Customer Reviews

Instant Boris Effects (Instant Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You can't beat what you get for the price. This book lays out in plain English how to use the Boris interface to do all the things you need to do and more. Many comparable technical books cost twice what this one costs or more and don't deliver any more for your money. Within minutes after looking through this book I had successfully accomplished something I had tried to create four times before with no luck. This book has earned a spot next to my computer.

Now, to reply to the negative (and what I consider unfair) review posted here:

"I pre-ordered this book thinking I could add some advanced graphics to my video projects for school (Vegas 5 and Boris Graffiti) - Boy, was I wrong!"

Indeed, you were. First of all, Graffiti is a titling tool -- you won't get many effects out of it since it only does titles. You need FX or RED to create effects. Secondly, there is an entire section in this book dedicated to using Boris with Vegas 5. Similar material can be found on the Boris website, but if I'm not mistaken, the author of this book is also the author or a contributor of those tips.

Having said that, if you only use Graffiti, this may not be the right book for you. If you want to know how to get the most out of FX or RED, it may be the best $25 you can spend.

This book should be offered as a throw-in by Boris as it expends more words praising the program than actually teaching how to use it. Some features of the software have useful and informative tutorials, i.e. splines and masking, but others, such as motion tracking have only a press-release type blurb and are useless. The author writes well, just not enough about things that count. Don't buy unless you can look through it and see if it covers the topics you need.

Technically good book, but Boris is not intuitive, so I would have preferred a book with lots of examples on what the amazing Boris does and how to achieve the effect, rather than to sit down and wade through the interface, the preferences, open GL etc. Perhaps I should have watched someone doing it on a DVD instead.

My company has had Boris Red since version 2.2. Not having any formal training with the program, I shied away from it. I never had the time to teach myself to use it, nor to wade through the thick manuals that came with the software.

This book allowed me to sit down and very quickly create an effect that was responsible for securing an extremely large job for my small company. When I showed my boss the effect I created, he was literally speechless. The client was even more impresssed.

The software is not hard to use, but this book takes the guesswork out of getting started. I recommend you buy this book if you use any of the Boris products. There is much more in this book than the online documents or the manual offer, and it's much easier to sort through.

The description of this book says, "Documentation and training materials have been notoriously lacking for these applications" and this book continues with that tradition. I pre-ordered this book thinking I could add some advanced graphics to my video projects for school (Vegas 5 and Boris Graffiti) - Boy, was I wrong! This book is nothing but an expanded description of features offered by BORIS. It does not provide whatsoever any insight to instructing you on how to use this product effectively, or teach you techniques that can help WOW your targeted audience. You're better off going to the BORIS web site and reading what it has to offer. In fact you can download their PDF manuals directly and gain more knowledge. Do not waste your money! I know - I learned the hard way![....]