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Cinema Tools for Final Cut Pro
batobin writes "Looks like Apple is expanding their grasp on the film editing industry with their new release of Cinema Tools for Final Cut Pro. It enables FCP 3 to better manage film and 24 fps high density video. The product is expected to ship in May."
All graphics should be in ASCII, Anything else would be large and use more than .003% of my 386's CPU. :)
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
it should be noted that this is one of the products they bought with the acquisition of FilmLogic. So they didn't develop this themselves.
Impressive product nonetheless !
What is more fascinating : consider this 24P stuff from a bandwidth point of view and think about the recent firewire related news. Native HD is going to require quite a bit more firewire bandwidth than 400mbps. Can 1600mbps firwire be that far behind?
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
Excellent! Now maybe I can erase that FAGGY FAGGY Premiere from my drive and use some NON-CONSUMER editing software.
Premiere is okay for those of you who have not had the religious experience that is working with AVID. Compared to AVID, Premiere is a worthless, Pinnacle Video-level sack of bits.
Now, Premiere's After Effects/Photoshop intergration is incredibly sweet, something that AVIDDV doesn't do exactly right.
Also, AVIDDV is NT-only for some goddamned reason (unless that's changed since I knuckled under and spent $2k on the NT port). So, once I get this new software, I'll actually be able to USE the G4 machine that, because I've no professional-level editing software for it, has been sitting on my desk, gathering dust.
Why is it when I hit ^R that ZSH calls me a cocksucker?
Cause this thingie runs on an iPod ! And on an iPod only ! Jaleous as they are about the GameBoyAdv running an http server, the Apple engineers ported FinalCut to iPod.
You'll have buy 128 poddies though and daisy chain them together... Plus a diesel generator...
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
Take it you've never checked prices for a Film AVID system? FilmAVID costs (since I last checked) $32k. Thirty. Two. Thousand. Dollars. American.
Just for the software.
Add in an AVIDMedia Capture Card, that's your paltry $4k right there, just for the capture card.
Add in the Film Capture device, another $12-15k. Then you've got your RAIDs, your SP decks ($8-12k, depending on the brand), your monitors (not cheapass NTSC teevees, we're talking real-live production monitors, they run about $500 each, and you need at least one), and not to mention minimum of TWO >19" monitors to edit with.
All in all, to edit film on an AVID system, you're looking at about $65k for a "good" system.
$4k for a G4 box and the Final Cut bundle = DIRT FUCKING CHEAP.
Not to mention that the people that this software is marketed to make $4k on a slow week (shit, I videograph weddings and parties and I make $50/hr)
Why is it when I hit ^R that ZSH calls me a cocksucker?
And since they bought out Nothing Real, this doesn't actually come as a surprise.
Ordo Militum Unix.
Hackers? Mating? Wouldn't this just be a lot of stories about late nights looking at Pr0n?
24 fps high density video ...?
That's a new one on me. I think you meant "high-definition (HD) video."
"10MB of available disk space required for installation"
(from http://www.apple.com/cinematools/specs.html)
So $1K AMR for a 10Mb piece of software. They could at least put in a few DVD's of Job's famous "never been done before" speaches and
maybe one of his turtleneck shirts or something. And I thought Adobe was nuts for charging $1+ for photoshop and a per page fee for a usable version of Acrobat.
Sure the size of the program has nothing to do with it's value though when you spend a bucket of cash you feel ripped off when you are returned with just a sandwich bag of product.
"Survival of the fittest Max, and we've got the fucking gun!" - Pi
Just as a quick note: Final Cut Pro doesn't (yet?) run on the iPod. :-)
Statements like that are what are wrong with us today.
When do you need to make cinema-quality video? I understand people wanting the cool technology, but at some point you have to be content. You have to accept that you can never have the newest/fastest/coolest/best thing for very long (unless you have a 7 figure disposable income).
People claim they can't live without Photoshop, and they actively obtain the newest version. But how many people stop to think "Gee, I've been using Photoshop for 8 years now, maybe I should save up and buy a copy."
I'm not a software purist, who has sent a check to every shareware developer whose program he has used more than twice. I won't say that I don't have any software I didn't pay for, (I use IE and Mozilla ;) but I have paid for software I considered worthwhile. That includes a legal copy of Photoshop.
