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How to create an anime music video

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 03:26:46 +0000

Acquire footage; the most essential ingredient. The average music track is 3-5 minutes long. Now that might not sound like much, but when you begin to cut it together you will see how quickly mountains of footage, are sliced down by good sound and visual cue editing. So amass as much source footage as possible before sitting down to contemplate your range of choices. Know your footage intimately, try to have themes, characters, close ups, styles, and scenes ready for instant recall. Try to always get the highest quality footage possible, unless you want that blocky, badly compressed look, it will be worth it, one can always down-scale footage easier than up-scaling when filters will become necessary.

Know your software; get to really understand it, and its place in your workflow. Software is your primary tool set, and should at the least include an editing and DVD ripper software packages. If you’re on PC try Avid, Premiere Pro or even Windows movie maker, for Apple go for Final Cut Pro or even the whole Final Cut Studio 2 for a one stop process. Other applications for interesting special effects are the multi-function compositing packages Combustion, Shake, After Effects and Nuke. Want to add 3d graphics etc. look at 3d Studio Max, Maya, and SoftImageXSI.

Have the hardware; At the bare minimum you will need a DVD writer for input/output, Hard drive space (as much as you can get, compressed video is still data heavy, but try uncompressed as is sometimes necessary, and watch you drive quickly begin to drown), a computer that can handle your editing software (nearly any computer running XP with movie maker), and a good sized monitor (you don’t want to be squinting for 10hrs a go). Any hardware specs up from this will improve your working experience e.g. multiple monitors, a high end machine, multiple server machines for parallel network renders, multiple large internal SATA/external Firewire hard drives or bad ass graphics cards.

Choose your track; hey this is personal, try for the best in your estimation, it will motivate you to match their brilliance and to portray the understood content of the track. Also bear in mind that by the time you are done you will have heard it a thousand times at least. The music is your guide to everything in the amv and it will lead you back if you can’t see the wood from the trees.

Create a story; all good amv’s or mv’s, tell a story in some manner or another. Create a story of what you want to portray using

Product reviews: Acer Aspire 9500 series laptop

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:56:11 +0000

Laptops have become increasingly appealing to the general public thanks to price reductions and longer battery life. People use them to keep in touch with loved ones, work, play and more. A popular budget laptop is named the Acer Aspire 9500, and it appeals to many different types of computer users. In this article, I will review the Acer Aspire 9500 laptop.

Pros -

One of the nicest things about the Acer Aspire 9500 is the 17-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor that will impress even the toughest of critics. The large size of this monitor makes watching movies on the laptop all the more fun. And when I say 17-inch monitor I mean 17 inches diagonally.

The width of the monitor is actually fourteen inches and the height is nine inches. Why do advertisers always use the diagonal measurement, you ask? Simple. Because it makes the monitor size sound larger. So just keep that in mind the next time you buy a monitor or laptop.

Another nice feature about this laptop is the fact that it comes with five usb slots. There are two usb slots on the right side of the laptop, two on the left, and one in the back. And of course it’s usb 2.0, which means that whatever you hook up to this laptop will be faster. Of course, if the other device that is plugged into the laptop is not usb 2.0 then the speed will be slower.

And of course, the cost of this laptop is very nice. The price will vary depending on where you purchase it, but you can find this laptop for around $800. Maybe even less during the holidays.

Cons -

There are some annoying problems associated with this laptop, but they’re not too bad. The first one is the keyboard itself. Most of you are probably used to your standard keyboard, and the Aspire’s keyboard is quite similar. However, the shift key button is small and the page up and page down buttons are towards the bottom of the keyboard. You’ll get used to it, though.

As with most laptops, you can’t switch out the video card. And this laptop is no different. The video card that comes with the Acer Aspire 9500 laptop uses integrated memory, which basically means that you may have trouble playing the latest games or using high powered software programs like 3d Studio Max. Games that require a 3d video card will almost certainly not work with this laptop. So be careful.

As you can see, the Acer Aspire 9500 is a nice laptop that will more than likely suit your every need. However, if you’re a hard core gamer or a software junkie then you may want to look for other options.

Product reviews: Nvidea GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 video card

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:16:30 +0000

The following is a dedication to all the gamers out there!

Have you ever felt left behind by all the new technology advancements? Can you not play all of your games with the “highest” setting on your 22″ monitor? Don’t you want to get the most out of your computer? Well good news for any of you that have answered yes to any of those questions! Nvidia’s new GTx core architecture has arrived! One phrase to summarize this new technology is “un-freaking-believable!”

