robert McDuff Thanks for the great comments on DJTV, gang! I’m glad that so many people are finding the shows both informative and entertaining. Our goal was to put our own signature on “instructional” videos. In our estimation, if it isn’t fun, it isn’t done. As long as you keep watching, we’ll keep making shows!—CP

JUICE IS “IT!”

J

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

6

|

THE BUZZ ABOUT DJTV

I

LOVE DJTV! It gets better every week. Keep it up!—Sasha Costa

I love the quick tip segments. I launched the Juicer right after seeing this and started playing with all kinds of new possibilities! 5 Stars for sure!—Daniel Tolbertson I love that you guys always go the extra mile by telling us little shortcuts like the save feature for settings. It is also great that you help us get the most out of your products instead of just trying to sell more. Thank you!—Valerie Saum Great Job! Very useful tips and fun to watch. I'm more often on DJTV nowadays than I am on my company's Web site. lol. Thanks

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

ust a quick note to say thank you to the DJ crew for the outstanding work done. Where do I start with the kudos? The list is too long to write. The bottom line is Digital Juice gets the all encompassing "IT"! From quality products at affordable prices to a company that provides a wide array of services to help their clients, it is one beautiful package. I have been receiving the magazine since August of '05 and have found myself really looking forward to the next month's issue as each one seems to be more informative and entertaining.—Ben Finch Thanks for the compliments, Ben! It’s nice to know we’ve made your “it” list. We work very hard to put out our magazine every month and DJTV episodes each week. We really do want to equip people with everything they need to build better video. That includes making great graphics, music, stock footage and sound fx, but it also includes teaching techniques to help you shoot, light and edit so your entire production will be better.—CP

CUSTOMER CARE SHOULDN’T BE RARE

I

wanted to send a note to tell you what an amazing customer service experience I just had with one of your representatives. We had ordered a set of four StackTraxx volumes (which are awesome by the way) on special for $199 and were eagerly awaiting their arrival. When we didn't see them, we inquired about it and were told by a rep at Digital Juice that someone at our location had indeed signed for it. We asked everyone on staff here and scoured the facility and could not turn up the package. This morning I spoke to a rep there named Mike Frederick. Mike graciously arranged to have the package resent to us. I've ordered a number of items from Digital Juice and have been very pleased with the products, but I am even more pleased with the level of customer service your people have given us. In today's business world that is noteworthy and deserving of praise. You are running an exceptional company and we feel lucky to have found you guys. Please keep up the great work. We'll try to do our part by buying as much of your great stuff as we can afford.—David Lee I’m glad to hear you were treated well, David, but I’m not at all surprised. We know that our customers are working on important projects and we want to do everything we can to set them up for success. We also want to make each of our customers a customer for life. Occasionally, that means going the extra mile by eating the cost of a lost package. Your letter shows that our efforts were worthwhile.—CP

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

SEE COMPLETE PRODUCT GALLERIES

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

LAW & ORDER JUMP BACKS ANIMATIONS IN SD & HD

BESTSELLERS NEW

10

TOP

Jump Backs Volumes*

Our brand new O-Town team

03. JB32: Base Camp

is looking for a few talented

04. JB30: Simply Useful

staff members. If you're a

05. JB28: Subtle Impact II

creative professional living in

06. JB24: Tunnel Vision

the Orlando area, we'd like to

07. JB25: All Music 08. JB22: Global Impact

Volumes* 10 StackTraxx

TOP

01. STX16: Spooky Stacks 02. STX17: Light Touch Stacks 03. STX15: Subtle Impact Stacks

OFFICE

adding a new office in Orlando.

02. JB33: In the Round

10. JB13: All Church

O-TOWN

Digital Juice has expanded by

01. JB34: All Hallow’s Eve

09. JB15: Weather & The Elements

NEW

get to know you. Please

H

old it right there! There’s a new volume of Jump Backs animations that’s so

email your resume and

cool it ought to be illegal! Jump Backs volume 37: Law & Order contains 30

samples of your work to:

crime- and legal-themed, network quality animations. Whether you need animations

[email protected]

of guns, cops or courtrooms, you have the right to remain excited about these new animations. Jump Backs volume 37 Law & Order is expected to ship in December and will sell for $249.

04. STX12: Corporate Stacks 05. STX10: Broadcast Stacks 06. STX03: Serious Stacks 07. STX11: Epic Stacks 08. STX04: Smooth Stacks 09. STX09: World Stacks 10. STX02: Power Stacks

Drops Volumes* 10 Juice

PRODUCTION NOTES TOPS THE DJTV CHARTS

I

f you haven't checked out Perry Jenkins Green Screens & Ham

GIVES THANKS FOR NEW

JUICE DROPS

G

raphic Designers and

their holiday clients can all give thanks for the

episode of Production Notes you're really

newly-released Juice

missing out on one of the best and

Drops volume 46:

01. JD45: halloweenHAUNTS

certainly most popular episodes of

thanksGIVING. The

02. JD42: highIMPACT IV

Digital Juice Television to date. We're

volume includes 70 high-resolution, layered

03. JD41: frescoVITA

shooting to reach 10,000 unique viewers

Thanksgiving- and fall-themed PSD images

of this episode in the next few weeks and

in awesome autumn hues to give your

06. JD10: ultra3D

that will be a real milestone for DJTV.

designs the feel of fall. Because Juice Drops

07. JD27: glassEDGE

Digital Juice Television is a long-term

are delivered as layered PSD files, you can

08. JD37: sportsCUTS

vision for us. All we ask is that you check

turn layers on or off to remix the designs

out the episodes, and if moved to do so,

however you like. Juice Drops volume 46:

rate and comment. I guarantee this

thanksGIVING is available now for $249, but

episode will make you chuckle at least

you can get it for as little as $49 when

once or your money-back.

bundled with other Juice Drops volumes.

TOP

04. JD43: popLIFE 05. JD44: frameCUTS II

09. JD24: geoIMPACT 10. JD21: businessIMPACT

* based on Aug./Sept. sales figures

8

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

FEATURE

STOCK

REPORT

THE

the future of royalty-free content

How Royalty-Free Photos, Animations and Music are Changing to Meet Your Needs & Budget by The Editors

A

DMITTEDLY DIGITAL JUICE IS MORE THAN A LITTLE BIASED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF ROYALTY-FREE STOCK

CONTENT. After all, we spend most of our days developing and creating it. Being a big-picture company, we realize that every now and then it's a good idea to stop what you're doing, pick up your head, and

“We wanted to give you

take a look around to assess the situation. This is the only way we can know, as a company, whether we are heading in the right direction or if

our take on where things

we need to change our course. After recently assessing the current

are now, and postulate as

state of stock, we wanted to give you our take on where things are

to where they might be going in the future.”

now, and postulate as to where they might be going in the future. The state of stock is certainly an important consideration for creators of media. So, for you owners of stock Digital Juice content, be it our music, animations, graphic elements, or sound effects, here is our November 2006 State of Stock report.

10

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

FEATURE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

“Eventually the very definition of production music will probably be music that in some way adapts to the need of the editor.” PHOTOS

The biggest segment of the royalty-free content market, stock photos never really took off until the Internet. Photo buying was a natural fit for the Internet because of the relatively low bandwidth requirements. Even the highest resolution images are generally JPEGs, keeping the size down to only a few megabytes. The “big boys” in the industry—Getty Images, Jupiter Media, and Corbis—are fighting it out for the top spot, acquiring companies and building alliances. It’s a high stakes game and there are many changes on the horizon. Some smaller companies hope to put a dent in the big three’s market share. The rise of the ultra low cost photo providers, where you can purchase images for as little as $1 or even yearly subscriptions for a few hundred dollars, is putting extreme pressures on the royaltyfree photo marketplace. There will always be some who are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for the right photo, but there will be a lot more who won’t and will opt instead for lower cost alternatives. The best hope that the big companies have is to compete on quality and uniqueness. But they’d be smart to also place side bets and create their own low cost solutions. In a way companies like Jupiter and Getty already are by creating professional subscription services. Granted some of these run into the thousands of dollars per year, but that gets paid for quickly when you’re talking about a few hundred dollars per photo. Of the big three, Jupiter Media seems to be most aggressive, going after both ends of the pricing game.

Many have asked us why Digital Juice has never really gotten into the professional photo market. We look at it very closely every six months or so, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we someday put our spin on it, but the costs are high and the competition is fierce and has deep pockets. So we’ll take our time and do it eventually, but likely with a twist so that we don’t have to compete head to head with the big three right out of the gate. MUSIC & SOUND FX

Music and Sound FX have been two areas that have relatively mature royalty-free markets and acceptance. Every video production facility in the world has a need for music, and for 95% of them, royaltyfree music works perfectly fine. Do you really need a custom music bed or even a needle-drop piece for every corporate video or commercial? Of course not. The needle-drop and royalty based production music companies always blast the quality of royaltyfree music, but buyers are waking up to the realization that this is mostly marketing speak. The reality is that royalty-free music and sound effects have gotten just as good, and in many cases better, than their more expensive counterparts.

“production music” will probably be ‘music that in some way adapts to the need of the editor.’ Editors, by the very nature of their jobs, need flexibility and choices. Simply turning the volume up or down is no longer enough. Digital Juice’s solution to this problem was a simple one, we decided about three years ago that all our new music would be provided in layers. That way you could simply turn on or off the parts of the music that you didn’t want. You can lower the volume of just certain layers or drop everything but a single layer for added emphasis and focus. Both SmartSound and Sony are now following suit, releasing their own take on the layered music concept, and we’re pretty sure it won’t be long before other companies will follow as well, it’s just a good idea.

GRAPHICS

Graphics content is probably the oldest form of royalty-free content. We all remember buying huge collections of clip art at our local software stores. Most of it was old, and even more of it was junk, but there was usually enough useful, handy stuff in there to make it worth the low purchase price. Digital Juice has always been a big provider of graphics. Our still graphics business collections like Digital Juice 2.0 and Presenter’s Toolkit, were the two biggest presentation libraries ever created. Today Digital Juice is putting most of its energy and creativity into professional packages like the layered Juice Drops library. (continued on page 12)

Where royalty-free music is really taking off is in the area of customizable music. SmartSound, Digital Juice, and Sony are all leaders in this area. Eventually the very definition of

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

MBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 11

FEATURE

“The common theme for the future seems to be content that bends to meet your specific needs, rather than forcing you to adjust your vision to fit the content.”