The reality is that we end up spending money on the software we don't own and don't need. If you ever bought a bigger hard drive instead of deleting LightWave, 3D Studio Max, and Maya, you spent money on that software. If you really use the software regularly, for more than playing around, it's probably worth investing money in. If you use it for an occupation, you have probably considered the legal implications.
I won't waste my time telling people not to steal software. Just consider the makers. If nobody bought Photoshop, Adobe would give up on it. If you and 9 friends all use Photoshop frequently, get together and buy it. Is it what Adobe wants? No. Is it better for Adobe than getting a copy on KaZaA? Yes.
Just my opinion.
--
Freedom of information doesn't mean information should be free. Just because you can read the book doesn't mean you shouldn't pay for it.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Be careful what you ask for. In the mid 90's I asked "where can i find a shareware or free c compiler?" on the news groups. Someone suggested Linux that icame with one. Well I sstill haven't learne dhow to program but I sure learned alot about linux ;-)
http://Lenny.com
Here's the thing about the film business. Most of the editing and compositing work in Hollywood is done on a flat-rate contact. In other words, one house says, "Cut your film at my post house for $50,000," and another says, "Cut it at mine for $40,000." The second house wins.
The second house was able to under-bid the first one because they bought twenty G4s with FCP to do their off-lining, instead of 20 Avid Media Composers. The G4s cost about $8,000 apiece, while a Media Composer goes for somewhere around $100,000. So the second house kept their expenses down, under-bid the job, and got the work.
For film editing, yeah, quality costs. But quality only matters when you go to do the final edit. The vast majority of the work is done in the offline, and if you can cut costs there, you're doing it right.
Basically you don't know what you're talking about.
Kino for DV editing :
:
http://www.schirmacher.de/arne/kino/
Then there was Broadcast2000 (which mig still be availble via sourceforge). Check with Linux Media Arts :
http://www.linuxmediaarts.com
I Think they maintain Broadcast2000 now...
and for the non-OSS stuff check out
http://www.mainconcept.com
MLT - simple and robust open source multimedia framework for Linux
Well one can be pushed out of a niche. For example it is a big pain to try to use Canon's EOS-D30 or D60 RAW conversion software on a Mac...unless you run OS9. For Windows Canon has decided to support NT2000, WinME and XP, but still no OSX support. That is for a $2000 camera (or if you were lucky $1499 referb for the D30). I doubt that would happen if Canon thought Apple had the same kind of market share (photogs, not "normal people") as Wintel does.
Or look at desktop publishing, in the mid-80s the Mac was it. PCs were good for accountants, but if you wanted page layouts, it was Mac all the way. Now windows does it well enough that nobody cares.
Pushing into niche markets is a good idea for Apple, but that alone isn't enough because they are too hard to defend.
Maybe, just maybe, Apple should considere going the Avid business and realease a quad G4 board that fits in a Dual Athlon 2GHz/Xeon 2.4GHz?
-- I feel better now. Thanks for asking.
Final Cut Pro is eating heavily into Avid's market share (as well as Media100's). I think I saw stats that claimed something like 30% of the market for FCP. That's without the new stuff. I have friends who've worked with both Avid and Media's stuff, and are now actively switching or planning to switch over to FCP. Of course, this is just anecdotal evidence, but it points to something I've been wondering about for awhile. namely, the democratization of film.
Apple gave us a set of tools in the 80's that democratized publishing. Took it out of the hands of those that could afford hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and consumables, and required people who could learn to code, and made it so anyone with a few grand and no arcane technical skills could do it. Badly, of course, but neverthless....It demolished that industry. Then they democratized prepress, that industry is almost gone. (I know, I worked in both of those industries.) Now it's film. Jobs has said that movies are going to be the DTP of the 21st century (or words to that effect) I think he knows what he's doing. If you think of Hollywood as an association of typesetters in the mid-80's, you can see why they're fighting anything that lets people create/use media on computers. The train is coming. More and more independent films made, more ways of distributing new content than just showing in theatres, etc., etc.
Sam Goldwyn, we're coming for you...
There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased that line. -- Oscar Levant
On http://www.apple.com/cinematools/ just above the Apple logo on the display, note a teeny tiny little Dock icon for:
Quake III Arena.
