Software News Daily » video content

SoftwareMedia.com – Customer Advantage Program

Kyle — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:07:43 +0000

Over the years, SoftwareMedia.com has established itself as the premier online software shop for businesses and individuals across the country. We pride ourselves in our knowledgeable sales staff, our quality customer service team and our consistent 5-Star Ratings from third-party sites.

In addition, we boast one of the largest software catalogs around and hold some of the highest certifications of many top software brands. Combine that with discount prices, free shipping with every order, and a Price Match Guarantee, and you’ll see why we strive to become your one stop software shop.

How To Create a Custom Brush in Adobe Photoshop – 60 Second Tutorial

Kyle — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:33:48 +0000

Time again for another 60 second tutorial from the guys (and gals) here at SoftwareNewsDaily and SoftwareMedia.com. In this tutorial, Kyle -our resident multimedia wizard- will show you how to create a custom brush in Adobe Photoshop CS5 in less than one minute.

Video Transcript
Kyle here again from SoftwareMedia TV. Last time I showed you how to create a custom brush in Illustrator, and today I am going show you how to do the same thing in Photoshop.

What you want to do is you want to start with an image. It can be an image you import into Photoshop or something you draw. I’m going to do a little squiggly line.

Then, using any selection tool (it can be anything… it can be the magic wand, the lasso or the marquee, it doesn’t matter) select your image.

Go to edit > define brush preset. And you can name it whatever you want. I am going to call it “SoftwareMedia TV.” Hit “Enter” and it will show up in your brush presets. Deselect, and grab the paintbrush tool, and here’s your brush.

You can edit the parameters by going into the brush panel, and you can add noise, smoothing, anything you want, it’s really all up to you. You can do whatever you want with this brush.

It’s a really awesome tool, so go forth and experiment.

Create Custom Brushes in Adobe Illustrator – 60 Second Tutorial

Kyle — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:07:24 +0000

Time again for another of our 60 Second Tutorials. In this tutorial, Kyle shows us how to create a custom brush in Adobe Illustrator. Considering that Halloween is right around the corner, he decided to fashion his custom brush in the likeness of the sleeping, eldritch horror, dread Cthulhu.

Video Transcript

Hey everybody, Kyle here again from SoftwareMedia TV. Today, I’m going to show you how to make a custom brush in Adobe Illustrator.

So, what you want to do first is you want to select any one of these tools and make a shape of any kind. In the spirit of Halloween, I am going to make a Cthulhu shape, and that is going to be our brush.

Alright, draw a little octopus head, some eyes, wings… there you go.

And then, while you have your shape selected, go over to your brush palette , select “new brush”, “art brush”. And there’s a bunch of parameters here that you can change to get your brush exactly how you want it. Once you have everything selected, hit “ok”.

We can just delete this.

Go over to our paintbrush tool, make sure you’ve got your custom brush selected… and there you go. You have a brand-new, scary Cthulhu brush.

Ia Cthulhu.

Happy halloween, from SoftwareMedia.com

Premiere Pro Audio Cleanup – 60 Second Tutorial

Kyle — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:25:58 +0000

Audio is one of the key components to good quality video, and let’s face it, the built-in microphones in most consumer (and many professional) video cameras are somewhere between crap and garbage. While this problem can usually be avoided by using an external lapel or shotgun microphone, not everyone has access to the equipment, and many consumer cameras do not support external inputs.

In this Adobe Premiere Pro tutorial, I will show you how to clean the hiss and noise from the audio in your Premiere project, by using the integration with Adobe Soundbooth (both are included in the Production Premium and Master Collection).

Video Transcript:

Hey everybody, and welcome to SoftwarMedia TV. My name is Kyle and today I’m going to show you how to use Adobe Soundbooth to reduce the noise in your Premiere Pro project.

So, what you want to do is you want to right-click here. Go to “Edit in Adobe Soundbooth,” “Render and Replace.” This will open up Soundbooth, and it will have your clip in it to edit.

You can hear that.

So what you want to do is you want to highlight your noise, go to “Processes,” “Capture Noise Print”.

