If you've never played Vagrant Story for the original Playstation you don't know what you're missing. The game is hard to describe since there has never really been a game quite like it before or since.
Destructoid just dropped the bomb that Sony is finally getting their act together and releasing it on PSN. Aside from a few notable titles on PS3 this is one of the first times I've actually felt inclined to get a PS3....ohhh sweetness check out the article here
Destructoid Spills the beans on Vagrant Story on PSN
Dec 17, 2009
Dec 16, 2009
BBC is the best example of a public broadcaster embracing New Media
What other broadcaster would spend thousands of dollars interviewing some of the most interesting figures in Modern Media all over the world and then just give away their raw footage to the public? So amazing;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/digitalrevolution/competition.shtml
The Digital Revolution competition is a great example of forward thinking media distribution. You can go and download all their footage and cut it into a 2-minute trailer or short film and if you win it will be featured on the BBC website. Why the hell can't anyone in north america (especially Canada) figure this out? Quick CBC sink our tax money into some trite useless sitcom *see example below,
http://www.cbc.ca/beingerica/
It's been a dream of mine for a long time to work with the BBC, luckily I am a UK citizen so I can submit to this contest. I'll be posting my submission on here sometime before the Jan 4th 2010 deadline.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/digitalrevolution/competition.shtml
The Digital Revolution competition is a great example of forward thinking media distribution. You can go and download all their footage and cut it into a 2-minute trailer or short film and if you win it will be featured on the BBC website. Why the hell can't anyone in north america (especially Canada) figure this out? Quick CBC sink our tax money into some trite useless sitcom *see example below,
http://www.cbc.ca/beingerica/
It's been a dream of mine for a long time to work with the BBC, luckily I am a UK citizen so I can submit to this contest. I'll be posting my submission on here sometime before the Jan 4th 2010 deadline.
Where to find cool stuff for Guys
Uncrate is a favorite site of mine for finding cool products. In case you've never seen it check it out random stuff from hovercraft tanks to amazing barbecue sauces. These guys know how to find cool shit!
Uncrate.com
Uncrate.com
Dec 14, 2009
Google Wave
So I signed up Wave a few weeks ago and today I am finally getting a chance to use it with a good friend of mine Alex D (twitter - AJD2).
Pretty sweet but I am still looking for reasons to use it rather then something like Skype. Really intrigued by the collaborative possibilities of the product.
Keep burning money on this stuff Google somehow it makes you more valuable to throw money into the pit!
Pretty sweet but I am still looking for reasons to use it rather then something like Skype. Really intrigued by the collaborative possibilities of the product.
Keep burning money on this stuff Google somehow it makes you more valuable to throw money into the pit!
Dec 13, 2009
Getting Chilly
Well it's official. December has finally rolled in and winter with it. Really cold weekend in Nova Scotia but luckily I had some great food and company to wait out the cold with
~ TJ
Dec 11, 2009
NBA Live 10 PSP
Any video game fan who gives a damn about basketball games knows the debate, EA's NBA Live vs 2K's basketball offerings. It's been a vicious battle that 2K has managed to win the past few years and Despite NBA Live getting the short end of the stick the last few iterations I've remained a Loyal Fanboy who always picks up the latest EA hoop offerings.
I've been playing since 1997 when my mom got me my first copy of NBA Live for Xmas. As a basketball fan in general I took to it like a fish to water and I still have that passion for the game. It was with this excitement that I started development of NBA Live 10 PSP in Early 2009. I worked as the Assistant producer on the project with HB Studios. HB does a lot of work with EA but generally they only appear in the credits (which most people don't watch on sports titles ><).
Development time was around 9 months and we worked right up to the end on improving some of the crucial elements which had been inherited by my team. AI was our main focus as the defense in 09 was lacking and allowed a user to simply drive and dunk on every possession.
A few months ago the title launched and I was able to go into my local Gamestop and actually pick up my first title that I was able to be a part of. Almost a full year of my life went into the project and I have to say that I am really proud of the team and what we were able to accomplish in such a small timeframe. So the reviews are out and we've improved on last year's reviews which feels great, wish we could have pushed it higher in Metacritic but one or two bad reviews are dragging us down (doesn't even seem like they played the game based on their talking points). 2K is still ahead by inches on 360 and PS3 but we beat them out on PSP :) With the strong dev team at EAC working on Live 11 I think this could be the year EA re-takes their basketball crown. A lot of new game-play and fundemental system changes went into Live 10 and it really shows. Another year of dev time to tighten up those new elements may be the final push past 2K. Either way as a basketball and videogame fanboy, I win.
