FCP World has announced new Blu-ray templates for the latest version of Final Cut Studio. The company's plug-in delivers 60 background templates, on top of the original five that come with FCS. All of them can be used for both Blu-ray and AVCHD discs; each is fully animated and looping, with room for customization in the form of personalized logos and titles.
Apple has released a Pro Applications Update for Final Cut Studio, along with a new Server Diagnostics utility. The Final Cut Studio download is primarily a maintenance update, with improvements to overall stability and compatibility. The revision includes Final Cut Pro 7.0.1, Motion 4.0.1, Soundtrack Pro 3.0.1, Color 1.5.1 and Compressor 3.5.1.
Noise Industries has announced a new LiveToon plug-in, from its development partner DVShade, designed to increase the visual effects capabilities for Final Cut, Motion and After Effects. The latest plug-in is geared for creating and editing professional-looking cartoon, graphic novel, or sketch effects that can be added to footage. It includes over 10 integrated presets and provides a series of parameters such as posterization, saturation and cartoon edge lines.
Digital Heaven has launched an update to its Final Cut Pro graphics automation software, releasing AutoMotion 1.6. The software works in conjunction with Final Cut's Motion automating both the production and management of multiple graphics: it merges Motion templates with user text data and handles revisions with live previews support for changing multiple graphics from one action.
Reg Giant has released a new video effects plug-in, Magic Bullet Mojo. The software recreates the look used in many Hollywood blockbusters, warming the color temperature of skin, while simultaneously cooling it for shadows and backgrounds. A central slider adjusts both elements in unison.
The unfinished Mac OS X 10.6.1 update -- now in distribution to a small number of developers -- so far only makes a minor number of fixes, accounts say. These include improvements to compatibility, stability and security, such as better support for Sierra Wireless 3G modems, and the proper display of printer compatibility drivers in the Add Printer dialog. A more critical fix prevents freezing in Motion 4.
Dashwood has produced a new video effects plug-in, Stereo3D Toolbox, based on Noise Industries' FxFactory platform. The software converts footage from After Effects, Motion or Final Cut into stereoscopic 3D. Possible output formats include side-by-side, over/under, checkerboard, interlace and anaglyph; controls adjust for the requirements of each one, tweaking details such X-, Y- and Z-axis convergence, or zoom levels for each eye.
Boris FX has released Continuum Motion Tracker, which includes four specialized filters for gathering and utilizing motion data from video. The Corner Pin filter allows users to map media to a specific area on a moving object. Match Move locks the movement of one image clip to another, and includes functions such as tumble, spin, and rotate, as well as lighting and light wrap compositing.
Boris FX has announced that its entire product line is being updated to support the Apple's new Final Cut Studio 3. The collection consists of various effects and filters, for both Final Cut Pro and Motion. The Boris Continuum Complete (BCC) 6.0.4 FxPlug, a compilation of video filters including Cartoon Look, Pencil Sketch and Charcoal Sketch, is a free upgrade for BCC 6.x owners. People with older versions of BCC FxPlug can upgrade to the most recent version for $300.
Noise Industries and Idustrial Revolution have launched a new particle generation plug-in, ParticleMetrix, for visual effects applications. The plug-in works with Apple's Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express and Motion, along with Adobe's After Effects CS3 and CS4. ParticleMetrix is based on FxFactory and converts objects and text into particle effects, such as snow, fire, ice, bubbles, sparkles and more. The plug-in provides a library of pre-designed effects, with controls for rotation, size, gravity and other custom settings.
Boris FX has released the first completed version of Boris Continuum Complete 6, an FxPlug add-on for Motion, Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express. The software introduces over 200 filters to Apple's software, with live previews of dozens of preset transitions, glows, and color and film-style effects. The initial release of the plug-in features over a dozen new FxPlug shaders, presented in a redesigned effects browser window.
Boris FX has released a public beta of Boris Continuum Complete 6 FxPlug, a plug-in for Motion, Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express. The code introduces over 200 filters to the Apple software, divided into categories such as color, glows, transitions and simulated film effects. Filters can be previewed in real-time, separately or in combination.
Red Giant has released Magic Bullet Quick Looks, a new set of color-correction plug-ins for video editors. The software represents a scaled-down version of Magic Bullet Looks, which provides a full range of tools for tweaking visual styles. Quick Looks eliminates most custom options in favor of over 100 presets, based on the cinematography of famous films and TV shows.
Apple on Thursday released new updates to professional video and audio suites, including Final Cut Pro 6.05, Compressor 3.0.5, Color 1.0.3 and Shake 4.1.1. Apple says the Pro Applications Update 2008-04, a revision to Final Cut Studio 2.0. addresses general performance issues and improves overall stability. Final Cut Pro 6.0.5 addresses specific issues such as improved rendering of still images and footage in high-resolution formats and adding the ability to capture the additional metadata for footage recorded with the Panasonic AG-HMC150 professional AVCHD camcorder and the extended metadata that is available with P2 cards; the update also improves reliability when importing files from the Panasonic HDC-SD9 camcorder.
