Convert .swf to .flv for cheap

A friend asked me if there was a way to convert .swf to .flv for free. So here's my thinking:

Requires: Snow Leopard

1. Launch Quicktime X (yes, yes I know...but it's useful for this one thing)
2. Hit Control+Command+N for New Screen Recording.
3. Hit the downward-pointing arrow and set your recording settings to what suits you.
3. Play the .swf
4. Hit Command+Control+Escape to stop the recording.
5. Bring the h.264 into FCP and crop it.
6. Export then transcode to .flv.

The file will likely be larger than the original .swf since .swf isn't a video format per se, and .flv is.

Burning Client DVDs

Here's a small tip that has saved me from some post-project frustration: When the client asks for a DVD of a project...hand them two. Or three. The more the better because the more you hand them the better your odds of not getting a call a 7am asking for "one more copy" because they've already lost the one you handed them 18 hours earlier and their presentation is going to start in 30mins. Oh, and if you can, hand them to at least two different people. If you spread the irresponsibility around there are more of them to blame than you.

Wanna further increase the odds in your favor? Hand them a data-DVD with the project in some format they can handle or transcode. Heck, put differently encoded versions on there.

If you have the means toss the video online for them and email them a link to download it. Or barring that, toss it up on Vimeo and allow downloads.

A bonus tip, find media you like and is reliable for you. I like Maxell and Memorex but run your own tests and remember: "a least one client won't be able to play anything."

SimpleMovieX

SimpleMovieX is a little video editor from Areo Quartet that's compares nicely to Quicktime Pro (not the icky and useless QT X) and has some tricks QT Pro doesn't.

The demo version is free and mostly non-crippled: Demo version has the same feature set as full working version, except slower saving and limited number of chapter markers. There is no time limitation.

Check it out (and some screenshots) here.

Areo Quartent is the same company that does movie file repair, which has saved a few friend's projects in the past.

Moving an item and all its motion Keyframes all at once

Lets say you have a still image keyframed to move across the screen from point a to point b over so many seconds via it's Center positions. But, you need it to move in the lower portion of the frame rather than the top as it is now.

Easy. Hold down Shift+Command and then (you'll see the cursor turn into a hand - without arrows) hold them down while clicking and dragging your image along with it's keyframe paths all together to a new location.

You may have to zoom out of the canvas a bit to see both ends of your keyframe path. It will set extra keyframes along the path but they shouldn't alter the motion.

How much room is left on that drive?

Sometimes you run out of room on your drives. There's no real quick way to find out how much room is left on a drive without spinning it up and looking or hitting Command+I on it.

However, if you fire up the Terminal and type in "df -h" (sans quotes) you'll see how much space is left (and used) on every mounted drive. Handy for when you need some temp storage space for large files.

HTML 5 and Video

A friend sent me this link about HTML 5 and video on the web. It's a site by Mark Pilgram and this page is particularly interesting for video editors.

Plus the layout reminds me of a old favorite grammar book: The Transitive Vampire by Karen Gordon.

Rendering a keyframed cropping results in missing image

This bit me tonight and I have no idea what caused it.

I have four elements, Text, Text, Image, Image all on separate layers. The two text elements are keyframed to move a bit and the first image is keyframed to move in sync with the text. The other image is keyframed independently. It's all very basic.

The mini-sequence has a green Preview render bar over it and plays as expected but when it's fully rendered the first image, the one keyframed to the text's movement VANISHES. And I'm not alone; I found a post about it here from Feb. 6th 2009:

Help!!! Let's see if I can explain this....I have taken a clip and placed it on the timeline. I applied some croping elements to it and motion...it starts our as a very thin line and then moves up and down to create a rectangle. I can view it on the timeline but the minute I render it with "full" and then view it, it no longer exists....When I export it to make a Quicktime it is gone....

What's interesting is his keyframing seems very similar to what I was doing with this image. At first I thought I goofed and had the "reveal" keyframes going in the wrong -opposite direction- but they weren't.

What didn't work was re-launching FCP, deleting render files, toggling track visibility or rebooting the Mac. What DID work was right-clicking on the image file in the timeline, selecting Remove Attributes...and ticking Crop and then hitting Okay to remove all cropping of the image.

I then re-did the keyframe cropping, rendered and it was fine.

Media Offline Thumbnail Icon Bug

Today while I was editing someone handily managed to not only trip near where I was sitting but managed to yank out a firewire cable as well.



Naturally Final Cut Pro freaked out. But, since I habitually save every few minutes and had FCP set to save every 15mins since it's a complicated project I fired up FCP again after hooking the HD back up and saw that where there once were thumbnails of clips, there were now Media Offline icons even though the media wasn't offline. Double clicking a clip or dragging it to the Canvas or Timeline or hitting F10 would place it in the Timeline normally and allow it to be watched. But those icon thumbnails...

I tried re-re-connecting the clips and they did, successfully, but the Media Offline icons remained. Since I needed to see the thumbnails, and since the client was sitting right next to me, I found out that rather than trashing any caches, or monkeying with any files, if I held down Shift+Control and moved the mouse over a thumbnail to set a new poster-frame, FCP abandoned the embarrassing Media Offline icons and left the clip with a shiny new poster-frame.

Oddly, you need to be set to the Selection Tool in order for Shift+Control to work here.

35TBs of storage on one tape

So Fujifilm and IBM have figured out a way to cram 35 TeraBytes onto one tape cartridge.

Fujifilm and IBM have demonstrated a world record in data density on linear magnetic tape - a density of 29.5 billion bits per square inch with magnetic tape media developed using the BaFe particle.

The demonstration points to the possibility of developing a single tape cartridge capable of holding 35 terabytes of uncompressed data at least 44 times the amount of data that the current Generation 4 LTO Ultrium data cartridge holds.

That's 44 times one of these:

MakeMKV & tsMuxer

If you're looking for a way to rip footage from discs clients insist on handing you, you may want to have a look at MakeMKV. MakeMKV basically rips DVDs, Blu-Ray into .mkv files and also streams them to many players. It's free while it's in beta.

Another converter to check out is the FREE tsMuxeR. SmartLabs tsMuxeR – the software utility to create TS and M2TS files for IP broadcasting as well as for viewing at hardware video players (i.e., Dune HD Ultra, Sony Playstation3 and others).