Inside Geek Canada

A Final Update

evanthies — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:09:58 -0500

I figured it was time to do a website update, considering I haven't said anything since December last year. As should be apparent by now, Inside Geek Canada has ceased production. I have decided to keep the site up for now, however all that will be on here is the actual blog articles; everything else on the site will be closed, including the forums.

I really did enjoy doing Inside Geek and it was fun while it lasted, but honestly it's hard to continue putting in a lot of work without much of a benefit. And since I started Aperio Studios I really have no time to commit to Inside Geek. Even my emails, I just haven't had the time to answer and research answers for the community anymore. I do appreciate all the support everyone gave towards the community and me.

So the site's main content will stay up but nothing more. We're currently looking for clients at Aperio Studios and we would be happy to work with your company for your web video production needs. You can also follow me on Twitter if you wish, http://www.twitter.com/evanthies.

Thanks again,

Evan Thies

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

evanthies — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:17:26 -0600

I just wanted to make a quick post to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I wish the best to you and your families. I would also like to thank everyone who has been very supportive of Inside Geek Canada and our videos since we started in July.

I'll try to get some new videos up early in the new year, but I expect the new year to start off pretty slow. I am focusing heavily on Aperio Studios right now and will be for the next while. In the coming months videos will be released when available with a lot less produced. But with plenty of content already on the site and questions from the videos coming in daily I expect the site to continue to grow.

All the best in the new year,

Evan Thies

Temporary Delay of Videos and Release Dates

evanthies — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:32:21 -0600

As you have probably have noticed it's been a while since I have released a new video. This is because I have been working hard on Aperio Studios. From now until the holidays videos will continue to be released but there will be no guarantee on how many and what days they will be released. I will still be taking emails at evan@insidegeek.ca if you have any questions you may need help with, whether that is from a previous video or other tech related questions.

Thanks for understanding

Evan Thies

The Basics of Adding a Stylesheet to Your Website

evanthies — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:39:16 -0600

Today's video is an XHTML tutorial on how to attach a stylesheet. We are going to cover the three main techniques you can use, those being external, embedded, and inline. An external stylesheet references a separate file for all it's CSS file information. Embedded styles are in each individual page and have styles specific to that particular page. And inline styles define the styles for a single element that needs a unique style. This tutorial is done using Adobe Dreamweaver but any text editor or html editor will work for this.

For this example we are using XHTML 1.0 Strict. Below is the basic code with no style information included:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<title>Adding a Stylesheet to your Website</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
</head>

<body>

<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas lorem eros, pellentesque quis, vehicula ac, lacinia at, dolor.</p>

</body>
</html>

Two of these style types will be done inside of the head tag. The first one we will discuss is how to attach a linked stylesheet. The code below will add a linked external stylesheet to your website:

The href is where your stylesheet file is saved, type tells the document that this is a css file, rel tells the page what relationship this file has to the website, and media tells the document what medium this page is being rendered on. In this case we will be rendering the document for the screen but the media attribute allows you to design for printers, mobile devices, E-readers, etc.

The next style type is an embedded style. The code below will add an embedded style to your website. This is once again done inside the head tag and keep in mind that it requires a separate closing tag.

body { background-color: #000; }

</style>

In-between the opening and closing style tags you can add any css code you wish as you normally would in any other css document.

The last style type is an inline style. This is added to an element directly in the XHTML markup. Here are two examples of using inline styles, one placed on a paragraph and the other placed on a DIV:

<p style="margin: 5em;">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas lorem eros, pellentesque quis, vehicula ac, lacinia at, dolor.</p>

You can also reference different elements in css by adding an id or class to the elements in your XHTML markup. This is an ideal way to do things to try and help separate markup from design as much as possible.

Those are three ways of adding a stylesheet to your website, using either a linked stylesheet, embedded styles, or inline styles.

Direct Download | iTunes Podcast | YouTube

Production Update

evanthies — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:10:01 -0600

Hello everyone (yes I start blog posts the same way I start my videos),

I wanted to write a post to give an update to a few changes that are going to happen. I have decided to temporarily stop producing the website feature for Inside Geek Canada. This video was typically released on Wednesday and gave a demo/tutorial of a certain website.

Why am I doing this? Well there are a couple of reasons:

First, I have recently launched a video production company called Aperio Studios. The idea of this company only came together two weeks ago, but I want to dedicate more time to getting it off the ground.

Second, as you may have noticed, the videos typically were released somewhat late, usually a day or two. And blog posts sometimes took a few days to get caught up. Because of this I feel three videos is too much for me to do each week. I work a full time day job and now with my new company my time is even less.

Third, video takes time. It's not a quick process putting together a video. First I have to film the video and capture that footage. Then I have to edit it and export it, and then finally I have to compress it. And because I am working with HD footage, exporting and compressing can take hours.

