Studio Monthly articles from January 2007

Studio Monthly archives from January 2007

Don't fear the merger.(editor's note)
January 1, 2007... The thought of investing in a new piece of software, workstation or camera always brings with it a valid concern: Will the company be around as long as I plan to keep my gear in use? 2006 was a banner year for acquisitions, even if you don't...

Snafu U.(Cartoon)
January 1, 2007... HEYYY... IS THAT THE NEW HD CAMERA YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR? YOU KNOW IT!! I CAN'T WAIT TO USE IT!! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TWO WEEKS LATER: HEY, BRING YOUR NEW CAMERA FOR THE SHOOT! I HAVEN'T FIGURED HOW TO USE IT YET. ...

What's my flow? Creating a wardrobe function for Janet Jackson.(quick cuts)
January 1, 2007... How do you maintain a PG rating when Janet Jackson's clothes disappear in a flash? Good question, and one that the producers of the 2005 Super Bowl halftime show would have certainly liked to have known the answer to (or maybe not). ...

What I'm using now: next limit's ReelFlow.(quick cuts)
January 1, 2007... SEAN KORIAKIN Art Director Imaginary Forces Los Angeles, CA www.imaginaryforces.com LIST: $2,700 WHY I LOVE IT: Great for fast and slick water effects, but also for fire and explosions "It's a really...

Natural high.(gear up)
January 1, 2007... New fluid effects support, a Maya control panel plug-in, extended forces and torques, additional file format support and improved user resources are among the many new features of NaturalMotion endorphin 2.7, designed to enhance workflow for...

Supersized P2.(gear up)
January 1, 2007... Panasonic's new AJ-HPX2000 P2 HD shoulder-mount camcorder features 24p frame rate and can hold up to five P2 cards. It is also switchable between DVCPRO HD/50/25 and DV, as well as the new AVC-Intra codec (an intraframe 10-bit encoding that...

Big bad plug-in daddy.(gear up)
January 1, 2007... ProDAD, a software developer based in Germany, has introduced Vitascene, a new plug-in for video effects and transitions. With Vitascene, users get GPU-rendered pro effects and moods for digital video editing in real time. VitaScene was built...

8 X 2.(gear up)
January 1, 2007... The 1 Beyond HD OctoFlex2 is an 8 full-core processor system running Windows XP. It features a new architecture offering up to 70 percent performance improvement compared to the original OctoFlex system. Recent testing showed that rendering an...

Fishing focus.(gear up)
January 1, 2007... The new Bluefish444 SD|Fidelity and SD|Focus SDI PCI Express are multipurpose, uncompressed SD SDI/analog video cards that are compatible with most popular nonlinear editing and compositing software products on Windows and Mac systems. For...

Redrock Micro.(gear up)
January 1, 2007... Redrock Micro has four new products to complement Redrock's popular M2 cinema lens adapter, which lets users adapt 35mm lenses to DV and HD/V video cameras. The microFollowFocus is the first follow focus optimized for 35mm still lenses and...

Avid Media Composer 2.5.3: an old Pro makes a powerful software-only debut.(ROI reviews)
January 1, 2007... As the creator of the first nonlinear editing system on the scene, Avid has always had a unique place in media technology. From the beginning, Avid editing systems could be distinguished by two things: powerful, hardware-enhanced software and a...

Matrox MXO: kick your workflow into high gear.(ROI reviews)
January 1, 2007... Every now and then, a really cool tool shows up that performs an assortment of useful functions and really kicks your workflow into high gear. The Matrox MXO is that tool. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This tiny standalone box intercepts the...

Tsunami A-Wave RT.X2 workstation: real-time HD editing for the rest of us.(ROI reviews)
January 1, 2007... Traditionally, video editing workstations fall into two camps: expensive real-time systems and inexpensive non-real-time systems. Lately, this distinction has become downright fuzzy, reflecting dramatic speed increases in processor and memory...

Tapco Link.USB: a flexible, portable computer audio and midi interface.(ROI reviews)
January 1, 2007... One thing that I feel has been missing from NLEs is a simple and efficient way to record voiceovers and narration. In my old linear edit system, where the audio went through a Mackie 1402 VLZ mixer, all that was needed was to plug a microphone...

Luxology Modo 202: a modeling tool that throws open a door to animation.(ROI reviews)
January 1, 2007... The words "easy" and "3D" don't often come together. Hence, tools promising a better path for 3D tend to get plenty of attention. For its part, the Luxology team behind Modo is essentially the same one that brought Lightwave to the masses....

Add light edges with CC Light Sweep in After Effects.(how)
January 1, 2007... STEP 1 ADD CC LIGHT SWEEP After keying out your character's green screen background, you need to add some edge lighting to properly blend them into the scene, especially if there is a bright light source somewhere in the background...

Distribute your film or video on Amazon.com with CustomFlix DVD and CD on Demand.(train up)
January 1, 2007... STEP 1 CREATE A CUSTOMFLIX ACCOUNT Go to www.customflix.com and click Create New Account at the top of the page to start the self-guided process. Your CustomFlix member account lets you manage all aspects of your account, from adding a new...

Now hear this! Say again? Now hear this!(issues)
January 1, 2007... No matter how you slice it, audio is 70 percent of the visual experience. You can easily argue that good audio can make a mediocre image "look" better, while poor audio can make the best picture appear worse. There have been countless studies...

Kaboom creates big bang with BOOM.(hot house)
January 1, 2007... WHAT'S THEIR GIG? With Director Brandon Dickerson at the helm, kaboom productions has just launched BOOM, a brand new division of the company that's solely focused on visually creative content matched to music--in other words, music...