Red Giant Software has released Red Giant Warp, a new sets of effects generation plug-ins for video editing suites. Contained in Warp are three different tools, beginning with Corner Pin, which takes material from outside clips and pins it with a different perspective inside a working video. The plug-in additionally sports extra offset controls and integration with Mocha for After Effects.
Sony Ericsson is allegedly making a move to up its devotion to the gaming industry by allowing the cameras in its phones to function as a motion-controlling sensor. Pocket-lint reports that the communications device company has signed a deal with California-based GestureTek to incorporate the software into its phones in September. Sony at present already uses the software for its EyeToy camera device on the PlayStation 2, and will allegedly function on Sony Ericsson's older phones as well.
3Dconnexion has announced that its SpaceExplorer 3D mouse is now supported by Mac OS X 10.4.6 and later, allowing Mac users to use the tool to navigate through popular 3D application workspaces. By pulling, pushing, tilting, and spinning the SpaceExplorer's 3D mouse cap, designers can move through 3D scenes and worlds without stopping to select commands. A subtle increase or decrease in cap pressure accelerates or slows motion, enabling precise micro-adjustments. The device also sports function keys to program highly-used functions and keyboard modifiers, as well as an ergonomically designed palm rest for a comfortable command console.
New lawsuits have been filed by Typhoon Touch Technologies against the makers of tablet PCs, accounts say. The company first gained attention in December of last year, when it accused prominent computer builders Dell and Motion Computing of violating patents used not only in tablets, but also in smartphones and UMPCs. The new suits are targeted exclusively at makers of tablet PCs though, and name Electrovaya, Xplore Technologies and Sand Dune Ventures (a.k.a. TabletKiosk) as the defendants.
Red Giant Software has launched Primatte Keyer 4, the latest edition of a program that extracts keys from backgrounds for the sake of movie production. It is compatible with DV and HDV video, and can fix issues such as uneven lighting, compression artifacts and problematic shadows. Though earlier versions only supported Avid and After Effects, version 4 now supports Apple's Motion and Final Cut Pro, and can operate directly from the timeline using 32-bit processing.
dvGarage recently unveiled updates to Conduit Suite and dvMatte Pro, its respective Conduit nodal composition tool and chromakeying software. Conduit suite brings with it Conduit Live, a new standalone nodal capture tool which offers users real-tie video compositing and analysis of any live digital footage. The Studio bundle also includes Conduit for Motion, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop, and After Effects. Conduit Suite is selling for $199, available from dvGarage's website.
RE:Vision Effects recently unveiled SmoothKit 2, a set of plug-ins designed to smooth images with user-directed controls, and feature-sensitive methods. The kit consists of nine filters which allow the user to blur images without blurring edges, sharpen with less ringing, reduce image defects, reduce jaggies, and more. A newly added Z-Blur filter provides depth of field effects using depth maps from 3D system. SmoothKit 2 sells for $120, and is available through RE:Vision Effect's website.
Red Giant Software today unveiled Magic Bullet Frames, its latest plugin for Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Premiere Pro. The plugin is designed to allow users to shoot video on low-cost film, and then scale the footage to 24p, giving it a professional finish. Magic Bullet Frames uses motion-adaptive and field-blended modes to process frames, and can apply custom letterboxes to footage to give it a cinematic feel. Red Giant Software is currently selling Magic Bullet Frames for $200.
In brief: We've posted a review of the text editor Jedit X, a Motion templates repository site has been updated, the Toronto OS X integrators meeting has been announced, Great White Software has acquired RBLibrary, and a Final Cut Pro UK Seminar Tour will soon take place ... We've posted a review of Jedit X, a multi featured word processor and text editor designed to create, modify, and open text and RTF (Rich Text Format) documents. The tool can also be used to script and create source code. Jedit X has been around for 11 years and is the most popular text editor in Japan, so you will see a number of Japanese features in the menus. It can save documents as RTF, HTML, Text, Word, and Word XML Documents and shines in its ability to work with other Mac programs.
Typhoon Touch Technologies is suing both Dell and Motion Computing for infringing on a number of the company's patents. Typhoon seeks both damages and an injunction barring either Dell or Motion from manufacturing or selling technology based on US patent numbers 5,379,057 and 5,675,362. The lawsuit will prevent the companies from distributing tablet PCs, slate PCs, PDAs, ultra mobile PCs, smartphones, or any other product that uses either of the offending technologies.
