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The World’s Top Tips for

Pinnacle Studio Video Editing software

(with some Avid Liquid snippets)












REVIEWS - 3rd PARTY APPLICATIONS

CREATE YOUR OWN AMBIENT SOUNDS!

Don't you just love it? You're desperately trying to record the sound of the sea on a balmy summer afternoon, and 5 yards away a bright young thing is listening to funky wunky music pounding out from a ghetto-blaster. So what do you do? Simple, you get hold of a program called Atmosphere Lite (for free), or the full works in Atmosphere Deluxe for around $30, and create your own background atmosphere. Atmosphere Lite is obviously a pruned down version of the full works, so I shall just describe some of the features of the full program here.

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Looks pretty comprehensive, doesn't it.  Over on the left side are a load of preset situations and background sounds - which use various combinations of the many sounds available. For example, if you choose Night from the top Preset Panel, you'll get the Night, Ocean and Cicada selections from the button list below automatically selected - then, if you want to add Thunder into the equation (a stormy night, perhaps), simply click the Thunder button as well. On the right side there's a host of other bugs and birds you can add, by simply dragging the slider from the 'never' right hand side, to the 'frequent' left hand side. You can also set the Master volume, the stereo balance and the various random levels for all the sounds.  By clicking on the MORE Random sounds button, you open up another dialog offering an even greater selection of Birds, Bugs, animals and other background noises,..wp0a110f32.gif

.... and in the User Defined section, top right, you can select different backgrounds (I'll come to that in a minute), material from a CD you own, or a chance to include sound files that come with Atmosphere DeLuxe... as shown here ...wp6c254bf1.gif

As you can see, the left section is for Random sounds, while the Centre and Right section is for Background sounds. To select you click on the button adjacent to the window (left button in the case of the Random Sounds selection - the right button plays it back so you can hear what it is) - and that opens up a list of all the sounds you have available: Needless to say, there are stacks of them you can download. You give the sound a name - and it then gets included in the list on the main panel. As you can see from the buttons along the bottom, there's also a wizard to help you make your selections.

wp8242deb8.gif The sounds are played continuously - but from the bottom of the main panel you can choose to record the sounds to a specific time length, or to a file size, and choose the recording quality and so on.

Now, this isn't just a program  for creating your own ambient background sounds ... it can also be used to provide a desktop environment - with pictures - for your PC. That's what the picture is for on the bottom left of the main screen. Some pictures are large, and can be scrolled automatically as a desktop image, and of course, like the background sounds themselves, you can add to the range available from your own collections.  It also has an alarm clock built in, so if you happen to drop off whilst working at your PC ...

This is a pretty amazing program. It will allow you to get a suitable ambient background to your movies in seconds, and in my view, is well worth investing in the full version.  On top of that, if you like your computer to have an ambient sound background and panoramic images while you're working - well, here's the way to do it.  Talking of getting it, where do you go to get it?   Here

VIDEO FUN BOX from JELLYPIE SOFTWARE

I've loved this program right from the start - and it just keeps getting better and better. With the latest version - 1.07 - you can have multiple lines of text, a blur option and a new effect that allows digital pictures to be loaded and displayed in their correct aspect ratios, and mapped to a range of 3D objects - cubes, spheres and so on.  With blending and shading, even more amazing effects can be created. For creating motion backgrounds - particularly for DVD menus, but also for general titling backgrounds and so on, Video Fun Box takes a lot of beating.  But be warned - there is a danger  ... once you start playing with Video Fun Box, you won't want to stop exploring the infinite possibilities!  If you haven't already tried this program, do so now. You'll never worry about what to use as a background again... 

For more information about JellyPie's Video Fun Box, click here

As an aside - there's also a new website handling Video Fun Box, as well as having a wealth of other goodies, tips, FAQs and so on - here

The original review starts here...

wpba221878.gif Occasionally a small program comes along that seems incredibly simple to use, yet has unbelievable creative power. Just such a program is the Video Fun Box, from JellyPie Software. It enables the most astounding abstract motion backgrounds to be created - your imagination is virtually the only limit, and it enables you to create dynamically animated titles. None of the screen dumps here really do it justice - you need to see the screens dynamically to get the full flavour.

