steveostudios

From the Blog

Dec

Chauvet PAR

Posted by Steve at 10:00 am

LED technology has come a long way from the ColorBlast days. We just recently purchased a couple PAR 38s and four PAR 54s. They are relatively inexpensive; around $200 a pop. Although you can purchase a Tungsten PAR 64 for somewhere around $80, you will easily make up the difference in the cost of electricity! These PARs are only 24 and 36 watts, compared to a 575 or 700 watt lamp in a standard PAR. According to Chauvet’s website, you can daisy-chain up to 12 PARs on the same 20A circuit, which is convenient given the Edison outlet on the top of the light that provides power for the next light. Other features include the yolk of the lamp that unfolds to become a floor stand, DMX (3-pin), independent RGB control, and even an internal microphone for audio response (not sure that we will ever use that feature). I’m looking forward to never having to change gels or lamps again!

The one issue I have is the color temperature of the lamps themselves. The built in white is nowhere close to either 3200K or 5600K. But I think we can mix our own colors to get something worth capturing on video. Other than that, though, these light are totally worth it!

You can find out more info on the Chauvet PARs here and here.

Dec

Gurus Rap

Posted by Steve at 10:00 am

In October we had a free conference for tech staff and volunteers for the local church called the Gurus of Tech conference. We had a ton of fun, learned a lot and met some really cool folks.

One of the fun things that went over really well was the Gurus Rap that we showed. If you are or have ever been a techie you should watch this. Heck, if your’e anyone with a sense of humor you should watch this!

Enjoy!

Nov

Web Generators

Posted by Steve at 10:00 am

All design takes time and practice learning the metaphorical pallet and brush for the medium. In fine art, you have charcoal, pastels, paint, and canvas. With Photoshop you have the Brush Tool, Rubber Stamp, and your Canvas. In Web Design, you have images, CSS, HTML and a variety of other languages to play with on a browser canvas. While learning the art of web design, here are a few handy tricks to pull out when you need them.

CSS Button Generator

Easily creates CSS3 buttons. They are clean, completely customizable and very pretty.

CSS Gradient Generator

Easily creates CSS3 gradients. Straight to the point. Complete with code for most browsers.

Stripe Generator

This one is cool because it creates a striped pattern and saves it as an image file for you to download and use in whatever, be it CSS or a graphic in Photoshop.

Nov

Setting up Dumb-terminals

Posted by Steve at 10:59 am

In our production space we have all of our computers back in a back closet, but student in the next room controls these computers. There are several reasons for this decision: Every piece of equipment that gets super hot or makes noise goes in the closet, so our video room has a more controlled temperature and is quieter. Wiring between equipment and computers is easier, since your only running a single wire to your desk per computer. But probably the most beneficial part is the patch-ability of the room. For a normal weekend service, we have 6 students running the room, but for some events we only need one person, but the computers are across the room. Well, you can patch any computer to any desk, allowing us to change desk positions on the fly. And here is how we do it: We use the Gefen CAT5 1000 S and R and an ordinary CAT5 patch bay.

Every computer in our closet runs USB and VGA into it’s own Gefen CAT5 1000 S (for sender). All of these run CAT5 into a patch bay. From the patch bay simply run to the desk where a Gefen CAT5 1000 R (for receiver) sits connected to a VGA monitor and a USB keyboard and mouse. And that’s it!

They’re very easy to setup with absolutely no configuring. They’re hot-swappable meaning you don’t have to restart the computers to move them around. I would say that our biggest complaint is the video quality. I’ve never really seen video over CAT5 look great, and this is no exception. It’s super compressed and sometimes the video doesn’t fill up the whole monitor (which is weird… I don’t understand that!). But, the only person that has too see that is the person sitting at the desk, and the quality is completely legible, so it doesn’t impede or distract, so the benefits far outweigh a little quality degradation. And, the Gefen CAT5 1000 S and R is only $695 for the set. If this sounds like a lot, think of the man hours alone that you’ll save just from moving computers around! For us, it’s totally worth it!

Gefen makes other extenders, none of which I have used, but they should be just as awesome.

Rating:

Nov

Friday Pick: CloudApp

Posted by Steve at 10:00 am

CloudApp is an awesome application, aimed at taking away all of the dislikes of sharing links, images, music, videos and other files. What dislikes could there be, you ask? Let’s look at one easy example.

