Step 1: Launch iCombiner
Download iCombiner if you haven’t already done so and launch it.

Step 2: Select files to merge
Navigate Finder to the location of the PDF files you’d like to merge and then select those files. 
 
Tip: To save some time, select the PDF files in the order you want to merge them. You can always rearrange the files with drag and drop later in iCombiner, but this is a valuable time-saver. 
Step 3: Drag in files to merge
Drag the PDF documents you’d like to merge into iCombiner 
 
Step 4: Pick a name
Type in a filename for your merged PDF document. 
 
Tip: You don’t need to add the “.pdf” extension to the filename as iCombiner will handle that for you automatically. 
Step 5: Drag out file
Drag out the icon to where you would like to store your PDF file, then sit back and relax as iCombiner merges your PDFs in lightning speed. 
 
That’s it!

Dock icon merge:
To improve productivity, the new version lets users merge documents by dragging them from Finder onto iCombiner’s dock icon. By default iCombiner merges the dragged files into a single document automatically inside the folder of the dragged files. This can be customized so that iCombiner first prompts for the destination file, or that iCombiner opens the files in the main window for further editing.

Finder merge:
For further increased productivity and efficiency, iCombiner now supports merging documents directly from Finder. Designed for power users, this features extends the Mac OS built-in contextual menu with an action item to merge the selected files in a single click.

Improved help system:
The new version also sees the help system overhauled to allow faster and easier access to important information, and to blend closer into the familiar Mac OS help environment. The updated help system contains howtos for the main tasks, guides to the new features, and solutions to common problems.

Key features in a nutshell:
* Merges documents, images, scanned files and photos into a single PDF document
* Handles PDF, TIFF, PNG, JPEG, PostScript, EPS, JPEG-2000 (JP2), GIF, PSD, ICNS, Windows Bitmap (BMP), PICT, SGI and TGA files
* Supports multi-page PDF, TIFF and PostScript documents
* Merges files with drag and drop onto iCombiner’s dock icon
* Merges files directly from Finder through the contextual menu
* Offers 3 different create modes: automatic in-place, prompt for destination file, and open in main window

Minimum Requirements:
* Mac OS X Version 10.4 or higher
* Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel

Pricing and Availability:
iCombiner is $26 USD, and available as a free download from the iCombiner website. It runs initially in a 10-day trial mode with all features active. This is a free upgrade for existing users.

iCalendar allows users to send meeting requests and tasks to other users through email. Recipients of the iCalendar email (with supported software) can respond to the sender easily or counter propose another meeting date/time.

If you have ever used iCal on a regular basis you will know that although the interface may appear simple the application is rather sophisticated. One of the best features in my opinion is the ability to easily subscribe and publish your own calendars. Better still Google Calendars can be also subscribed to directly from iCal !

The Apple website has published a large list of public .ICS calenders. Click here for the full list. There is even a website dedicated to listing public iCals. http://icalshare.com/

The great thing about subscribing to a calendar is that if the author changes an event your calendar is automatically updated the next time iCals checks it (most of my calendars I have set to refresh once per day).

Taking a relevant calendar from the Apple list, I have decided to subscribe to a Movie Release Calendar. 

Clicking an .ics file from within Tiger or Leopard will automatically call iCal.  

iCal will download the current version of the calendar, the following window is important if you want iCal to refresh the calendar regularly. Click the auto-refresh option to set the desired period for update checking.

In the same way you can subscribe you can also make your own calendar public. Simply create a new calendar, add events and click the ‘Calendar’ menu, then publish.

As you update the Calendar it will update the public .ics file. The down side is you need .Mac or a webdav capable server for the simple publish but it is possible to export the .ics and upload it to non webdav supporting web servers, just a little more work. 

I would definitely recommend taking some time and looking at iCal if you are using an alternative system. There are also many third party applications that will auto sync your iCal to your Google account. 

Recommendations to help you create the best possible experience for users:

1. Apple TV viewers are immediately aware of video quality. If you encode your video podcast at 320×240, we strongly encourage you to increase the resolution to 640×480 or 640×360 (depending on the aspect ratio of your source files). When encoded well, video podcasts at this resolution look great on Apple TV and still play on iPhone and video-compatible iPods. To ensure compatibility, we recommend that you encode using QuickTime’s “Movie to iPod” preset or Compressor’s “Apple > Apple Devices > H.264 for iPod video and iPhone 640×480″ preset.

