Apple Training Series: iLife 04

Rating:
Summary: Apple Training Series: iLife '04
Review: Apple Training Series: iLife 04
By Michael Rubin
ISBN: 0321256069

Book Review by Al Simukonis, Tucson Macintosh Users Group

Peachpit Press has published a guide to Apple's iLife '04 Programs. The book's author is Michael Rubin.

Michael Rubin self-describes this book as "not so much a training manual as it is a way to show you how to enrich your world by weaving digital audio, photos and videos into many aspects of your life." He promises to skip entire areas of functionality of the programs in order to teach "media literacy" in your life using the iLife programs: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and Garage Band. He also promises to explain how to share your completed vision with friends, family and clients through iDVD and the web via .Mac.

The book is divided into 14 chapters which consist of projects that introduce the reader with audio capabilities of iTunes, progress to still and moving visual expression using iPhoto and iMovie. Final lessons detail how to combine digital sound and vision into a usable and interesting slide presentation or a movie. These later chapters also show how to easily distribute your created vision and message using hardware and software .

The beginning of each chapter lists the goals (i.e. familiarity with using iTunes) that it intends to achieve in that section, the tools necessary to complete the goal (i.e. a personal music CD or an optional camcorder), and the estimated time it will take to complete that section. Lessons range from a 15 minute iPod introduction to 90 minutes for many of the others. To complete every lesson should take about 15 hours.

The book is very well laid out, has very clear illustrations of screen shots you should expect to see on your own computer, and photos of hardware you will be using. There is a logical progression to the lessons that builds on previously gained knowledge and experience.

If you have the iLife programs, at least a G3 Mac with FireWire and at least system 10.2.8 (minimum 10.2.6) with 256 MB Ram, 1024 x 768 resolution, QuickTime 6.4 (the latest version at this moment is 6.5.1) you can begin. Other recommendations are a 600 Mhz G3 for Garage Band, a 733 Mhz G4 for iDVD, iSight, a digital camcorder, a digital camera, a tripod, a .Mac account. If you have all this equipment this excellent book will show you how to use all of it to express yourself well. If you do not have all this hardware do not let it scare you away from the book.

I found that there are three ways to approach this informative iLife familiarization guide.

The first, of course, is to have a computer with a DVD burner and player, all the camera equipment he covers, and the $100 or so per year dot Mac account that allows you to easily share your creations with the world via the web. After you finish the very clearly explained features of the software and hardware in your arsenal, you will have a core of media knowledge that will give you the potential of being the next George Lucas.

The second way is to go through the book using only the 4.2 GB of photos, video clips, and music on the included DVD. This should be downloaded onto to your hard drive, so a hard drive with sufficient free space is necessary. The full iLife program, Michael advises us, takes an additional 4.3 GB if it is not already on your computer. With limited hard drive space you can get by 250 MB if you only use iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie. An Apple with a DVD player (and preferably burner) is essential for this option.

The examples in the book and the DVD are shown from the perspectives of a student with a school project, a father shooting his daughter's birthday party and a ceramics studio owner who wants to show customers a technique via a video presentation.

The third way, if you are not ready to invest in all the hardware and software that this book covers, is to go through it using only hardware you already have. For example, first I read the book cover to cover. That was a very clear introduction to the potential available to me with my little iBook and the iLife software. I had already played with iTunes, and have a substantial collection of digital photos on my hard drive, but do not have a DVD player on the iBook. Instead of using the photo examples on his DVD player I was able to substitute my own pictures in his lessons. It took a little imagination to substitute his ceramics demo for my cactus garden, but the principles of the program remain the same regardless of the actual images used. If you do not have your own photo collection you can often find legally downloadable images on the internet that you can use for this purpose.

The scope of this book is quite vast. Digital cameras, theories and practice of good composition and lighting, image manipulation, creating books, organizing digital photo albums, creating slide shows with music or narration, making videos from still pictures or camcorders, time lapse photography, theory and use (or not) of pans, tilts and zooms, burning DVD's and creating your own music with Garage Band are all covered. It is like a semester in college taken at your own pace.

One of the best quotes in the book is "editing is not about throwing out bad material. Editing is about building something interesting and watchable" .

With time and practice this book shows any media non-professional how to use the Macintosh and the iLife programs to achieve this goal relatively easily. It does this clearly, logically and interestingly. After the versions of these software programs change this book will not be obsolete because the principles of good audio-visual presentation will remain the same.

If good communication is a necessity or a hobby or if you simply want to know how to get more personal enjoyment from the music and visual capabilities of the Macintosh take a good look at this very well-written book.