(continued from page 11) Like with layered music, layered graphics in the ubiquitous Photoshop format give the user the most power and flexibility. It is extremely difficult and time consuming to change non-layered imagery. But with layered content you can simply turn off what you don’t want, colorize it, instantly mask it, or drag it to another composition. The only problem with layered graphics is that the files are huge. One high resolution Juice Drop can be as big as 500 megabytes. Now that Internet bandwidth is increasing and DVDs are the standard media for content delivery there seems to be no reason why more companies shouldn’t be providing layered imagery instead of flattened files. In the future we would like to create layered graphics that get even easier to customize for those who don’t have or use Photoshop. ANIMATION

Digital Juice is lucky enough to currently be in the catbird seat when it comes to royalty-free broadcast animations. We’ve been doing it the longest, have the most, and in our collective opinion, we have the best. But we aren’t going to sit back and wait for competition to strike. We like to take charge and lead the way. So being the leader in this area, where do we see it going? In the production world there is a strong move toward HD and anyone providing, creating or buying animations is likely to be moving in that direction now or very soon. Within 5 years almost all video production will likely be done in HD of some form, though there will probably still be a big market for standard definition animations for the web and presentation market. More and more business users are wanting to add spice to their presentations and move away from the boring blue PowerPoint backgrounds to something more visually interesting and television-like that will keep the audience attention.

But all of that is just an inevitable evolutionary step. The next revolution in professional animation and content in general will be customizablility. Video production is a form of artistic expression, and as art, everyone wants to put as much of themselves into it and make the end product as unique as possible. Many customers take our animations into applications like After Effects and customize them in some way. But not everyone has the time, creativity, or talent to become a motion design animator, and many don’t have the budget to hire one either. To this end we envision the development of smarter, easier-to-use tools and smart animated content to go along with those tools. Animations that allow you to change more than just the color, perhaps even allowing you to incorporate your own video right into the animation. Perhaps if there was text floating in an animation that you could change to match the subject of your video. Some form of layered animations will likely be one of the first incarnations of this idea, the ability to turn on and off certain aspects of an animation is appealing to many of our customers and we are working on the software tools to do just that and more. FINAL THOUGHTS

So what does it all mean and where’s it going? The common theme for the future seems to be, here’s that word again, customizable content. Content that bends to meet your specific needs, rather than forcing you to adjust your vision to fit the content. Everything from shoes to cars are going in the direction of extreme customization, and we don’t think professional content should be any different. The current state of royalty-free stock content is good, and the future of stock is bright. And as more and more stock content becomes more and more customizable, the producer/presenter/ designer will reap dividends of more freedom, more flexibility and more control over the content, resulting in increased creativity and a high return on investment. The wise creative professional will invest in building his or her “stock portfolio.” ■

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

JUICE DROPS

the

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

making From conception to customer by Jacqui Dawson

W

Figure 1

ith so many possible subjects and styles to choose from, people often wonder just

how the team at Digital Juice goes about creating a volume of Juice Drops illustrations. While the exact process can vary depending on the volume, we have developed a set of steps that allow us to streamline the creative process. In order to show you the basics of the workflow, let's trace the development of one image from our upcoming Juice Drops Volume 46: thanksGIVING from conception to customer. VOLUME MATTERS

The first step is to figure out the theme of a volume. This decision depends on a variety of factors: customer demand, time of year, R&D on new styles and speed of execution, for example. For the thanksGIVING volume, this decision was an easy one. We had customers desperate for holiday and event imagery and this was too wide a subject area to cover in one volume. We started work on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas volumes with the goal of releasing them well ahead of time for these holiday periods. IDEATION

Figure 2

Figure 3 14

|

Before we set our illustrators loose on creating Thanksgiving-themed sketches, Dave Hebel and I met to plan out and develop Idea Pages for each of the 70 illustrations. These Idea Pages contained detailed text descriptions (see Anatomy of an Idea Page Sidebar) as well as photo, style and composition references for each graphic. Since Dave is a busy man, and was in Singapore at the time, I flew there to spend a week brainstorming and collecting reference materials while we fleshed the volume out. As they were completed,

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

we posted our ideas, references and image descriptions on our company Collaborator for the design team to access back home. This detailed planning process is something that doesn’t always have to happen on our more abstract volumes where the artists have more control of what they create. However, because of the tight timeframe and specific nature of this volume, it was necessary to clearly describe to the team what we expected from them. We also found this to be a good way to keep track of the status of the development of the volume and to avoid duplication. SKETCH AWAY

Once the team has the ideas laid out for them, it is time to start sketching. Any images we create that are not largely abstract start out as hand-rendered pencil sketches in A4 size (Figure 1). Despite our dependence on, and love of, technology, in just about every other aspect of our product development, we still get the best results by letting our experienced sketch artists work out the details of composition and style with pencil and paper first.

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

of a Juice Drop Figure 4

Figure 5

Once the first sketch is drawn (Figure 2) the artist scans it into the computer at 300dpi (Figure 3) and posts a low-res version of it on our Web-accessible Collaborator for approval. There are often several rounds of revisions (Figure 4) before the final sketch is approved (Figure 5). COLOR ME

Next, the sketch is assigned to one of our finishing artists to color and texture according to a prescribed style or palette. In the case of our example image, the suggested style is like that of our pastelSKETCH volume. We decided to go with colors and materials that suggest a chilly autumn day.

The finishing artist first brings the scanned sketch into Photoshop (Figure 6) on a canvas size of 11.25 x 17.25 at 300dpi and in an RGB color space. Once the artist has determined how the image will be framed in this canvas size, he enlarges the working area so that there is room to extend objects outside the canvas boundaries. This gives users the flexibility to move and scale layers in the final graphic. The artist then starts drawing paths for each separate object in the layout (Figure 7), so that separating elements out to individual layers will be easier during the coloring and finishing process. (continued on page 16)

Anatomy of an Idea Page Idea #53: Description Hayride with a group of people sitting on piles and bales of hay in the back of a wagon pulled by two draught horses. Horses should be light brown, with pale blonde mane and tail. Wagon should be old-fashioned in style, with red spoke wheels and green panel or post sides. Wagon is being pulled through a field with rolls of hay scattered through it and a red barn in the distance. The wagon and horses should be seen from behind so that people in wagon are more visible. They should look like they are having fun, bundled up in coats, waving and laughing.

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8 Figure 10

Figure 9

make sure that the layers are complete, useful and in the proper sequence and that effects and masks have not been merged unnecessarily.

(continued from page 15) FINISH UP

TO THE CUSTOMER

In the finishing stage, the background layers are built up first (Figure 8), followed by the foreground objects, people, subjects and their shadows and effects, all on their own layers (Figure 9). Each layer element is then fine finished and the overall image is worked on as a whole, including the pieces of the image elements that extended beyond the canvas area (Figure 10). At this stage, the progress of the illustration is also tracked via posts and comments on our Collaborator. There are lots of adjustments and revisions at this stage.

By using this streamlined process to develop our illustration volumes, we can easily produce more and better volumes of graphics for our customers. Our inhouse Collaborator system keeps track of progress at every stage and makes it easy for managers and creative leads to access all of our ongoing projects from a distance (when necessary) and to organize final products to prepare for mastering and production.

The completed image goes through two rounds of technical quality control to

Jacqui Dawson is Creative Director/ Product Manager for the Juice Drops product line and is also the Art Director of Digital Juice Magazine.

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

JUICE DROPS

Juice Drop Vol 31: foodFUSION #3101

Figure 1

SEE COMPLETE PRODUCT GALLERIES

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Hooray for Heroes!

Using Juice Drops Hero Elements in Your Edits by Chuck Peters

D

on’t make the mistake of thinking that Juice Drops are only

for print design. Juice Drops can also be an extremely

valuable resource for video editors. In this article I’ll introduce you to just one way that you might use Juice Drops elements in your

Figure 2

edits, but creative cutters will find that there are no limits for these flexible files.

Because they are delivered as layered Photoshop files, you can “ easily extract a hero to use as a stand-alone object in a graphic. ” flexible and highly valuable tool for anyone that creates graphics, whether the design is destined for distribution on a printed page or on a television screen. MY HERO

Figure 3c Figure 3b

18

|

Anyone can see that Juice Drops are cool. Because a large team of talented artists creates them, Juice Drops are fresh and interesting and there are a wide variety of styles and looks to choose from. The secret is to look at a Juice Drops graphic not as a flat image, but as a group of elements that can be broken apart. Because Juice Drops are delivered as layered Photoshop files, you can pull off just a piece to use in your production. This makes Juice Drops an extremely

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

#1 First, I browsed through the Juice Drops

STEP

ART YOU TAKE APART

Here at Juice we refer to large, prominent objects in Juice Drops graphics as “hero” elements. Spotting cool hero elements in Juice Drops isn’t difficult and there are tons of cool heroes to choose from. Here’s the secret that make Juice Drops so cool for video editors: Because they are delivered as layered Photoshop files, you can easily extract a hero to use as a stand-alone object in a layout. To demonstrate, I created a mock commercial for a local burger joint’s new hamburger, featuring a hero element that I extracted from a Juice Drop. Here’s how I did it, step-by-step. HUNT DOWN YOUR HERO

collection, looking at Juice Drops for

inspiring objects. The big burger featured in Juice Drop #3101 from volume 31 foodFUSION (Figure 1) caught my eye and struck me as the perfect icon in a commercial for a new burger at Mike’s Burger Barn. Remember, even though the image shows other objects, it’s easy to isolate an element to use as an independent object.

#2 Launch Photoshop and open the layered

STEP

Figure 3a

POP IT INTO PHOTOSHOP

version (PSD) of the Juice Drops graphic. Juice Drops are delivered as both flat TIFF files and as layered PSDs, so make sure you grab the disc with the PSD images. To isolate your hero, you need to work with the layered file. Now that you have the layered file open in Photoshop, look at the Layers window (Figure 2). This particular Juice Drops graphic is made up of 16 separate layers. Once you have the file in Photoshop and you’re looking at your Layers list, you’re ready for Step 3.

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

JUICE DROPS

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Figure 4a

turn off the elements you don’t want. Because I’m just after the burger, I’ve turned off layers 1-14 (Figure 3a), leaving just my heroic hamburger (layer 16) and its shadow (layer 15). As you turn off a layer, you’ll see an updated version of the image in the interface. Once you’ve turned layers off and on to isolate the elements to your liking, hold the Shift key and click to select the range of layers you don’t need and then right click and select Delete Layers to dump them (Figure 3b & 3c). STEP

#4 Hold the Shift key and click

MERGE THE LAYERS

both remaining layers, then right click and select Merge Layers from the menu. This will combine your remaining layers into one easy-to-manipulate (flattened) object. If you would like to be able to manipulate the layers separately when you edit in another Adobe application, skip this step. Or you can output the layers individually to work in other apps. STEP

#5

SCALE IT DOWN

Because Juice Drops are so big, you need to scale your hero down before taking it into your editing app. My hamburger was absolutely huge at 5175x3375 pixels (Figure 4a). This is awesome for print purposes, but a bit big for my 720x480 DV project. To shrink it down to a workable size, select Image Size from the drop down menu and type 720 in the Width parameter (Figure 4b).