The new cards have been launched in the early 2009 months. These cards, GTX 280, GTX 260 and GTX 260 core 216, were much anticipated. They are based on Nvidia’s new core advancement. The GTX 260 core 216 is right on the middle of the scale. Don’t get me wrong, it is still one of the top 5 cards in the world! If you want the best bang for the buck, this is the card for you. ATI’s 4870 cards are awesome but cannot be compared to the beastly performance of this core architecture.

The GTX 260 core 216 feature a boost of 24 stream processors from the original 192. It comes with a 576 Mhz clock and 896 MB of video memory. That is plenty for any of today’s games. A 9600gt with 1 GB memory wields about 1/10 of the power of this beast. The speed of the GDDR3 video memory is set to 1998 Mhz. All these things put together in this dual slot video card solution gives the user an immense t power resource pool. Just make sure you have a good 500 watt power supply. For example I’m running a Q6600 processor over-clocked at 3.2 with 2 GB of ram, 1 hard drive, 3 fans, 4 cold cathodes, and a mildly over-clocked GTX 260 core 216 55nm. Runs great, just please make sure you have enough juice to run this baby before you go cursing the video card for not working properly.

Online reviews state that this cannot run all games out there on max settings, specifically Crytek’s Crysis games. Well I am here to tell you that yes it can! I play all my games maxed out on a 21.6″ screen. Yes that includes Crysis on the extreme settings. This card can pump out some really nice frames per second. I don’t think I had major event where my frames per second dipped under 30, while the eye can only detect and process about 29 or so per second.

Think you don’t enough money for the best? Think again! Nvidia’s competition, ATI, has forced Nvidia to drop down their prices and make them very competitive. A GTX 260 card can be found for as cheap as 180$ on www.newegg.com. For Canadians, try Direct Canada. This is a truly affordable card. It

Software reviews: Firefox 3

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:47:57 +0000

On June 17, 2008, Firefox 3 was launched amid massive fanfare among geeks and those in the tech industry. Most people would be asking: Is the hype and fanfare worth it?

It depends really on what you use your browser for. If you’re just someone who’s using the Net to check your mail, do some online banking, have minimal requirements and activities done online, then perhaps Internet Explorer (IE) would be the best for you. Bear in mind that IE is integrated into Windows, so it will receive its updates via Windows Update. Depending on your luck and how hardworking Microsoft is feeling, you may or may not receive the patches fast.

Firefox 3, in review, is meant to appeal to 2 kinds of audiences: Light to middle users who don’t use too many extensions and themes (like yours truly) and those who are contemplating using Firefox as an alternative to IE. Heavy users may not like its latest changes and features (with the exception of the memory leak plugs) though.

A quick rundown of all the latest features:

The most-touted feature in Firefox 3 is the Smart Location Bar, formerly known as your address bar. This feature was introduced in Beta 1, and what it does is to bring up matches in your address bar as you type, a handy for people who can’t memorise URLs and heavy surfers. It even grabs the addresses from bookmarks, which makes it very useful for lazy people like me. However, this feature may not appeal to everyone, especially privacy advocates.

The second most important change, in my opinion at least, is the option to resume downloading. Previous incarnations of Firefox only let you have this option if you installed addons. Now that it comes by default, I’m glad to report that it works most of the time (sites that don’t support resumable downloading being the obvious exceptions) and I generally find it helps a lot when my connection hangs and I have to restart it. Big files are no longer that big a pain to download (think online RPGs).

There’s also been visual refresh. For those who’ve gotten used to how browsers behave, there will be a short period of readjustment (and cursing). Some icons have been changed (the Back button now resembles a keyhole), bookmarks have been renamed and changed to Places and is divided into a few categories to make it easier for you to search for your favourite items.

Functionality has improved with Firefox 3, especially with web applications like Google Docs and Zoho Office loading faster and being more responsive,

Software reviews: Autodesk Software – Part 1

admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 06:19:29 +0000

Head of the Pack!

Anyone who has ever worked with computer designing knows about Autodesk. Movies such as Star Wars, and games such as Assassin’s Creed have used this software with pleasing results. I’ve been an indie game developer for the past four years and I have turned to Autodesk’s software every time. Most people may know Autodesk because of Auto-Cad, but the same company also produces MAYA, 3D MAX, Motionbuilder, and a host of others. These are programs have been used to create groundbreaking multimedia such as Halo 3 which is one of the best selling games of all-time. Autodesk not only makes superior products but superior customer service as well. When ever I have a problem their online support usually fixes it. Times that I did call their support was very understanding and appreciative. They have a very expansive online community offering tutorials and tricks on how to use the products. Autodesk offers trials of some of their programs, but has a special Personal Learning Edition of MAYA. This Edition lets you learn how to use MAYA without paying thousands of dollars for the program or a class. With all the choices you have with Autodesk it should obvious why they’re leading the industry.