Rating:
Summary: Review of iLife '04 by Michael Rubin
Review: Book: "Apple Training Series: iLife '04" (377 pages)
Author: Michael Rubin
publisher: Peachpit Press, 1249 Eighth St., Berkeley, CA 94710
published: 2004
price: $29.99
Phone number of company: 1-800-283-9444
Pros: easy to read, nicely organized, great color illustrations, excellent index, overall very helpful for the beginner or advances iLife user
Cons: no real cons; ideally, I would like to have seen a second CD included that would have allowed people with OS 9 to get a sample of the iLife lessons

This book was of particular interest to me to review since I will soon be using Apple's iLife '04. This an awesome program with 5 subparts: itunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand. I wanted a good overview of all five, and was very pleased with what I found. It was easy reading, and its organization, a series of 14 lessons, allows you to learn at your own pace. The book also comes with a CD that you play to work along with the lessons. For me, I had to skip that part for now but certainly will be using it next month after I get my G-5 and begin using OS X (required for iLife). But even without it, the book alone is great for introducing the power and relative simplicity of iLife '04. The great illustrations and index also help a beginner, and would be very useful too to advanced users of iLife. I particularly liked the nice organization and clear writing style of the book, with each section ending with a review of what you learned.
This book is set up as if you were three different people learning about the various parts of iLife '04, namely a parent with a 12-year-old daughter, a high school student, and a small-business owner. Through those people and their needs, you get a real hands-on understanding of what the program can do for you. In all, you learn to 1) create custom CDs and play them on an iPod or a regular stereo system; 2) organize and use still images from your digital camera to create great photos and books of photos, plus slide shows; and 3) create movie DVDs combining still photos with music, special effects, titles, narration, music, and more. Finally, you learn to upload your slide shows and videos to the Web and burn DVDs. Additionally, there are nice "extras" at various logical places in the book, like tips on using your digital camcorder.
Below are the names of the 14 lessons, which further show the progressive nature of the learning process this fine book offers. In all, I would highly recommend this book. It is a great learning tool and well worth the money.

Lesson 1: Making a Custom CD from your music collection
Lesson 2: DJ a Party with your iPod
Lesson 3: Shooting Digital Snapshots and putting them in your Mac
Lesson 4: Organizing and Refining your photos
Lesson 5: Printing and sharing your photos
Lesson 6: Adding motion and effects for a dynamic slide show
Lesson 7: Making a time-lapse video
Lesson 8: Shooting and assembling a very simple movie
Lesson 9: Adding narration to your dynamic slide show
Lesson 10: Shooting with Hollywood-style techniques for better videos
Lesson 11: Editing and finishing a professional-looking movie
Lesson 12: Creating unique music for your projects
Lesson 13: Putting your slide show on the Internet
Lesson 14: Burning DVDs of your videos and slide shows

Rating:
Summary: This is a terrific book.
Review: Mr. Rubin covers each of the iLife products -- iPod (2 chapters), iPhoto (5 chapters), iMovie (5 chapters), GarageBand (1 chapter), and iDVD (1 chapter). Each chapter covers a specific set of tasks in a step by step manner. And, with nearly every step, he provides explanatory material -- things to look out for, hints, tips, etc. Furthermore, he not only tells you what to do but why you are doing it. By the time you complete the chapters about an application you are well-grounded in how to use it because he has explained all of the basic tasks as well as some of the more arcane features of the program. He even devotes an entire chapter to camcorder shooting techniques. I purchased this book primarily for some instruction in using iMovie. By the time I completed the iMovie chapters I felt comfortable in my ability to shoot digital video, import what I shot to the computer, edit the clips, add sound effects and music, and put it on a DVD. The publisher also includes a disc with the book that has every photo clip, video clip, and sound clip you need to complete the exercises. In many cases the disc also includes a file with the finished project so that you can compare what you did with a professionally completed sample. This is absolutely the best book of its kind that I have ever used. The publisher, Apple, Mr. Rubin, and everyone else involved in this book's production should be very pleased with the result.

Rating:
Summary: The Most Complete iLife Book
Review: This is the official Apple Training Guide to the iLife software packages.

Apple doesn't include much documention with their iLife products. This book is a quick and easy way to learn these packages. As an Apple certified product, this is the book used in the Apple Training and Certification program. You can use it by yourself at your own pace where it's broken down into fourteen lessons.

The lessons are aimed at the practical use of the packages, not some esoteric project just made up to show off the software. It starts off discussing audio. Then it moves to mnaging still images, printing still images, and finally moving images, i.e. video.

From his background in the motion picture business, the author has written some very interesting pages on how to use Hollywood techniques in your own movies.

This is the most complete iLife book.