Because the Height and Width are linked, the Height will change automatically to keep the image in perspective.

#6 Another cool thing about Juice Drops is

STEP

ISOLATE THE ELEMENT

TRANSFORM IT TO FIT

that many objects that fall out of the frame in the original design are actually complete objects that extend beyond the visible area. In the original design, my burger falls out of the frame (Figure 5a), but the whole thing is still there. To pull it back into the visible area, select Edit > Transform > Scale. Expand the window (if necessary) to see the handles on the corner of the image (Figure 5b) and hold the Shift key while you click and drag the handle to scale the image in size, then click in the box and drag the image into the visible area (Figure 5c). Now that you can see the whole object, apply the Transformation and select File > Save As to save it before going to your editing application. Save the image in a format that supports alpha channel transparency, such as PNG, for applications that do not open PSD layered files.

#7

STEP

STEP

#3 Click the eyeball icon next to a layer to

IMPORT INTO YOUR EDITOR

Run your editing software and import the object:

IN ADOBE PREMIERE: Select File > Import, and browse to the file. You will see an Import Layered File window. Select Import As > Footage, and, to bring the layers as one combined object, check Merged Layers in the Layer Options box (Figure 6). If you would like to

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

work with layers independently, check Choose Layer, and repeat the process for each layer. When you drag the clip to the timeline, Premiere will automatically key out the alpha area.

IN VEGAS VIDEO: Use the built-in Explorer window in Vegas to browse to the location of the file and then drag it to your timeline. There are two ways to work with your image: the cliplevel Pan/Crop tool or the track-level Track Motion tool. Personally, I find the Track Motion tool to be more intuitive - just make sure you watch your keyframes so they don’t mess up other clips that are in the same track.

Figure 4b

Figure 5a

Figure 5b

IN FINAL CUT PRO: Select File > Import, and browse to the file. Select the file and press the Choose button. The file will appear in the Bin in your Browser window. Drag the file directly into the Sequence in your Timeline window. FCP will automatically key out the alpha. EDIT IT IN

Once I had the burger element, the edit was easy. I assembled this simple spot in Adobe Premiere Pro. First I created a gradient background by opening File > New > Title and drawing a box using the Rectangle (continued on page 24)

Figure 5c

NOVEMBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 19

JUICE DROPS

Hooray for Heroes! (continued from page 19)

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

tool in Premiere’s Title Designer, and applying a gradient fill from dark burgundy to red. I dropped my gradient background on the Video 1 track of my timeline and returned to the project bin to grab that burger. I put the burger on the Video 3 track (leaving track 2 open for my text, so it would appear to be layered behind my big beefy hero element) and used Premiere’s

Figure 6

Effect Controls to center it in the frame. The “in” movement is just a simple Slide transition effect out of Premiere’s Effects bin. Once the burger hit the middle of the screen at the end of the move, I wanted it to shrink back to make room for some text. I used Premiere’s Effect Controls to drop in a couple of keyframes and scale the burger back a bit, keeping my movements quick and sharp. Next I created my “Monster Mega Burger” text using the font AdLib BT Regular. A thick black outer stroke (with a thickness of 32) gave the text a strong edge. I animated my text in from the right with another wipe: a Sliding Box effect. HOORAY FOR HEROES… AND HAMBURGERS!

Thanks to my heroic hamburger I was able to completely cut my commercial without a video shoot. The entire edit was done in

20

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

Photoshop and Premiere (no After Effects necessary). Premiere’s Effect Controls and wipes provided all of the movement I needed. The end result is a fast paced piece that makes Mike’s Burger Barn look like a million bucks - All thanks to a Juice Drops hero element, and a dash of creativity. With 45 volumes of Juice Drops, most with 100 designs made up of multiple layers, the limitations are literally limitless (ok, maybe not LITERALLY... but very close!). So quit thinking of Juice Drops as a product that’s not practical for producers. Once you get your hands on a hero or two, you’ll be hungry for all the Juice Drops you can get.

Chuck Peters is VP of Media & Publications for Digital Juice and the Editor of Digital Juice Magazine.

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

GRAPHIC DESIGN

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

It’s in There! Embedding Logos in Your Layered Designs by Brent Milby

J

uice Drops are Digital Juice's high-res layered Photoshop® files that allow you to create your own customized composite

Figure 1

Juice Drops Vol 27: glassEDGE #2733

graphics. Because Juice Drops are delivered as layered files, you can layer your logos into your compositions, placing them behind or in front of any other layers to incorporate them as subtle textural elements within your designs. This allows you to create a custom look and make your logo part of the art.

modes affect how a layer will appear “ Blending in relation to all of the layers beneath it. You can use these blending modes to achieve all kinds of special effects.

”

TRANSFORMATIONS

One way to incorporate your logo into a Juice Drop is to use the Transformation functions to match the perspective of the logo to the 3d perspective of a Juice Drop. If you’re using a Juice Drop that has perspective in it, for instance, like the computer screen in Juice Drop 2733 (Figure 1), you’ll need to find parallel and perpendicular lines to use as references. Let’s look at how the Distort Transformation function allows you to cornerpin a layer to a rectangular shape in the image. If you can pinpoint any 4 quadrilateral points in the perspective of the image, you can use those points as a guide for your cornerpins (Figure 2). Figure 2

22

|

Quadrilateral points in the perspective of the image can be used as guide for cornerpins

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

Figure 3

Transform menu

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

4a

Figure 4

Blending Modes

4b 4c Ctrl+T will access the transformation bounding box for a layer. When you right click inside the bounding box you’ll find a selection of Transform functions — Free Transform, Scale, Rotate, Skew, Distort and Perspective (Figure 3). These functions give you all the control you need to put your logo into any perspective you like. BLENDING MODES

An important detail for embedding your logo is to be mindful of Blending modes. Blending modes affect how a layer will appear in relation to all of the layers beneath it. You can use these blending modes to achieve all kinds of special effects. Understanding how each blending mode works and what it’s used for is very helpful in getting predictable results, but when you’re searching for something that jumps out at you, I recommend trying

them all. Figures 4a–4c show how our logo looks before and after we apply the Screen blending mode. With it, our Digital Juice logo blends more seamlessly into the computer monitor. Now the reflection falls on top of the logo making it more visually logical. Your logo has the burden of clearly defining your company or product with very few words. It's not a simple task to synthesize so many ideas into one easily understandable symbol. Designing an iconic, enduring brand and corresponding logo is not an easy task, but with a little help from Digital Juice and a little imagination, your logos can command attention with grace and finesse.

Brent Milby is Senior Animator at Digital Juice.

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

FONTS

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

10 Font Facts

A Designer’s Guide to Text Treatments by Michael P. Hill

Figure 1

W

Serifs, indicated by the red circles, are the little “feet” or “hooks” on the edges of the letters. Fonts with serifs are typically used for large blocks of body text. Sans serif fonts do not have these hooks, and are often used for titles and headlines. Times on top and Arial on bottom.

ith so many options for stock images and backgrounds, it is easy to overlook one of the most important tools

designers have for getting a message across: text. Fortunately, there are some fast and easy ways to find fonts and formatting that go beyond simply typing text. Understanding a few font factors will allow you to create professional text treatments with the best of them.

Once you’ve selected your fonts, you need to format “your type to create eye-catching design elements. ” FINDING YOUR FONT

There are thousands of fonts available, ranging in price from free, to a few dollars, to hundreds of dollars. Whatever your budget, there are some important points to remember when selecting a font:

Figure 2

24

|

It’s important to match your font to your subject matter. The script typeface and light, airy font (top, Script is Shelley Allegro; lighter font is Helios Light) make a great logo for a day spa. However, the heavy, bold font (middle) doesn’t seem appropriate for a relaxing spa. The blocky font is more at home for a body shop logo (bottom, font Letterman solid).

Serif or Sans Serif?: In typography, serifs are the little “hooks” or “feet” on the end of letters. Times New Roman is an example of a common serif font. Sans serif fonts, on the other hand, lack the hooks on the ends of the letters (“sans” is Latin for “without”): a good example is Arial (Figure 1). It’s usually best to set large blocks of text, such as articles or descriptions, in a serif font. Studies have shown that people can read and comprehend serif typefaces better. On the other hand, headline and display text can be set in either serif or sans serif fonts. It’s quite common, however, to use

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

a heavier, sans serif font for headlines and a serif font in body copy. Match the font to the message: Font’s have their own “feel” or “personality.” The style of a given font may make it better suited for certain uses. Let’s say you’re

Figure 3

producing a logo for a day spa, you’ll want a font that matches the personality of the spa. In this case, you might select a script font for a clean, smooth typeface. Most likely you’ll want to avoid anything too heavy. On the other hand, a heavier typeface would work better for more

The typographical design of this poster uses the interesting and elegant font, Trajan, to emphasize the word “Shine.” The text is the dominant element of the project. Font Trajan (with Juice Drop 4240)

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

FONTS

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

industrial applications, such as an auto shop (Figure 2). Avoid too much of a good thing: As a rule of thumb, it’s generally best to avoid using more than two or three fonts in a single project to maintain consistency. If you’re looking for more variety, however, look for a font that has multiple weights or styles, such as condensed or extended. You can get a good mix using variations while still maintaining the same basic look. Readability first: It can be hard to resist using the cool font you just discovered, but don’t let that get in the way of the legibility. After all, your project won’t do any good if the text is too hard to read. Branch out: Avoid overused fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica or Comic Sans. There are plenty of great alternates that have a similar look, but are different enough to add some uniqueness to your project. For Times-like fonts, try Minion, Garamond or Century Schoolbook. Arial look-alikes include Helios and Franklin Gothic. TREATING YOUR TEXT

Once you’ve selected your fonts, you need to format your type to create eyecatching design elements. Text as a design element: Instead of overdoing it with art, try turning a few key words into an eye-catching, stylized typographical component that becomes a dominant artistic element of your project (Figure 3). This works great for budgets

that don’t allow for photography or when you’re looking for something a little different. You can blow the text up fairly large and use fonts that have interesting serifs or flairs. This type of technique works very well with a subtle background, such as those in the Juice Drops library. Picture perfect: If your design includes photographs or illustrations, try layering text directly over the image in the negative spaces of the photos (Figure 4). It’s usually best to avoid covering the main subject in the photo, but areas such as grass, sky or water often make great places to place text, especially when combined with the next tip. Add some glow: When placing text over photos, add a drop shadow or outer glow effect to the text to make it stand out (Figure 4). If the photo you are using is light, black shadows and glows usually work best. Over darker photos, you can use white or gray instead. To add a shadow or outer glow in Photoshop, create a text layer and right-click on the layer. Select Blending Options, then select either Drop Shadow or Outer Glow and then experiment with adjusting the various settings. Tuck your text: When writing headlines for ads or other layouts, trying breaking the words into two or three lines and tuck the words into the spaces created naturally by some letters (Figure 5). You can also try varying type sizes or running some text in all capital letters. Maybe

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

take a key word or phrase from your headline and make it bold, change the color or increase the size. Another tip that works well in multi-line layouts is to let a shadow or glow overlap other text elements. This gives the layout a unique sense of depth. Hand style it: Try adjusting the letter spacing of your text to crunch the characters closer together or spread them out for interesting artistic effects. You can also adjust the space between the lines (leading) to create different effects. Instead of using your layout or design program’s built-in small caps feature, try adjusting the smaller capital letters yourself: preformatted small caps effect often don’t have the optimal proportion between the large and small capitals.

