Jonathan Ziegler
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To work with Amazon VOD, it has to be Silverlight compatible, I think. It uses AVC for streaming and WMV for downloads. I would talk to Amazon about it first though as they will have the latest requirements.
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293 -
Can you record an action and just move the image the 2 px? If it’s the same every time, then you just put it back with the move.
How are you grabbing what needs pasting? also, are they the same size?
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293 -
Depends on you, buddy. 🙂
Both cameras are worlds apart in terms of tech and pricing. Sounds more like you want to dive into film and you want to get a real camera, but you want to get just the right one for the money.
The two are similar, but for a newbie, I think the Canon would be much better for you. Go with the easy stuff until you can really appreciate a more sophisticated camera. When you are just starting, story, shot development, and workflow, etc., etc. are more important (the basics). Later, you can fine tune images with a more sophisticated camera. Otherwise, you will be fiddling with settings which don’t mean as much when you are new versus when you have more hands-on experience. Learn to be a good shooter, then worry about having the right equipment – I have seen terrible films made with really high-class equipment and I’ve seen amazing footage from seasoned pros on low-end crap. Equipment will never made you a better filmmaker, but experience, practice, and honest critique will.
My recommendation? Pick up a cheap Canon (used) with not too many shutter clicks and a decent body – often, you can pick up T2is, T3is, etc. for under $600 with lenses and tons of accessories. Use it like it is for several months. Shoot everyday – take it with you so you can shoot something cool you see and try to capture that image for the sake of capturing it. Don’t worry about tripods or stabilizers, it’s all just practice and you aren’t expecting to be Stephen Spielberg out the gate! I have been buying cheap Canon T2i’s and installing Magic Lantern on them for well over a year and a half now. I love the way they operate with Magic Lantern.
Consider renting one of your cameras for a weekend too. Just saw on borrowlenses they have the Blackmagic pocket for $60 for 3 days minus lens, the Canon T5i for $38 minus lens, and a slew of others. Point is, you can sit down and try these out for a weekend and have hours of footage to play with and not have to spend $1000 for something and you will have a much better idea of how each one works and then you can make an informed decision for YOU. Here, you are relying an varying experience and we all have different priorities than you do.
Finally, expect to change cameras several times if you are going to keep this up for a long time. Every year, the next must-have item comes out and everyone swoons. The next year, its something different and this goes on and on, but good filmmaking skills remain with you no matter what camera you shoot on.
Shoot like nobody’s watching, but you really hope they will. 😉
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293 -
I’m a big fan of CFL lighting. You can use it anywhere and it’s nowhere near as hot as tungsten. I first started using these as clamp lights. This is the company I get my gear from:
I usually buy on Amazon and if you want cheap gear and fixtures (think of them as temporary if you are just now getting back into it), look up Cowboy Studios.
Also, I bring a couple backdrops for interviews: black, grey, white, blue. These are the paper photo backdrops.
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293 -
Well, in the absence of a specific tool, I think you may need to just do the work. Can you post the CSS gradient code? Making gradients by hand in Photoshop isn’t that bad.
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293 -
Well, it’s normal to change values down when dragging left and up when dragging right, but the numbers seem a little off. Does it have issues when you just enter in the numbers manually?
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293 -
Found an article here:
https://www.bogost.com/games/a_television_simulator.shtml
and
Since retro games are the theme here, they really focus on the tech of CRT and how it makes the images look. Dunno if it will help or not, but it can’t hurt.
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293 -
I have heard of this, but I’ve never seen a satisfactory solution and I’ve never seen it myself. Easy fix is to move or rename the file and you will probably get an error. Then, trash your prefs and restart PS.
Could be a script or action launching on PS start from that project? I’m guessing here.
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293 -
You are correct in a way: uncoated papers (bond paper, cardstock) absorb ink and tend to look a bit more washed out while coated papers allow the ink to sort of sit on the surface of the paper and are much more vibrant.
If the original color is on coated stock, try matching it to a similar coated swatch (if you have the coated swatches) and then look to the same PMS number in an uncoated swatch for an approximate match. If you have to use an uncoated paper (like bond paper or cardstock), can you first hit the paper with white? I would also talk to a printer and see if they have more info for you as their job usually revolves around these kinds of things.
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293 -
Okay, so I’m looking at the design here: https://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/30002.htm?color=206 (Speedo Mighty Python Flyback).
I know you said you weren’t interested in the print process, but I’ll tell you it’s vital to the design process. Look at the blue/red one in the enlarged view. The design is likely printed as a type of offset, pad, or screen print process – in other words, one color at a time and then they just change the colors and use the same design to make all the variations – it saves time and money and is pretty typical for these types of print jobs (you get 8 designs from 1 instead of only 1 design). Why is that important? Well, it determines which colors print first, second, etc. In this case, black is the overprint or last color printed.
The layers look simple: a layer of the blue, then a layer of the red, then the python in black. I would design each one separately. Important to note: this will likely be printed between 150-300dpi or more depending on the process.
The red and blue just look like splotches of “paint” on canvas in a sort of randomized herringbone pattern. On closer examination, there could be a second blue plate or it could be a combination of blue and black OR the lighter is a halftone of the darker – none of which would be surprising, but registering these kinds of prints can be difficult so it may have just been easier to allow sloppy registration or, for randomness of pattern, none at all. Honestly, I’d have to examine the fabric to tell. The black python part is likely from a photo or from an existing library of graphics and converted to black/halftone black.
Incidentally, when you look at a bolt of fabric, there are little colored dots on the selvage(s) which indicate which specific ink colors were used so having the bolt in this case would resolve any questions as to how many plates/screens were used and allow us to finally determine how many layers were used and how to break down the design. This is the same process I’ve had to use to recreate screen printing patterns when the original files and/or plates are lost. I’ve done marble patterns for acrylic awards (a single black plate of the marble halftone is applied and then you put any of a variety of other colors down and the final looks just like marble).
Setting up the file:
1) Create a new Photoshop file with color mode as grayscale (there are other ways to do this, but this works well for me).
2) Now, go to Image >> Mode >> Indexed Color (no real changes will show)
3) Switch to the Channels tab, then, in the dropdown, choose new spot channel. Solidity 100%. In Ink Characteristics, hit the color swatch and the color picker will pop up – choose the Color Libraries button and I used Pantone + Solid Coated in the top dropdown, and I picked Pantone Bright Red C. Hit okay when done.4) switch to your brush and paint some daubs on the palette in red.
5) Repeat this for the 2 blues (arbitrarily, I picked 7688C and 7455C), painting some daubs for each channel.
6) for the snake skin, I found a decent one here:
https://www.insulinpumpfashions.com/getfabric.asp?pID=4109
loaded it into photoshop, selected only the black areas (select >> color range >> shadows), then pasted the selection of black to a new channel with just black.To get the finished version, save as an indexed photoshop file, then merge channels in the channels dropdown and then convert to RGB (Image >> Mode >> RGB) and save as a new Photoshop file or just a JPEG. RGB colors will not necessarily reflect the actual pantone colors. Here’s my version:
Note that each color is its own CHANNEL (not layer) and I didn’t really go to the trouble of exactly converting it all with precise brush strokes.
Hope this helps.
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Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com
520-360-8293
