Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Final Cut Pro QuickTip Exporting video for iPod

Final Cut Pro QuickTip #54

Here is a tutorial of how to export the video you just edited to a format which is optimized for the video iPod. Please take note, this video may not work on PSP, PC's, or older macs.

For more info on how to export for the iPod check out the following link:
The Complete Guide to Converting Video to iPod Format (Mac)

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Autodesk Cleaner 6.5 announced

San Rafael, Calif., November 16, 2005—Autodesk, Inc.(NASDAQ: ADSK), today announced Autodesk Cleaner 6.5 for Macintosh and Autodesk Cleaner XL 1.5 for Windows, the newest updates to its professional desktop media mastering and encoding software. Autodesk Cleaner is an industry standard application for encoding and optimizing video content for delivery formats ranging from the Internet and DVD to handheld mobile devices. New to Autodesk Cleaner software is encoding support for DivX version 5.2 player for Cleaner XL 1.5 and DivX 6.0 player for Cleaner 6.5 for Macintosh. Also added is the Flix exporter from On2 Technologies—that allows compressionists to publish video in .FLV and .SWF formats—the internet video formats supported by Macromedia Flash, the most widely distributed content player over the Internet.

Price? US$599; upgrades start at $125.

New Cleaner features include:
New output formats:

  • Flash video support (.flv and .swf) with On2 Flix Exporter
  • DivX Pro encoder
  • DivX 5.2 for Cleaner XL 1.5 for Windows
  • DivX 6.0 for Cleaner 6.5 for Macintosh

Updated codecs:

  • Updated Kinoma version 3 exporter
  • H.264 encoding through QuickTime 7 and support for Real 10.

Cleaner XL only new features:

  • Support for Autodesk Backburner
  • Command line script support for pipeline automation
  • New Input formats:
  • DPX, Cineon, OpenEXR
  • Wiretap support on input
Well it's about time. I really enjoy using cleaner. It just does certain things better than compressor, espically for web. MPEG-2 encoding, I'll stick with compressor.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Boris announces new visual effects suite for Final Cut Pro "Continuum Complete Version 4"

Boris announced Continuum Complete Version 4 Integrated visual effects. BCC is a comprehensive suite of native filters and transitions for Final Cut Pro and Motion amoung others.

Among the new features of version 4 is the Motion Key filter that isolates and removes moving foreground objects based on motion vector field of the source footage. This filter, along with the new Optical Stabilizer, continues the Optical Flow development first introduced in the version 3 Optical Flow and Motion Blur filters. Also new is the OGL-based Image Shatter, which takes advantage of modern graphics cards to accelerate 3D rendering. I really can't wait to tey the Motion key filter.

New Features include:
- Improved Motion Tracker provides increased accuracy with four-point tracking.
- New filters include Color Match, Halftone, Median, Motion Key, Corner Pin Tracker, Optical Stabilizer and an OpenGL-based 3D Extruded Image Shatter.
- Updated host support includes Apple Final Cut Pro 5, Apple Motion 2.01, Autodesk Combustion 4, and Eyeon Fusion version 5; Adobe After Effects version 7.0 will be supported once it is released.
- Support for Macintosh OS X Tiger.
- New Motion Key technology removes moving foreground objects based on motion estimation.
- Hundreds of new presets are included.
- Settings remain fully compatible with the version 3.0 release.
- Easy-to-use licensing includes Electronic Software Download (ESD) and a 14-day trial version.

Download the trial version here.

On2 adds flash 8 export to Final cut Pro and DVD studio Pro

On2 is a company that supplies QuickTime plug-ins for export to different file formats. They have just released software to allow for direct export of Flash 8 files (.flv) from Final Cut Pro and DVD studio pro.


There are two things to realize about this exporter though:
  1. Not everyone has Flash 8 video installed. Better to use Flash 7 exports at the moment.
  2. You always need to place these flash video files into a .swf file to be able to play.
  3. It has a hefty price tag of $149 for regular and $249 for a pro version.

Final Cut Pro Quick Tip #53 Soundtrack Pro Round Trip By Stephen Schleicher

Stephen Schleicher shows us how to incorporate Sound track Pro into our Final Cut workflow. Have a look at Stephen's tip #53.

Final Cut Pro News and tips

This is my own blog about the latest news and tips on Apple's Final Cut Pro suite. Keep looking for more news.