Figure 4

Negative spaces in photos make great places to place text, especially when combined with a drop shadow or glow effect. Headline and body copy in Minion.

Michael P. Hill is a marketing assistant and Web specialist at FX Group, a broadcast news set design, fabrication and installation firm in Orlando. He also runs a small graphic design agency, Clearhill Creative. Figure 5

Tucking your text creates a professional look and feel. The words ‘the seas’ are tucked nicely into the space next to the descender of the letter ‘g’.

NOVEMBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 25

INSPIRATION

SEE COMPLETE PRODUCT GALLERIES

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Volume Spotlight Volume 46 of the Juice Drops library, thanksGIVING, covers the holiday from A to Z. Turkey dinners, pilgrims and Indians, pumpkin pie and thanksgiving prayers—these illustrations come in a variety of styles from whimsical to ultra-realistic. As with all Juice Drops volumes, these images 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 time and time again. Check out a few examples of what’s in the volume and how it can be used at right and below.

JD46:thanksGIVING This is just a small sampling of the 100 different layered designs in this volume.

Hidden under the empty plate and cutlery in JD #4606, are a number of beautifully drawn fall leaves. These leaves were duplicated and used in this billboard for a jewelry store (above) where they serve to accent both the jewelry and the model’s face. The colorful rendition of a wild turkey in JD #4627 makes a perfect bold graphic for this seasonal beer (right). The same campaign used the football-watching scene in JD #4650 to promote the product in print ads and posters (far right, top). Taking the Thanksgiving elements out of JD #4606 and using just the empty plate and cutlery layers, the promotional ad for this diet book (far right, bottom) makes a strong impact with very little text.

26 | DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

Digital Juice Design Series • Book 1

101

Juice Drops Tips & Tricks

compiled and edited by

Jacqui Dawson These pages are excerpted from the upcoming book 101Juice Drops Tips & Tricks, the first in a new book series available next year from Digital Juice.

TT01

tips & tricks masking a photo into a frame

#06:

Fig. 1

So, you have your honeymoon photo and you have a volume of Juice Drops frame illustrations. Now what? How do you get that photo into a frame so it looks like it belongs there (Figure 1)? Here’s a quick trick using Photoshop Layer Masks. 1. Choose the frame you want to use (in this case, JD #4403 from Juice Drop Volume 44: frameCUTS II) and open it in Photoshop (Figure 2). Scale the layered image down to the size you require for your project. 2. Open your photo in Phototshop and drag it into the frame image as the top layer. Scale down to fit framed area with some overspill (Figure 3). 3. Find a layer in the Layers palette with a shape that roughly corresponds to the framed area (Figure 4). In our case, the blue circle on Layer 13 should fit the bill. Tip: If no layer like this already exists, create a new layer, make a selection on it corresponding to the frame shape and fill this selection with black. Turn off layer visibility. 4. Here’s where the magic begins: first CTRL-click on the thumbnail of Layer 13 (or your own custom frame layer) in the Layers palette (Step 1 in Figure 5). You should see a marching ants selection on top of your image. Next, with the photo layer selected in the Layers palette (Step 2 in Figure 5), click the Layer Mask button at the bottom of the Layers palette (Step 3 in Figure 5). This should automatically create a layer mask on your photo layer in the shape of Layer 13.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6

TT02

5. Not happy with the placement of your photo? No problem. In the Layers palette, click on the small link icon between the thumbnail of your photo and its mask to unlink them (Figure 6). Then click on the photo thumbnail to select it. In the image layout move the photo around to place it properly, rescale, etc. It will only be visible in the masked areas and mask will not scale or move if unlinked. Relink mask and photo when done with modifications. Because we are masking the photo and not cropping it, the entire photo still exists and is editable in your composition. 6. You could stop here but to truly make your photo part of the image, drag the photo layer down within the Layers palette so that some of the transparent graphic layers lay on top of it to get the effect seen in Figure 1.

These pages are excerpted from the upcoming book 101Juice Drops Tips & Tricks

masking graphics into text tips & tricks

#12:

It looks complicated but it’s not. Getting texture and imagery into text is simply a masking technique in Photoshop, but it can be a unique way to get across a powerful message. In this example (Figure 1), the background image matches the image masked into the text but you can use the text layer anywhere, on any other background also. 1. Load the image you want to use to color your text. In this example, the image used is JD #3888 from Juice Drops Volume 38: pastelSKETCH (Figure 2). Flatten the image to one background layer. Then duplicate the layer so you have two layers with the same graphics. Turn off the visibility of the top graphics layer. 2. Select the bottom background graphics layer and change its coloring to shades of grey by adjusting the Saturation to 0 and Lightness to -10 or more depending on image. 2. Next create your text. Large bold fonts are best for this technique as they offer the most fill area for the texture and the headline will be more legible because of it. The color you use for the type is not important as it will not be seen, but white is a good choice since it shows up well on most busier graphics during the creation stage. 3. Once the layout of your type is complete, turn off the type layer’s visibility in the Layers palette. Turn back on the visibility of the upper color background graphics layer. 4. With the color graphics layer selected, CTRLclick on the Type layer thumbnail in the Layers palette. Then click on the small Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (Figure 3). This will create a mask on the graphics layer in the shape of the text.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

5. To help the text stand out further from the grey background, you can also add a drop shadow and stroke to the mask (Figure 4). Any effects you add to the graphics layer, will appear around the edges of the mask, not the layer as a whole.

...the first in a new book series available next year from Digital Juice.

Fig. 4

TT03

tips & tricks focus attention with color

#31:

Fig. 1

One of the easiest ways to draw attention to anything is to add color. In the case of this technique using JD #4154 from Juice Drops Volume 41: frescoVITA, emphasis is added when color is taken away from the background of an image and the hero element is left alone in color (Figure 1). Because of the layered nature of Juice Drops images, this is very simple to do. 1. To maintain maximum editing flexibility in the design, first select the layer immediately below the main hero element layers. Then add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer to it by clicking on the Adjustment layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette (Figure 2). Lower the Saturation to 0 and the Lightness to -20 or lower depending on the design. This Adjustment Layer will affect any layer below it but will not hinder you from moving or scaling any of the layers to edit the layout if required. You can also move other layers above the adjustment layer in order to return them to their original color look. 2. Finish the look off by adding a drop shadow to your bottom hero layer so that it stands out from the background even further.

build a new backdrop

tips & tricks

#32:

What do you do when you have a photograph with the right subject but a completely wrong background, and money and time are tight? Answer: Sub in a new backdrop. Instead of spending money on setting up a new photoshoot or finding another stock photo that’s almost right, isolate your subject and place her on a new background graphic. Here we used just the scaled down background sky layers in JD #4165 from Juice Drops Volume 41: frescoVITA to brighten up an ad for a school. Fig. 2

TT04

These pages are excerpted from the upcoming book 101Juice Drops Tips & Tricks,

make room for type tips & tricks

#54: Fig. 1

Not all Juice Drops are born to be text templates. Some of the more illustrated images would seem to be so full of graphic elements that they could never have room for text headlines or logos. Such is the case with JD #4338 from Juice Drops Volume 38: popLIFE (Figure 1).

Fig. 2

background as hero

However with a little layer play in Photoshop, you will find that underneath those graphic elements are wide open spaces just looking for a headline to host. Here’s what we did for the Spring Fashion Event at Leineman’s (Figure 2).

tips & tricks

#55:

1. Select layers 5-14, 19 and 21-28 (Figure 3). Scale them down by 60% and move to the lower left.

Inspiration for design can come from anywhere and sometimes the simplest element can be the most dramatic. For this book cover, the background layers in JD #4461 from Juice Drops Volume 44: frameCUTS II were used as the main focus of the design. One single graphic water drop shape was left in light blue while the rest of the drops were tinted darker. Because these drops are all isolated elements, treating this background element as a hero was easy and made for an effective cover graphic.

...the first in a new book series available next year from Digital Juice.

2. Mask out or erase the Garden flowers sign and the right hand vine elements on layers 2, 18, 20 and 21. Fig. 3

Voila! You now have a perfect place in the center to place the ad headline and perfect spot in the lower right corner for the store logo.

TT05

tips & tricks heroic logo design

#66:

Fig. 1 Fig. 3

Logo design is a tricky thing. You have to keep things simple but meaningful in a very small space. In this example, you can see how inspiration for a strong graphic element can come from the most unexpected places. This clean simple logo design (Figure 1) is a clear case of less is more. No fancy textures or effects, no complex symbology— just a plain black outline of a hero element derived from a much more complex illustration— JD #4176 from Juice Drops Volume 41: frescoVITA (Figure 2). Of the 31 available layers (Figure 3), only the uppermost 31st layer was pulled from this illustration to serve as the basis for a corporate identity. Because all layers are separate in Juice Drop illustrations, the outline of this hero element is contained on its own layer separate from the body of the frog, ready to use.

Fig. 2

The Leap Frog corporate identity, established with the logo,was then carried on to other promotional materials. In this strong graphic magazine ad (Figure 4),a repetition of the logo graphic in a tiled background relates both to the corporate logo and to the message,thus reinforcing the company’s name and identiity in the viewer’s

Fig. 4

TT06

These pages are excerpted from the upcoming book 101Juice Drops Tips & Tricks,

repeat after me tips & tricks

#87: Fig. 1

Repeat after me: Juice Drop Layered images give you more flexible design options. Good. Now let’s put that statement in action.

