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This is part of the Blender VSE (Video Sequence Editor) series in which I demonstrate how to rotate a video clip. I also add a secondary method using Avidemux since both methods will produce varying results. If the original clip had not been a MOV file I could have used Virtual Dub Mod.

The video can be found HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzAQZwsXP0w&context=C46c3c8dADvjVQa1PpcFPyFDNu2r7HCaJ8bQiQH_mJsDi9aTmMpvk=

Blender can be found HERE:http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

Avidemux can be found HERE: http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/download.html

This is part of my Blender Video Sequence Editor Series. In this tutorial I show how to change the speed of a video clip using Blender. I used a small video clip that is 640x480 px at 30 FPS running around 4 minutes in length. By adding an effect I change the snowball fight into a high speed chase sequence ...or something like that.

The tutorial can be found here:
http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2012/04/bledner-vse-how-to-adjust-speed-of.html

In the "Manual Gamut Mask Tool" video tutorial I demonstrate how to use a manual gamut mask in Photoshop. I created a psd file that can be used as a manual Gamut Mask Tool that is based on Richard Robertson's On Line Gamut Mask Tool found at Live Paintings Lessons.

The video is can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF0X6Xv1YCA&feature=plcp&context=C39aef8eUDOEgsToPDskJ4qWN9s81mO_1rHsAKjRZB

The PSD file can be found here:
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=0fffc0102f5a2255&id=FFFC0102F5A2255!121

and the Color Wheel is available for free here:
http://steven-powers-smp.deviantart.com/#/d4rpvrj

Please check out and subscribe to my weekly blog at stevenpowerssmp.com


I hope you find this helpful,

Steve

This is an article aimed at artists and how to take advantage of the social media and tie them into on line galleries or Print On demand services.

The full article is here http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2012/01/how-to-create-digital-artists-blog.html

This is the first three parts of the Blender VSE series of tutorials. Blender is a OpenSource 3D Suite that can be used quiet effectively for 2D artists as well. Being OpenSource it has cross-platform support for all major operating systems. The First three parts can be found at my YouTube account of through my blog below:

www.stevenpowerssmp.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/stevenpowerssmp

For those digital artists, Blender Test Builds are now featured on Blender.org.

Full post can be found at http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/12/blender-offical-test-builds.html

GIMP 2.7.4 now has Wacom Support. I have been working towards replacing Photoshop so I can run Linux full time. But Photoshop is not easily replaced, but the the newest version of GIMP, which is 2.7.4 is getting better everyday and now the issue with no Wacom or tablet support has been fixed.

Read full article at http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/12/gimp-274-wacom-support.html

I have been quite happy with Ubuntu up untill 11.10 when they dropped Gnome for Unity leaving us without a choice. But I tried to get use to it but found it somewhat glitchy. Then I kept hearing talk about the Mint branch of Linux.

The full article can be found at http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/12/linux-mint-12-upgrade-from-ubuntu.html

MyPaint 1.0 is now available for Windows users. Read the full article at http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/11/mypaint-10-for-windows-and-linux.html

Here are a few drawings of trees I did for fun recently. They are done with a mix of graphite and charcoal on smooth Bristol paper.
They can be found at: http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/11/tree-study.html

Calibrating your monitor. What can I say? We all try to get away with calibrating our monitor by eye, but that only works for so long and unfortunately our eyes change. Not just over the years but throughout the day. We get use to seeing a certain way and we adapt in different lighting situations. In the end our paintings, photos or what have you suffer. Our darks are too dark, the colors are to saturated or the hues just don't look right especially when we go to print. So we are left to buying hardware to calibrate our monitors.

Continue Reading
http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/10/quick-tip-why-calibrate-my-monitor.html

Just want to introduce some free applications that I was introduced to the other day. These are great little utilities that can help speed up ones work flow. Launchy is cross-platform while Dexpot is for Windows users who like the virtual desktops that is found in Ubuntu.

Continue Reading at http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/09/quick-tip-launchy-dexpot.html

I have been working with GIMP a lot lately and also playing with MyPaint. I have seen some very good paintings done with MyPaint and I love the feel of the brushes. But I have always been able to control my canvas size and resolution. But MyPaint doesn't allow you to set either from scratch. This is one method that gets around those issues.

Continue Reading at the link below:
http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/09/quick-tip-mypaint-and-gimp-template.html

This is an update to the original tutorial on theme. In this tutorial I show how to download, adjust the themes and install them in either version 2.6.11 or 2.7.3. In the end I preview the new themes and show how to set it as your default so it loads automatically

The tutorial can be found here:
http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/09/gimp-how-to-add-themes-updated.html

I just added a somewhat in depth tutorial on Sketching on my site.
Here is the link http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/09/sketching-4-step-method.html
Let me know what you think,
Steve

This is just a quick thought for those who are aspiring animators and are just starting out. Look for the extras on DVD / Blu-ray discs. They will often have "Behind the Scenes" footage showing the process that they went through in making the film.
Most people over look them, but they are a great resource for digital artists. Releases such as "Happiness is a Warm Blanket Charlie Brown" comes with 4 extra titles covering the screenplay, animation and recording of the voice talents. It is a quick glimpse into the process and workflow of animation. The same fundamentals can be applied to both 2D and 3D animation. For more in depth material on animation, I would suggest two books by Tony White; The Animator's Workbook" and "Animation: From Pencils to Pixels"

For more articles and tutorials please visit my site HERE
www.stevenpowerssmp.com

"Creature Eyes" is another project that is still in progress (which I need to get back to) that is for a photo-real close up of eyes. The full article and images collection can be found HERE http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/07/wip-creature-eyes.html

"Alien In A Hostile Land" is a concept piece that is in progress. I wrote a short overview of the project and the steps that I have encountered. The full article can be found HERE http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/04/wip-alien-in-hostile-land.html

This tutorial shows how to use the Path Tool in GIMP to create perspective grids. I did an earlier version showing the workflow done in Photoshop and was asked how to do it in GIMP. The tool is the same but the methods differs from application to application.

