Apr 08 Roll Call – What software do you use?

[Cinde]

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a roll call. Some of the previous ones were very entertaining.

For our newer members, have you seen our special place to introduce yourself? It’s under the General Topic category > Introductions and can be found at viewforum.php?f=19

In our Nov 07 roll call a lot of people introduced themselves the first time, and in the Jan 08 roll call we told each other what we learned during our first year as a community. Chuck’s topic “Then and Now, or maybe just Then” helped us put faces with user names. I really enjoyed that one!

How about this time around we talk about the software we use to prepare photos, videos, and audio for our final projects? What do you use most? How about plugins? Maybe you have a special software for those one or two special effects you can’t get in other software? Anything else you’d like to share to make our video production a more pleasant and profitable experience?

[Cinde]

Cinde here, I started the topic so I suppose I should contribute.

Most of you know I started with still photos to make memorial videos. I’ve recently started doing wedding, birthday, holiday, genealogy, and sports videos - but exclusively with still photos. I have edited a couple of videos for family and friends, but I’m still not comfortable offering them to paying clients.

My software is Photoshop Elements 5 and Premier Elements 3. I will soon be upgrading to newer versions. I have some Adobe CS3 products on my wishlist. My computer came preinstalled with Roxio Easy Media Creator suit 9 but I haven’t used it in over a year. I don’t use any plugins.

I found 2 free tools at graficssoft.about.com. First is Vicman’s Photo Toolkit. Second is JPEGCrops.

Occasionally I receive a client’s photo that needs restoration. Vicman’s Photo Toolkit has a really good makeup tool. The toolkit has 10 tools, my favorites are Makeup (to restore), Caricature (warp effects), Lighting (really cool 3d effects especially on landscapes) and Resample (enlarge without image quality loss). The web site for Vicman’s Photo Toolkit is http://www.vicman.net/phototoolkit/index.htm . (All products listed are pure freeware, contain no ads and may be used without limitations. http://www.vicman.net/vicmangofree.htm)

One other important (free for private use)tool I use for lossless cropping of jpeg photos is JPEGCrops. I use it mainly for 4:3 crops. It has quite a few preset crops, and will also batch crop. The feature I like most is that it allows me drag the handles to crop the specific area I want. The only drawback is that it works with only jpeg files. The web site for JPEGCrops is http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/
(Probably free for commercial use? Read License info at http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/license.html)

[Doreen L.]

Nice idea Cinde. I use PE2 for video editing - until Adobe gives me a reason to upgrade, I'm sticking with it. For photos I use Photoshop CS3 (with a Wacom pen tablet). The other editor I use often is PSP. For my website I use Flash CS3 (use to use Window's Movie Maker for conversion to wmv) for all video and slide show conversion. I also use it for making banners and doing text animation. For DVD burning it's Sony DVD Architect. For DVD labels, I just bought a new Samsung DVD burner with Lightscribe - I've been using it with good results but plan on buying a CD/DVD tray to print directly using my Canon PIXMA MP810 printer. BTW, I love this new DVD burner ($33 at newegg for an OEM version). I also do some flyers and our club's yearbook - for that I use InDesign CS3.

Recently, because of their clearance sales, I've also gotten hooked on digital juice products. I've bought a number of Stack Traxx for royalty free music for my website. I've also gotten a few Jumpbacks for animated backgrounds, juice drops for print and motion design elements. This past week I picked up their first Editor's toolkit which has a ton of lower thirds (which I use all the time) and other things like mattes. I would like to get After Effects soon.

I didn't think I used a lot of products until I starting listing everything - Hah.

[slushparlor1]

Hello:

I just Adobe Premiere 4 for my videos and Adobe Photoshop 6 for my images. I used Roxio 7 for almost all my videos before this. I have a program Nova Creative Photoshop Deluxe that allows me to put frame around photos. I just save the file as a .psd and put it into Adobe.