I've already worked on another EA sports title that is set to ship in February (when I can talk about that development more). Let's just say that it is DLC for one of EA's biggest sports titles. Now I'm working with Atari on a project set to launch Fall 2010, I can't talk a lot about it now but it's going to be a strong product in it's market.
~TJ
I've been playing since 1997 when my mom got me my first copy of NBA Live for Xmas. As a basketball fan in general I took to it like a fish to water and I still have that passion for the game. It was with this excitement that I started development of NBA Live 10 PSP in Early 2009. I worked as the Assistant producer on the project with HB Studios. HB does a lot of work with EA but generally they only appear in the credits (which most people don't watch on sports titles ><).
Development time was around 9 months and we worked right up to the end on improving some of the crucial elements which had been inherited by my team. AI was our main focus as the defense in 09 was lacking and allowed a user to simply drive and dunk on every possession.
A few months ago the title launched and I was able to go into my local Gamestop and actually pick up my first title that I was able to be a part of. Almost a full year of my life went into the project and I have to say that I am really proud of the team and what we were able to accomplish in such a small timeframe. So the reviews are out and we've improved on last year's reviews which feels great, wish we could have pushed it higher in Metacritic but one or two bad reviews are dragging us down (doesn't even seem like they played the game based on their talking points). 2K is still ahead by inches on 360 and PS3 but we beat them out on PSP :) With the strong dev team at EAC working on Live 11 I think this could be the year EA re-takes their basketball crown. A lot of new game-play and fundemental system changes went into Live 10 and it really shows. Another year of dev time to tighten up those new elements may be the final push past 2K. Either way as a basketball and videogame fanboy, I win.
I've already worked on another EA sports title that is set to ship in February (when I can talk about that development more). Let's just say that it is DLC for one of EA's biggest sports titles. Now I'm working with Atari on a project set to launch Fall 2010, I can't talk a lot about it now but it's going to be a strong product in it's market.
Avid Video Just Not Working
So I've been working on a Nature Documentary for the last two years. A lot of planning and months of shooting has finally wrapped and now we're working through 40+ hours of footage.
Aside from issues when I have certain external drives plugged in and my Avid gets Bus Error Crashes, it's been rock solid.
Lots of 1080 and 720 footage getting pushed through the system and my Mac Pro has been amazing. Something weird that has been happening is that occasionally my co-producer has been opening up Avid on his own and goes in but doesn't get any video. The time-line will play and we can hear the audio and I can open individual clips from bins but when I try to play the footage in our timeline it just won't show video (and yes I have checked all my system video, avid video, and timeline video settings). So bizarre as I can restart two or three times and then the problem is gone and won't be seen for another few weeks.
Now to be fair this has only been happening with my co-producer (who doesn't know anything about avid) so it is conceivable that he is pressing something but I had it happen with him once when I was right there and he didn't press anything other than to open the project.
So the solution has been to simply restart avid, sometimes it is fixed after one restart sometimes it takes four. I've had it occur three times so far (out of maybe 120+ hours in the suite on this project) and I've been able to remote in and fix it from my field location but nonetheless seems like bizarre Avid behavior.
The Journey Continues,
~TJ
Aside from issues when I have certain external drives plugged in and my Avid gets Bus Error Crashes, it's been rock solid.
Lots of 1080 and 720 footage getting pushed through the system and my Mac Pro has been amazing. Something weird that has been happening is that occasionally my co-producer has been opening up Avid on his own and goes in but doesn't get any video. The time-line will play and we can hear the audio and I can open individual clips from bins but when I try to play the footage in our timeline it just won't show video (and yes I have checked all my system video, avid video, and timeline video settings). So bizarre as I can restart two or three times and then the problem is gone and won't be seen for another few weeks.
Now to be fair this has only been happening with my co-producer (who doesn't know anything about avid) so it is conceivable that he is pressing something but I had it happen with him once when I was right there and he didn't press anything other than to open the project.
So the solution has been to simply restart avid, sometimes it is fixed after one restart sometimes it takes four. I've had it occur three times so far (out of maybe 120+ hours in the suite on this project) and I've been able to remote in and fix it from my field location but nonetheless seems like bizarre Avid behavior.