Recently I have been working on a media kit, and if I want to take on advertisers I have to be able to release my content on time. So until further notice there will only be two videos released per week. On Monday the Application and Tech Feature will be released and on Friday the iPhone feature will be released.

I fully intend to bring back a Wednesday video, whether that be the Website Feature or something else, but that will be in a while once I have more time to produce the videos. I think three weekly videos is a good number and I hope to bring back another weekly video eventually.

There will be no videos this week due to all of these changes and some of the work I am doing on the website. Videos will resume on Tuesday November 11th with the Application & Tech Feature.

Evan Thies

Film Conversions on Your iPhone with Film Calculator

evanthies — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:56:30 -0600

Today on the iPhone feature we are going to be looking at an application called Film Calculator by Two Point One Films. This application allows you to do different conversions when dealing with film, mostly for formats like 16mm and 35mm, where it coverts time into the length of film you will need, including a stopwatch timing feature. If you are shooting digital it offers the ability to do a hard drive space calculation. You simply select the format you are working in and the length and it will tell you how large the file will be.

This application sells for $2.99 in the iTunes store and considering only people doing video work will get use from this application, the price point seems a bit high. Although this application does have some helpful features, a lot of what it offers can be found by searching online.

The application has three main features: the time/length calculator, the hard drive storage calculator, and the film stopwatch.

For the time/length calculator you can input your time in hours, minutes and seconds, which will give you a length. Or you can input a length in meters or feet and it will give you a time. Choose a format, 8, 16, 35, or 70mm. Choose a frame rate, 12, 24, 25, or 48 fps. You can also add a custom frame rate if you wish. Once you have the settings the way you want you can calculate the length or time of your footage.

The hard drive storage calculator allows you to calculate how much hard drive space you will need to store your video files. You enter in the length of your project and it will tell you how much hard drive space you need in Gigabytes. In order to calculate the space you need to know what editing codec you will be using. Film Calculator supports most of the typical formats such as DVCPRO, HDV, DigiBeta, Uncompressed, etc. Although most formats are available, some formats such as the DNxHD codec from Avid are currently not listed.

The stopwatch feature is designed for use in the field when shooting on film. It offers the same selection of options as the time/length calculator does but does real time conversion, so as the timer counts you will see how much film has been used right away.

Film Calculator is a useful application but caters towards people in the film and video industry. Anyone interested in the technical aspects of film and video, such as frames rates and codecs may get some use out of this application but other than that this application is targeting a small and select user base.

Direct Download | iTunes Podcast | YouTube

Downloading and Installing Free Photoshop Brushes

evanthies — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:53:00 -0600

Today we will be looking at three different websites that all give you free Photoshop brushes. A brush in Photoshop is when you are using the paintbrush tool and loading in different palettes. By default they are quite simple but if you download brushes you can get different shapes and artistic patterns.

These three sites rank high in Google and offer some of the best Photoshop brushes. There are a ton of brushes to choose from but make sure you read the license before using the brush for commercial work. This video tutorial is done using a Mac but similar procedures can be used on Windows.

The three websites we are looking at are: Brusheezy, BrushKing, and myPhotoshopBrushes. We are taking a look at three sites to have a large selection of brushes to choose from. Each site varies on how the site is setup, but generally you have the ability to see ratings and read comments on the brushes before you download them. You can also submit your own brushes to these websites for other people to download.

After you have downloaded some brushes and unzipped them you should have some .abr files. These files are specifically designed to be used with Adobe Photoshop and will typically not work with other programs.

To install the brushes simply place the .abr files inside the brushes folder. In Mac OS X this is found at Applications > Adobe Photoshop > Presets > Brushes. In Windows this is found at Program Files > Adobe > Adobe Photoshop > Presets > Brushes.

Once those files are in the brushes folder, the brushes will be ready to go. To use them open up Photoshop and start a new document. Select the Brush Tool, and under the drop down menu that shows the brush, click the small fly out triangle on the right. This will show a list of all the brushes palettes you currently have installed.

From that menu you can select your recently installed brushes. When you select the palette you will be promoted to either Append the brushes with the rest of your current brushes or to give the brush group a separate palette, this is personal preference and depends on how you like to work. After that you can simply start painting the design on your canvas, playing with different colours and opacity.

So Brusheezy, BrushKing, and myPhotoshopBrushes are three great websites to download free Photoshop brushes. Installing the brushes is a quick process and you can be designing with your new brushes in no time.

Direct Download | iTunes Podcast | YouTube

Creating a DVD using Compressor and DVD Studio Pro

evanthies — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:00:07 -0600

Today we are going to be using Apple's Compressor and DVD Studio Pro to create a high quality DVD. We will be taking a file that has just been exported from an editing system, as uncompressed as possible, bring it into Compressor and then making it into a high quality DVD format and then bringing the compressed DVD files into DVD Studio Pro to create the DVD.