What I have been doing for my friends 40th b-day is putting clips of 80's movies into video. So I ripped the movies using
All Too DVD ripper 4. I used Sixteen Candles, Overboard, Breakfast Club to name a few. Then I took the file which I made a .mov file and put it into Adobe. Then of course I wanted to add some video that I got on YOUTUBE. An example would be some sesame street clips (my favorite being the mana na song), and I found a site that converted the .flv in YOUTUBE to another file (I use mov). I put that file in Adobe as well. So that's what I'm working on now!!!

[Jayell]

Cinde .. you always have great ideas to get folks communicating!

I'm so overwhelmed by all of the options available, and seem to have hit a wall recently on a couple of projects I have in the works, but I'm currently using PrEl2 (as Doreen said .. until Adobe gives me a reason to upgrade). I'm trying to switch to Photoshop Elements 5, but if I'm in a hurry I default back to Fireworks (back when it was still owned by Macromedia) because that's what I was born and raised on while learning Web Design, even though PhEl is sooo much better for photos. I'm using Audacity for sound files, but again I learned the basics on Cool Edit Pro 2.0 (now I believe bought by Audacity) so if I'm in a hurry, I'll go there. I use Quicktime Pro occasionally when it fits my conversion needs also Movie Maker when I need a quick convert from WMV to an AVI

Looking for a good alternative burnings DVDs first burned-to-disc, but haven't yet tried any of the great options provided here in the forum.

Maybe we could take all these suggestions and list them somewhere. When I'm looking for a new alternative, I often get confused as to what programs are used for what, so when I don't have time to look everything up again, I end up going back to what I know

[Don Whitten]

Lets see. Am at work so if I miss some of the software I use....must be the hours I have been working. Been a few motnhs since I edited but am coming up on something to get me back in the saddle.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Adobe Illustrator CS2, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Sony Cinescore for background music, Magix’s Audio Cleaning lab for cleaning up my audio but last and certainly not least, the best of the bunch.. Muvipixs' vast knowledge that is available on these forums.

[cdeemer]

In my hyperdrama project, I've used the following programs: StorySpace, Storyboard, Sophocles, Adobe Premiere Elements, Photoshop, Audacity, CamStudio, Finale, Band In A Box, Prism. I'm probably leaving something out.

[momoffduty]

Have a very short list: PE3, PS5, Fantamorph. Did get Corel Painter Essentials2, PSE3, & Nik Color Elex Pro free with the Wacom. Briefly looked at the Corel Painter and seems that it can do basically what can be done PS5 or am I missing something? Haven't looked at the Nik Color.

Thanks for the thread Cinde, will have to look into the software mentioned.

[Chuck Engels]

Things have been a little crazy for me lately but for the last two projects I have only used Premiere Elements 3 and Photoshop Elements 5. I do have other tools that get used on occasion;
Premiere (CS3) (video editing)
After Effects (CS3) (effects)
Soundbooth (audio editing and music creation)
Audacity (audio editing)
Photoshop (CS3 Extended)
Sqirlz Water Reflections (special effects)
Windows Movie Maker (file conversion and exporting WMV files)
Premiere Elements 4 (video editing)
Photoshop Elements 6 (photo editing)
Captivate 1.0 (for video tutorials)
Adobe Bridge (file organization)
Paint Shop Pro 7 (mostly for screen captures)
Curtains for After Effects Plug In (effects)
Adobe Encore CS3 (DVD Authoring)
Sonic RecordNow (for burning DVDs and CDs)
iTunes (music file conversions to mp3)
There are probably others that I can't think of right now and don't have on my work computer.

Thinking real hard about getting 'Band In A Box' (music creator)

[jackfalbey]

I just finished building a new desktop for real-time CS3 editing with the Matrox RT.X2 card, so I'm sure my software usage will be changing, but up 'til now my workflow has been:

Capture into Premiere Elements 3.0 for trimming and arranging clips; add transitions & titles, then export to .avi.
Open in Premiere CS3 for color correction, if necessary.
Edit audio in Soundbooth CS3 for clean-up and to adjust levels, if necessary.
Open in Encore CS3 for menu creation, then build a DVD image.
Use ImgBurn to burn as many DVDs as the client needs.
Create DVD jackets and LightScribe labels with SureThing Deluxe 5.