2. When you perform the final encode on your video, enable fast starting. Most recent versions of QuickTime enable this setting automatically. But it’s easy to undo the setting by making changes to the file after the encode. If you do make a change after the encode, be sure to “Save As” again.

3. Apple TV displays a large version of the podcast art (the file referenced in the <itunes:image> tag). We recommend that you use a 600×600 square JPG or PNG file.

4. Several new introductory video tutorials have been developed for iTunes, including one for podcasts. If your web site offers how-to information for new podcast users, please consider linking to it.

For those hosting podcasts on their own servers, consider the following recommendations:

5. To reduce wait times, iTunes and Apple TV use byte-range requests in some circumstances. For example, Apple TV 2.0 employs this functionality when the user accesses the podcast directly over the Internet. We recommend hosting episode files on HTTP/1.1 servers that correctly support the HTTP byte-range request specification.

6. Please ensure that your HTTP servers return the correct MIME types in the Content-Type header. Failing to do so can create errors. A list of MIME types can be found in the iTunes podcast technical spec.

Useful links:

1. Installing the free upgrade on an existing Apple TV
2. iTunes Store Podcast Technical Specification
3. iTunes Video Tutorials: Get Free Podcasts

If you want to create quick yet eye catching final credits for a movie I highly recommend Keynote. Transitions and effects in Keynote 08 help you build cinema-quality presentations. New transitions give you more choices for transporting your audience from slide to slide, flexible text animation puts your words in the spotlight, and interleaved builds offer additional options for every element in your slides.

If you create your end credits as a series of Keynote slides you can add a range of animated effects and images to puctuate the message. There are over two dozen transitions to choose from all of which retain their animation once exported to Quicktime.

It should also be remembered that you can embed video within your Keynote presentation so you are not limited to end titles featuring simply text and image.

Once you have completed your credits simply export the presentation to QT : Click “Export” in the file menu.

Select Custom to ensure you export your quicktime both at the correct resolution and compression.

You can now adjust the quality of the end titles:

Once complete (this may take some time depending on the amount of animation used) you can import your end credits in to iMovie or Final Cut.
For more on Keynote click here.

The idea of now converting your DVDs to a format that can be played on a multimedia device could be quite daunting. Handbrake is another free application that easily converts a DVD to the popular mp4 format.

Using handbrake really could not be simpler. Double click the HandBrake icon and it will load the following easy to follow window :

Click the “Browse” button and locate the video_ts folder on the DVD and let handbrake do the rest. Note Handbrake does not work on encrpyted DVDs. Handbrake is a full featured application and allows the user to select a size (MBs) for the final file and offers two pass encoding for higher quality output.

HandBrake is a GPL’d multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter. HandBrake was originally available on the BeOS, but now has been ported over to MacOS X, GNU/Linux and now Windows.

Supported sources:
- Any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (even encrypted)
- PAL or NTSC
- AC-3, LPCM or MPEG audio tracks

Outputs:
- File format: MP4, AVI or OGM
- Video: MPEG-4 or H.264 (1 or 2 passes or constant quantizer encoding)
- Audio: AAC, MP3, Vorbis or AC-3 pass-through (supports encoding of several audio tracks)

Misc features
- Chapter selection
- Basic subtitle support (burned into the picture)
- Integrated bitrate calculator
- Picture deinterlacing, cropping and scaling
- Grayscale encoding

Top Tip : If you own DVDs of music videos generally each video is a DVD chapter. Handbrake allows you to rip chapters seperately so you can rip indvidual mp4s of each song.
If you own a Mac and do not have Handbrake installed click here.

[Note : This tutorial is for use with DVDs owned by the ipod / iphone owner. We do not condone piracy. ]

Then hit the “Capture button” A preview should appear in the window below.

As you can see the entire length of the site is captured as a single file. Once you are happy with the captured image click the “Save Image As” button.

Paparazzi offers a range of save options from format changing to the ability to save a thumbnail version of the image that is scaled in proportion to the main image. The image below is a scaled down version of the file captured when we ran Paparazzi on DigMo!

Parparazzi also supports the grabbing of password protected sites and pages.
It should be noted that the current version is 1.4.3 and is Leopard compatible. Version 1.5 is in beta (also available on site) but is not let Leopard friendly. To download Paparazi click here.

With its revolutionary interface, iMovie makes it quick and easy to browse your library and create new movies. And iMovie is built for sharing. In just a few steps, you can add movies to your website, publish them on YouTube, and create versions for iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV.

iMovie 08 is definitely different from previous versions, in fact Apple are offering the previous version as a download for registered 08 users. There has been a lot of criticism on the web regarding the latest version but the fact is it does make film production much quicker.

