Year: 2018

Storyist 109: Using the Project Trash

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In this episode I’ll show you how to use the Project Trash option in Storyist. It works just like the trash function in macOS and Windows, with which you never directly delete documents from the system. Instead, they’ll go into the “trash”, which when emptied, will delete a document from the hard drive. Storyist has …

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How to turn a Raster Image into a vectorised SVG in Photoshop

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The other day I wanted to convert a logo into a path, so that I could use it as a shape in Blender. It was in fact the WordPress logo that was provided as a PNG or PDF from the WordPress Branding section.

The trouble was, both the PNG and the PDF are rasterised, and as such cannot easily be used for an extrusion in 3D as an SVG file would. The question then was, how do I convert an image into an SVG in Photoshop, so that I could import it into Blender?

It took a bit of fiddling, but here’s how I did it.

Quick introduction to SVG Files

SVG files can actually contain three types of data:

  • Vector Graphics, such as paths (which is what we want)
  • Raster Graphics, such as bitmap images (which we have, but don’t want)
  • and Fonts

What I needed in Blender was indeed a Vector Path. Although the other two data types can be contained in an SVG file, Blender can only read path information at the time of writing. It makes sense too, because really I’d like to the path information available as a curve in Blender, not the potential raster or font information.

I’m mentioning this here because

  • a.) I didn’t know this, and
  • b.) importing an SVG containing either fonts or raster graphics will import nothing into Blender – which had me stumped.

Thanks to cegaton on Blender Stackexchange for this explanation!

Hence, for Photoshop to export vector data instead of raster data in our SVG file, we need to jump through a few hoops – but it is possible. Let’s see how!

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 19:57 — 18.3MB)

Created in September 2018

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September has been an incredibly productive month for me, and I’m excited by the fact that I’m not exhausted as a result. September felt as busy as this post reads, but it didn’t feel as if I had to compromise on quality or that all important “me time”. In a nutshell: I feel like I’m …

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Discovered in September 2018

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It’s been a fun-packed month full of exciting discoveries – on and off the web. Let’s take a look at what I’ve found over the last four weeks.

Music

I was taking a late night walk after some heavy screen casting for those DAZ Studio videos, when I wandered by one of those restaurants South of Fifth in our neighbourhood (one that changes owners every 6 months or so). They were playing something that sounded almost live, and it immediately peaked may curiosity.

It was a cover version of the old Rod Stewart song “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”, in a Jazz Combo style – much like Paul Anka did on his 2005 album Rock Swings. The voice of the woman singing was remarkable, something of a mixture of Diana Krall and Sarah Vaughan. 

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DAZ Studio 103: Customising Styles

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In this episode I’ll show you how you can customise the interface in DAZ Studio. I have previously shown you how to select Workspaces and Styles, and now we’ll see how to make the interface your own by changing the colours of the interface. In addition, I’ll elaborate more on the macOS intricacies on moving …

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DAZ Studio 102: Workspaces, Tabs and Styles

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In this episode we’re launching DAZ Studio for the first time after a fresh installation, we’ll fix the database manager, and we’ll learn how to customise the interface. I will also show you where those important context sensitive menus are hiding. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/102-Interface.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 19:28 — 17.8MB)

How to render media with Alpha Channel in Premiere Pro

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I made some new lower-third captions for my YouTube channel in Premiere the other day. I had a vision for some animations, and rather than spend several hundred dollars on pre-made snazzy clips, I thought I’d take on the task myself. 

For those to be usable on top of other video footage in my screen casting software (Camtasia Studio 3), I needed the animations to be rendered out with an Alpha Channel. That way a mask is automatically created, letting other programmes crop out everything around the titles.

Since I never had to do that before, I asked myself: How do we render a clip with an alpha channel in Premiere? 

After careful research, combined with some tireless trial and error, I found the solution to this puzzle – and here’s how to do it.

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How to play the Mass Effect 3 Demo on PS3 (2018)

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The other day I downloaded the Mass Effect 3 Demo on my old Playstation 3. I had enjoyed Mass Effect 2 immensely, I own the trilogy for PC, and I wanted to take a look at how the Playstation 3 version looked.

To my surprise, the demo didn’t start up. All I got was an error message telling me that the EA Origin or Alliance servers are down, and then the demo quits. Which sucks.

Turns out those Mass Effect 3 demo servers have been switched off many years ago, and the game is obviously coded so badly that it thinks it can’t live without an answer from those servers. Seriously flawed design there, folks!

Lucky for us, there’s a simple trick we can use to start that demo anyway! 

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S.A.F.T. – Release Trailer (making of)

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I did a quick editing job yesterday for Oliver’s new band, a teaser trailer for a project called S.A.F.T.

It’s the German word for “juice”, but it’s also a word made up of the initials of the three band members. Their album is already available, but for an upcoming official release party, the band wanted a quick and snappy introduction to their project, no longer than perhaps two minutes.

After finishing up some of my other projects, I promised Oliver that I’d take a look at it – and here’s the result. The band were all happy, and I sincerely hope they’ll have a good launch gig in my hometown of Bremen, Germany to celebrate their hard work of putting this project together. Rock on, guys!

I had free creative reign over the end result, and I thought I’d share my process on this project with you: the assets I had available, the ideas I brought to the table, and how I turned them into the video you see above. Come to think of it, I never take enough notes when it comes to creative projects, documenting The Creative Process if you will, so let’s change this today.