Now you want to right-click, go to “Processes” again, “Reduce Noise”.

Make sure that “Use captured noise print” is selected. You can see that it’s already reducing that frequency, and you can mess with the levels here a bit, to get it how you want it.

Hit… save it.

You can X out, go right back into Premiere Pro and your audio is cleaned up.

And it’s that easy.

Corel Painter 12 Mirror Painting – 60 Second Tutorial

Kyle — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:00:36 +0000

Corel Painter has long been known as the premier graphics software for realistic painting and illustration. Kyle, the resident animator and video geek here at SoftwareNewsDaily, has long been an unapologetic Corel Painter fanboy, and he has taken a little bit of time to show us the Mirror Painting Tool, one of the amazing new features available in Corel Painter 12.

Acrobat Standard vs Professional

Kyle — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:43:51 +0000

Standard? Professional? Super-ultra-mega-awesome edition?

Software applications often come in multiple editions, and it can be difficult to determine which version is right for you. Standard editions might be cheaper, but don’t always offer all of the necessary tools and utilities you need to get the job done right. Adobe Acrobat X is certainly one of those programs.

Acrobat is available in several different editions, each of which offer a different level of utility, from simple viewing and sharing of pdf files with Reader, all the way up to the full-service Acrobat X Suite, which includes numerous software programs (including Photoshop) that enable the widest range of PDF editing and creation capability.

Many people have difficulty in deciding which edition best meets their needs. Have no fear, this Acrobat Standard vs Professional buying guide is just the ticket to help you decide which edition is best for you.

AutoCAD 2012 LT New Features

Kyle — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:35:42 +0000

In March, Autodesk released its 2012 product line, including AutoCAD 2012 LT. We understand that some people are hesitant to immediately upgrade to a new version of a software product before they really get a chance to see some of the new features, improvements and upgrades that have been made to the program. So, we have put together a little video overview of some of the cool new features in AutoCAD 2012 LT. We think you’ll be as amazed about the advancements made to this version as we were!

Right now, you can buy AutoCAD LT 2012 at mega-low prices and qualify for a $300 mail in rebate!

For all of the latest software tutorials, free software guides, licensing overviews and product tours, check out our YouTube page! Our subscribers have access to all of our news and videos, plus exclusive promo codes, discounts and free software giveaways!

Final Cut Pro X Released to Negative Reviews

Kyle — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:21:43 +0000

Yesterday, Apple launched the newest incarnation of it’s professional Non-Linear Editing System, Final Cut Pro X. The long awaited release came amid a throng of negative reviews among app store reviewers and professional video editors. According to the angry mobs, Final Cut Pro X has been over-simplified to appeal to more casual, home-video editors despite its past, mainly professional user-base.

Final Cut Pro X is currently the #1 most downloaded app on the Mac App Store, and -ironically- also one of the lowest-rated. In an interesting move by Apple, the price for the newest version of Final Cut Pro has been drastically reduced to $300, in order to appeal to more casual home-users. This price drop -which would seem a good move on the surface- has apparently been made possible by sacrificing professional utility.

One of the most common complaints among FCP users regards the “dumbing-down” of the interface to make the program more accessible to amateurs, which alienates many professional editors who require the more difficult, advanced controls necessary for pro-quality editing. Final Cut Pro X is not backward compatible, making any of your Final Cut Pro 7 projects virtually useless – only iMovie events can be imported (what?!).

Here are some excerpts of Final Cut Pro X customer reviews:

“I run my my business on FCP and my first impression of the new app is that it is horrible. This is an enhanced version of iMovie. It DOES NOT open your existing FCP files.”
“I get the impression that folks at Apple that design software don’t actually run a production environment, and don’t understand our needs at all. Finally, this dot-zero release is extremely buggy, and abnormally ended (blew up) within 20 minutes of working on a project.”
“I love the idea of 64bit editing and all of the other features, but the basics for pros are gone. Here’s what’s missing:

We here at Software News Daily like to think of ourselves as optimists, and while many FCP users are disheartened at Apple’s new release, there are quite a few improvements and promising new features present in the software. For example:

64-bit support, allowing users to utilize the power of 64-bit systems(though Apple seems to be trying to catch-up to Premiere Pro and Avid)
Utilizing the graphics processing unit to allow faster renders, exports and more powerful effects processing.
Rendering effects in the background as you work, which is a considerable time-saver, as any video editor knows.
Resolution independence, allowing for increased flexibility in video formats, from SD to 4k.
ColorSync managed color pipeline, allowing for greater color consistency between FCP, Motion, Compressor and Quicktime.
Shared render engine, which provides for more consistent render quality between FCP, Motion and Compressor.

