There and Back Once More

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Opinion: Page (2) of 4 - 04/14/03

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There and Back Once More Highlights from the NAB 2003 convention from the Mac angle

DVD Studio Pro receives a number of enhancements as well. According too an Apple spokesman I talked to, the new technologies in DVD Studio Pro are largely the result of Apple's acquisition of Spruce. It was rebuilt from the ground up in Cocoa and includes live button editing, as well as new dynamic alignment guides, a timeline track editor, context-sensitive drag and drop and a new, highly flexible and much more intuitive user interface.

As a sidenote on Apple, I had a chance to take a new 17-inch PowerBook with me to the show to test out its capabilities on the road. (If you ever want to get people looking in your direction, you simply must carry one of these babies around!) I'll be bringing you a review of the model in a separate article next week. Find out more about Apple's announcements at http://www.apple.com.

But Apple was only one part of a bright picture for the near future of Macintosh creative production. And I was one of the fortunate ones to see most of it in action.

Curious Software quietly unveiled gFx and gFx Pro for Mac OS X. I was able to see the software in action, and it includes a wide range of tools for painting, rotoscoping and compositing. For broadcasters, the software is integrated into the new 4.0 release of World Maps (Macintosh and Windows) for SD or HD compositing. And it's available as a standalone tool for video producers for motion graphics, visual effects, painting, rotoscoping, wire and rig removal and image manipulation. All at 16 bits per pixel. Hopefully we'll be able to bring you a more detailed look at this software in the near future. For now, check out http://www.curious-software.com.

Avid surprised at least me with the news of Xpress Pro and Mojo, a hardware and software combination offering an accelerated and enhanced version of Xpress DV. The news comes on the heels of a total revamp of Avid's lineup for Mac OS X, including a port of Symphony, the first version for the Macintosh platform. The new version includes the integration of a customized version of the Sorenson Squeeze 3 Compression Suite. It also offers 24 video and 24 audio tracks (unlimited through nesting), 2D and 3D OpenGL-based effects, enhanced titling, JKL edit, trim and machine control. Avid IllusionFX, Image Stabilization, Pan and Zoom, the FilmMaker's Toolkit, Sonic ReelDVD, Sorenson Squeeze 3.1 Compression Suite, Boris Graffiti and Profound Effects Elastic Gasket software are included in every Avid Xpress Pro box. Xpress Pro will ship for $1,695, with the Mojo hardware running $1,695 separately.

Avid also announced Media Composer Adrenaline, a new version of the Media Composer software combined with Avid Adrenaline Digital Nonlinear Accelerator (DNA) hardware. It supports 10-bit video and 24-bit, 96 kHz audio, with up to five real-time uncompressed SD video streams. It also offers new real-time Open GL 2D and 3D DVE, along with AutoCorrect technology that color corrects sequences automatically. It will be available for Mac OS X and Windows for $24,995 this quarter. More information on Avid can be found at http://www.avid.com.

Alias|Wavefront added to the momentum with the announcement of Maya 5 Complete and Unlimited. The Complete version for Mac OS X will include new rendering options, modeling tools and a wealth of new interface and workflow enhancements. For modeling, Maya 5 will include an enhanced toolset, such as a new polygon reduction facility, new UV editing and extrusion tools, including a graph-based profile curve for taper control. And with Artisan, users can brush Face Vertices. Alias says Maya 5 has been fine-tuned based on input from professional users, including "extensive" enhancements to animation constraints. It also introduces a new form of FK/IK blending, along with new ghosting and channel muting options for speeding up animation tasks. For info on ALias|Wavefront can be found at http://www.aliaswavefront.com.

I was also able to see a huge number of new software plugins, including RE:Vision FX's Twixtor 3.0, which offers some shockingly cool tools for speeding up and slowing down image sequences. It's designed to produce time warping effects and can synthesize unique new frames by warping and interpolating frames of the original sequence. It calculates motion vectors for each pixel and offers keyframeable retiming for control on a frame by frame basis. It also allows for foreground and background separation using a specified matte and can track and fill the background layer even when it is obscured by the foreground. It's available now for Mac OS X, Mac OS 9 and WIndows for a variety of hosts, including Shake, Combustion, FInal Cut Pro and After Effects. You can find out more at http://www.revisionfx.com.

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