Say you are working with a client or coworker on an image design. You’re past the draft phase and have moved on to the pixel tweaks needed to get the job done. This involves reading your email, making the change, saving the image, grabbing the image in Finder, uploading it somewhere, obtaining a link, copy/pasting that link in an email and hitting send. Pretty easy, right?

Well, with CloudApp it is even easier! On a Mac (with the Screenshots Raindrop), you simply take a screengrab the way you normally would using ⌘+⇧+4 (Command + Shift + 4), select your image, wait a second for a ding (that’s CloudApp’s signal that the file has been saved, uploaded, and has copied a shortened URL to your clipboard), and then paste inside an email. Now that is a LOT easier.

Some of the coolest features are it’s ease of use, it’s URL shortening, keyboard shortcuts, drag-n-drop support, the archiving of all your drops, and a count of how many times those links have been clicked. It even has an API for you to use in your own applications. I also use Stratus, a pretty sweet CloudApp, um, app.

I’m still not completely sure how to use CloudApp to it’s fullest advantage, but I love how easy it is. I almost want it to do more, but I can’t think of what I would have it do…

Rating:

Oct

Camera Cheat Card tutorial

Posted by Steve at 10:00 am

I made a camera cheat card a while back ago that had different shot types of shots on it that I could use to train our volunteers on proper camera techniques. It’s proved to be very useful, and I have been getting questions on where I got the cards or how I made them, so I thought that I would show how I made them here.

Step 1 – Finding the Shot

The first thing that I did was sift through existing footage from our archives. I looked for a shot that was close enough to exactly what I wanted my students to replicate while directing or on camera. I also wanted my subject to not be picking his nose or staring into the camera.

Step 2 – Tracing, Inking, Erasing

I developed this technique a while ago, and really like the organic/structured mix that it gives me. After finding the perfect shot, hold up a piece of paper to your screen. You can also use scotch tape that you lay on your pant leg a few times to remove some sticky to tape the paper to your monitor.

Next, very lightly, in pencil, trace a rough sketch of all of the important details that you want to capture. I will also periodically go to Dashboard (F4) just so my screen changes brightness so I can see if I am forgetting anything.

After I have all of the detail marked down, I’ll remove the paper from my monitor and begin inking the artwork. I like to use a felt-tip pen for this, like a Sharpie Pen or Micron, because what you’re looking for is bold, black lines. Try to mark cleanly, and close all of your corners. You’ll see why complete corners are important later.

Finally, erase all of the pencil markings. This should be easy since the pencil markings were done lightly. Be careful not to crinkle the paper, smear ink, or leave a ton of pencil eraser shavings. Clean surface will help a ton in the next step.

Step 3 – Scan and Live Trace

Next, scan the image into your computer. It doesn’t need to be super high-res, but not web-res either. I usually shoot for 300 dpi. Then open up the file in Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator has a super cool feature called “Live Trace”. When you click on a raster image in Illustrator with the Selection tool, you’ll get this bar across the top. Click on the down arrow next to Live Trace.

This will give you this window.

Generally all of the default settings are perfect, but click the Preview checkbox to see the results before clicking Trace, just to be sure. Also, when you want the white to be clear, click the Ignore White checkbox. If you need to make any adjustments to anything, select your new vector image and click Expand. It will make it completely editable.

Note: the complete corners help in the Live Trace to make complete paths, which are needed if you wanted to color in the drawing. Think of it like when you used to use the Bucket tool in Microsoft Paint. If your areas aren’t completely surrounded you get crazy fills.

Oct

Replacing Titanium Mobile Local Databases

Posted by Steve at 10:31 pm

I was trying to update a database in a Titanium Mobile app that I am working on and realized that when the database gets installed, the SQL file actually gets copied out of the Resources directory and moved to another folder. This is because the application doesn’t have right to write over anything in the Resources directory. This is all well and good, except when it comes time to push an update to the app. So I wrote this little version-checker/database-updater. Hopefully it will save someone else the amount of time that I spent on this silliness. (That someone may be me, when I forget!)

