Workshops

The CDA offers introductory workshops on video and sound software. Throughout the workshops specific software is demonstrated but the accent is always on principles that can be applied to similar software.

The following workshops will be available in Moodle for all students in the Faculty of Fine Arts. There is no fee to take the workshops and no registration is required. They should appear in your course list in Moodle as they are completed. Generally, the workshops take three hours to complete but on Moodle you may learn at your own pace asynchronously.

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the workshops, please contact Phil Hawes at the Centre For Digital Arts.

CDA Contact Page

There are also a series of guides on CDA Video and Audio equipment on this page:

Technical Support Documents

Video Editing with Premiere CC2019

No prior experience is necessary. Setting up a Premiere video project is covered in detail with some background theory on video formats and a quick overview of the video camera options in the Faculty. There is a demonstration Premiere project to learn the keyboard controls as you complete a edit. Effects, text and the most common export options will be covered. Improved features in CC2019 will be demonstrated.

Includes: recommended external hard drives, organizing your media, basic video terminology, importing media through the media browser, project and sequence settings, basic editing operations, trim editing, preview files, text, transitions, applying effects, importing image sequences, exporting at full quality and compressed settings, adjusting files sizes on export.

Workshop Notes

Adobe After Effects CC 2019

After Effects is Adobe's video compositing software that is designed to work with layers of video and other graphical elements. Like Photoshop, After Effects is very rich in features but following this brief workshop you should be comfortable enough to open the application and start exploring certain essential tools for video effects: working with layers, keyframing, mattes, chroma keying, speed adjustments, animated text, 3D layers, animation tools. This is a hands-on workshop with a demonstration project to work on. New features in CC 2019 will be discussed.

Includes: dynamic link, composition settings, workspace bit depth, workspace configurations, keyframing, speed changes, working with layers, parenting, expressions, multi-point mattes, tracking objects, keylight, text tools, 3D layers, render queue.

Video Color Correction (Premiere and Resolve)

Video scopes and a calibrated monitor are essential for accurate color video work and almost any video image will require some contrast and color adjustment. This workshop is the first step in learning color correction. Learn how to adjust video color with reference to video scopes common to any video software. “Normalization” of RAW and high dynamic range video will also be shown in detail. This is a hands-on workshop with a demonstration projects to work on. There will be a brief tour of the EV 5 and EV 10 color correction rooms.

Includes: additive color theory, zones of luminance, video scopes, calibration, contrast, eliminating color casts, primary and secondary color correction, RAW and HDR video normalization, Log vs Linear, importing and creating LUTs.

DaVinci Resolve Part One

DaVinci Resolve is a standard for color correction software in cinema but it has also been slowly developing into a complete video and audio post-production software suite with other sections dedicated to video editing, audio editing, video compositing and video encoding. It competes, in terms of functionality, with some applications in the Adobe CC suite: Premiere, After Effects, Audition and Media Encoder. Most importantly, the software is free if you are working up to 4K UHD video resolution. The expanded version, Resolve Studio, that adds additional image resolution and image noise reduction is included for free with Black Magic Design cinema cameras or can be paid for separately. Although the software is less user friendly than Adobe CC, and we will not have time to go into much detail, these two workshops will help you to make an informed decision on whether Resolve will be the correct tool for your projects.

Resolve Part One

The following topics will be covered: setting up a project and a local database, important preferences, the media management page, xml import, supported codecs, proxies, the video editing page and editing tools, basic video effects and transitions, primary color correction tools. We will also look at the output settings when a video card is available.

DaVinci Resolve Part Two

Resolve Part Two

The following topics will be covered: text and captions, secondary color correction tools, working with LUTS, stills, the Fairlight audio editing and mixing page, export options in the deliver page, green screen and the basics of node based compositing Fusion page.

Adobe Audtion Sound Editing and Mixing

Audition is a multi-track audio editing, mixing and recording software included in the Adobe CC Suite. Audition has all of the standard professional tools plus several more features often lacking in other audio software packages. This is a workshop for those who want to begin editing, cleaning-up and mixing sound. If you have previously worked with Audacity, you will appreciate Audition’s more complex multi-track audio environment. Audition also works well in conjunction with Premiere, allowing you to easily transfer a Premiere sequence for sound mixing. Prior knowledge of audio concepts will help with this workshop but are not necessarily required. There will be demonstration projects to work with, in addition to an example of a short stereo mix. We will look at using Audition in the EV 5 mixing studio and briefly discuss audio equipment available in the CDA depot.

Includes: basic audio terminology; the interface and tools: the multi-track viewer, the waveform editor; understanding signal paths: the mix window with inserts and buses; some common effects: EQ, Reverb and Noise Reduction; understanding and adjusting loudness levels to a LUF meter; stereo and surround projects.

DCP Creation and Viewing

Digital Cinema Packages are the standard for cinematic distribution and for film festival screenings. They are a 12-bit image sequences with separate surround audio files. The process of making DCPs is available to everyone and can be done for the cost of the drive that the DCP is shipped on. This workshop will look at DCP creation with the free software DCP O Matic and DaVinci Resolve. The following steps will be covered: preparing the video and audio elements, maintaining a 12-bit workflow, surround sound audio specifications, color correction specifications for DCP. There will also be a demonstration of how to screen a DCP in surround at the VCR mini cinema using Easy DCP Player Plus.

High Dynamic Range Video - Sony FS5

This workshop will be offered periodically, not at any fixed time.

Digital Cinema Cameras are large sensor video cameras capable of shooting with a higher dynamic range, simultaneously preserving detail in highlights and shadows to create a more naturalistic image. In this workshop we will look at when it is appropriate to shoot with high dynamic range settings. When could these settings potentially make your image worse?
The most common format for high dynamic range video is RAW. Each camera manufacturer has its own RAW video format but it is also possible to shoot with a higher dynamic range using compressed video codecs. How do these formats compare to still image formats? We will look in detail at shooting in "Log” encoding mode using Sony’s SLog on the FS5 camera. High Dynamic Range Video requires adjustment in post-production to “normalize” it, to make it look correct on a computer monitor. We will look at the tools in Premiere and DaVinci Resolve for accomplishing this task.

Includes:

Important terms: RAW, Log vs Linear, Gamma, color temperature, dynamic range, luminance sampling
Sony FS5 - menu settings and controls, SLog picture profiles, Auto exposure compensation and judging exposure manually
Adobe Premiere - Lumetri Color Tool, importing and using LUTS,
DaVinci Resolve - normalizing settings, creating LUTS, batch exporting