Here’s how I made that S.A.F.T. Release Trailer.

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Storyist 105: Version Control Features

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In this episode I’ll show you how to save your files in Storyist, and how to keep your work safe. Besides “save” and the equivalent of “save as”, Storyist also offers Version Control built in, which means you can save a modified version of your project, similar to how Git projects are controlled. I’ll explain …

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Created in August 2018

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This August, I’ve created 9 tech articles, uploaded 16 videos, narrated and edited my book BROKEN BOWELS (twice), created/revived five podcast feeds, created logos for them, overhauled one of my websites, and took on a part-time job with Instacart.

It was a very busy month, and a lot has happened. Looking back over this extensive log entry alone, it baffles me somewhat to see just how much I have achieved! It’s all been about streamlining some aspects of my life, as well as finishing off things that have been sizzling in the background for some time. 

It feels good to free up some room to take on new challenges. Here’s what I’ve been creating this month:

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Discovered in August 2018

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Peter Mt. Shasta’s “Apprentice to the Masters”, part 2 of his autobiography (don’t judge it by its cover). Jerry Hyde’s new Book of Sin Tech Findings How to use Blending Modes in Premiere Pro How to use Handbrake to encode with lossless quality  iPhone Footage is out of sync when imported into Premiere Pro, as …

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Storyist 104: Formatting and Styles

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In this episode I’ll show you how to use some of the formatting tools Storyist has to offer. I’ll also explain how to apply formatting collections known as styles to parts of your manuscript. Styles are not only used to format chapters and body text in a cohesive way; Storyist also uses these styles to …

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How to create Text Objects in Blender

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In this episode I’ll show you how to create text objects in Blender, modify font and extrusion properties, and how to turn a text object into a proper mesh. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Blender-Text.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 10:52 — 10.0MB)

Storyist 103: Creative Writing Tools

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In this episode I’ll explain some of the excellent writing tools Storyist has to offer. In particular, I’ll show you how to create chapters and sections/scenes inside chapters, I’ll explain the outline and index card view, and I’ll show you how you can see the outline view and your actual manuscript side by side. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Storyist-3-Writing-Tools.mp3Podcast: …

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Storyist 102: Meet the Interface

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In this episode I’ll give you a brief overview of Storyist. I’ll show you how to create a new project, how to create a new manuscript inside the project, what the panels do and how the layout works. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Storyist-2-Overview.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 18:46 — 17.2MB)

Storyist 101: Introduction to Storyist

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In this series I’ll introduce you to Storyist, the creative writing application for macOS and iOS. In this episode I’ll speak about the software’s philosophy and how it differs from other writing applications such as Microsoft Word and Apple’s Pages.  https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Storyist-1-Intro.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 8:07 — 7.4MB)

Created in July 2018

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I spent much of this month narrating my new book BROKEN BOWELS, with the intention of releasing it as an Audio Book alongside the Paperback and the Kindle Version.

I’m nearly finished, and provided ACX, Audible, Amazon and iTunes are happy with the files, I’m expecting it to be released sometime in August.

Audio Books are are becoming very popular, and I can imagine that fellow patients could pass the time listening to my experiences while getting a lengthy infusion.

It does take forever to do, and I can’t narrate more than two hours every day or else my voice gets tired. Editing takes a while too, but at the same time it’s a very rewarding experience. I’ve described my setup and the intricate details in some of the links below.

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My Audiobook Narration Setup for Audible, Amazon and iTunes

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When I decided to narrate my book BROKEN BOWELS for publication through ACX, I had several ideas for the workflow.

In essence, and after many tests as to what would yield the best quality, I did the following:

  • record to my Mac using Quicktime
  • transcode the resulting native AIFC files into Apple Lossless M4A using Finder
  • edit in Adobe Premiere
  • bulk-transcode to MP3 files with ACX specifications using Adobe Media Encoder

I’ve tried various other workflows, but the above seems to work great for me.

Let me share my reasoning and experiment with you here.

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Discovered in July 2018

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Self Publishing Related  Understanding and Working with Print Signatures Why does Storyist add blank pages to Blurb Templates How to avoid KDP File Errors with Blurb Templates from Storyist How to advertise KDP Books Wide Publication with Draft2Digital N. J. Notjohn’s Self-Publishing Guide KDP Manuscript Formatting Guide (includes page count limits and trim sizes) Overview …

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How to fix “download was unsuccessful” on Kindle Keyboard and Kindle DX

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This morning I got a notification from Amazon that Jerry’s new book had been released. I had pre-ordered it a few weeks ago and was eager to start reading it. Having a long journey across town from Miami Beach to Sunset ahead of me, Jerry’s Book of Sin would be a great accompaniment.

My trusty old Kindle Keyboard 3G was all charged up, I was ready to leave, but the book had not been downloaded. “Hm”, I thought, “this should have happened automatically”. Was I signed into the correct account?

Yes I was, and to my surprise, the book was showing up correctly under Archived Items. But when I tried to download it manually, all I got was an error message stating that “The download was unsuccessful. Please try again later”.

Several tries later, and without any luck, I remembered a solution that did the trick: fully rebooting my Kindle Keyboard. This trick also works on the DX and other models, even on Kindle Fire devices. Let me tell you how to do it. 

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