POWERMAC APPLE CERTIFICATION COURSES &
PROMETRIC EXAMINATIONS NOW @

Power Mac Center becomes the first Apple store in the country to receive an Apple Authorized Training Center (AATC) offering IT Track certification.

Furthermore Power Mac Center offers introduction Seminars and special Courses on Aperture 3, Final Cut, Motion,
iLife '11 (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand), iWork, Aperture 3 - Photo Workshops, Photoshop CS5, Auto Cad and others.

Power Mac Center’s Classroom at Greenbelt 3 is now an accredited AATC and will begin to offer Apple certified courses to companies, schools, and individuals who wish to learn or expand their knowledge on Apple’s Pro applications.

Moreover, the new AATC is now qualified to offer Apple certification exams for professionals looking to establish their expertise, and better market their skills in the field of digital technology.

With already two accredited Apple Certified Trainers in its Greenbelt store, Power Mac Center continues to consistently train its employees to deliver quality educational services, with the end view of an AATC accreditation for its other flagship stores as well.
This worldwide recognition further raises the level of commitment of all Power Mac Center employees to a truly reliable and outstanding service as demonstrated by the global Apple workforce.

Visit : training.powermaccenter.com for a complete list of courses.

The all new FCP X - Motion 5 - Compressor 4
now Available at the Apple App Store

Apple has just released a complete new Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5 and Compressor 4, within a few hours of the release I had Motion 5 downloaded and installed, I love using Motion for my Presentations together with Aperture 3.

After burning some midnight oil the installation was straight forward including the "first" download of some 1.09 GIG that took some time even with a good internet connection from the Apple Apps Store.

The new interface of Motion 5

Installation complete so I thought...I clicked on the Motion icon at the Dock and here it was Motion 5, I open it...clicked a few new buttons in Motion 5 but then all of a sudden... the screen turned black. Uhhh...grrrr, I had now a restart on my hands.

My mistake... I should have checked first some sources for the installation, instructions which I only found much later, no instructions or warnings included during the first download/installation, it is all automatic direct from the Apple Apps store.

After installation the first thing you should do is a Software update which I found out, but now I had to download and install yet another 1 + Gig and a smaller pro application and morning was approaching.

But the biggest shock came when I was looking for my previous older version of Motion, I could not locate it anymore, well that was late last night (I guess it was early morning) and with a clear head the next day I did manage to find it.

Again it was done all in automatic and the older version of Motion was actually in the Applications folder, inside the Final Cut Studio Pro Folder.

It is indeed confusing that the new FCP/Motion/Compressor are installed “on top” of the old ones, meaning into the exact same directory, the icon you have in your dock automatically points to the new version without you having to change anything, as mention fully auto and no warnings or advise prior installation or download.

So don't panic if you can't find your old FCP or Motion, it is all there under Applications in the Final Cut Studio Folder.

I have already posted this advise last night ahead of this Blog on Twitter: Very Important Info: Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, Compressor 4: Installation best practices
Installation best practices http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4722

I am sure we will hear a lot more about the newly released FCPX, Motion and Compressor in the coming weeks, today is only my very first initial findings and I hope it will help some of you with the installations. BTW there is at the moment no Soundtrack studio in the Apps Store another question yet to be answered.

I am running some tests at the moment on Motion 5 and once I have some results I post a Multimedia presentation on my Blog, again using the combination Aperture 3 with Motion 5.

On the first glance the new Motion 5 interface looks very slick and cool from what I can tell so far (only downloaded it last night) a lot easier to use and to work with, but more on that later...and make sure you have a very a good internet connection for these huge files.
GD

Tags: Motion 5, Final Cut Pro 7, Compressor 4, FCPX, Final Cut Pro X

Mystical Asia QT 2:51min. - Best viewed in Safari Browser
File size: Approx. 18MB - DSL Broadband connection recommended.

I have been flood out the past few days with Photography and Aperture 3 workshops at the Power Mac Center at Greenbelt 3 Makati. Tomorrow I have another session the whole day at the University of the Philippines Diliman sponsored by Power Mac Center Educational Division, all this prior my departure for the US on Tuesday.

But I promised on my last post that I share with you yet another cool Multimedia Demo/Presentation and here it is, "Mystical Asia" a 2.56 min. QT file, using Photos from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Burma (Myanmar) Nepal and Tibet.

I finished this demo only a few days ago, amazing stuff you can create using a MacBook Pro and of course the cool Aperture 3 slideshow with GarageBand and my new "Girlfriend called Motion" from Final Cut Studio.

Endless possibilities...with a touch of Motion your Multimedia demos or presentations can look so different and really come alive.
Now sit back and enjoy "Mystical Asia".

Please note the video is best viewed using your Safari Browser we experienced recently that in Firefox some script codes appear underneath the QT window, the video will still play correctly but it looks a bit strange.
Hopefully this issue is disappear soon.

