Digital Video - September 2007 - (Page 42)

Cutter’s Way tion give the Adobe and Apple suites a slight edge in the DVD authoring space over Avid’s Sonic offering. Overall, I found Encore a little easier to learn than DVD Studio Pro. Adobe Flash CS3 Professional (version 9.0) Like Photoshop and Illustrator, Flash is a professional tool with capabilities that no one else can offer in its NLE bundle. Unlike Photoshop and Illustrator, Flash appeals to a narrower slice of the professional video production market, though it’s a rapidly growing one. For those editors who are less than eager to learn a new (and fairly complex) application, Adobe has baited the process. The current version of Encore can export projects as ready-to-launch Flash video experiences. If you get hooked on that and want to bring your Web video projects to the next level, you have Flash. Adobe Soundbooth CS3 (Version 1.0) Don’t let the version number fool you. Soundbooth is a slimmed down version of Adobe’s Audition DAW, designed specifically for the needs of editors. It’s a Swiss Army knife for the audio non-expert. Soundbooth is great for common cleanups such as removing background noise, speed and pitch changes, and even basic scoring for the non-musician. Soundbooth’s music tools aren’t quite up to those of Smart Sound’s Sonic Fire Pro, but it’s a cost effective alternative to needle drop libraries for projects on a tight budget. So far, Production Premium is a pretty sweet suite. But there’s more. Adobe also includes OnLocation CS3, formerly Serious Magic’s DV Rack. OnLocation is a complete set of scopes and monitoring tools, along with hard disk recording software for location work. I appreciate Adobe’s holistic approach to post. By including useful production tools, we cut down the number of times we hear, “Fix it in post.” Unfortunately OnLocation is Windows-only, but Adobe tosses in a copy for Mac buyers to run under Bootcamp. It’s reason enough to consider purchasing a copy of Windows for your Intel Mac. Space constraints don’t allow for much discussion about Device Central (a handy tool for previewing your video content on various devices), Bridge (a media asset management tool) and Ultra (a Windowsonly virtual set generator and keying tool). above: Apple scores big with Motion’s easyto-navigate 3D camera and particle emitters. Motion projects also can be imported into After Effects—simply change the .motn extension to .mov. is now available for Mac OSX running on Intel hardware. While I don’t find the Premiere Pro interface to be quite as intuitive as the Final Cut Pro interface, editors who are familiar with other Adobe products will have little trouble learning Premiere Pro. Photoshop CS3 Extended (version 10.0) Photoshop is probably the most popular software companion to the NLE. The extended version adds several new tools of interest, most notably, video layers. All of Photoshop’s tools are available to every frame of a video clip in a single file—no more tedious frame-by-frame exports and re-imports. Illustrator CS3 (version 13.0) Until now, Illustrator has proven somewhat baffling to editors. Adobe has addressed the issue a bit in the new version by adding standard film and video frame templates with action safe/title safe grids. While beziers will continue to frustrate newcomers, it’s become a lot easier to get useful text and graphics out of Illustrator and into Premiere Pro. Adobe After Effects CS3 (version 8.0) Adobe has dropped the Standard version of After Effects. For CS3, it’s all Pro. As much as I like Motion 3 and Boris Red 4.1, After Effects remains my motion graphics tool of choice. But features such as expressions and scripting, if you take the time to learn them, allow you to much more in much less time. While it might not be as intuitive to the beginner as Motion, especially when working in 3D space, After Effects is just so versatile and powerful that I recommend it to anyone who wants to work in motion graphics at any level. Adobe Encore CS3 (version 3.0) Like Apple’s DVD Studio Pro 4 and Motion 3 in the Apple suite, Encore CS3 and After Effects CS3 work together seamlessly. Designing menu backgrounds and elements in a motion graphics application without the need to render and re-import into the DVD applica- Apple Final Cut Studio 2 I’ve been raving about the meteoric rise of Final Cut for years, so it would take a major upgrade package to impress me. Apple did it. Final Cut Pro 6 One of best NLEs has gotten incrementally better. Version 6 adds the ProRes 422 codec, 40 DV SEPTEMBER 2007 WWW.DV.COM http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - September 2007

Contents News AG-HPX500 HD Camcorder First Look: Color V8000HD 8" LCD Monitor Shoulder Mount System Instant Expert Close-Ups Fest Cercuit Q&A Flight Plan Cutter's Way Imagination in Action Motion Graphics Production Diary

Digital Video - September 2007

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