FCP is right up there with the other big applications for professional work..... FCP3 has made a lot of leaps, and FCP will only look nicer with the recent buy ups that Apple is making, plus that new 23" high resolution screen. i have a feeling they might acquire a few more companies before they slow down. i read somewhere last fall when most all computer makers were having bad financial times about Apples free cash. seems theuir pile of cash just sitting in the bank was many times that of IBM or any other computer maker. since everyone was hurting fromt he bad economic times (coupled with 9-11 fallout) it was a perfect time for Apple to pick up some technology. that was when the rumors were flying about Apple buying up SGI too.... I'm sure a lot of people will never ditch Avid, but FCP is making a lot of progress and for *most* users is totally valid for the project they are doing. with the recent push for it i can only see it getting better anyway, and competition just makes better products for the consumer in the end (till MS gets in the game).
anyway, the choice of editing applications, in many cases, is personal taste.... not unlike the ongoing war over Adobe or Quark for a layout application. though in that case i think Quark is dropping the ball on the Apple front by stalling their OS X ready version. Adobe has theirs, and it seems a lot of Quark Express diehards are taking it for a spin for that reason alone.
Yeah! And why do these damn programmers get paid so much anyway? It's just typing, for chrissakes!
Uh, I have to think you're out of your mind. If you're doing a 24fps film project you're going to need to be 100% you have a system that can track and play frames accurately. Editing film on a computer for eventual conforming back on film is a complicated process that involves 3:2 pulldown, maintaining audio sync, tracking keycode #s, duplicate frame usage, legal optical effects, etc. If any of these things are off, even by a little bit, you can be totally screwed as you will be physically slicing your film's negative to match what's edited on the computer. One mess-up means you're fucked.
I'd like to know what free software does that. I've looked, believe me. The closest I can find is Broadcast 2000, but it's still nowhere close for a film project.
If you're interestested in some of the issues involved w/picture & sound editing, see this site and especially this article
Why isn't making videos of your kids for your grandparents worth a $800 used refurbed iMac running iMovie?
GPL Deconstructed
This is a first: Apple products must suck because they are too cheap.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Suppose you are a student, or in education; you can get FCP 3 for a mere $300 and the Cinema tools for the same. That's $600 for a LOT of power. It is absolutely marvelous that apple values students enough to offer so much for so little, not even Micro$oft has such discounts as Apple when it comes to giving the ability to learn important software ($1,400 wow!). This is further demonstrated by their student developer plan. I'm glad someone thinks we're important.
10 mb is probably just the minimum install. I'll bet doing a complete install gives you hundreds of mb of options. I'd also be willing to bet they include some cool extra movies and stuff.
c-hack.com |
Sure, except it has three signifigant advantages over the F60. It comes with effectavly 1000s of rolls of free film and proccessing (not printing though), the proccessing is instant not "one hour" including a histogram, and lastly they mount Canon lenses :-)
Instant processing and the histogram are really useful tools for learning how to use complex lighting setups.
Could be, but currently Nikon has NEF, Canon has RAW, Sigma and Fuji have their own formats (both new this year). Since the "raw" format is closely tied to the color filter array layout, and the spacing of the sensors on the CCD/CMOS I'm not sure there will be a standard for it, unless those things stabalise (say, a grid pattern for sensors, and X3-like RGB samples at each pixel...or a Fuji like honeycomb layout).
I don't think Apple's hardware is more reliable then Wintel hardware. Their software tends to be though.
Recently Apple has been doing pretty much everything right. If they keep it up PJs will still use PowerBooks. If they have a few major screwups there could easially be no more Apple. I'm hoping they keep doing it all right.
Heh, say that after you handle the 70-200L f/2.8 IS :-)
(yeah, yeah, they both make great lenses...so does Pentax and Minolta for that matter)
All cameras are transitional, some more then most.
If you mean what covers the same field as a 50mm yes a 31.25mm covers it. If you mean what do I carry on it most of the time, well a 50mm. I like long lenses, and using a 50mm f/1.4 is way way less expensive then a 85mm f/1.2, like half the cost of the camera less expensive :-)
I'm not quite as fond of what it does to my 100mm for people pictures, but it gives a little more range for macro shots.
It sure looks like Canon is looking to get closer to full frame. They do have the 1.6x of the D30/D60 and the 1.3x of the 1D. Lots of people want full frame. More people just want wide angles. Problem is CCDs (and I guess) CMOS sensors have more light fall off problems then film, so it is possible there is really no way to get full 35mm frame coverage without designing new lenses!
All of Nikon's digitals have used the exact same multiplier. There is some chance they are going to make a new set of lenses designed to cover just that. They can be lighter and cheaper that way, and if they can make some really really wide angles, they might manage to do it. It could work out really well. It is also in line with things they have done in the past (like G lenses). It is also possible they are reaching for full frame like everyone else.
