Holiday gift lists for digital video creators

Best of 2014 and holiday gift lists are mushrooming, but there aren’t so many lists for digital video creators at this point, and it seems that most of them are on PVC (with more coming). We’ll link in a few extra lists, and look back the year in After Effects for more ideas.

 

Holiday Gift Lists

There are an increasing number of gift lists and end-of-year roundups of newer cool tools for video geeks (more if you whisper Google the right words):

• Stocking Stuffers 2014 by Oliver Peters

• Christmas Gift Ideas for the Editor – 2014 Edition by Scott Simmons here on PVC

• Christmas Gifts for DSLR Videographers and Entry Level Action Cams for Christmas by Jose Antunes on PVC

• Stocking Stuffers for Shooters and Cinematographers by Matthew Jeppsen on PVC

• Best of 2014 Aerial Videography Gear Guide by Jeff Foster on PVC

• (Alternative) Christmas Gift Ideas for the Video Professional – 2014 Edition by Jeremiah Karpowicz on PVC

• What To Get A Film Editor For Christmas by Jonny Elwyn

• The LensProToGo Holiday Gift Guide 2014

• B & H has some holiday gifts & deals, as do others.

• Videomaker Best Products of the Year – 2014

• The 2014 Filmmaker’s Christmas List! by Film Riot

 

After Effects gifts

Year-end gift lists often have a flavor of “best of” or year-in-review articles. We won’t do that now, but any of these newer After Effects-oriented products, even a subscription to Lynda.com or Creative Cloud, would make a lovely gift.

• Element 3D version 2 was released by Video Copilot and is jam-packed with new features at a low price.

• Hitfilm 3 has an extremely wide toolset for a young app, and now comes with a lower price and AE-format plug-ins for general use.

• Yanobox Nodes 2 creates beautiful network nodes seen in data visualizations, and much more. It has easy-to-use presets, but has surpising power under the hood.

• Red Giant Universe has a constantly-updated mix of free and subscription effects.

• Lynda.com courses offers high quality comprehensive courses on Adobe products. See especially the expert videos from Chris Meyer (Creative Cloud Updates, Premiere and AE, screen replacement with mocha AE) and Mark Christiansen (on keying, matching foreground to background, advanced matching and looks). And of course, there are AE and related courses from Eran Stern, Maxim Jago, and others.

• GoPro Cineform in Creative Cloud 2014 is just one among hundreds of new features and fixes added by Adobe to their video apps in June and October this year. Even in a slower year, After Effects had one major release, two minor releases, and four bug fix updates. If you gift a subscription, it’ll keep giving on its own!

 

More Lists

Instead of finishing with YouTube’s Top Trending Videos of 2014 (Global) or gifts lists from The Verge, Wired, CNET and The Wirecutter, here some resources on ubiquitous tech:

• Headphones are used everywhere nowadays. For choices in earphones, see AEP’s Very cheap earphones: backups and stocking stuffers, and the 2014 Earphone Buyer’s Guide by Sound Signature at The Headphone List.

• There is life beyond the sound quality of standard-issue Sony headphones and the DACs & amps of smartphones & computers. For broader coverage in headphones and related goods, check out the 2014 InnerFidelity Holiday Gift Guide and the Head-Fi 2014 Winter Gift Guide.

• Smartphone Awards: 2014! is by wunderkind Marques Brownlee, who isn’t afraid of Android or 4K. He’s even got picks for camera quality. Most of the pro video-oriented phone apps are available on iOS though, so check out Matthew Jeppsen’s gift ideas.