The Journey Continues,
~TJ
Star Trek Online Beta
I know this isn't what this blog is about but I have to write this down.
Last night through my work with Atari I was able to get access to the latest Star Trek Online Beta for a few hours.
I have been looking forward to this game a lot and despite some hiccups in the beta build and general lack of obvious direction for the user to follow at first, the game is great!
I found myself glued to the screen as I built up my ship and crew. I think the design team at Cryptic Studios has done a great job and I can't wait to see it at launch.
Check out the trailers and you can still sign up for the closed beta (though apparently the developers tell me the waiting list is long...).
If you are a Star Trek fan like me definitely worth checking out.
P.S. - Only runs on PC so get that bootcamp partition spun up ;)
- Terry John
Last night through my work with Atari I was able to get access to the latest Star Trek Online Beta for a few hours.
I have been looking forward to this game a lot and despite some hiccups in the beta build and general lack of obvious direction for the user to follow at first, the game is great!
I found myself glued to the screen as I built up my ship and crew. I think the design team at Cryptic Studios has done a great job and I can't wait to see it at launch.
Check out the trailers and you can still sign up for the closed beta (though apparently the developers tell me the waiting list is long...).
If you are a Star Trek fan like me definitely worth checking out.
P.S. - Only runs on PC so get that bootcamp partition spun up ;)
- Terry John
Nov 24, 2009
1394 devices and MC2
So I've been having a really great experience working with Media Composer in Snow Leopard with one small caveat. If you're thinking of upgrading to SL don't wait on Avid's account. It's working great and I've noticed some significant export speed improvements with my 8-core mac pro pumping out 1080p footage.
Loading footage from a 1394 device just won't work. I can verify my camera is properly connected and in the right mode (works perfect in Final Cut) but once I actually go into capture Avid just won't pick it up.
I've walked through hours of deck preferences and configuration tutorials with no luck and tried everything I know that has worked with all other Avid setups I've ever worked on. It just won't detect it, seems like there is something missing connecting my firewire through my Avid setup.
I'm going to keep working on fixing it but in the mean time I capture in FCP and then import it into Avid, an annoying step but it works ><
Loading footage from a 1394 device just won't work. I can verify my camera is properly connected and in the right mode (works perfect in Final Cut) but once I actually go into capture Avid just won't pick it up.
I've walked through hours of deck preferences and configuration tutorials with no luck and tried everything I know that has worked with all other Avid setups I've ever worked on. It just won't detect it, seems like there is something missing connecting my firewire through my Avid setup.
I'm going to keep working on fixing it but in the mean time I capture in FCP and then import it into Avid, an annoying step but it works ><
Sep 5, 2009
Avid Media Composer 3.0 in Mac OSX Snow Leopard
So finally got my new Mac pro a few days ago and have begun the rather lengthy task of moving over all my P2 projects from my old woefully underpowered imac to my new 8-core beast.
It hasn't all be completely smooth though as I've run into a few hurdles that have needed overcoming. First off, Panasonic does not officially support Mac OS Snow Leopard but after the P2 installation and some configuration in my avid I'm off to the races. (be careful of drive names it confuses avid when you have more then one drive named the same or even sometimes similar ><)
Another concern for any Avid editor is what version of Quicktime can you install? I'm pleased to find that the latest quicktime (version 10.0) seems to work without issue with Avid Media Composer 3.0
I'm a bit hesitant to move up any further with Avid Media composer as I have had serious issues with different versions of avid and quicktime not playing well together. When in doubt stay with what is working with Avid or at the very least always backup everything before moving up in case you need to step back! (learned that one the hard way a few years back)
I really can't say enough about the workflow panasonic and avid have setup with Media composer. It's beautiful. I shoot on my Panasonic HVX200A and minutes later I can be editing the footage in full HD.
Instead of spending 30,000 dollars on a deck I just push out a full HD export of my work and upload it to clients . So much cheaper and easier.
I'm sure Fedex is missing all those overnight shipments of d-beta tapes but I definitely don't miss rushing to make their cutoff times :)
An Avid Journey
Welcome to 'An Avid journey'. This blog details my own experiences and work on Avid Media Composer for Mac OSX.
During my career in post-production I have run up against innumerable problems and road blocks that require time and work to fix. I hope that this blog helps fellow editors and assistants avoid some of the pitfalls I've encountered or help them climb out once they are in.
~Terry John
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