Sigma's CCD is smaller then Canon's D30/D60 sensor. Contax's N1 is a year late, and they missed two more deadlines in as many months. I think it is a cool product, and would love to see it on the market. The CCD it uses has been out for like 2 or 3 years!
(you forgot to list the porn industry, I would imagine the D30/D60/D100 would work great there; it also works well for finding the right levels for studio lights)
I'm not sure the D30/D60 is up to PJ standards. Not waterproof, not the best AF. I think the Nikon D100 has better AF, but still isn't waterproof. It is also a whole lot easier to learn new technique on.
I'm a bit under a year from saving enough on film and processing to pay for my D30 based on my old usage rate. I'm probably four months from it if you look at my current shooting rates. Since I don't really think I want a D60, I don't see it as dumb since I'll almost definitely save enough to make the D30 free before I no longer want the D30.
Besides, I have more fun with the D30, so from that point of view it's been a better purchase then my last VCR, a lot of recent book buys, some movies I have been too, and some of the cable (er, satellite) channels. I still have a blast when I pick it up.
What part of the D30 seemed slow? I know the focus is slow, but if you prefocus it seems fast to me. They did halve the release response time in the D60, but since I havn't used one I can't say if that is really noticable, so I'm wondering...
(actually yesterday I was taking shots of the distorted reflections from an office building, and a bird flew across and I mashed the shutter, the camera seemed slow to react...but I think at least half of that was my thumb not responding...)
That's for sure. The AF on low end digital cameras still isn't up to the AF on film cameras (except maybe on the D100). Aside from that we know CPUs tend to get faster, and memory tends to get bigger for the same price, so processing should get better...well as long as we don't keep growing the image size :-)
I don't think you will be able to get a camera like the D30 in 2 years (you can't get one from Nikon, Fuji, or Canon now...and I don't think the Sigma is really the same, but I would like to see a real review). It would be nice if the low end DSLRs were under $1k though. Not so nice if they stick to the old lame Canon IX AF system though. That just has to go!
Interesting to see so many D30 owners. I bought mine in early January and really love it to death. I've taken over 2500 pictures since I bought it, while I took only 1,100 pictures in a year when I had a Coolpix 990, so obviously the design has been a major success for me.
I think your delay is because of one of the more aggraviting features of the D30 - if you press the shutter the moment the autofocus is confused by something, it will refuse to take the picture. There should be some kind of override (say pressing the shutter release harder or something). Problem is that you lose pictures which would be useful to have even if the focus wasn't perfect, such as birds outdoors at f/22, which are going to be in decent focus no matter what you do.
I solve the problem by using manual focus most of the time, but sometimes you really need the speed of an autofocus system, especially for the aforementioned birds.
Other than that and with continuous shooting filling up the buffer, I've never had any trouble with the D30's responsiveness.
And it's probably just as well I didn't wait and get the D60, since the pictures would be double the size, and they're already plenty big. Or maybe that's a rationalization. You decide.
D
Macromedia dumped the product when the development team missed too many deadlines, so Apple picked it up, presumably for a song.
Macromedia seems like a pretty stupid company now, no?
I hope the development folks are well-compensated; they've earned it.
D
There are several overides (and they are available on most EOS cameras, not just the D30). First in AI Focus the inital frame will be taken even if there is no focus lock. Second in MF mode as you say the camera does not wait for focus lock. Third if you use CF4 (I think 4 -- it is 4 on most EOS cameras) to assign AE only to shutter and AF to * then a full press of the shutter takes the picture even without focus lock. That is the mode I use it in because it makes the focus-meter-compose dance much quicker (at least in the M exposure mode). The huge downside is on the EOS-D30 you lose the ability to do flash exposure lock because that is on the * key! You also lose AE lock, but when you shoot in M there isn't an AE lock because it isn't needed.
As an aside except for the EOS-D30/D60 all EOS cameras over $1000 have a dedicated FEL button (EOS-3 and EOS-1v, and I thjink the old A3E, and old 1/1n/1RS).
I normally don't, but once in a while...
Well it isn't a slam dunk that's for sure. I think the pictures look somewhat better (esp at higher ISOs), and there is way more margin for cropping, but I'm glad I had the extra months of joy from the D30 :-) If the D60 had better AF there is a chance I would buy one (and sell the D30, or keep it for backup).