Apple are clearly differentiating between the the iMovie and Final Cut markets. iMovie 08 is definitely stripped down, no more effects and the range of export options demonstrates this application is designed for your YouTube, Mac Gallery and iPod mediums rather than linear film and DVD. The serious amateur film maker is going to find themselves using Final Cut Express rather than iMovie from now on, although this is likely to have been Apple’s plan.

If you want to add a professional look to your short YouTube or iPod video then iMovie is definitely the easiest and quickest tool for the job and it is no way lightweight with it’s support for High Definition.

Apple have released a range of video tutorials on how to get the most out of iMovie 08. Examples include :

Importing from a Camcorder

Skimming Video

Trimming Video 

Adding Voice Over 

Creating a Movie

Sharing & Exporting

Well we have been lucky enough to be offered a teaching handout and unit of work for Comic Life. The unit designed for keystage 3 pupils (11-14) looks at the construction of a story, storyboarding, using Comic Life and also the transfer of photos from a phone to the Mac via bluetooth.

The Comic Life tutorial is pretty basic but covers the main aspects of the application and is more than enough to get your students started on their story telling projects. Please note this is a draft task and is copyright the original author. Please link to this article not the download.

Task :
In groups pupils will write and communicate a story using only eight photos and the Comic Life
Application.

Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of this task pupils will be able to use bluetooth to transfer files to and from a computer.
On successful completion of the task pupils will be able use photos taken with a mobile phone in their own documents / coursework etc.
On successful completion of the task pupils will be able to manipulate / resize and filter their photographs.
On successful completion of the task pupils will be able to use suitable software applications to communicate in a range of different ways.

Transferable skills:
Working with others, Organising oneself, Communication, Critical and discriminating skills, Reflection and decision making skills

Resources :
Apple iMac Computer / PC with Comic Life Installed, Digital Camera or Phone.
Note : If you do not have enough digital cameras for your class it is possible to use a camera phone to take the photos and thenApple’s Bluetooth File Transfer system to send the photos from the phone to the Mac.

Download the Tutorial (3.8MB)

Buy Comic Life

If you download the tutorial please take the time to Digg the article.

Previously we touched on how easy it is to produce interesting moving credits using Keynote and the built in Quicktime Export now Apple have introduced a great new tool to make life even easier.

If you have ever tried to import an image into keynote to suddenly discover the background clashes with your keynote theme then this tool is for you. In the past you will have been forced to take the image into Photoshop, remove the background and then export it as a transparent PNG.

Apple have addressed this extra step by the introduction of the ‘Alpha’ tool. The icon appears along the top of the Keynote window and becomes active when you click on an imported image.

As you can see in the above screen shot I have 3 great iPods but the white background looks terrible in the keynote.

To remove unwanted elements:

1. Select the image.
2. Click Alpha in the toolbar (or choose Format > Instant Alpha).
3. Click the color you want to make transparent, and then drag slowly over it.
4. As you drag, the selection grows to include the contiguous area that uses similar colors. You can control how much of the image is selected by dragging less or more.

Repeat step 3 as many times as you like.

Better still the shadow tool now works perfectly on your new cut out shape. The Alpha tool is very easy to use and my advice is to drag the wheel slowly at first and experiment with the amount of colour being removed.

The guide features tutorials for :
Scarface
Pirates of the Caribbean
Sin City
A Scanner Darkly
Cars
300

as well as a few general tutorials thrown in. For a general cinematic feel, try out this “movie-like effect” tutorial. A little cinematic blurring, a set of black bars, some color color changes, and you might be able to convince your friends they’re looking at your latest prints from the set.

If you want to create movie effects or movie posters in photoshop then Photojojo is well worth a visit.

In fact, this tutorial is very easy to follow, all you need is some basic Photoshop and Flash skills. To complete this tutorial, you need Photoshop CS2+, Flash 8+, and a photoFlow component from Flashloaded.

