As a budding motion graphics student, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the differences and advantages of After Effects and Apple's challenger to the throne. Fortunately, Apple just posted a quick tip on how to import Motion projects into AE, which should help at least a few projects flow a little more smoothly.
It's a pretty simple import process, and as long as you have AE 6.5 or greater, it sounds like things should go without a hitch (Apple doesn't specify, but it looks like Motion 1 and 2 are supported). As icing on the cake, AE will even recognize edits of the motion project; selecting Edit > Edit Original will open the project in Motion, and once it's saved again, AE will update with the changes. I haven't tried this yet, but they even provide some sample files for your testing pleasure.
Randall mentioned last December that Creative Cow
has fired up their own magazine, and I just
learned via newsletter today that this most useful of audio, video and film communities now offers their first issue
(shipped last week) in PDF format (either subscription is free, and you can specify a version at their subscription
form).
In addition to scoring a Creative Cow fix in print form, they have also added a new Premiere Pro vodcast to their lineup, in addition to the Cowcast and their After Effects vodcast. As with their
other podcasts, you have a couple options for watching and subscribing, so you'd better get crackin': in the Premiere
Pro podcast, they've already covered DVD Authoring and Multi-Camera Editing. Enjoy.
Avid this week unleashed updates to Media Composer Adrenaline and Express Pro for OSX. While both are now fully compatible with Mac OSX Tiger, Xpress Pro still lacks the HD support of the version available for its Windows counterpart.
A slick new advantage of Tiger compatibility means these systems include bundled Noise Industries Factory Tools which can harness the power of Apple's extensible CoreImage suite of over 80 real-time effects built into the OS. Check Avid's product sites for more juicy details.
Avid's debuted some pretty impressive looking 3D tools for lifelike, emotional digital animation for high-end film, post and games. Dubbed Face Robot, it apparently " uses a groundbreaking new computer model of the soft tissue of the face to mimic the full range of human emotion" - this new model circumvents having to create hundreds of individual shapes to achieve the same effect. Face Robot also offers the standard keyframe and motion capture tools, and users have control over the smallest of details, such as wrinkles, frowns, flaring nostrils and bulging neck muscles.
There are FAQ's and tech briefs available, containing a lot of juicy in-depth info, but alas: no solid availablility in sight. So for now, all you get to drool over is the technology preview and their gallery.
Designtechnica has an interesting bit about digital watermarking being used by Hollywood to help fight piracy. Apparently the watermark can be applied to both the audio and video streams and can tell Hollywood sleuths which location, theater and even date and time a film was illegally duped. Digimarc Corp developed this watermarking tech for Hollywood's shiny new Digital Cinema System Specification.
While I unfortunately haven't gotten my hands on the shiny new FCS suite, I did come across this mostly positive Macworld review of its Soundtrack Pro component. While I haven't gotten too intimate with Soundtrack yet, I'm sure one new feature they mention will be quite the hit: Automator actions, under Tiger of course. The author mentions actions that allowed him to easily put together a workflow that analyzed tracks in a folder, repair them, then convert their sample rates and formats. I'm not sure how many Automator actions there are, as I couldn't find details on Apple's FCS product pages, but I'm personally really starting to dig this whole idea of computers not just helping you work better, but actually doing more of the work for you.
Nattress released a major update to their Film Effects plugins for Final Cut Pro today. Now at version 2.5, this powerful set of tools has 9 new plugins, and can give your NTSC or PAL video the stylistic, sought-after look of film. With other tricks up its sleeve such as dithered levels controls, chroma sharpeners and the ability to remove DV color artifacts, this looks like quite the slick bundle of FCP tools for $100.
Is it odd that great advertising like this can sometimes make me wish I didn't live in the US? More and more often it seems like everyone else gets far cooler commercials than we do..
A while back a friend of mine turned me on to Tween, a blog from Justin Cone focused on motion graphics and design. I must say I thoroughly enjoy his content, and one of his most recent posts actually comments on an old Danish film journal entry about film editing being a rather unsung art form.
While the entry might be pretty ancient - hailing from a Dec. 1998 issue - it's still a relevant and thorough romp through the various layers that make film editing the essential "guy behind the guy" in the overall film creation process. Check it out if you have a minute or two.
The Danish journal this article hails from, P.O.V., seems to be quite the interesting and useful read. I haven't actually delved into any of the other entries or articles, but at first glance P.O.V. certainly seems like quite a useful publication. Anyone else know a little more about it or the contributing authors?
It seems as though Steve Jobs - along with 112 other artists and executives - has been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Apparently quite a few seats opened up this year as reports indicate that even if all invitations are accepted, the academy will have actually shrunk in size from last year.
Over at Macworld I noticed that the DV Expo East 2005 is coming back around to New York City. This 4th annual event takes place from July 18th - 21st, with four-day, two-day, one-day and exhibit-only passes available.
Covering topics from the technical and technique, to legal and lighting, it sounds like they're going to have something for just about everyone who has a reason to pick up a camera. As a budding digital video student I'd be willing to do quite a few things (besides selling my iMac) to attend one of these bad boys, but alas, my summer classes forbid it. Maybe next time...
As a budding motion graphics student, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the differences and advantages of After Effects and Apple's challenger to the throne. Fortunately, Apple just posted a quick tip on how to import Motion projects into AE, which should help at least a few projects flow a little more smoothly.
Randall mentioned last December that Creative Cow
has fired up 
Avid this week unleashed updates to 
Avid's debuted some pretty impressive looking 3D tools for lifelike, emotional digital animation for high-end film, post and games. Dubbed 
The 
A while back a friend of mine turned me on to 
It seems as though Steve Jobs - along with 112 other artists and executives - has been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Apparently quite a few seats opened up this year as reports indicate that even if all invitations are accepted, the academy will have actually shrunk in size from last year.
Over at 
