Windows 7’s Seven Incredible New Features

Because of Adobe’s software upgrade policies, I’m sticking with Windows so I don’t have to purchase the whole of Adobe CS4 Ultimate for Mac.  Either way, I’ve been happy with Windows, regardless of the forward motion that the Mac OS has made since the release of OS X.

I’ve stuck with XP Pro, and have been anxiously awaiting the direction that was going to be taken with the next version of Windows.  Vista, we can all admit, was pretty much dead in the water, where Vista’s SP1 (first service pack) fixed most of the problems that were inherent there.

Now, Windows has released a list of many of the new features that will be found in Windows 7, which is supposedly releasing in the summer of 2009.  I must say, I wasn’t really expecting a lot, but some of these things are awesome and extremely exciting. Continue reading Windows 7’s Seven Incredible New Features

Twila Paris – Where He Leads Me Music Video

Yesterday I put the finishing touches on this music video for Twila Paris’ 1995 song, “Where He Leads Me” from the album “My Utmost for His Highest.”

I was asked by Dr. David Denbraber to put together a video for the song, on Sunday evening.  I worked on it over three days with my only instructions being: use this song, he’ll be focusing on some key words from the song.

I spent some time looking through my pictures from World Youth Day (Sydney, Australia, 2008).  I started putting the pictures together, and then I worked on getting all of the lyrics in, and timed with the song.

I used Adobe After Effects CS3 for the entire project.

There are a few slight hiccups in the final video, but those are very miniscule and you’re probably not really paying as much attention to detail as I do.

Mission Trip to Juarez Promotional Video (Christmas 2007)

Back in late February or early March of this year, Deacon Ken Baldwin called me up.  He had herd that I can edit video pretty well, and wondered if I could give him a hand with something.  He wanted to make a video to promote the mission trips to Juarez, Mexico.  Now, what we had were a few CDs of pictures from two cameras.  One of those cameras wasn’t as high-definition as the other, so some of the pictures don’t look the best.  But the results, I am still happy with.

Video: Juarez, Mexico Mission Trip – Christmas 2007

Song: Come to the Water – Matt Maher

Narrated by: Deacon Ken Baldwin.

For more information on how you can get involved, contact Deacon Ken Baldwin at The Shrine of St. Francis Xavier and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Grand Rapids, MI.

Making Movies – Fight Scene

I am a filmmaker at heart, and a few years ago a friend and I put together this fight scene for a Mock-documentary that my friends and I were making.  I still have hope that we’ll finish it some day, but I’m not currently holding my breath.  We haven’t touched it in about five years.

The editing, cinematography and choreography are all original, and I added the laugh track because it really gave the whole thing some flavor.

CS4 Announcement, Thank You Adobe, Please Help

Adobe has announced the CS4 line of products, and again I feel somewhat slighted.  You see, I am the Chief Creative Officer at my company, and I do it all.  From web design to video editing, my hands are in everything.  I use, regularly, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Premiere, After Effects, OnLocation, Encore and Illustrator.  I’d also like to get my hands on Fireworks.

That’s where the problems begin.

They offer four CS4 bundles, and none of them suit my specific needs/wants.  All of them offer great products, and one offers everything and more (far more than I would ever use), and that’s CS4 Master Collection.

I currently own Adobe CS3 Production Premium, and Adobe Dreamweaver CS3.

So, I’m at a loss when it comes to upgrading.  I was thinking of upgrading Dreamweaver, buying Fireworks, and upgrading to Production Premium CS4.

But when doing a comparison of Adobe Creative Suite 4 editions, you notice something funny at the bottom of the list:  Adobe Version Cue® CS4 is a part of every collection except for CS4 Production Premium.  Why not, Adobe?  It could be fun to give it a shot, and it’s included with every other bundle.  Not to mention the fact that there is no price tag associated with it.  Granted, I would be getting Adobe Dynamic Link with Production Premium, and that’s a really great thing.  But still, what’s up with leaving that one program out of only one bundle?

Another thing that happened, as I was adding things to my cart on Adobe’s website, to see if upgrading to Master Collection was worth doing.  I added the upgrade of Dreamweaver, and then when I went to add Fireworks, it wouldn’t even let me select that I didn’t want an upgrade.  I don’t currently have any previous version of Fireworks, so getting the upgrade wouldn’t work, as the Fireworks upgrade details require me to have Adobe Fireworks CS3, Macromedia® Fireworks 8, or MX 2004, of which I have none.

But there is some good in all of this.

There’s a site that is pretty new (only a few weeks old), which gained the attention of Adobe within 24 hours of its’ launch. That website is Dear Adobe. There, you can agree with, disagree with and post your own gripes about all of Adobe’s products.  You can also mark certain gripes as inaccurate.  Adobe got in touch with the site’s owner, and quickly began working with him to devise a way for him to package the gripes in a way that Adobe can use them.

So there is hope that the most popular of the gripes will be addressed in the future, and we have a voice that we can use to help Adobe to better meet our needs.  Today, they’ve responded to the top 25 After Effects gripes!

CS4 is really impressive, though.

I am thoroughly impressed with the CS4 line, so far, and can’t wait to get my hands on the software.  I’m really hoping that the improvements to the software really do help with performance.  I’m also looking forward to the new CSS features in Dreamweaver.

One thing that I would love to see in Dreamweaver’s code view in the future is something that Textmate has (I’ve only seen it second hand, I’m on a PC).  The ability to highlight code in columns and rows, without highlighting everything in each row.  Then, when typing, it types the same thing in every line that was highlighted.  That would save a lot more time when working with code.

Either way, though, the code finder stuff in Dreamweaver CS4 is going to be very fun to use.

I’m looking forward to it.

CSS Horizontal Menu

Currently, I’m trying to CSS a Horizontal Menu.  I know there are MANY MANY hundreds of tutorials out there, but this one is a funny one.  And should be really easy to figure out… but I have had this thing rolling around in my head for so long that I need to step back from it for a while.  That ever happen to you?  Anyway, here’s an image of the buttons.

You see, what I want it to do, is have each of the three buttons appear as the grey top bar does.  When you mouse-over one of the buttons, it should turn into one of the light green buttons, but only the button that you’re on.  When a button has been clicked, and you’re on the page, that button should remain in the “Active state.”

What I’ve been running into are things like: Only the text has the button in the background.  Only ONE of the mouseover images works, and it works across all three of the buttons (the right-side button appearing above, and not behind, all three of the links).

It’s kind of driving me insane, but I might figure it out soon.  Any suggestions?