NAB news: if you have or want to discuss the NAB annoucement, it's here

chevy

Marvelous Da Vinci
Staff member
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NAB news: if you have or want to discuss the NAB annoucements, it's here.
 
- Shake 3.5
- DVD Studio Pro 3
- Final Cut Pro 4.5 HD (pour High Definition)
- XSAN was announced

from another forum
 
It's all really starting to come together.

These apps are coming at a faster and faster rate, each one quite a bit more powerful than the last. And the interfaces are taking on similar attributes (in a good way).

And it looks like some of the 64-bit advantages are slowly starting to sneak their way in (if you dig through the info). This stuff is getting flat out impressive.

It used to be that we could edit our home movies and impress people. Or the adventurous types could edit a DV "movie" and maybe win a film festival. We're on the verge of being able to edit our own freaking MOVIES in real time. (Given that HD up-converts to film rather nicely). Holy macaroni.

One step closer to an all Apple software lineup.
 
I've been all day out today. Please Chevy or someone, post either a shortened version of everything that is new here, OR a link to what is new, or both :)
 
Hi Giaguara,

http://www.apple.com/xsan/ -- is a distributed file system which allows RAID arrays of MacOSX servers (such as Xserve) to pool their storage and access it in a super-advanced and efficient way.


http://www.apple.com/shake/
http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro/
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/
-- These mainstays all have new versions and updates to improve workflow and make them more efficient.

http://www.apple.com/motion/ -- This new app ties in well with Final Cut Pro, etc. Its designed for creating motion and animation for video and film production, such as for titles and promos.

The best thing about all of these apps is they are very high-end and will give Apple the professional credibility edge over equivalent PC software. They're also competitively priced. (Motion undercuts similar products from Adobe, while XSAN is priced per-filesystem which means you can expand it onto more servers without buying extra copies.)
 
I keep looking Motion over, and I still can't say it's better than AE. I guess I'll have to go by the Apple store and give it a try, see how it works before I attempt to reach such a conclusion. I know one thing... it's about time to get that G5 i want so bad.
 
mmmmh, the new updates look and sound really good.. just that they make me want to take a GL-2 and go and shoot a movie now :) -- I think pretty soon Apple will have to do PhotoShop too .. as Adobe could become more and more afraid of doing any applications for our fav platform. Or if the Adobe (motion) apps are like now, priced 999 $ and are buggier than the Apple equivalent app that is 299 $ and less buggy...
 
A casual glance leads one to believe that Motion works ONLY with Final Cut Pro HD! Some digging (which should NOT be necessary) reveals that they at least leave open the POSSIBILITY that it might work with 'regular' Final Cut Pro:

Motion offers unprecedented integration with Apple’s suite of professional applications, including Final Cut Pro HD, DVD Studio Pro 3, Shake 3.5, Soundtrack, and Logic Pro 6.

...but nary a mention of Final Cut Express. Come on Apple, it shouldn't be like pulling teeth!! This is your website, and you want to sell as many copies of this as possible, right? We should be practically TRIPPING over pertinent information, we shouldn't have to sleuth it out. Give us the real scoop.

If you’re using Final Cut Pro HD, you can skip rendering interim files for the handoff to Motion.

From this I can kind-of infer that, with things like FCP and FCE, a rendered file can be used in Motion?

But I shouldn't have to INFER. It should be RIGHT THERE.
 
I think it's more a file format that FCP HD can read and the others can not. You can always render your composition out and bring it in as whatever file format you desire, since it exports to them all. Nothing new about that, been doing that with AE for years, but I will say if i could open those files without rendering them and any changes i make become global to the original Motion file, that would cut a lot of production time.
 
I'd be very surprised if Motion doesn't at least allow for QT output, meaning you can use it for any version of FCP in that sense (which is how LiveType works--worked?). If you want complete integration, you may need FCP HD. I have no problem with that. Just speculation on my part tho.

On paper, Motion looks not like a replacement for AE, but a damn fine alternative for a given project. For example, LiveType destroys AE for general titling. Even with AE's new excellent type tools, it can't touch LiveType for your basic cool looking title done quickly. It looks like Motion will do the same for your typical broadcast intro/outro, title fly-ins, logo work and similar, but AE will hold its own for a few more years with motion tracking, Z-depth, parent-child relationships, scripting, multi-format export, etc.

I suspect Motion may allow me to do nine out of ten projects using it, but that 10th project will absolutely requires AE's power. Either way, I win. Unless Adobe pulls the plug on AE some day. Ugh. While I'm thinking about it, the only way Adobe will pull the plug is if they don't sell enough Mac copies to profit from it. It's that simple. They're not going to stop development out of spite. It'll be up to us developers to determine the fate of AE. I predict it stays on the Mac for a good long while.
 
The way I see it, Motion is a program where everything is pretty much pre-done for you. LiveType had all the move's, effects, etc... pre-done for you. All you have to do is type in your text and make a few customizations here and there. I've been using LiveType for simple titles with no big special effects. It looks like Motion is the same, but taken another step further and focusing on everything else, not just your titling. It still has pre-done effects, motion backgrounds, etc...

AE will never be replaced for really cool advanced compositing and effects. I would still buy Motion for the ease of use, since I don't always have 15 hours to sit down in AE and work on a title. In Motion it looks like I can do some of the stuff quickly....

....oh, and by the way, AE 6.5 was released today as well ...
 
oh motion! thank you!

my biggest question is what will motion do that shake wont? or better stated: what will shake do that motion wont? There is a HUGE price gap ;)

Is motion supposed to be like a pro-sumer version of shake or something (obviously they are in no way code related, but it seems as though they might have similar purposes) ?
 
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