if (Ti.App.Properties.hasProperty("version") == true) { // If the global version variable exists
if (Ti.App.Properties.getString("version") != Ti.App.version) { // If the global version is different than the current app version
var file = Ti.Filesystem.getFile(Ti.Filesystem.applicationSupportDirectory+'/database', 'mydb.sql'); // Define the 'mydb' sql
if(file.exists() == true){ // If the 'mydb' sql exists
file.deleteFile(); // Delete the 'mydb' sql
}
Ti.App.Properties.setString("version", Ti.App.version); // Set the global version to the current app version
} else { // If the global version is the same as the current version
// do nothing (yet...)
}
var mydb = Ti.Database.install('../db.sqlite','mytable'); // Install/Define the 'mydb' sql
} else {
Ti.App.Properties.setString("version", Ti.App.version); // If the global version variable does NOT exist, set it equal to the current app version
}

Helpful Sources:

http://labrum.co/articles/titanium/using-a-local-database-with-titanium/
http://developer.appcelerator.com/question/110811/app-updates-and-databases
http://www.learningtitanium.com/snippets/removing-a-database.html

Oct

Dissolving in C4D

Posted by Steve at 10:00 am

My friend Kasey showed me this little trick for making things fade out in Cinema 4D. Before, I would render a scene in two passes: one with the object I wanted to dissolve out in the scene and one without and merger them together. Or, I would use External Compositing tags and Object Buffers. But this method is a little easier!

In your material for the object’s attributes, select the ‘Alpha’ tag. For the texture, select the little right-hand pointing arrow and click on ‘Color’. The color should be white inherently. This is the alpha matte for your object. White is opaque, black is transparent, and grays are in-between. Double-clicking on the color square will give you access to change the color. Use the keyframe tools to change the color over time and wallah: Dissolving!

Note that the shadows also dissolve out…

Oct

DFU Mode

Posted by Steve at 11:22 am

The other night my phone dropped a call. I was sitting still, in an area where I knew that I had coverage (you know, the AT&T pose) when it dropped. I looked at my phone and saw the dreaded “Activation Required” dialog. As it turns out (I’m fairly new to the Apple Developer Program), when your phone says that the beta OS will expire in x amount of days, this is what it means! To be fair, I did plug my phone into iTunes and “Check for Updates” but I was running the newest version. Silly me.

So here is how I got it working again (so I could continue with my phone call!). You need to enter DFU, or Device Firmware Update mode. To do that:

Plug in your iPhone or iPad into your computer. I’m not sure what devices work with this, but I had to do this on both my iPhone 4 and my first generation iPad.
Launch iTunes.
Turn off the device. If it is off already it will turn on when you plug it into iTunes. Anywho, it needs to be off before we can continue.
Hold down the Home button and the Power button simultaneously for 10 seconds.
After the 10 seconds, release the Power button, continuing to hold the Home button for another 3 seconds.
iTunes should start bouncing at you saying it has a “Detected a device in recovery mode” and will ask you to restore.
Click Restore. It’s the only option you’ve got at this point. Why not?

When it is done restoring it will as you to restore using a backup on your system, or you can use your iCloud account on the device itself. And that’s how you DFU your iDevice.

Oct

Dirt-Cheap Video Systems

Posted by Steve at 10:00 am

I know that that title either excites you or scares you, but let me assure you that what I’m about to disclose is absolutely true: you do not need the most expensive tool to do the job. Now, while generally the cheapest won’t do, a middle of the road, in some cases, will. Including this one.

Video systems usually include a switcher, some converters, some scan-converters, maybe a router, nowadays a multi-viewer, cameras and, most problematic, people. Most of this stuff is made by multiple companies, some of which works well, most have terrible interfaces, and almost all are super expensive. Yet, there is one company that I can speak of that tends to break the mold on a lot of this, and based on my experience, is downright awesome. That company is BlackMagic Design. (This article is in no way associated with BlackMagic Design, but written purely from my satisfaction with their product.)