Despite the overwhelmingly negative reaction that Final Cut Pro X has received, it is important to keep in mind that the software is in its point-zero stage, and many users hold out hope that the features and precision controls required for professional editing will be re-implemented, and that the bugs and crashes will be addressed.

There are a number of powerful, professional quality non-linear editing systems available on the market today, and choosing the best one can often be difficult. Check out our Professional Video Editing Software Guide at SoftwareMedia.com!

Adobe Premiere Pro Tutorial – Learn How to Chroma Key

Kyle — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:41:52 +0000

Chroma keying (using a green screen to superimpose an actor onto a background) is one of the most often used and -at one time- difficult digital effects to execute well. Achieving a professional-quality key used to require countless hours of tedious, detail-intensive work. Now, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 has an awesome tool called the Ultra Keyer which makes chroma keying easier and faster than ever. In fact, it sort of makes me wish that I didn’t spend $60,000 for 4 years of film school and just shelled out a few hundred bucks for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and a video tutorial program like Total Training for Premiere Pro. At any rate, I have put together an Adobe Premiere Pro tutorial video to help you learn how to chroma key, and begin your journey on the path to becoming a special effects Jedi… er editor.

Whether you think the old-school Muppets still look better than Jar-Jar, digital effects and computer generated imaging have become a staple in the modern film industry and the fact remains that computer imaging and effects are here to stay. However, despite the sad reality of the decline of Hensonesque animatronics and puppetry (Disney Corp. actually bought out the Jim Henson Creature Shop), there still exists a rich and interesting world of cinematic opportunity to explore, and digital effects are not nearly as difficult as many would have you believe.

Tether It Up on AT&T with iPhone OS 4.0 Beta

Lansia — Wed, 19 May 2010 05:50:44 +0000

Not too long ago, iPhone OS 4.0 beta 4 was released! I’m not sure if this is old news — I admit, I’m a bit out of the loop…

But tethering! That has to be somewhat fresh news… iPhone OS 4.0 beta has a tethering option! iPhone user? Not excited? Yeah, I wasn’t very excited either when I read about it on Engadget, Boy Genius Report and Gizmodo. Why? I had no idea what tethering was until just a few minutes ago. What was all this hype over tethering!

Contrary to what I initially thought (it’s nowhere near a virtual game of iPhone tetherball), “tethering” is the use of a mobile device as a makeshift modem to connect another device to the internet. The connection is usually made through Bluetooth or a (USB, perhaps) cable. About.com gave the best breakdown I came across in my ADD-limited timespan spent looking up the term. Tethering is particularly useful when you have no other means to connect to the internet. It also may save a bit of dough if you already have an unlimited data plan — no need for a broadband or wireless access card when you can tether off your unlimited data plan. And it may also be more secure than surfing from a public wi-fi hotspot. When I think of tethering, I think of a cell phone… and a wireless card… meshed together. If that confuses you more, I apologize… Anyway, apparently, tethering is highly anticipated.

Now, that I know what tethering is… I’d say I’m more excited… uh… well, for those iPhone users (which I am not — I oddly live in the stone age when it comes to upgrading my tech; I blame this on lack of funds).

To set up tethering — navigate over to your settings to see the new option. A pop-up will ask if you want to set up tethering on this account, just go to the website and follow the directions. There’s a quick video of someone doing this below, for those… more visual learners.

If you aren’t seeing the option to set up tethering, just reset your network settings. Once you’ve got it set up, feel free to share your experiences, frustrations, likes, dislikes, and all that jazz.