GD

Mystical Cambodia is a Journey into the past...created for my GD Photo Workshops and my love for Cambodia.
Produced with Aperture 3, Motion from Final Cut Studio and GarageBand. The short Video clip at the end was taken with a Nikon D300s long after sunset with very little light left. I created the soundtrack for this project entirely in GarageBand which took about 20 min.
You might noticed that I am using Aperture 3 slideshows with Motion lately, it is just an awesome combination for Multimedia presentations, tutorials or just for fun.

For info on my GD Photo Workshops please click this LINK

Also on: Vimeo & YouTube

GD

The Idea about this short environmental clip came from my last trip to Palawan, when the first rain and the Monsoon arrived for this season.

Running around in the rain at El Rio y Mar capturing the freshness of the vegetation around me, I decided later to put a few images together to create this clip called "WATER" using the Aperture 3 slideshow, Motion & GarageBand.
The actual rain sound was recorded on location with my Nikon D300s and mixed together with another soundtrack in GarageBand.

Motion and final assembly: In this case I used a template from Motion modified it and added the rain drop images.
(two images one with the drop and one without it)
After this was done I imported the Motion Clip and soundtrack into Aperture 3, added text plus photos... export and it was done.
GD

Also on:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG9DwR_tLIQ
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/12789048

A little spring-clean the other day revealed an old treasure from some 24 years ago.
Securely tucked away I spotted this old Calendar, which I produced many moons ago for the Northern Territory Tourist Commission in Australia. (the Calendar was a bit creased and crinkled but ok otherwise)
Wow …memories starting to buzz in my head… oh boy, do I remember this one!

24 years later…technology brings an old project back to life; sometimes it is nice to go back in time.
“This is like a 25 year anniversary for me since the project started in 1985.”

To cut a long story short we did some reproduction of this long forgotten marvel and after some cropping and adjusting the pages were ready for an update.

I used Aperture 3.0.3 for the editing and the final slide show, Motion from Final Cut Studio for the intro, and the Soundtrack I created again in GarageBand.

In the good old days we had no computers, everything was shot on Kodachrome 25 ASA with the exception of the moon, and in two other layouts I added the clouds manually via duplicating the film, adding the elements.

All Photos taken on locations in the Northern Territory of Australia…with some places extremely remote and difficult to reach.

At Ayers Rock we used an old fashion pushbike that we had repainted and restored, at the Olga’s the parachute setup looked simple, but the Girl almost drifted away as the wind picked up.

On the first day at Rainbow Valley the Camels didn’t arrive on time, so we had to come back the next day and get the Job done. The dresses for the girls (BTW Identical Twins) in this shot had been specially designed and tailored for this setup.

Devils Marbles…setting up a Hang Glider on these two Rocks proved to be dangerous and a real challenge, crossing our fingers that no wind gust blowing the hang glider of the rocks including our model. To top it off, the ladders we used to get everything on top of these two balancing rocks where about 2 feet to short; solving these problems on location can be quiet a challenge in the outback miles from nowhere.

Then to Palm Valley… the track to Palm Valley is only accessible with a 4WD vehicle, following the usually dry bed of the Finke River. Within the Finke Gorge National Park, is an east-west running valley in the Krichauff Range 123 km (138 km by road) southwest of Alice Springs.

Kings Canyon… a tough climb and a long walk, Kings Canyon is part of the Watarrka National Park in Northern Territory, Australia. Sitting at the western end of the George Gill Range, it is 323 km southwest of Alice Springs and 1,316 km south of Darwin.

Kakadu National Park… getting the Girls into the Kayak at Yellow Waters proved to be exciting but also very stressful, there are plenty of very large Saltwater Crocodiles around. My assistant kept a lookout with binoculars just in case, of course we had a larger boat right next to the Kayak where I was shooting.
BTW…the original color of the Kayak was white, I had it re-painted in red just for this shot.

Another cool location was Katherine Gorge, walking for hours to get to the 7th Gorge. Katherine Gorge is not just one spectacular Gorge but a series of 13 gorges along the Katherine River.

At Fog Dam we transported a complete dinning set into the swamp, another extreme, timing was of the essence here. I also flew in an Aboriginal friend of mine from the island of Bathurst just of the coast of Darwin, and the fish for dinner…that is another story.

The Gove Peninsula was some how difficult, far away at the top end of the Northern Territory, but luck was on our side. A Coast Guard Plane was parked at the airport so
I ask the pilot if he could do a few fly over for us…. which he did.

At the Arnhem Land Escarpment and Twin Falls we used Helicopters due to their remoteness. Getting into the Twin falls proved even difficult by Chopper, bringing the Crew down one by one.

More or less that was it…of course I had a small but very efficient crew; all the Girls locals from the Northern Territory were absolutely great and comfortable in the Australian Outback. Shooting over four-month off and on, covering some enormous distances.

These were the days of film…no computers existed with Photoshop, but then that was the challenge…would I do it again? Of course… any time.
GD

Also on:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/TIMEJOURNEY#p/a/u/0/iMIjYGN4OcU

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/guntherdeichmann