Converters

These are the unsung heroes of tech. Without them, you have nothing. And when designing a video system, they often get looked past and have to be added on later in the process. Maybe it’s because so many of us have home systems that ‘just work’ without the need of any. But professional video is much more than a yellow cable or a funny looking HDMI connector. With professional video, you need to worry about connector type, whether it’s HD or SD, refresh rates, syncing, digital or analog.
These little buggers can cost anywhere from a few dollars to several thousand, and can even be in a rack mount system for even more. And, on the high end of converters, we’ve got a few BlackMagic Design Mini Converters that are awesome! They’re relatively maintenance free, regularly updated, the user interface is simple, and they’re usually about half the price of their competitors. We have several SDI to Analogs, Analog to SDI, SDI to HDMI, as well as SDI Embedders and Deembedders. All have worked great, most for three years without so much as a reset. The only problem that we have had is a power adapter got fried in an electrical storm. And for $400-$500 a pop, (when other brands do less and cost close to $1000), you really can’t beat it! (edit: since writing this they dropped the price. Some are as low as $295!)

Scan Converters

Since upgrading to HD and having to move away from the Extron Scan Converters and Scando Pros, we sought out an easy, multi-solution to converting from a computer to video, and we’re mostly satisfied with the Matrox MXO. They work great, have multiple outputs, support HD and SD, and are pretty durable. My three complaints are the price (about four years old and still sold for about $1000), and the fact that they only work with a Mac that has a MXO driver installed, which can be downloaded from their website, and the bulky power supply that has to be plugged in. They are a little quirky, too. That is until the BlackMagic Design DVI Extender came out. This little guy blows the pants off of the Matrox. It has DVI in, Analog audio in (mini jack), and USB (for power), and SDI out. You set the resolution with its free Converter Utility, which you can download from their website. Beyond that, it’s almost too perfect. We have had a few problems with MacBook Pros running OS 10.5, and there is a line of MacBook Pros that will not run at all (specifically, the first version with the Display Port Adapter (now known as Thunderbolt). I think it has something to do with the early dual-video card switching solution that Apple implemented). But, having one of these on hand has been awesome.

Routers

Probably our best investment when we built the new Student Ministry Center, The Block at Southeast Christian Church, was our digital router. We had the Harris Platinum MX, which in theory is awesome. The way a router works is you can digitally patch any source to any destination. You have 3 projectors and 10 screens in your lobby? Well, with a router you can put any source on any screen with a click of a button. Ours was a 48×64 (48 channels in and 64 channels out), which seemed gigantic to us. Until we moved in. We realized that in order to try a new idea out, we would have to rig a bunch of stuff, which is what a router intends for you to never have to do again. So, we upgraded to the BlackMagic Design Broadcast Video Hub. It by far the cheapest video router of it’s size, essentially 72 ins and 144 outs, although BlackMagic Design does offer several smaller routers for as low as $1995, which is unheard of in this industry! It comes with the ability to use the software on any PC or Mac in our building as long as it is connected to our intranet (something that our Harris couldn’t offer: Only install on one PC, yes PC) AND they even have several ‘dumbed down’ versions of the software for you to customize for your volunteers (or staff members) for super easy routing AND they even have an iPad app! Totally worth it, especially since it is half of the cost!

Switcher

I’m a fan of Echolab switchers. They are easy. They can do almost everything that a Grass Valley, Pinnacle, or Ross can do, and most of the time a lot easier. And for the price tag they were no-brainers. Sadly, the company went under do to poor investment strategies. However, last year someone went ahead and purchased the rights to all of their intellectual property. You guessed it: BlackMagic Design. They re-released the Atem series of switchers, but took it to a whole new level. For their big-daddy system, which is better than the aforementioned Echolab predecessor, the price is cut in half! That’s right. For half the money, get more switcher!

But that isn’t all. They developed a 1RU piece of equipment, less than 1/2 thick (minus the heat-sink) called the Atem Television Studio that does it all! It is a 1 M/E switcher with 4 HDMI ins, 4 HD-SDI ins, a multiviwer, keyer, and runs on a PC or Mac. The price? $995! That’s right. What once cost probably $20,000 is now yours for $1,000, you just supply the computer! It’s totally awesome! And, if you hook up the USB out to a computer (maybe Mac only, not sure), hit record at the beginning of your service and when you’re done, hit stop and your video has recorded in real-time in the h.264 codec of your choice! No more 4 hour delays on your podcasts! You can have them up while you’re cleaning the stage.

You see, you don’t really need hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a video room. You don’t need a $250,000 switcher and a $80,000 router and $12,000 in converters and scan-converters. Minus cameras and projectors, you could effectively have a pretty sick room for under $10,000! Use the rest of the money for the rest of your ministry needs.