Fig. 2

JD #4055 from Juice Drops Volume 40: frameCUTS (Figure 1) has a great look and a wide open framed area, ready for text. But let’s make it even better for this DVD packaging project by using a little layer repetition along with the addition of some of our own photography (Figure 2). 1. Select the main layers that make up the film frame shape—layers 4 & 12 (Step 1 in Figure 3). 2. Duplicate both layers 3 times so that you have 4 copies total (Step 2 in Figure 3). 3. Leaving the original two layers in the same position, move each of the Layer 4 copies so that it lies underneath the corresponding Layer 12 copy in the Photoshop Layers palette. Link each set of copies—Layer 4 copy 1 linked with Layer 12 copy 1, etc. Then select each of these layer pairs individually and move them to various positions in the composition until the headline area is framed with film frame edges (Step 3 in Figure 3). 4. Bring in a photo to add more interest and finish DVD box design (Figure 4).

the first in a new book series available next year from Digital Juice.

Fig. 3 Fig. 4

Adapting the DVD box design to the DVD face is a simple matter of scaling and rotating the main headline to make it fit the smaller space. If more space was required, we could also turn off one or more sets of the copied frames to provide it.

TT07

tips & tricks blending a boring photo

#96:

Your client provides the art. It’s less than stellar, not as dramatic as you had hoped. Here’s how you fix it to create the ad with impact you have envisioned (Figure 1): Fig. 1

1. Load a Juice Drop layered background into Photoshop and flatten it. Scale to the size you need in your layout. Figure 2 shows the one we chose— JD #4244 from Juice Drops Vol. 42: highIMPACT. 2. Duplicate this graphic layer and colorize red. 3. Create a layer mask on the first graphic layer that cuts the graphic in half with a diagonal in the middle. Create the corresponding opposite layer mask on the red tinted graphic layer so that the two layers now comprise two halves of a rectangle. 4. Bring in the photo and scale it to around the size needed to fit in the left side of the layout, on top of the color background. With the photo layer selected, click on the layer mask thumbnail for the color graphic layer in the Layers palette. Then click the small Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to create an identical layer mask on the photo layer.

Fig. 3

5. Change the Layer blending mode of the photo layer to Overlay. Duplicate the photo layer and change the copy’s blending mode to Soft Light (Figure 3). Complete the layout with your text.

photo outside the frame

Fig. 2

TT08

tips & tricks

#99: Don’t be afraid to color outside the lines. Frames work great for containing pictures but they are also very effective when a photo is only partly held in by them. In this example, JD #4459 from Juice Drops Volume 44: frameCUTS II is colorized and used as a backdrop for this fashion photo spread. It is the headline text which ends up being framed by the Juice Drop layers but the overall effect is of a woman breaking out of the frame that contained her.

These pages are excerpted from the upcoming book 101Juice Drops Tips & Tricks, the first in a new book series available next year from Digital Juice.

PRE-PRINT

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Prepping for Print

The Fundamentals of Formatting your Files for the Press by Billy Nendza

W

hen Chuck Peters asked me to write about taking a design from the computer to the press, I was more than happy to contribute. Having been the go-between of designers and pressman for many years, I’ve learned what to do and more importantly, what NOT to do to get the results you desire. If you are new to publishing, this article will be invaluable to you; I’ll explain a few key things you’ll need to know to communicate well with your printer. If you’re an old pro, it never hurts to be reminded of a few of those steps we all inevitably forget. Unfortunately, there’s not enough space to explain everything. After all, this is an article, not a novel, so I’ll just touch on a few of the biggest points.

millions of colors you see on your screen will not be “ Thereproduced on paper exactly as you see them. ”

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

There are many wrong turns one can make along the way to the printing press that can negatively affect your final product. So to save time and money, first and foremost, you need to communicate clearly and often with your printer. Even before you start a design that’s intended for print, contact your print shop and give them as much information as you can about your impending project and get as much information as you can from them on how to set it up. Every printer is different, so it’s important to find out exactly what your printer needs to handle your job. RGB VS. CMYK

This one is probably my biggest pet peeve as a prepress technician. Beautiful artwork, stunning layout… and RGB everything! It’s enough to make the best technician cry. RGB stands for the red,

green, and blue light that is emitted from a monitor to form the millions of colors you seen on your screen. The key words in that sentence are “on your screen.” Traditional printing uses process and spot colors to reproduce color, and the range of colors that can be produced is not nearly as many as can be produced on a computer monitor. So the millions of colors you see on your screen will not be reproduced on paper exactly as you see them. They can get close, but they won’t be exact. A lot of designers (amateur and pro alike) are not as aware of this concept as we in the printing business would like. A spectacular design on the screen can easily be ruined if it’s not in the correct color space. So to avoid any problems, make sure all submitted artwork is either in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK) and/or the correct spot colors. And please avoid using registration black for any type, lining up four plates of small type can be a nightmare for your pressman.

PHOTO RESOLUTION

How to handle this tends to vary from printer to printer, but as a general rule all graphics used in your layout should be either TIFF or EPS files with no image compression. Many pressman prefer that you not send JPGs, GIFs, or any other type of graphic file. Talk to your specific printing press to know what they prefer. The resolution settings of the pictures should also be at least twice the linescreen you desire for the final product. So if you are printing at 150 line screen, then your image should be at least 300dpi (Figure 1). Also do not enlarge a 300dpi image in your document bigger than its original size, because that will cut down on its resolution. Whatever you do, avoid using low resolution artwork that you have pulled off the Web (Figure 2). I know it’s tempting to use a multitude of “free” art, but the images are normally very low resolution in order to conserve bandwidth and

Figure 1 36

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

downloading time, and they don’t print well. On top of that many images on the Web are copyrighted and you shouldn’t be using them anyway. (BTW, the Copyright Act, as discussed by Mark Levy on page 50 of this issue, applies to artwork as well as music. Make sure you have the proper permission to use all of the images and elements in your designs. —cp) FONTS

Make sure to send your fonts to your printer. In every file you pack up and send to a printer, remember to include copies of the fonts that you used in the design, or make sure the fonts are embedded into the files. It Figure 2

wouldn’t hurt to convert all fonts to paths if possible. Font blowouts and missing fonts are one of the biggest hassles in printing so don’t forget to include a copy. PAPER STOCK

Paper selection is often a matter of personal preference, but if you’d like to keep costs down, while at the same time selecting the best paper for your project, there are a few things to keep in mind. First off, determine what your customer is looking for in the final product, but remind them that it must also remain functional. A 60 pound paper may be cheap but you can’t use it to mail as a postcard. What about choosing a glossy coat versus a non-glossy coat? Glossy coated paper may look sharper, but it is more expensive

PRE-PRINT

and can be overkill. If your particular piece doesn’t showcase any white areas, a glossy shine can become meaningless, since inks give off their own shine anyways. Also keep in mind that a full color image printed on a colored piece of paper could alter the appearance of the colors in that image when printed, so sometimes plain white is best. These points are just a few of the biggies. Don’t be afraid to communicate with your printer, in other words bug them! If you’re trying to make life easier on everyone and produce an accurate and sharp looking product, it’s the best thing you can do.

Billy Nendza is the Pre-press Manager at CMI (Computer Marketing Innovations) in Central Florida.

IN USE @ JUICE

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Camtasia Studio Screen Recording and Presentation Software: In Use @ Juice by Chris “Ace” Gates

I

f you produce corporate, educational, or training videos chances are you’ll one day need to show a computer application’s

interface in your productions. The best way to understand a visual interface is to see it. There are several ways to do this, including

TECHSPECS Camtasia Studio Screen Recording and Presentation Software Price: $299 (single user license) System Requirements: • Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP • Microsoft DirectX 9 or later • 1.0 GHz processor minimum Recommended: 2.5 GHz* • 256 MB RAM minimum Recommended: 1 GB • Windows-compatible sound card, microphone and speakers (recommended) • 40 MB of hard-disk space for program installation • Camtasia Studio Add-in for PowerPoint requires Office 2000, Office XP or later

38

|

shooting your screen with the camera, but the best solution we have found is to use screen-recording software. Here at Digital Juice, my role has kept me busy producing and editing DJTV programs, many of which require me to show computer interfaces to our viewing audience. If Chuck or Eric is talking about finding or selecting an item in the Juicer, for instance, we need to show the Juicer’s interface so the viewer can follow along and reproduce the steps.

Camtasia easily does the job that I ask it to and has “provided me with a workable solution in my workflow. Am I pleased with Camtasia? Absolutely. ” FULL SCREEN CAPTURE

The product that I rely on daily for screen capture is Camtasia Studio from TechSmith. What I like about Camtasia is how it addresses some of the specific needs I have for editing DJTV. The first issue I encounter is in terms of workflow. I need to produce at least three episodes of DJTV per week. There isn’t much time for errors or long work around solutions. Camtasia allows me to record my entire screen with a single keystroke. I just tap a key to start recording, click and mouse around the interface to demonstrate whatever I need to demonstrate, and tap a key again to stop recording. Camtasia

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

saves this recording as a proprietary file type that saves me disk space, which is a good thing because multiple one-minute videos at 1280x1024 can easily consume some major hard drive space. I’m then able to take the proprietary Camtasia file, trim it to select the portions that I want to use as B-roll and render them out as uncompressed AVI files at 1280x1024 that I can drop directly into my NLE. HI-RES RECORDINGS

There are several reasons I want the video at 1280x1024, even though it creates a tremendous file size. One reason for preferring big, uncompressed

files is because down the pipeline my finished production is going to be compressed by our Web guys for distribution. If any of my footage, especially those that are rendered CG, goes through multiple compressions, I run the risk of some ugly artifacts. Unless it’s a shriveled up monkey paw that grants me wishes, I don’t want any ugly artifacts. The second reason that I prefer big files is that I have to be constantly concerned with our means of presentation when creating content for DJTV. DJTV is broadcast on the Web, which translates to a small image. I need to be able to

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

Camtasia allows us to record high-resolution screen shots like these, which can be seen in episodes of DJTV.

create legible recordings of what’s happening on screen so our viewers can understand what’s going on. Simply taking the whole screen shot and squeezing it down is not going to work. I want to draw the viewers’ attention to specific portions of the screen. Camtasia allows me to record the entire screen at 1280x1024, which is a lot bigger than my 720x480 workflow. By having a file with a screen size that is larger than my production’s screen size, I’m able to isolate sections of the interface and display them as “enlarged” without distorting the image by having to blow it up. Camtasia’s big images are a big plus. ROOM TO GROW

There are only slight changes I would make to this software. One would be render times (don’t we all want everything to be real time?), but truth be told, the size of the files that I export from Camtasia move pretty quick on my system. The other issue is that Camtasia

is platform specific, I can use my output on either my Windows machine or my Mac, but Camtasia doesn’t allow you to record any Mac software. This is a definite drawback since I do most of my editing with Final Cut Pro on a Mac. FINAL THOUGHTS

Camtasia easily does the job that I ask it to and has provided me with a workable solution in my workflow. Am I pleased with Camtasia? Absolutely. I used it for some much-needed B-roll in last week’s productions, and I’ll continue to count on it to provide me with footage so I can have three more shows in the can this week. Most importantly, our audience at DJTV will be able to see what’s happening on screen because Camtasia allowed us to show it clearly. I only wish I could use it to record the interface of my Mac.