I use Photoshop Elements 5.0 for editing stills, Media Resizer PRO for batch resizing, Movie Magic Screenwriter for scripting, and Quickbooks Simple Start for accounting/bookkeeping.

I also have Audacity, Blender, Camtasia Studio 3, and the full Production Premium CS3 suite, but haven't had time to learn them yet.

I got Premiere Elements 4.0 free with the ADS Pyro A/V Link, but I don't like the redesigned interface so I don't use it much.

[ridon127]

I'm with Doreen on the PrEl 2. I like the way it looks and the layout, so I don't feel the need to upgrade at this point. I have PSE 5.0. I just use the software that came with the computer to burn CDs and DVDs with. I have downloaded squirz morph to learn the morphing thing but haven't used it yet..My software is very basic as I don't feel I can take on any new stuff at the moment..plus, all this software overwhelms me..I have a Seagate 500gb external hard drive, a Canon Alura 100 mini DV camcorder, and that is pretty much it..
Donna

[Larry L2]

I use Photoshop Elements 4.0 and Premiere Elements 4.0 and burn to disc with Studio 9.4 (Yep, you read right). I also use Sqirlz Morph and Water Reflections. For some upcoming projects I will mix CG animation and real world with PE4. Plug-ins I like are, Burger Transitions, Steadymove, and some small freebies with merit. I have started using Audacity and am getting away from Sonic Foundry Acid Music. The smartsound plug-in is a plus and I am real happy it's available in Premiere Elements now. All in all, I think 90% of my film stuff is in Elements and I have really tapped a small percentage of the potential it has.

[Ken Jarstad]

Cinde, I just downloaded the Vicman's toolkit and will give it a try. Thanks! Since you started out with photo apps, I have several because no one app does everything I need. The best photo app so far is Picassa. I can spiff up a new batch of photos in just a few minutes. Picassa will do about 3/4 of all the photo editing I will ever need. The more difficult editing will take a more sophisticated editor.

Still use PrEl v2. I burn a single DVD from a project, view it and then use Nero to make disk-to-disk copies. Works well for me.

I have been enjoying the use of inkjet printable hub DVDs. I typically want to use a frame capture to print with but the HP software is limited for photo imports. I started using Acoustica CD Label Maker after a recommendation in this forum. However, it is also limited for imported photos. I just downloaded Surething CD Labeler and it has the versatility to work with photos. It will resize and allow positioning in any direction. Some Amazon sellers have it for 21 usd.

[JohnnyO]

I use Premiere Elements 4 for all my DV-AVI projects.
I usually have a pre-menu video play before the main DVD menu. To accomplish this, I use pgcedit. I make the pre-menu video in Premiere elements, burn to a folder, then use pgcedit to add the pre-menu video.
I use DVDate to change the timestamp on my DV-AVIs to match when the video was taken. This makes the video get sorted cronologically with the photos in the PE4 organizer for my DVD projects.
I use the freeware program Imgburn to burn DVDs (also for CDs )
I have given up using Premiere Elements for MPEGs.
The only MPEGS I use are from my Hauppauge PVR 150 TV capture card.
I use VideoRedo to edit these. VideoRedo makes it easy to remove adds with its add detection feature. It also automatically fixes problems with the video.
I also use VideoRedo to get VOBs off of DVDs.
To author videos, I mostly use Sony DVD Architect Studio. For Premiere Elelments projects, I either author using the Sony software, or sometimes I use Premiere Elements.
I use Photoshop Elements 6 for organizing and editing photos.
Windows Media Encoder comes in handy for putting videos on my kids Disney Mix Max
I have not had a need to convert video in a while, but when I did, I used VirtualDubMod and MPEGStreamclip.

[JohnnyO]

Almost forgot, For DVD lables I have an Epson R220 printer which prints directly on ink jet printable DVDs and CDs. I use Acousta CD label maker for this. This program also allows me to make labels for the cases. It also works with lightscribe.