The photoFlow Flash component displays multiple images with a stack effect, perspective and reflection. The images can be flipped by clicking on a specific image in the stack, using the supplied skinnable scrollbar, or scrolling the mousewheel. Images can be added or changed directly in the Component Inspector, through ActionScript or using an external XML file. The PhotoFlow plugin costs $59.95

Key Features

• Easily update images using the Component Inspector, ActionScript or an XML file
• Adjustable flip speed, spacing between stacked images and image size
• Customizable perspective view and reflections
• Option to flip images as a slideshow
• Add links/hyperlinks to each image
• ActionScript events to perform an action when an image has loaded, is selected, etc…
• Images can be external or included in the library
• Mouse wheel image flipping (Windows only)
• Optionally display a name for each image
• Option to set the number of images to preload
• Option to automatically scale images to fit or to fill the defined size
• Zoom in on selected image or on all images on mouse over
• photoFlow can open on a pre-defined image
• Customizable background color and opacity
• Option to start flipping from left-to-right or right-to-left
• Supports sound effects for image flipping
• Built-in preloader
• Light weight (weighs only 18kb with the scrollba

To read the full tutorial visit the web designer wall.

The Tutorials are easy to following and even the iMovie experts will gain something new :

• Textured Backdrops
• Basic Compositing : Masks
• Grainy Black and White Look
• Intermediate Compositing : Glow Outline
• Intermediate Compositing : Blue and Green Screen
• Silent Film Look
• Hand held video look
• Day for Night

• Tarn’s Official video tutorials. More coming all the time.
• Oeyvind’s guide to understanding presets.
• How to use stock footage. Another tute by Oeyvind, very helpful to new users.
• Converting stock footage in Premiere by nimozap.
• Masking a filter by JT9. Useful for altering color on small parts of your footage, such as casting glows from an explosion or light source.
• Creating speed blur, similar to an effect seen in Smallville, apparently.
• Cloning in EffectsLab by JT9. Pushes the boundaries of the software to achieve an effect it was never designed to do.
• Creating EffectsLab textures in Paint Shop Pro by malone. Handy if you want to create new textures for the particle engine.

Muzzle Flash Tutorials

• Basic flashes introduces the Flare engine.
• Automatic weapons focuses on, well, automatic weapon flashes. Because every movie needs an assault rifle.
• Creating your own textures in Paint Shop Pro was put together by malone.
• Creating textures from photographs details a process through which you can use Photoshop to create photorealistic texures for muzzleflashes or particle effects.

Light Sabre Tutorials

• Tarn’s official Basic lightsword tutorial
• Authentic lightswords provides some tips on making your lightsaber effects look better in general.
• Understanding The Neon Light Engine, Part 1 is a nice explanation of each of the neon light controls, by NickD.
• Part 2 can be found here.
• Lightsaber glow affection, by Oeyvind, will help you cast light from the lightsaber onto other objects in the scene, for greater realism.
• ILM quality lightsabers by Redhawksrymmer uses two layers to create a very nice loking lightsaber effect.
• A video tutorial by Turd Ferguson may be helpful for some as well. It has no audio, but does provide some visuals of the process that might clarify things a bit.
• Good quality, single-layer lightswords. jrg’s own lightsaber techniques.
• Lightsword cutting through a wall. You know, to simulate that melty metal effect from the beginning of Episode I.
• Ship engines burning also uses a neon light effect, and is useful for jet engines or spacecraft.
• Lightsaber ignition by NickD walks you through the process of turning a lightsaber on.

Optics (aka the Lens Flare engine)

• The basics of creating lens flares. An official tutorial by Cogz, the lens flare master. Excellent introduction to creating lens flares and using the Optics controls.

MISC

• Creating textures in Paint Shop Pro. Also referenced in the Flare section above.
• Creating textures from photographs details a process through which you can use Photoshop to create photorealistic texures for particle effects. I devised this technique for the textures in my fire effect above.

• Burning Multiple Times to the Same CD
• Emailing Web Pages
• Adding a Photo as Your Window’s Background
• See-Through Notes
• Super Shortcut to Having an App Load at Login
• Dropping Text on the Dock for Fast Results
• Email Attachments Made Easy
• Smart Mailbox Idea: Mail Older Than One Year
• Exposé Show-Off Trick #1
• Resizing Photos for Emailing
• Drag-and-Drop Desktop Printing
• Making ZIP Files (Compressed Files) in One Click

Always remember: These rules are guidelines to help make your movies more “professional” and easier and more pleasant to watch for your audience. If you know why, you can break them - but you need to know them first in order to break them.