Chris “Ace” Gates is an Associate Producer at Digital Juice.

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

TAKE 5

WATCH IT ON DJTV!

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Take 5: 5 Useful VTX Uses

THIS ARTICLE IS ALSO A SHOW!

by Chuck Peters

J

To see and hear this article in action (and see other Take 5 episodes with Chuck Peters), check online in the DJTV section of DigitalJuice.com.

most independent producers. You had to drop big bucks to

use just a few clips, so very few people did. Digital Juice’s VideoTraxx library changed that. Now anyone (including you) can

TAKE 5: Season 1, Episode 106

afford to have thousands of clips on their shelf to use however they

Episode Title: Make Editing Easier with Stock Footage Release Date: Sept. 18, 2006

ust a few years ago stock footage was too expensive for

like. You don’t you’d use stock footage? Well don’t go anywhere. In this episode I’ll share five cool ways that VideoTraxx can make your life easier, and your productions better. Don’t believe me? Let’s Take 5!

Stock footage isn’t the rare commodity it used to be. “ In fact it’s something that you can use in every one of your productions in lots of different ways. ” USE #1 COVER YOUR CUTS:

Half-dissolve a general purpose textured animation with a VideoTraxx clip to create a cool textured background that's perfect for text.

VideoTraxx gives you lots of options to cover up awkward edits. We’ve all been there... you’re editing a speech or an interview that was shot with a single camera and, after editing the audio, you’re left with a series of jarring jump cuts. What do you do? Let me start by saying that—for you, from now on—leaving them in is NOT an option.

The best edits you’ll that ever make will be invisible to your viewers. Any edit that draws too much attention to itself, and distracts the viewer from the message of the program, has to go. Editing isn’t about the editing, it’s about the message. Having your subjects jump around the screen like Max Headroom falls under this heading… it’s just not acceptable. I know what you’re thinking… but, Trust me throwing in dissolves to try to smooth those edits out isn’t any better… really, it’s not. I look at it like this: If you wouldn’t see it on a primetime Barbara

Walter’s special on national network TV, it doesn’t belong in your productions either. There’s no reason that their editing should be held to a higher standard than yours. Alright, back to the tips… The better bet in situations like this is to cover those junky jump cuts with cutaways. But... uh oh, you didn’t shoot any! That’s where Videotraxx comes in! – Whether your speaker’s talking about fitness, flamingos, flowers or foreign countries, VTX has the footage you need to cover your cuts. You can use the Juicer’s search tool to find clips on

VideoTraxx lets you assemble entire edits without shooting a frame.With more 10,000 clips in the collection, there are oodles of options.

40

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 200A6

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

TAKE 5

Customize a VideoTraxx clip by colorizing it, adding a blur, and overlaying an Editor's Toolkit graphic element before typing your text.

whatever topic you need, then drop them onto your timeline to mask the offending edits. Let’s watch that sequence now… VTX won’t just keep you from looking like an amateur… it’ll actually make you look like even more of a pro.

Even if you don’t use VideoTraxx clips in your productions, VTX clips can help you make impressive opens for your videos or TV shows.

USE #2 CREATE NO-SHOOT PRODUCTIONS

With VTX, you can create entire programs without touching a camera! Because the VTX library has so many clips – more than 10,000 in the entire collection – you can assemble entire edits without shooting a single frame! A lot of clips were shot as sequences at the same set, so you don’t have to work with just a single clip, you have a whole series of shots. I know for a fact that there are a quite a few commercial, church and corporate producers who are making some pretty killer videos without ever getting out of their seats or leaving their suites.

USE #3 MAKE GREAT GRAPHICS

VideoTraxx clips aren’t just for Broll, they’re also a fantastic foundation for great graphics. Sometimes it takes more than just text and texture to make a great graphic. If you’re looking for fresh ideas for your titles, reach for VTX. Some VTX clips were shot specifically with graphics in mind. Just look for a clip like this one that’s framed to the side, add your text or logo in the empty area... and you’re graphic is good to go. Pretty sweet huh? HOW ABOUT THIS…

You can turn a general purpose Jump Backs animation, like this one from vol 32, Base Camp, into a themed background by dropping your video on

one track, the animation on another and adjusting the transparency of the background just enough to let your footage fade through to the front… for a one-of-a-kind custom text template. Or, colorize the clip, add a blur, and pick out an overlay from an ETK to plop on top… now just type your text and you’ve got yourself a pretty great graphic. If you need a fresh face for your graphics, look to VideoTraxx.

USE #4 INTRO YOUR SHOW

Even if you don’t use VTX clips in your episodes, they can definitely help you add interest to your open. Let’s say we need an open for a travel show we’re working on for a travel agency. A sequence of shots like these - taken straight from VTX - add an instant look of quality. Thanks to VTX, this show has an open that grabs the viewers attention and has them expecting something great. You don’t have to have a network budget to have a slick open for your show. All you need is VideoTraxx.

USE #5 COMMUNICATE CONCEPTS

Some shots work best when they’re not taken literally. Videotraxx clips are a great resource for communicating hardto-communicate concepts. Use them to

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

illustrate stress, or to talk about teamwork, wastefulness, sadness, or success. If you need to impart ideas with images, VideoTraxx is a resource you’ll reach for again and again. Stock footage isn’t the rare commodity it used to be. In fact it’s something that you can use in every one of your productions in lots of different ways. The trick is to keep finding creative ways to use your collection so you can make the most of your media. It’s time to stop thinking of stock footage as a last resort and start reaching for it every time you edit.

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

You can communicate complex concepts clearly with VideoTraxx clips.

NOVEMBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 41

COPYRIGHT

UNDERSTANDING

INDEMNIFICATION Indemnification is a very old principle of law. It does not imply that a party knew in advance there was, is, or will be wrong-

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Copyright Rights: Are you in Danger ?

A Survey of Music Usage by Event Editors

doing. Almost every agreement —

by Mark Levy

intellectual property or otherwise— includes an indemnification

A

provision, even if it’s a statement that no indemnification will apply. There is no presumption, merely

t the gentle insistence of the wonderful folks at Digital Juice, I recently conducted a survey to determine what percentage of

videographers use replacement music, rather than run the risk of a

by using a clause in a contract, that a party is violating, or

very expensive and time-consuming law suit for copyright

intends to violate, the law.

infringement. The Copyright Act is a Federal statute (title 17 of the

Most indemnification clauses are upheld in court. If these clauses were not defensible why would so many agreements include them?

United States Code) and it carries both civil and criminal penalties for those who copy, prepare derivative works (i.e., works that modify and are based upon the copyrighted work), distribute copies, or display another person’s copyrighted work

There is no guarantee that all of

without permission. As a practical matter, our video images are most often original

them will be held valid, but then

works, so no claim of copyright infringement can be brought against us.

again, no one can guarantee that a favored horse will win any given horse race either.

GETTING

PERMISSION Obtaining permission to use

copyrighted music may be easier than you think. For information about requesting permission to use copyrighted music in your productions, contact: z

z

ASCAP—www.ascap.com or email [email protected] BMI—www.bmi.com or email [email protected]

Without obtaining the right to use copyrighted music, we open “ourselves up to the possibility of getting sued by the copyright owner or even getting arrested by local or federal authorities. ” THE SOUND OF MUSIC

The greatest exposure for media makers under copyright laws relates to the use of music and sound effects. Some of us, and I’m not naming names, insert commercial recordings onto our soundtracks with no regard for the consequences. Others simply record live sound along with the images—most often in weddings and documentaries. Either way, without obtaining the right to use such copyrighted music, we open ourselves up to the possibility of getting sued by the copyright owner or even getting arrested by local or federal authorities. As unscientific as the survey was, I can still infer certain trends. I limited the survey to those who make wedding

42

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

videos, professionally or otherwise, since that group represents the greatest number of people who are likely to use music performed and recorded by others. SURVEY SAYS…

Only about 25% of the respondents regularly seek and obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to use the music. This procedure can be difficult, since the copyright holder can be one or more of the following: the composer, the publisher, the arranger, and the performer(s). But if a certain piece of music is used repeatedly, such as Kenny Rogers’ Through the Years, as one of the respondents reported, it may be possible to clear the copyright rights for a series of works.

Almost 45% of the respondents use written agreements with their principals (customers) to indemnify them, in case anyone brings a legal action against them (See Understanding Indemnification sidebar). This is a technique that I advise everyone to use, as the customer’s pockets may be deeper than yours, if legal issues arise. One of the respondents stated that she videotaped different bands at a nightclub, but eventually the nightclub stopped scheduling live performances, since musical unions like ASCAP and BMI refused to grant the nightclub a license to perform such music without a rather steep license fee. More than 40% of the respondents stated that they used royalty free music to replace

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

the live or recorded music at the event that was videotaped. One of the respondents specifically stated that the BackTraxx 2 music library provided just the right mixture of music to replace a piece for a comedic scene in the finished product. Using royalty-free music (like BackTraxx or StackTraxx) is the most logical and most foolproof method of avoiding copyright infringement issues in the first place, regardless of whether the media maker can be indemnified by his customer. Less than 30% of the respondents routinely hired a composer to provide replacement music. With this option, the video producer may have to audition a number of musicians before finding the right one. Moreover, there is always a chance that the composer is intentionally or inadvertently copying a piece of music that was copyrighted by another, which could lead to problems. Some respondents were students and believed (rightly) that for purposes of education, the use of copyrighted material without permission was permitted under the “fair use” provision of the Copyright Act. That is true. Fair use applies to anyone who uses a portion of someone else’s copyrighted work, without permission, for the purpose of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. Look for an

article on fair use in a future issue of Digital Juice magazine. IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE

Finally, one of the respondents stated: “Never gave it much thought. We think of music as free.” Famous last words! Copyright law does not require intent to prove infringement, but merely proof that an act of copying occurred without permission by the owner. In other words, let's assume you do not have an agreement, or your agreement does not include an indemnification clause. If you copy a protected work, you are still violating the law. Ignorance is no excuse when it comes to copyright infringement actions. See the case of George Harrison who subconsciously copied "He's So Fine" and turned it into "My Sweet Lord." Just because he didn't know he was violating the original copyright didn't get him off the hook. RIGHTS AND WRONGS

Using copyrighted music without permission is illegal, whether you get caught or not. What you choose to do with this knowledge goes to ethics, not necessarily law, which is what my article was limited to. To address what's right and ethical I recommend consulting a clergyman or philosopher.

Mark Levy is a New York-based Patent Attorney and video producer.

