[Fernando Mol]

I am from the old days of “always save”. I save and save and save. An instinct born from old horror stories too, when photoshop 2.5 suddenly crashed after finished applying a filter (rendering time about 45 minutes) to an A4 size document.

“Did you save it?” -said my boss.

Oh, the horror!

By the way, I loved those times. You could drink a lot of coffee on 45 minutes.

[Fernando Mol]

Dreamweaver is a tool to manage and design web pages. Fireworks is a tool to create and work with the images you use in those pages (pictures, backgrounds, etc). Fireworks is like a Photoshop specialized for web design.

The best tool depends on your background knowledge. If you are already familiar with Photoshop you can start there.

[Fernando Mol]

I know this is not what you are asking, but…

…why don’t you just export the psd images and import them to AE, using them as a pre-comp.

GIF images will reduce your colors and, later, if you need to do an adjustment in the animation speed it will be way more complicated than if you manage all the animation inside After Effects.

[Fernando Mol]

Usually you don’t want to “distort” the reality of a documentary with After Effects, unless of course your story demands some dramatization or special effects (a dream sequence, an UFO attack, time distortion, etc.).

However, AE can do a good job correcting mistakes like color variation or camera shake and you can create beautiful titles for your credits and interviews. Perhaps if you share the theme of your documentary and something about the content we could help you more.

[Fernando Mol]

Check the “Changing Shortcuts with After Effects” After Effect Podcast, here, in the COW.

Aharon Rabinowitz explain exactly how to modify the default shortcuts of AE for your laptop.

[Fernando Mol]

If you are not concerned about search engines, Flash is good. But Flash content is not visible in Google, Yahoo, etc.

This mean that if somebody goes to Google and type some keywords like “video production” and your city, you will never be seen there.

You can have the HTML site with some flash content, like your reel. But if you are going to do all of your site in Flash, you should have at least some considerations, like adding meta data and an HTML version of your contact info just in case.

Talk to your web developer and see what options does he recommend to you.

[Fernando Mol]

Nice. Love the UFO invasion.

Can you make the font bigger?

I can see you are using word press. Is it good?

[Fernando Mol]

I used to design all in tables, now I use CSS.

There are so many little tricks in CSS and the learning curve is kind of slow, but it’s really more efficient at the end. Not in therms of first time makeup, but to do changes.

It is super easy to make your web page look good for print and mobiles. Also SEO love semantic HTML.

Sometimes you have to use a table here and there but, if you have the time, give CSS a try.

Look CSS in action in http://www.csszengarden.com

[Fernando Mol]

When I am shooting a commercial and the guy from the agency can’t explain “exactly” what kind of shot he wants, I give him a digital camera and ask him to search for the angle.

Of course, you need a still camera with equivalent lenses of your video/film camera.

For the moving shots, take a series of pictures of every important frame.

[Fernando Mol]

Choose one: audio or video, and do it first.

Your video with rough audio, or your audio with no video.

Final Cut does a great job integrating Soundtrack. In After effects, you simply will have to import your audio from a different file. You can edit your audio in AE, but it will be more complicated than export and import.