An SRO crowd turned out at the Santa Ana City College Digital Media Center to learn the mysteries and really useful aspects of Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop.

MCAI Board member Gary Stone hosted the event and reminded all that upcoming meetings will address YouTube, viral marketing and social networking. He suggested a visit to mcai-oc.org to keep up with upcoming events as well as the international site mcai.org. MCAI-OC President Tina Wilson welcomed everyone and talked about MCAI and its opportunities including networking at both the local chapter and the international site. Wilson also mentioned the Media Alliance of Orange County (maoc.org). Dennis Backer asked how many found the event through meetup.com and suggested joining it to keep up with events as well as its networking possibilities.

Stone then introduced Kevin O’Brien, master of all things Adobe with 20 years of post production experience. He first mentioned two valuable websites – creativesuitepodcast.com and labs.adobe.com. The first is a resource for insights and tutorials. The second features new software and free downloads.

O’Brien proudly noted that Photoshop is the most pirated software in the world.

The general focus of O’Brien’s presentation was the ability of Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere to work together and to easily move files between them. He demonstrated playing video in Photoshop Extended and manipulating it there and using it as a $700 transcoder. He demonstrated taking several stills (or video) and photo merge and auto align to eliminate images from the frame and fill from another.

O’Brien then moved to After Effects. He proceeded to take a handheld shot and stabilizing the image to look as if it were on a tripod.

He also demonstrated some keying tricks and 3D graphic imaging. Especially interesting was using vanishing point and the 3D camera tool to create the equivalent of a helicopter shot from a 2D image. O’Brien also did some amazing stuff with the puppet tool and puppet point tool.

O’Brien covered lots more and entertained his audience with a sly sense of humor as well as his knowledge of Adobe software.

Before the teeming throng slowly filtered out into the night, Gary Stone reminded all of the upcoming meetings and monthly breakfasts and to check the mcai-oc.org website for further information.