Use Nero to make an ISO image

We have a DVD that we are creating and want to make an ISO image of it that can be downloaded over the internet. However, Nero Essentials doesn't make it very clear how to do it (I suppose to limit piracy). However a thread at this forum <http://forum.my.nero.com/index.php?showtopic=658> gave instructions on how to do it which I've modified below to cover Nero 7 Essentials (this version has a different interface than the one in the forum post) :

1. Open Nero Express Essentials
2. Click the arrow button on the far left of the Nero window to expose the Advanced panel (I had never noticed this arrow button before)
3. Place your DVD in the DVD player
4. Select "Copy Audio CD Tracks"
5. It will list the DVD track as a single track with a start, length, mode listing and the "Total" field will indicate something like: "1 Track, 343:25:23(3019 MB)"
6. Change the Output file format to "ISO image file (*.iso)
7. Set the name and path where you want the .iso to save
8. Click "Go"

Importing stl files into Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro

Surprisingly, the workflow to import subtitles into DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro are entirely different. After all, the programs are both from Apple so you would think that they would work well together.

In any event, we made hundreds of subtitles in .stl format -- because this is the preferred method to import subtitles into DVD Studio Pro. But Final Cut Pro requires an xml format for importing subtitles -- and DVD Studio Pro does not allow you to export their subtitles out!

So we had to find a way to convert the stl into the xml format for Final Cut Pro. Thank goodness for Subbits:

http://www.videotoolshed.com/?page=products&pID=12

For $200 it allows you to open various subtitle formats and then export them into other formats -- including Final Cut Pro, Avid and more -- including the xml format required for flash video subtitling. It's also a decent subtitler on its own. Great solution.
(Disclaimer--I am in no way related to the creator of Subbits -- as proven by the bugs listed below)

You can also use TitleExchange for conversions:

http://www.spherico.com/filmtools/TitleExchange/index.html

...and it even lets you convert 50 subtitles at a time for free. This can save you buying it for small projects, but can be very time consuming if you are in a large project and have iterations. TitleExchange is also a converter only--whereas Subbits includes a full featured subtitler.

A few more things (bugs) about Subbits. You'll find that it allows you to open files with other character sets--such as Persian-- but you can't view or edit the text in the interface --since the characters show up as rectangles. But it still does the conversion properly.

The Mac version also seemed a bit more buggy than the one for PC:

1. It converted diacriticals into HTML encoded entities.
2. It took the comma that separated the end time from the subtitle -- in the stl file -- and made it the first character in the subtitle. So all of the subtitles looked like this: ", We thought it would be best to..."

So make sure to test the free demo thoroughly before you buy it. I decided to buy the PC version since it seemed to read the stl files better than the Mac version.

Subtitling issues using stl files and DVD Studio Pro

We are working on a film project and are now in the process of doing the DVD authoring in DVD Studio Pro 4. There are a lot of subtitles so we decided to create an stl file using a spreadsheet. The structure is as follows:

Column 1: Start time <00:00:00:00>
Column 2: comma <,>
Column 3: End time <00:00:00:00>
Column 4: comma <,>
Column 5: Subtitle text

Once we are done with the file we copy and paste it into notepad and then save it as as .stl file using UTF-8 encoding.

Things generally have worked well with this process aside from one quite significant issue: If the subtitle starts with certain special characters -- in English this includes a quotation mark -- the character does not import into DVD Studio Pro -- it just disappears. In the case of Persian, the first character of every subtitle -- no matter what it was -- would not be imported.

Fortunately the fix is simple. Just make sure to add a space at the beginning of a subtitle that starts with an offending character. This seems to fool the importer into allowing the character to import.

After effects video tutorials

Here is a GREAT site to learn After Effects!:

http://www.videocopilot.net/

How to lock a layer in After Effects and still be able to edit it

I have been working with After Effects to modify a film clip that needed an animated mask to hide part of the image. However, every once in a while I would select the layer by accident and move it--which if you don't catch your mistake immediately, messes up your entire animation. Anyway, a bit of Googling and I found this brilliant (and simple solution here):

http://generalspecialist.com/2008/03/locking-after-effects-layers-so-they.asp

The short version is to select the layer in question, open the expressions panel for the "position" property and place the current position of the layer in brackets like this [123,23]. This simple script resets the position of the layer back to the original every time you mistakenly move it. BRILLIANT!

inDesign pixelated photos while printing

I am working on an InDesign project that uses a lot of image. I kept having a problem where the images would look fine on screen but when I printed the file some of the photos were pixelated (but not all of them).

Fortunately I found a forum post with the answer:

Choose Print>Settings>Graphics
and then under Images set "Send Data" to "All"

Create MOV from Flash freezes - SOLUTION

I was trying to create a MOV file from Flash CS4 and the progress bar filled up and froze while doing "Recording Flash Content". Thanks to this post http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=275007 it turns out that I had additional keyframes after a stop() action and had chosen to export until the end of the timeline was reached.

But since the stop action occurred before the end of the timeline was reached then of course it froze. There are two workaround. One is to remove the stop() action or just set the timeframe that you want to stop exporting. So in this case I just set to to only export 2 minutes.

Brilliant.. thanks Kirupa forum!