When you first open up the Video Fun Box (Version 1.0), it may look pretty bland. (Version 1.02 is out now, and I understand it incorporates another feature - 'Fire'). But there is some real power lurking under the bonnet, just waiting to be released by your creative ideas. There are six 'options' that can be added to the screen - Text (already showing when you open up the Fun Box), Tunnels, Stars, Particles, Tiles and now 'Fire'. You can switch on - or off - any or all of these to create the abstract effect you want ... and each one of them can be adjusted in an extremely wide variety of ways, making the possibilities virtually limitless.  Once you start playing with it, you get hooked into experimenting with new ideas for creating backgrounds. But, lets examine each of the options in turn - remember, you can have one or more of them active at any time.

wp618af8d8.gif Text. Great for animated titles. Here's what you can do ... Obviously, you can enter the (one line) title you want, and select the font type, size, emphasis (bold, italic and so on). You can make it 3D by controlling the 'Extrusion' property, make it look like chrome, glass, a single colour, wire frame - and give it a texture. The program comes with a wide selection of textures - but you can use your own bmp files if you want. That sets up the way the lettering looks. Now, you can make the lettering rotate around any axis at any speed you want (all three if you want to go berserk), zoom in and/or out pan up down, left or right - and control the speed in all cases. 

wp6d5b955d.gif Tunnels This option gives a 'tunnel' like background that you move into, or out of (or let sit static of course).  Again, you get to choose the texture bitmap to be used as the background (and again - plenty to choose from in the program, or you can go for one of your own), then you can zoom in on the picture or graphic, adjust the speed of movement (in or out), twist and/or warp the background by any amount that you want. These last two options provide some amazing images, depending on the base texture being used, especially if there is also movement into or out of the tunnel effect. With just one graphic background you can get a myriad of different effects ... now add the possibility of choosing any graphic you have available. Limitless possibilities. In most instances, you will want to have some kind of background selected and switched on (either this one, or the 'Tile' effect ... or perhaps even both), though you can choose to have just a single colour background if you wish. 

wp9b0fcb27.gif Particles Like it says on the label, this option produces particles. You choose the bmp to use as the source (this requires a different variety of bmp to the backgrounds, to be effective. The example dump shown here uses a 'bubble' bmp. The effect is a host of 'particles' emanating from some point in the screen, and moving away from that point according to your choice. You can choose the number of particles used, their colours (or randomise it), select the type of particle being used, movement speed, direction they will 'flow' (gravity effect), size at the start and finish zoom speeds and so on and on. In seconds you can create a comet repeatedly floating across the screen, or (as here) have bubbles floating away ad infinitum.  You can loop the whole thing, or have it 'bounce' backwards and forwards.

Stars In some ways, this is similar to the Particles option.  However, in this instance, the 'objects' (you guessed it - you choose the bitmap you want to use) can be made to spin and spiral like a galaxy.  As with the other options, you can control virtually everything about the effect. And, remember, you can have this effect switched on with some or all of the other effects, for some impressively abstract motion backgrounds.

Tiles This effect provides an alternative background to the Tunnel effect (or it can be used with it, if you want). I shan't mention that you get to choose the bmp for the tile texture ... you will realise that by now.  What I will tell you is you can have two different textures on display (transparent, of course, or not. You choose). What's more, each is individually controllable for zoom, movement pan speed and direction, and colour.  By zooming in close, you can get those wispy, dreamy backgrounds drifting across the screen.  By zooming out, you can see your bmp pictures crisp and sharp. The possibilities of this option alone are enormous.  Add in the rest of them... 

Fire This effect has been added to the current version, (which means I must update!). Great for 'hotting' up your videos, no doubt!

wp442d3079.gif OK. So by using the Video Fun Box you have created a wonderful motion background, and maybe a title to go over the top.  Now what?  Well, you simply save it to an AVI file.  This is where you may have to do a bit of thinking ...  You must choose the system you want, NTSC or PAL, and the number of frames the AVI is to be.  That's where it can get tricky, or needs a bit of trial and error.  You either need to time how long the effect you want lasts (for that title to rotate through 360 degrees, say, or you need to experiment. Remember that NTSC requires 30 frames a second (give or take a sniff) and PAL 25 frames a second.  Then click OK ... and wait while it all renders out.

I have to say that when viewed in Microsoft's viewer, the result of my first test looked pretty jerky and, as a result, unimpressive .  But I imported the AVI into Studio ... and there it looked perfect, exactly as I imagined and hoped it would.

It gets my vote for being an invaluable tool in the creative armoury. Those who create DVDs with motion menus will love the potential offered, but it doesn't stop there. The Video Fun Box can also be used to provide abstract backgrounds for programs like Hollywood FX. Check it out for yourself at JellyPie Software, and while you're there, check out the other goodies they're offering.