CASE STUDY You can read more about the Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music case here: http://www.columbia.edu/ccnmtl/projects/law/ library/cases/case_brightharrisongs.html

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

NOVEMBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 43

CONTEST VIDEO

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

The Making of a Winner: MORE

CONTESTS! Think you have what it takes to

Dan Tolbertson explains how he created his winning Revealers contest video.

H

ere at Juice we think contests are pretty cool. We also happen to think that our customers are pretty cool. So, from time to time, we like to run contests to see

be a winner? Go to our Online

what our cool customers can do with a new cool product; be it a song, video clip,

Community Forums to learn

graphic element or animation. We recently invited our users to take part in a “win it

about current contests! Who

before you can buy it” contest based on our brand new Revealers, Motion Design

knows, the next article like this

Element Tools. For these contests we like to offer a free downloadable element(s) and

might be about you!

ask you to use them in a production. The best submission wins some free product. Fun, right? Dan Tolbertson thinks so! His video of his sons beaming one another (and the family dog) in and out with our Revealer was the winner of one of our recent contests, so Dan is pretty jazzed about Juice. We caught up with him to find out how he produced his winning entry.—cp

My original idea was for the kids to use the Revealer on “ a few toys in the backyard and that quickly was replaced with them using it on each other and the dog. ” DJ: Your video looks like it was fun to make. You involved your whole family in your production. How did you come up with the idea? Dan: It was almost the last day of my vacation, I was still thinking of different ideas for the Revealer contest. I knew that it was going to be hard to submit an entry since I had promised my wife I would not be working on any projects that week. That’s when it hit me to do a submission that the whole family could participate in and have fun doing together. I threw out the idea of us all doing a short video and everyone was up for it. We kicked around different ideas while spending a day on the beach on Thursday and by Friday I had a solid plan of attack. DJ: You used the Revealer to create sort of a Star Trek style

44

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

“beam me up” effect. How did you come up with that? Dan: My original idea was for the kids to use the Revealer on a few toys in the backyard and that quickly was replaced with them using it on each other and the dog. I wanted the revealer to have its own identity and personality so I made a box that I could keep the revealer in. You may even notice that I took the “S” off the end of Revealers since only one Revealer is kept in the box.

DJ: How long did it take to produce from start to finish? Dan: We shot everything in a little over an hour. The goal was to have fun doing it so everyone needed to have a part in the production. It didn’t work well with all 3 of my boys so my oldest son volunteered to work behind the scenes as the set director and prop master. He always helps

with “back seat editing” also—ha. After shooting the footage we ate lunch and spent a couple of hours swimming. I couldn’t relax; I knew that all the contest entries needed to be in by midnight. Fortunately, editing went pretty quick and I finished faster than I thought I would.

DJ: What did you shoot and edit with? Dan: I use a Sony PD-150 camera, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 for editing and Adobe After Effects 7 (for all the Revealer effects).

DJ: How did you create the Revealer effects you used? Looks like you did some rotoscoping. Dan: I just used a loose mask in AE7. Since it was a locked down tripod shot I didn’t have to spend too much time getting in tight and doing “real” rotoscoping. I shot the boys separately.

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Nothing from the two boys intersects the other at any time. Meaning an arm never comes over to the other boy’s side. When I put the tracks on my timeline I put the track with the little boy on the left on top. I loosely drew a mask around him which allows anything not inside the mask to show though. The mask allows the bottom track to show through, showing the boy on the right. It is actually just loose points around the boy appearing and disappearing. I moved the mask in as tight to him as possible and everything else was the original shot. The best part is that these masks can be animated and can move if need be to follow the action.

combine 2 or 3 different tracks to follow the mood of the video. After exporting a few tracks I dropped them onto the timeline. The first track I tried was called Magic from StackTraxx Vol. 3, Serious Stacks. To my amazement the track was almost perfect on the first pass. I nudged my in and out points around and was blown away with how perfect the pace and tempo of the track matched my video. I grabbed my Sound FX library and found the perfect sound for my Revealer and I was done. It was barely 5pm and I had the whole evening to goof off and spend time with the family.

DJ: What was your biggest challenge?

DJ: You did a great job, Dan. Congrats on the win, and thanks for keeping it fun!

Dan: The biggest challenge was audio. I spent quite a bit of time going through all my StackTraxx volumes looking for the perfect music. I thought I would need to

Dan: Winning the Contest and all the positive feedback was great but having something that our family can watch years from now that will bring back a

happy memory is priceless. Thanks Digital Juice for letting me play with the good stuff!

Dan Tolbertson is involved with all aspects of the Video Production Ministry at the Orchard Christian Fellowship in Temecula, CA.

CONTEST VIDEO

WATCH IT You can see Dan’s winning video online in the DJ Magazine section of digitaljuice.com, or in the Digital Juice Customer Showcase.

AUDIO

VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES OF THE MAGAZINE

ON THE WEB @ www.digitaljuice.com

Stuff I Can’t Live Without by Jeff Earley

J

eff Earley oversees the production of Digital Juice’s StackTraxx layered production music and the Digital Juice

Sound FX Library. There are some things that Jeff has to have to get the job done. Here’s Jeff’s list of stuff he can’t live without.

SoundForge is an absolute requirement. I use “ SoundForge on a daily basis for everything from post production voice track cleanup, to mangleing recorded audio to make sound effects.

”

■ MY BOX A GK Acoustics 8’x8’x8' isolation booth. The “box” reduces the sound level between me and the outside world by an average of 38db, so I can mix without distraction and record audio without outside noise. It also keeps me from driving the rest of the creative team crazy when I listen to audio edits over and over and over.

■ MY MACKIE HR824 MONITORS I use these speakers every single day. They have a clear, ruler-flat response and broad stereo imaging with a wide sweet spot so I know that what I’m hearing is exactly what’s being recorded and that my mixes will sound good on a variety of playback systems.

energy drink. I think it was scientifically formulated for people that lead active and exhausting lifestyles; from athletes to rock stars to audio engineers. It let’s me party like a RockStar... on a diet.

■ MY YAMAHA MOTIF ES7 MUSIC WORKSTATION Hooked into Cakewalk’s SONAR 5 via mLan. This system is capable of producing any number of new and interesting sounds as well as traditional instrumentation. It’s

■ MY ELECTRO-VOICE RE20 MICROPHONE The RE20 is mounted in our isolation booth on a spring-arm inside a shock-mount suspension system. This dynamic cardioid has an internal pop filter and a patented Variable-D design that reduces the bassboosting proximity effect so I can get right up on the mic for a better signal-to-noise ratio with no fear of distortion or the dreaded popping P’s.

■ DIET ROCKSTAR Nothing jumpstarts an early morning mix session like the 16 ounces of “party” that are packed into a Diet RockStar

46

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

invaluable for roughing out new ideas leading to the creation of new music for StackTraxx.

■ SONY SOUNDFORGE SoundForge is an absolute requirement. It’s extremely powerful and precise. I use SoundForge on a daily basis for everything from post production voice track cleanup, to mangling recorded audio to make sound effects.

Jeff Earley is Director of Audio Products at Digital Juice

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

FEATURED NEW PRODUCTS THIS MONTH: • Juice Drops Vol. 46: thanksGIVING • Jump Backs Vol. 35:Tunnel Vision II • Jump Backs HD Vol. 15:Tunnel Vision II BUNDLE THEM $249 ORFOR AS LOW AS $49

PER VOLUME

PER VOLUME

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

NOVEMBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 47

11/06 2 0 0 6

48

|

D I G I TA L

J U I C E

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

C ATA L O G

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

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

JD35: futureTECH

JD02: techXTREME

JD36: naturalCUTS

JD03: cleanCUTS JD04: ultraGRUNGE

JD38: pastelSKETCH JD39: allFLAGS

JD07: hyperXTREME JD08: techIMPACT JD09: highIMPACT II JD10: ultra3D

JD42: highIMPACT IV JD43: popLIFE

NEW! JD46: thanksGIVING

JD16: ultraCUTS JD17: scienceIMPACT

TECHNICAL SPECS: • 100 royalty-free layered illustrations per volume • 1-4 DVDs per volume

JD18: cleanCUTS II JD19: medicalIMPACT JD20: illustratedIMPACT JD21: businessIMPACT JD22: boundlessEDGE JD23: cleanCUTS III

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

JD44: frameCUTS II JD45: halloweenHAUNTS

JD15: highIMPACT III

Give thanks for layered content!

JD41: frescoVITA

JD12: retroFRESH JD14: subtleIMPACT II

JD 46: thanksGIVING

JD40: frameCUTS

JD11: xtraGRUNGE JD13: peopleEDGE

Volume Spotlight

JD37: sportsCUTS

JD05: subtleIMPACT JD06: ultraFRESH

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

• 46 volumes available now

Volume 46 of the Juice Drops library, thanksGIVING, covers the holiday and the aurumn season from A to Z. whether it’s cornucopias, turkey dinners, the Mayflower, fall leaves or thanksgiving prayers—these illustrations come in a variety of styles from whimsical to ultra-realistic.

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

JD24: geoIMPACT JD25: shadedEDGE JD26: paperCUTS JD27: glassEDGE JD28: freshFORM JD29: flowerPOWER JD30: lifeSHADES

• All images are 17.25" x 11.25" at 300 DPI for a pixel resolution of 5175x3375. • Files are delivered in layered Photoshop .psd & flattened RGB & CMYK .tif formats

JD31: foodFUSION JD32: templateCUTS JD33: ethnicECHOES JD34: fluidFORM

P R I N T / P R E S E N T A T I O N

$249

per volume

BUNDLE ALL 46 $ volumes for just

2249

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

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

NOVEMBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 49

11/06 2 0 0 6

D I G I TA L

J U I C E

C ATA L O G

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

$399

Editor’s Toolkit 7: Wedding Tools II

$399 E

D

I

T

O

$399 R

’

S

T

O

O

L

K

I

T

S

• 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

50

|

$399

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

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

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:

Flipping an Overlay

• More than 350 Animations in all

he free Juicer allows you to flip or rotate an ETK element before you render it out. The Flip control is activated by checking boxes labeled Horizontal and Vertical. Check them in various combinations to flip an animation into any of four different positions. With both boxes unchecked, the animation is in its original position. Check the Horizontal Flip box, and the image runs down the left side of the frame instead of the right. Check the Vertical box as well and the animation will flip to run across the bottom of the frame. The Juicer puts the power to flip or rotate your Digital Juice animations into your hands. You can even use the Flip and Rotate controls together. With the Flip and Rotate controls, you can position your animations in pretty much any way you can dream of. Now that you know how to do it, the ball is in your court. Go ahead and put some spin on it.

