LiveType 2 Essential Training
reviewed by Chris Marshall
http://www.lynda.com/store/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=519 Released: August, 2006 $49.95 USD, $55.80 CND, £26.30 GBP, 39,00€ Euro ISBN: 1-59671-264-3 Audience: LiveType users who want to get a bit more out of their work. Strengths: Well laid out, logical and a good pace. Weaknesses: Should have used a different cursor for demonstrations – extremely difficult to see. |
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What they say No professional movie is complete without professional title credits. In LiveType 2 Essential Training, instructor Larry Jordan shows how professionals and novices alike can take advantage of the many templates and pre-built effects available in LiveType 2. Larry then builds upon this basic instruction, demonstrating how to edit templates and effects, create custom effects, import and export files, and create custom and editable LiveFonts. He concludes by showing how to pull it all together for a variety of projects, from a Web-based presentation to a broadcast-quality film.
Table of contents
Introduction
Welcome
1. Learning the Interface
Interface
2. Creating a Simple Text Key
Creating a simple text key
Positioning a simple text key
Styling a simple text key
3. Using LiveFonts
Creating a simple LiveFont
Creating a complex LiveFont
4. Working with Templates
Using templates
Saving templates
5. Using Pre-Built Effects
Using pre-built effects
6. Importing and Exporting Media
Importing and exporting files between LiveType and Final Cut
Importing and exporting files between LiveType, DVD Studio Pro, and Motion
7. Working with Textures
Working with textures
8. Working with Mattes
Working with mattes
9. Working with Objects
Working with objects
10. Creating Custom Effects
Creating custom effects
Creating a crawl
Creating a credit scroll
11. LiveType Secrets
LiveType secrets and keyboard shortcuts
What I say: At 3.5 hours running time this requires more than one sitting, but each section is divided into reasonable time slots with the longest running 21.30 minutes but most typical lasting under 10 minutes.
The first comment has to be a negative. It is extremely confusing and difficult to follow the cursor that they use! Basically they use screen shots so the original cursor is always on the screen, although static. Unfortunately they use exactly the same cursor in the demonstrations, which is hard to pick up, and in my view just plain stupid. For a process that is all about making learning easy, this is really dumb!
Unfortunately the second comment is also a negative, and that is due to the low level of imagination that seems to have gone into the presentation of the course. It is fundamentally a series of presentational slides and screen shot videos, which is fine, but the teacher tends to assume you are following what he is doing (which isn’t that easy, as I have said above) rather than tell you what he is doing, and in particular what you should be looking out for him to do.
On the positive side I certainly learnt a lot from the course, didn’t become bored with the content, or frustrated with the layout, so as far as content and ability to get the job done goes, it was a great product.
In summary: Excellent content, well laid out course, but really let’s itself down with unimaginative and flat presentation. I would shop around for alternatives before giving this a look.