The tutorial can be found HERE http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/07/gimp-how-to-create-perspective-grids.html#more

Adding Themes to GIMP (2.7 +2.6) is rather simple once one knows how. This tutorial covers the steps and allows one to change the working environment of GIMP quickly. All that is needed is the new version of GIMP 2.7.3 and custom themes downloaded from GNOME.

Here is the LINK http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/08/gimp-how-to-add-themes.html

I added a "How-To" tutorial on adding Gimp-Painter to Ubuntu 11.04. Its a Open Source paint package that emulates Corel's Painter. Her is the link: http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/06/how-to-install-gimp-painter-in-ubuntu.html

I re-posted a tutorial that I posted on YouTube so I could add it to my site's archives. If you have seen it just ignore it, but if not, check it out and let me know what you think. It covers the use of freeware to convert various video types and then combine them into a single file.

Here is the link http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/04/how-to-convert-and-combine-video-clips.html

Steve

I just added a quick tutorial on a free psd thumbnail viewer that is far more than just that. I post it here http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com/2011/05/irfanview-free-alternative-to-adobe.html#more

Just completed my site (for now) and will be adding more content shortly. I have posted a WIP tutorial )"Alien In a Hostile Land") recently that covers my little alien and creature sketches that I posted this week. This will allow me to have a central location for tutorials, portfolio, contact info, blogs, etc, with all the images linked to high res images on FAA. I will cover topics ranging Sketching, Digital Painting, Matte Painting, 2D and 3D topics and workflows, Audio/Video editing, Wed Design, Programs and Application or anything else that is relevant to Digital Artists

So come check out the site at StevenPowersSMP.com or click HERE, and let me know what you think.

To follow my blog, please go to http://www.stevenpowerssmp.com to view and / or subscribe to my blog there. I will no longer be maintaining this blog. But I will continue to use FAA for all my prints on demand. They do a great job.

How To Record Your Voice and What You Hear using CamStudio 2.0

This is a very quick tutorial on hardware requirements and setting the options in CamStudio 2.0 to enable recording from a mic and/or from your computer (“ What U Hear”.)
Here is the Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8n2VZ7M1Hw

If you are interested on future tutorials and related posts, please subscribe to my mailing list at http://steven-powers.artistwebsites.com/subscribewebsiteemaillist.html or follow my blog here

SOFTWARE USED:
CamStudio
http://camstudio.org/

8 or 16 Bit Color?

The question to use 8 or 16 color continuously comes up. I have tried to get a definitive answer to this question, but nothing concrete. I have been using it for some time now. Mostly due to the advice of a friend who happens to be a professional photographer. I have to say I don't really notice a difference in my paintings, but I kept at it since it might help with better print results. This question wouldn't be coming up again if it weren't for the fact that I am looking to move to a Linux environment. Unfortunately I use Photoshop and Adobe only supports Windows and Mac OS's. But the alternative is such as GIMP among others, only support 8 bit color. So do I really need 16 bit color?

Basically what I have realized that may or may not be so obvious to all, is that when viewing images on our computers, we are looking at 8 bit color (8 bits per channel). Considering that we also watch movies, TV, view photos, paintings etc on these systems, we are use to looking at 8 bit color. The other side of this is that the same media files are usually created from higher bit colors and then reduced, leaving me to believe that I should stay with 16 bit over 8 bit color. The disadvantage of 16 bit color is the added files size and memory usage. Yes file size isn't that big of a concern with the low cost of storage these days, but high memory usage will catch up to us all. I run a quad core system with 8gb of memory, and with files that are 16 bit, 300dpi, with multiple layers, that can run into 500mb size or more (which isn't that uncommon), they can take 2-5 minutes to load and save ...I have timed it. I am a believer of efficiency and only using what you need and eliminating waste ...basically keep it simple. So if you don't need it, don't use it.

So what is 16 bit color needed for? The short answer is that is should be used if one starts with a plate (photo or image to paint on) or touching up a photo that is already in 16 bit. One doesn't want to loose that color information that already exists. I'm a painter and since I don't normally use plates with 16 bit color (normally found with RAW image files) or I'm starting a painting from scratch, then there is no color information to be lost ...it doesn't exists.

My conclusion is that if it starts in 16 bit color, work in 16 bit color unless you know for sure that you will not need it. Other wise work in 8 bit color. Photographers will normally use 16 bit color since they are more likely to be working with RAW images and painters will use 8 bit color allowing for efficient memory and resource usage.

I hope this helps,
Steve

In this quick tutorial I walk you though an alternative method of combining video clips using Authoring Works 4 by Pegasys. The program has the added benefit allowing most types of video file formats to be converted and combined in a single step.

Here is the Link or you can copy and past to your browser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-EMgWxBAXg

I just posted a quick video tutorial on YouTube on converting and combining video clips. It is a very useful technique when you have a video that has been cut into multiple parts and you would rather have it in it's entirety. Here is the Link or you can copy and past to your browser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_QuuTsE6WQ