How to create three dimensional computer generated images

admin — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:15:03 +0000

Three dimensional computer generated images or 3d images are objects or entities that are created in the computer in 3 dimensional form or 3d form. That is, unlike a typical image that contains two dimensions or 2d, that is drawn on a flat screen, a 3d image is created to appear as if it is in real-time space, with depth, projecting in all directions. A 3d object has its size and shape extended both sideways, and forward and backwards form the viewer. All real life objects are 3d, even the thinnest of them, including paper.

A computer generated 3d image or object is one that is created and exists in the computer system. There are a number of 3d graphics software that can be used to create 3d images. They use special programming languages. Some of the best known are opengl, Direct 3d, and glide. They often come implemented with other well known programming languages like C++ or visual basic. I have had 3d programming experience using these programming software myself. It takes some time to learn how to program in 3d but once it’s mastered, it can give unlimited flexibility in generating your 3d images on the computer.

The easiest and most popular 3d programming language to use is Opengl. It uses simple words to describe what shape you are creating, the numeric values and dimensions of various points and lines that create a 3d shape and so on, but it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss everything about Opengl.

Another, and even much easier method of creating 3d images is by using preprogrammed software like 3D studio max, Maya, Truespace, Autocad and so on. These use simple click, and drag and drop interface so you can create a 3d object on the computer simply by clicking your mouse. So for example, if you wanted to create a 3d cube, simply click on the cube button on the display menu with a drawn cube icon, and click and drag on the screen in the 3d space. A simple 3d cube will appear in that space. Clicking on the cube and draging the mouse while holding the mouse button will change the shape of the cube. It is that simple. There are a lot other issues I can’t mention here like applying textures to objects, lighting, animation and so on.

Well, what has been mentioned here is only an overwiew of creating 3d objects on a computer and I have mentioned the two most common ones. But sometimes in future i would be able to provide a gradual and broader insight into this topic, for there are sub titles that exist within this title as the issue of creating 3d computer images is quite a vast topic.

How to use DivX

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 05:31:25 +0000

DIVX is the brand name for a wide variety of software products manufactured by DivX Inc. Ever since the introduction of DIVX products in early 2001, the software has received worldwide renown and a reputation for quality. The surge in sales since its release was not only a direct effect of its product quality, but was equally due to a lack of competitors in the media software department.

Since 2001, the DIVX has specialised in the widely acclaimed DivX Video Codec. This codec for video supplies high quality compression as well as DVD video excellence. Compared to the (then) clunky Quicktime codec, or Windows Media Video (WMV), the DivX Video codec was superior not only in compression but also in quality. In this article, I shall outline how to make the best use of the free DivX codecs and players.

For those of you who have watched or downloaded videos from the internet, many of these videos use the DivX codec. If you find that the video file (typically with suffix .avi) is unable to play, then you may need to download the DivX decoder. This codec can be downloaded in video packs from sites such as www.freecodecs.com or from the official divx site. DivX video can be seen in downloaded files, but also is present in sites such as the highly popular video sharing site www.stage6.com.

Some other DivX products include the DivX media player and the DivX encoder. The former is used primarily for viewing digital video or audio files on a computer. However, this player is not considered to be much better than other free players on the internet such as the inbuilt Windows Media Player or the Real Player which are available for free download. The DivX encoder is unique in supplying high quality compression. For those that spend time with graphic software such as 3DSMax, or have edited video from digital video cameras, the DivX encoder is a vital tool in producing high quality video.

To use the DivX encoder, you must first download it from the official divX site, or from a mirror, which is available for free from www.download.com. All that remains is then to encode any video file using the encoder. The advantages of this are that file sizes can be reduced dramatically, especially in the case of handheld video cameras which use uncompressed full frame videos.

In conclusion, DivX products cover a wide array of applications and software encoders. It is remarkable that DivX has achieved such worldwide renown in such a short period of time. However, it is only through trying out these products for yourself, that you can achieve a more complete understanding of just what makes DivX so appealing.

