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Shannon Hurley remix contest 
NECC 2008 
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 Awards announced at National Press Club Last fall, Sony Creative Software, the Ad Council and the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) organized a public service announcement development contest to raise awareness of the problem of cyberbullying. The purpose of the cyberbullying PSA contest was to leverage the talents of multimedia creators in a way that contributes to the greater good of the online community. The awards were presented at the Department of Justice/National Crime Prevention Council briefing on Cyberbullying at the National Press club in Washington, D.C. on June 4, 2008. Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Sedgwick attended as a speaker. Guests included representatives from various organizations concerned about children's safety online, including teachers' and nurses' unions and online safety advocacy groups.  Dave Chaimson, Sony Creative Software VP of worldwide marketing (center), with Cyberbullying PSA contest winners Josh Bourgeois (left) and Marvin Jimenez (right) Josh Bourgeois of Thibodaux, LA, is the winner of the independent producer competition category for his entry, Illuminate Cyberbullying, and Marvin Jimenez, technology literacy teacher at Lyndon B. Johnson Elementary School in San Antonio, TX, is the winner of the Academic (K-12) category for his submission, Words Really Do Hurt. The winning entries can be viewed at http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/cyber and will be distributed to broadcasters for a chance to air on national television this spring as part of the prize package, which also includes Sony software applications and hardware valued at up to $25,000 USD. Tech tip: discovering the power of Bézier masking by Gary Rebholz  Back in the February 2007 installment of this column, I talked about creating masking tracks in Vegas Pro software. I'd like to devote this month's column to another powerful masking technique that every editor should have in his or her arsenal: Bézier masking. This technique makes it possible to create sophisticated masks of virtually any shape and can be used to great effect in limitless situations. I'll walk you through the tools and how to use them and hopefully you'll begin to form ideas of how you can effectively use what you learn here to solve problems and create special effects in your videos that you might not be able to accomplish otherwise.First, what is Bézier masking? It's the process of using Bézier curves to cut out a portion of one layer (or track) of video so that the viewer can see through to a second layer of video. "Gary," I can hear you say, "didn't your mother ever teach you not to use a term to describe itself?" Well, yes she did. Sorry about that. What then is a Bézier curve? Mathematics aside, the relevant answer for this discussion is that it's a smooth and scalable curve (thanks, Wikipedia!) Drawing and graphics programs use Bézier curve tools to enable you to draw curved shapes accurately. Animation programs use them so you can draw a curved motion path for your animated character to follow. And Vegas Pro software uses them to make it possible for you to mask out portions of your video no matter what shape you need. The basic concept of Bézier masking is easy to grasp and the techniques are easy to learn. Easy to learn, but they do take some effort to master. After you work through this article, you'll know how the tools work. Then it'll be up to you to hone your skills with them and start using them in your projects! We'll start by creating a simple mask with four straight sides so that you get the idea of masking with this tool in general. Then we'll move on to a more complex shape so you can start to see some of the possibilities. Figure 1 shows a basic Vegas Pro project. It has two tracks. You can see in the timeline that the event on track 2 is directly below the two events on track 1. As you'd expect then, in the Preview window you only see the video from track 1.  The video preview window shows that the events on track 1 obscure the one on track 2. I'll use the Bézier masking tools to cut a hole in track 1 so that a portion of the video from track two shows through and fills one of the projector screens. Click here to continue  ACID Pro vs. Sound Forge How to decide which application is right for you by Craig Anderton  Sound Forge software (left) can zoom in on a waveform down to individual samples, and includes several file repair and restoration tools. ACID Pro software (right) lets you build up complete musical compositions, a track at a time, and mix them into a final result. ACID Pro and Sound Forge software both deal with digital audio and have several features in common, so perhaps it's not surprising that people just getting into music software wonder why they should choose one over the other. So, let's find out. The biggest difference is that Sony ACID Pro software is designed to create complete musical productions from the ground up, using any combination of audio, virtual instruments (plug-ins), and MIDI. Sony Sound Forge software is optimized to edit existing pieces of audio, whether narration, sound effects, a finished stereo recording of a band, surround video soundtrack, etc. There is some crossover, as you can record into Sound Forge software and edit in ACID Pro software. But in both cases, they do so with less sophistication than the other program. Consider navigation: With Sound Forge software, it's optimized to get you around a file quickly, and to compare different parts of a file. One of my favorite Sound Forge navigation shortcuts is when cutting part of a file—if you select the region to be cut, then hit Ctrl-K, Sound Forge will play from before the cut part, ignore the cut part, then pick up instantly at the end of the cut. This lets you know how the file will sound when the part is cut "for real." With ACID Pro software, navigation is all about getting around the project fast—moving effortlessly from one verse to the next, or jumping to the solo. Click here to continue Author/musician Craig Anderton is Editor in Chief of www.harmony-central.com and Executive Editor for EQ magazine. He not only maintains an active musical career, but has also lectured on technology and the arts in 37 states, 10 countries, and three languages. |