T

$399

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

Overlay 1 from Super Set 251 in Editor’s Toolkit 10 can be flipped and rotated in the Juicer to give you more flexibility in your projects. NOVEMBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 51

11/06 2 0 0 6

D I G I TA L

J U I C E

C ATA L O G

JUMP BACKS Standard Definition Network Quality Animation Library

Jump Backs

VOLUMES AVAILABLE: JB01: High Impact I JB02: High Impact II JB03: High Impact III JB04: Wedding JB05: Sports JB06: High Impact IV JB07: High Impact V JB08: High Impact VI JB09: High Tech & Internet JB10: All American JB11: Retro Clean JB12: Corporate/Industrial, Time & Money JB13: All Church JB14: Medical/Health, Education & Science JB15: Weather & The Elements JB16: High Impact VII JB17: Extreme I JB18: Extreme II JB19: Extreme III JB20: Subtle Impact

Network Quality Animation Library The royalty-free collection that just keeps growing —more variety and more innovation all the time. 35 Volumes • 20+ Animations per Volume 15-30 Seconds per Animation • Seamlessly Loopable

J

52

U

|

M

P

B

A

C

K

S

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

A

N

I

M

A

T

I

O

N

JB21: High Impact VIII JB22: Global Impact JB23: Clean Streak JB24: Tunnel Vision JB25: All Music JB26: Future Tech JB27: International Flags JB28: Subtle Impact II JB29: US State Flags JB30: Simply Useful JB31: Maximum Impact JB32: Base Camp JB33: In The Round JB34: All Hallow’s Eve NEW! JB35: Tunnel Vision II

$249

per volume

L

I

B

R

A

R

Y

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

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

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

TAKE A WILD RIDE ON TUNNEL VISION II ! JB35: Tunnel Vision II Taking up where JB24: Tunnel Vision I left off, this sequel continues the wild ride of fast forward motion in animations ranging from the realism of a sleek looping roller coaster and a fast car chase through busy city streets to more abstract water and light effects that twist and turn as they propel you forward. DVD 20 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

JB HD 14:

All Hallow’s Eve

NEW Volume! JB HD 15: Tunnel Vision II

$249 PER VOLUME BUY ANY 10 VOLUMES OF JUMP BACKS HD FOR JUST

$699

OR ADD Jump Backs HD Volumes as selections in your10-PAK MIX & MATCH BUNDLES!

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

NOVEMBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 53

11/06 2 0 0 6

54

|

D I G I TA L

J U I C E

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

C ATA L O G

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

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

Volume Spotlight

MDE 002 & MDE 003 Animated Frames v1 & v2

A small sample of the 100 animated frames contained in MDE 002 and MDE 003, Animated Frames v1 & v2.

Frame the action, focus the attention Each volume of animated graphics in the Motion Design Element Library is a tightly focused collection of specialty overlays that are particularly useful additions to your media library. Each Animated Frames volume consists of 50 animated overlay frames that you can use to frame video, photos or text. A picture frame would have no reason to exist without a picture and so it is with our new Frames library. All of our Editor’s Toolkits have overlay graphics that can function as frames, so this type of animation is not entirely new. What is new is the specific focus on the form and function of the frame as a part of the visual layout of the screen. Frames can serve to focus attention on the center of the screen, while at the same time simplifying and distinguishing the outer edge so that it can serve as an anchor for textual elements.We commonly see frames used for the closing credits on television programs, but they also pop up during sporting events to show scores and on the nightly news to list talking points and quotations. Frames are also ideal for DVD menus and as backgrounds in presentations. Wedding videos, school yearbooks, event video and other types of productions that involve photomontage sequences are ideal applications for frames. Simple, elegant and visually distinctive, the Frames library makes modern video layout easier than ever.

MDE 002 & MDE 003: Animated Frames v1 & v2 NOW SHIPPING! Features:

1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

•

50 Animations per volume on DVD-ROM

• 1500 x 1500 to 2520 x 1645 at 30 fps

•

Seamlessly Loopable

•

•

Full printed index

Juicer resizes to NTSC D1, DV, PAL & more

•

Average length 5-15 seconds

•

•

QuickTime® format

Juicer uses an advanced algorithm to scale to PAL & NTSC

NOVEMBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 55

11/06 2 0 0 6

D I G I TA L

J U I C E

C ATA L O G

StackTraxx Layered Digital Music Library

DIGITAL JUICE

SOUND FX LIBRARY

The revolutionary production collection that puts you in control! Just $249 per volume or as low as $49

• 10,000+ SOUND EFFECTS in more than 170 categories and 4 main classes • Superior 24-bit, 96kHz stereo • WAV format lossless quality audio • Keyword searchable • Over 55GB of content

per volume in a 17-PAK Bundle.

VOLUMES AVAILABLE:

• Now 17 volumes to choose from!

Vol. 1: Extreme Stacks

• 20-40 original full length songs per volume

Vol. 2: Power Stacks

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. 4: Smooth Stacks

SOME OF THE CATEGORIES INCLUDE:

Vol. 7: Groovy Stacks

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

NOISE FX—Alarms • Beds • Bells • Bumpers • Buttons • Descends Feedbacks • Flashes • Growls • Phasers & many more.

Vol. 8: Fifties Stacks Vol. 9: World Stacks

• NEW! JUICER 3.0 COMPATIBILITY

GENERAL FX—Animals • Crashes • Explosions • Foley Household • Impacts • Liquids • Sports & many more.

Vol. 10: Broadcast Stacks

• One of our MIX & MATCH Products

MUSICAL FX—Musical Logos • Musical Transitions & many more.

Vol. 12: Corporate Stacks

HUMAN FX—Attitudes • Business • Children • Commercial Common Greetings • News • Numbers & many more.

Vol. 13: High Impact

$599 $399

Vol. 11: Epic Stacks

Vol. 14: Rock Stacks Vol. 15: Subtle Impact Stacks

$699

Vol. 16: Spooky Stacks NEW! Vol. 17: Light Touch Stacks

REG. PRICE

$249 per volume 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.

BackTraxx 1 CD Music Library 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

A

U

D

$399

I

• Categories include: Atmospheric, Christmas, Classical, Corporate & Industrial, Country, Hi-Tech, Mellow, O P RNature, O Piano, D Rock, U Sports, C Suspense, Urban, Weddings and more.

T

S

Get ALL 17 VOLUMES for just

$849

Special Limited Time Pricing!

BackTraxx 2 CD Music Library All new tracks,categories & composers. • 1100+ tracks of royalty-free music on 33 CDs • Full length tracks as well as :60 & :30 broadcast cut versions; most songs also include an Underscore Remix • 16-bit, 44.1 kHz, standard CDDA format • Categories include: Americana, Blues, Classical, Comedic, Entertainment, Film, Funkadelic Disco, GenXer, Island Flavor, News, and many more • Free Juicer Software for track preview & ripping

56

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

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

VideoTraxx 2 Film & Video Library

VideoTraxx 1 Film & Video Library

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

• 3000+ Video Clips • 34 DVDs • 220 GB • 36 Categories • Royalty-free • NTSC/PAL • Free Juicer Software CATEGORIES INCLUDE: Aerial, Abstract, Agrictulture, Business, Children, City Life, Eldelry, 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 V

I

D

E

O

T

CATEGORIES INCLUDE: Artisans and Crafts, Autos and Motor Sports, Business & Office, Child’s Play, Cities & Architecture, Creation, Expression, Fitness & Medicine, Fun & Relaxation, Home & Garden, Industry, International Life, Music, Night Life, Old War, Religion, Romance, Teens, What’s Cooking, Wildlife, Women’s Beauty, Youth Sports and more.

$599

R

A

X

X

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

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

$599 1.800.525.2203 ORDER BY PHONE

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.

NOVEMBER 2006 DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE | 57

JUICE BOX

Your Comments Unleashed by David Hebel

I

n September we launched a new section on our website that is going to become more and more important. It’s called DJ Comments and it is where you can talk back to let others know what you think of Digital Juice, our product lines, and even individual products. You'll be able to rate everything and give honest feedback about the value you did or didn’t get from you purchases.

DON’T MISS ANOTHER ISSUE!

FREE Magazine Subscription • Tips, tricks and tutorials • New product releases • Insider product information

I must say it’s been fun to read your comments. I’m sure all of them won’t be as good as the ones I’ve seen so far. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of you who have left such glowing remarks and comments over the past few months that it almost makes me blush. Our specials and products seem to have struck a real chord with many of you and nothing makes us happier than knowing that you are happy. It’s really Business 101. Here’s a few DJ Comments on StackTraxx:

• Latest specials and pricing

TIPS ON SAVING MONEY @ DIGITAL JUICE

Best of all, you can get Digital Juice magazine ABSOLUTELY FREE every month! To subscribe, just visit www.digitaljuice.com and click on the FREE MAGAZINE link on the homepage.

NEXT ISSUE

in DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE • White Balance & Color Temperature • Teleprompter Talk

Leave your own comments and ratings about Digital Juice or any of our products at http://www.digitaljuice.com/dj_comments/.

• Compositing Clips into Jump Backs Animations

DOES YOUR USER GROUP WANT US TO VISIT?

• Mic Types & Uses

PLUS: • Stuff Sr. Producer Perry Jenkins Can’t Live Without

58

|

DIGITAL JUICE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2006

and DJTV. You’d be amazed how many professionals don’t know about us and we are out to change that in the coming year. Usually we come and present for 20 to 60 minutes depending on the venue and we try to make sure that everyone goes home with something cool. We can’t promise we can go to every group but we are trying to get to as many as possible. If you would like us to try to schedule a visit to your group contact [email protected] and give him more details.

If you are a member or leader of a professional video, print, presentation, or graphic user group and you’d like Digital Juice to visit, let us know because we want to come. Each month we are visiting different groups spreading the word about Digital Juice and our products, magazine,

The number one way to save money at Digital Juice is to make sure you get or read our email newsletters. It’s likely that if you have ordered online with us in the past 6 months you are already getting our weekly emails but if you aren’t getting them, you need to sign up. Each week we send out an eNEWSLETTER and a Digital Juice TV eGUIDE. Keeping an eye on these two emails is the absolute best way to save money at Digital Juice. In almost every one we have limited-time unbelievable offers that you probably won’t hear about anywhere else. We’ve had Editor’s Toolkits on special for as low as $99 at times but if you aren’t getting our emails there probably is no way for you to know. To sign-up for all the different email blasts that we offer go to www.digitaljuice.com/signup/.

David Hebel Founder/CEO, Digital Juice, Inc.

ORDER ONLINE www.digitaljuice.com

1736 NE 25th Ave. Ocala, FL 34470 352.369.0930 Fax: 352.368.6091

TO ORDER: 1.800.525.2203

www.digitaljuice.com

ALL PRICES IN US DOLLARS. PRINTED IN THE USA Att MAILROOM: Please route to Audio Visual or Art Department if undeliverable to addressee.