The next version of optical media

admin — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:50:31 +0000

The next format for optical media is a disc, similar to the current DVDs, except that it is read by a blue laser, instead of the currently used red laser. The reason for this is that blue light can be focused sharper and the blue lazer can then read a more densely packed disk. This offers greater storage capacity than the DVDs of today, which max out at 8.5 GB on a dual layer disc. The future formats are speculated to offer anywhere from 25 – 100GB per disk, depending on the amount of layers. The only problem right now is that there are two formats using the blue lazer light, HD-DVD and Blu-ray. These formats are each backed by different companies, Intel and Microsoft (and others) for HD-DVD, and Sony, TDK, JVC (and others) for Blu-ray. In fact, Microsoft and Sony are both putting their own backed formats into their next-gen video consoles…not a good thing – a lot of confusion. The difference between the two formats are cheaper manufacturing processes for HD-DVD, and higher storage capacity for Blu-ray…we can only hope that a unified standard is reached sometime soon.

How to determine what kind of Internet connection you have

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:00:37 +0000

This is very easy. All you need is to go to Google and type “internet speed test”.

You will have to see which link tests you internet connection the best and then you can then see which connection you have.

Most of the times they will tell you, other times you will have to see the max speed of it to know which connection you have.

The dial up connection max speed is just 54 kbs. This is enough to send emails but not to do anything else. Not even to search Google anymore because you do not have enough speed to open the website.

Do you know how all this speed thing works?

The first thing you need to know is that your computer cannot be directly connected to the internet. It has to be connected to another computer that will then connect your computer to the internet through it.

This is called a ISP.

How fast is a ISP? They have GB of space and many Gps of speed but they divide it all to the users so you end up with just a few mega bytes.

This is still very good compared to the first 8 kbs modems. You could only chat after a huge delay.

The web was not even the web as you know it today.

You could only chat and then send very small emails. Text was the only way to communicate with the world. Nobody tought about image much less video. It was impossible to watch a normal video not before months or maybe even years of download time.

The fastest internet connection is a old woman that has it in europe with 1+ Gb per second but the lady doesn’t know what she can do with such a fastest internet access. She can download the entire know web in a short time if she wants!

How can a computer actually process and store in RAM and disk 1 GB per second?

After that it’s time to check how much bandwidth you do have. In some countries and some services limit the amount of traffic you can download and upload, much like your website server traffic is limited.

So in some countries you do not have any restriction, this means you can leave your computer downloading day and night.

By download I do not mean evil downloads of illegal software but rather cool software such as Linux and other freeware.

The next thing you need to have is a interner speed booster. Some programs can do it for you and even some online tools can do it also.

Start by running Tune up utilities 2009 to speed up your computer performance and internet performance too.

Finally get Google Web Accelerator.

Is the new Blackberry Storm better than the iPhone? – Part 3

admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:18:47 +0000

A gimmick is an attention-getting device or feature to promote the success of a product and Verizon’s Blackberry Storm has many fabulous features to impress the unimpressible. It is a mystifying smartphone without the superficial hype.

Apple’s new iPhone has faster web access, but deals carelessly behind other mobiles in corporate features.

The Blackberry Storm is the first handset with a touch-based user interface. It has a larger screen at 3.25in., for fingertip control of functions. And, its music and video capabilities has greatly improved with the synchronized ability to play movies with the user’s iTunes library.

The Blackberry Storm and the new iPhone compare similarly with their input system, such as scrolling up and down menus and email lists by subtle strokes of the screen, and to zoom in within applications such as the browser.

The icons are aptly sizable to be easily touched with a fingertip, and both the Storm and iPhone automatically change screen orientation by twisting them around.

The Blackberry Storm has 3G network support, but lacks Wi-Fi, whereas, the new iPhone has Wi-Fi; but, the Storm has a 3.2 megapixel camera. And, with its clickable screen it allows the user to scroll along emails and menus without unintentionally activating a function.

Though, this feature should have been more inviting, some have found it to be more of a burden, as that the speed of its capability is not as swift as with a real keyboard of other smartphones.

Apple’s new iPhone has added a faster 3G network connection and GPS capability and with its additions of sleek and friendly features, it has been available in the UK since July. It also offers support for Microsoft Exchange email with a distinctive web browser. though, the absence of a keyboard may be a disadvantage for some users, and its device management capabilities are vestigial in comparison with other smartphones.

The new iPhone is heavier than a standard phone, but lighter than other smartphones; and with its finger-driven touch-screen interface, it does not respond to any pressure…whereby, one is unlikely to accidentally dial a number if the iPhone is in a bag or a pocket.

The Blackberry Storm and Apple’s new iPhone both have their ups and downs. They both have their own unique capabilites and differences. They are comparable in their own ways. And, it is merely a matter of what one desires from such an incredibly, ingenious device.