Monday, August 11, 2008

Red Giant Software releases Magic Bullet Steady

Chris Meyer | 08/11- 07:06 AM

A new tool to remove camera shake, jitter, and noise.

Red Giant Software, with popular products Magic Bullet, Knoll Light Factory and Trapcode, today launched Magic Bullet Steady, a new tool to remove camera shake, jitter, and noise. Magic Bullet Steady is a plug-in for users of Final Cut Pro 6 and After Effects CS3 (Mac and Windows). The stabilizer function removes unwanted camera movement which can be distracting and disturbing to viewers. Magic Bullet Steady is also included in the newly updated Magic Bullet Suite 2008.

Magic Bullet Steady offers powerful algorithms which analyze the video, detect motion, and apply one of four filtering modes. The result is a smooth, stabilized motion that preserves camera pans and other desired movements while eliminating jarring shake. A second filter removes noise and other low-light artifacts. Priced at $199, Magic Bullet Steady is available for purchase from Red Giant Software. 

Highlights

Stabilization
Camera movement and tough shooting conditions can cause distracting, jerky motion; and film sprocket damage on old footage can cause gate jitter and weave. The Stabilizer feature uses a software-based 2D translation to repair this type of footage in near real-time.

Noise Reduction
Too often, noise reduction means everything gets very blurry. Not so with Magic Bullet Steady. It uses spatial and temporal data to work out true image values, and customizable settings give you control over block size. Adjust the optional detail protection feature to find the right results for your desired output. 

Blistering Speed
Compared to the built-in stabilization features in After Effects or Final Cut Pro, Magic Bullet Steady yields great results in record time.

For more information, visit the Magic Bullet Steady page.

Why to Buy

• Use instead of a Steadicam on small projects
• Add sophistication to amateur or archival footage
• Faster than built-in solutions available in the host applications

Pricing and Availability

Magic Bullet Steady is available now for $199 USD and supports After Effects CS3 on Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X. The software also runs in Final Cut Pro on Mac OS X. This software is included as part of the updated Magic Bullet Suite 2008.

About Red Giant Software

Red Giant Software LLC is a San Francisco-based company that develops professional tools for digital video production. Products are available as plug-ins for popular video editing and effects applications including After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, and Avid. All tools are based on production-proven technology developed by visual effects veterans.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. 

Monday, August 11, 2008

IRIDAS to Showcase DualStream and Real-Time RAW 2.0

Chris Meyer | 08/11- 07:01 AM

Updates to be featured at SIGGRAPH.

IRIDAS will demonstrate the latest in playback color correction technologies, including RealTime RAW 2.0 and DualStream at this year’s SIGGRAPH exhibition.

All current FrameCycler and SpeedGrade products include Real-Time RAW 2.0 which supports:

• ARRI D21
• Cineform RAW
• DALSA Origin
• Phantom HD and 65
• Silicon Imaging
• Weisscam HS1 and HS2

IRIDAS will be located in the PNY Booth #747. Stop by and ask for Steve Crouch for a demonstration.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Review: Panasonic BT-LH1760 17” LCD Monitor

Adam Wilt | 08/06- 12:56 PM

The highly capable 1760 is a worthy upgrade from the 1700W.

Panasonic BT-LH1760, showing cross hatch, WFM, VITC, audio meters at the top, and 90% safe area marker with half-shaded background.

The $4500 Panasonic BT-LH1760 is a 17 inch, 1280x768 video monitor with multiple analog and digital inputs and a 100/120 Hz refresh rate for crisp motion rendering. It displays NTSC, PAL, 720p, and 1080i/p signals in both analog and digital, and offers a high-resolution waveform monitor for all video inputs, as well as a vectorscope, timecode, and audio level monitors for SDI inputs. It also has a wide selection of aspect ratio and safe-area markers available.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

I Can’t Even Open My FCP Project File” (Or Other Flaky Activities)

Richard Harrington | 08/03- 01:16 PM

1. Look in the Autosave Vault. Before panicking, simply try going back a few versions. Do a search for Autosave in the Finder. Look in the folders for a backup of your project file. Work your way backward through the recently saved copies.

2. Create a new user account. Create a new user account for testing purposes. This is a great way to see if the problem is a corrupt preferences file. Most Final Cut Pro preferences files are stored in the user’s settings. Open the System Preferences panel under the blue Apple. Click Accounts. Click on New User. Create one call test, and give it admin privileges. You can assign it a password or not. Only use this account for troubleshooting (you may want to keep it for the future).

Now, log out, and log in as the new user. Try opening Final Cut Pro. It should open with no active project files. If it opens, you’ve narrowed the problem down to bad user preferences (see next tip) or a bad project file.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Video Compression Workshop – Helpful Advice

Richard Harrington | 08/02- 08:49 AM

Need to get your video delivered to your audience?  Then there’s probably going to be some compression involved.  Don’t let hardware or software get in your way. Let’s take a common sense approach to getting your video out there. 

Pick Your Power
There are tons of compression tools out there, but the pro apps offer important features like batch processing, multiple architecture support, and customizable presets.  The five most popular options are:

Apple Compressor (www.apple.com) Bundled free with Final Cut Pro or DVD Studio Pro.  However it can’t output some Window’s oriented formats and it is occasionally cranky (requiring restarts, trashing preferences, and even re-installs to get back on track).

Canopus ProCoder (www.canopus.com) a versatile PC-only solution for encoding video in a variety of formats.  It offers both a guided and an expert mode to setting up your jobs.

Autodesk Cleaner and Cleaner XL (www.discreet.com) The granddaddy of encoding utilities.  It’s suffered from changing ownership several times and hasn’t seen much development lately. 

Telestream Episode and Episode Pro (www.flip4mac.com) This product offers hooks into Apple Compressor and offers a variaety of additional formats that Mac users need.

Sorenson Squeeze (www.sorenson.com) An easy to use compression utility that also unlocks some specialty formats like Flash Video.  Version 4.1 (a free upgrade) build in support for Windows Media files on the Mac Platform by using Flip4Mac (not a free upgrade - $99/$179).

Friday, August 01, 2008

Deep Throat, Cetacean

Jay Rose | 08/01- 07:08 AM

What whales consider sexy… and what’s really going on in the audio band.

Ask and you shall receive. A few weeks ago, I posted a blog entry about some fascinating research on how hormonal changes can affect the attractiveness of a woman’s voice. In the entry, I wondered if there was an equivalent phenomenon for male voices.

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