Content List

Pre-Production

• Introduction
• Script
• Scriptwriting Tips
• Budgeting
• Casting
• Scheduling
• Locations
• Costumes
• Technical Planning

Production

• Introduction
• Camerawork
• Lighting
• Acting
• Additional Elements

Post-production

• Introduction
• Editing
• Sounddesign
• Music
• Grading
• Visual Effects

• Edit photo titles and descriptions, and add tags to them.
• Save time - FlickrExport can update iPhoto’s database with the titles and descriptions you give your photos.
• Save your Flickr bandwidth allowance - FlickrExport for iPhoto can resize your photos before uploading.
• Create a new photoset with your photos, or add them to an existing photoset.
• Automatically send your photos to a Group Pool on Flickr.
• Choose from a list of your Flickr tags and add them to your photos before uploading.

Download a Demo
You can download a demo version of FlickrExport for iPhoto which will function for 30 days without a license, subject to the following restrictions:

• You may only upload 5 photos in any one upload session, but you can upload as many batches of 5 as you like.
• Each photo will be tagged with “flickrexport2demo”.
• Each photo will have “Uploaded with a demo version of FlickrExport 2″ appended to its description.

When you’re ready to buy FlickrExport, just visit http://connectedflow.com/store or click the “Purchase FlickrExport” button in FlickrExport itself and you’ll be directed to the web store where you can pay with your Credit Card.

The current version of FlickrExport for iPhoto is 2.0.6 as of 2006-03-16. You can download it from this link. Subscribe to the Connected Flow Blog to be notified of updates automatically.

As a VFX artist, you are primarily creating motion graphics or visual effects. Without a thorough knowledge of rotoscoping and how it fits into the modern digital pipeline, you are limiting just how far you can take an effect or design.

The art of rotoscoping changed considerably with the introduction of digital tools such as Commotion, Digital Fusion (DF), Shake, Combustion (C3) and After Effects (AE). With a thorough knowledge of rotoscoping, digital artists can create better live-action or CG composites as well as amazing visual effects.

Various rotoscoping techniques are covered in the article, including matte creation, effects painting, paint touchup, digital cloning, and motion tracking as well as a brief history of the craft.

Visit FxGuide for Rotoscope History and Technique.

Rotoscoping : The Very Basics

Step 1 (iPhoto)
Step 1 is simple. In iPhoto 06 create a new Album and give it a relevant title. Now drag the images you want to backup from your library into this album.

Step 2 : Create the Data Backup
Now Select all of the images in this album (click on the edit menu and “select all” or A) then select export (File menu and Export). Select File export from the top tab and chose the quality of image you wish to backup, this will probably be full quality. Save these images in to a folder (we will use these later).

Step 3 : Creating the Slideshow

Again selecting all the images in your album (A) click the “slideshow” button at the bottom of the iPhoto window. This will create a slideshow (”title of your album slideshow”) use the slideshow controls to alter transitions and background music.

Step 4 : Send to iDVD
Once you are happy with your slideshow click on the “share” menu and select “Send to iDVD” this may take some time depending on the number of images in your album.

Step 5 : iDVD Menus
Select the style of menu system you desire for the DVD. Remember you can also use your iPhoto library to populate the “drop zones” in the DVD template. You can preview your DVD at any time by clicking the triangular “play button”

Step 6 : Adding the photos
Once you are happy with the DVD menus etc it is time to add the actual image files we created earlier.
In iDVD select the “Advanced” menu and click “Edit DVD-ROM Contents” Click the “add files” button and navigate to the folder you created earlier. iDVD will add these to the DVD. Close this window and simply click the “burn” button to create your DVD. DVD creation can take a long period of time depending on the number of transitions used in the slideshow and menus.

The resultant DVD will play in a stand alone player and the actual images can be accessed when the DVD in put into the computer (both Mac and PC).

You may need to experiment with the number of images you can fit on to a single disk but I think this is a nice way to be able to archive and view your photos at a later date.

Other Tutorials
iPhoto Introduction

iPhoto Top Tips

My personal favourite is the face tracing tutorial a full detailed tutorial on how to draw and trace people from a photo. Learn how to create realistic illustration with just simple gradient fill. (here) I highly recommend using a graphics tablet with illustrator although if you follow the tutorial with care you will be creating high quality images in just a few hours.

If you use Illustrator often then creating a series of templates is a wise step to cater for both RGB and CYMK outputs. NDesign offer a range of free templates for most outputs.

Tutorials Include:
Itunes Logos

Tracing Photos

Tan Skin Tones

Visit Ndesign Studio for the full list here.

This tip also works in other Cocoa applications like TextEdit, Stickies and Safari. For example, if you’re reading a story and want to do a Google search on something you’ve read, just highlight the text and drag-and-drop it on the Safari icon in the Dock.

It will launch Safari and display the Google Search Results.

[Credit : Apple.com]