Drag your video file you want to use into Compressor. It will then appear in Compressor work interface. In the settings panel navigate to Apple > DVD > DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes. The work done in this tutorial video is geared towards shorter projects, for longer videos you may need to lower some of the quality settings.

From the settings panel drag both of the settings in that folder onto your work file. This adds the DVD settings to the file and sets the source for where the new file will be saved. Click on the MPEG-2 setting and go into the inspector panel. If you go to the option at the top that deals with encoding settings you can change some of the options. Most of the information is fine but make the quality as high as possible, with an average bit rate of 7.7 Mbps and a maximum bit rate of 9.0 Mbps.

The audio quality is fairly high by default but if you want to change it simply click on the Dolby Digital settings and go into the inspector panel. In the encoding tab you can increase the data rate if you wish to, but you probably won't notice any big improvements.

Once you are happy with the settings hit submit and Compressor will start compressing your file. You will then end up with two files, an .m2v video file and an .ac3 audio file. Preview your files to make sure the quality is how you expected it to be, and then launch DVD Studio Pro.

We are going to make a simple DVD that starts playing right when it is inserted into a DVD player. Up in the top, in the graphical menu, delete the icon that says "Menu 1". Then right click on "Track 1" and click on first play, which tells the DVD to play the video right away.

Down in the assets panel import both of your files. Since we already compressed our files, nothing will need to be transcoded. Double click on Track 1 and bring it up in the viewer. Now drag both of your imported files to the tracks timeline. Scrub through the track to make sure the footage looks good, after that you can simply push burn and the DVD will be made. You may also want to simulate the DVD to make sure everything is working they way you want it to.

This is a very simple tutorial of what is possible with Compressor and DVD Studio Pro. You have complete control over the quality of the DVD, so you can create a high quality DVD to impress you clients.

Direct Download | iTunes Podcast | YouTube

GTS World Racing: Racing Fun on Your iPhone

evanthies — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:13:31 -0500

Today on the iPhone feature we will be looking at a game for the iPhone called GTS World Racing. At the time of writing this, the application is currently on sale for $2.99, which is a great deal for the game. Usually selling for around $8 try to catch this offer if you can, it ends October 31st.

There are a few main features that make GTS World Racing a great game. The game has decent graphics and it really stands out from other games on the iPhone. It also utilizes the accelerometer to control the vehicles and offers a unique gaming experience.

When you launch the game and enter the main menu you will be promoted with a few options. From here you can launch the various game modes anything from a single race to challenge cup or championship. It also has a page to learn how to play the game. This tells you that you steer your vehicle by titling your device left and right, and you accelerate and brake by tilting your device forwards and backwards, and you will get a "Too Flat!" warning if you tilt the iPhone to far forward.

In the options menu you can turn the audio on or off. If you turn it off you can actually play a song from your iPod and come back into the game in order to have your own background music. This menu also allows you to adjust the steering sensitivity.

When you want to start a game you have some basic settings. You have a choice of 4 difficulty settings ranging from easy to extreme. You get the choice of 3 car styles: Sports, Formula, and Coupe. You then see the speed and power of your car. Next you choose a map from a selection of 16, you then get a preview of your map and the game begins.

GTS World Racing is a fun and addicting game for the iPhone. It provides a unique gaming experience and offers good value for the price you pay for the game.

Direct Download | iTunes Podcast | YouTube

CSS Zen Garden: The Power of CSS Design

evanthies — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:04:15 -0500

The CSS Zen Garden is site you can visit to look at different CSS designs. They provide a basic XHTML document that you can download, and the goal is to design the page only using CSS. They also have a ton of different layouts you can look through. This is great for getting ideas for your website and people who are just trying to learn CSS. And once your skills in CSS are good enough you can built a layout and submit it to them to be in rotation on their website.

They also adhere to W3C standards and therefore all their pages and CSS designs are done using valid code. This is very useful for people trying to learn CSS, that way people learn it the correct way and don't pick up any bad habits.

On their page you can simply go from design to design seeing how the CSS is done. The pages all have the same XHTML document and therefore the same content. The only thing that changes is the design. You can view the entire CSS right from the page and most of the designs are released under a creative commons license and you are free to use the code as long as you give attribution to the original creator.

The XHTML page that you markup is intelligently coded. This means that all the code flows logically and all the elements are easily distinguishable and there isn't code that is misused or overused.

A lot of the designs also feature unique imagery, being used through the background image command in CSS. The whole point of the CSS Zen Garden is to show off what can be done with valid CSS code. They focus on separating presentation and textual markup to provide a better experience on the web.

So check out the CSS Zen Garden, it's a great place to view CSS designs as well as learn CSS. With their large library of templates you are bound to find something that catches your eye.

Direct Download | iTunes Podcast | YouTube