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Filed under: Editing •Hardware •Interactive •Post Production •Software •

Ideas for the Apple iPad in post-production

The real power will come when integrating with desktop applications

While it’s great to think about stand-alone possibilities of the iPad in the post process I see the real power of the device being some ability to compliment our existing desktop applications. I’ll preface this section by saying I know nothing about how this kind of thing might work or if it’s even possible to have an application like Photoshop interact with this type of external input device. I bet it would be possible if Adobe worked hard on it. Stu Maschwitz floated this idea over at ProLost and linked to a company that makes an iPhone app that can interact and control a number of audio applications over WiFi. The WiFi connectivity is what makes these ideas seem possible. I currently use an iPhone app called Keymote that allows the user to download application specific controls and control the computer with a WiFi connection. With Keymote I use the Final Cut Pro controls to sit at the back of the edit suite and watch cuts. I find sitting on the couch allows me to watch the edit with a different eye than sitting right in front of the machine.

Stu’s post mentioned using an iPad to control Magic Bullet Looks but I’d rather see it interact with Colorista.

Imagine being able to operate the Colorista Power Mask via a touch interface ... and the Lift/Gamma/Gain controls too

While the touch screen control of the color wheels seems like the obvious place to interact I think it would be equally important to be able to use the touch interface to radius, position and feather the Power Mask when you’re using Colorista as a secondary correction. Come to think of it, any of the color grading tools could probably benefit from using the touch screen-type input when dealing with secondaries. Any place where you’re clicking and dragging the mouse to draw or extend a mask would be a good candidate for the next generation of input device. That includes when working with Bézier masks or spline tools, like in Imagineer System’s mocha, when you need to isolate a shape or rotoscope. It’s time to think beyond a mouse or graphics tablet.

Talking about color grading ... since most grading plug-ins and applications use either the color wheel or curves paradigm (or both), it would be great if there was a standard iPad grading interface that would interact with all grading applications. Just launch the iPad color grading interface app and you have 3 color wheels with rings as well as a curves editor. Imagine being able to take your iPad along to any edit suite and having your own touch-based color grading control surface regardless of the application. Of course this would probably require some unprecedented cooperation among software makers but it’s nice to dream.

Imagine having these basic color grading controls available via touch screen in all your grading applications

As another idea for some sort of “standard” interaction between an iPad and existing applications would be using the device as a way to have the various palettes that many modern applications require on a monitor other than your main desktop monitor. Imagine all of your Motion or Photoshop pallets always living on your iPad. Tap one palette on the menu bar and it scales to full screen. Besides the fact this would allow you to devote extra screen real estate to your canvas or timeline, application palettes like Motion’s inspector often consist of many sliders that require a click and drag. It seems only natural that these could live on a touch screen device and the editor could drag more than one slider at a time.

Imagine all of your Motion palettes residing and operating on the iPad

If it’s as simple as dragging any application window to an iPad and saving the layout then the customization possibilities are endless. Maybe one motion graphics artist would like the After Effects Composition window to reside on an iPad for direct manipulation with her fingers while another would prefer the myriad of AE windows and palettes to always appear on the iPad leaving as much screen space as possible devoted to the Composition window and timeline. With customization this could be possible.

Imagine being able to hand an iPad to an agency art director and have them be able to scale, position and design a spot’s ending art card to their liking right on your desktop. No more having to hand a USB stick back and forth. And even better if your version of Photoshop that they would be working on is running on your machine, in the background, while you continue working in the editor.

And maybe a Lite version of our editing application could reside on the iPad as well

Imagine a function that would export an edit right to a small, light iPad friendly format

But the ultimate place than a human editor might want an iPad is as an extension of the non-linear editing application of choice. Imagine an Export to iPad preset that could take an entire project, media and all, re-compress it into some ultra-small and ultra-light format that the editor could load onto the device and edit away. There’s probably way too many features crammed into the modern NLE but a scaled back app that has a way to audition clips, edit into a timeline with cuts and a few transitions, add some titles and then send the rough cut back to the desktop editor is an intriguing possibility.

Imagine your favorite NLE scaled down to a simple iPad editor

The controls for the iPad NLE could be dragging a single finger along the timeline or Source/Record monitor for scrubbing; a single tap to play; two finger tap to set an IN point, three finger tap to set an OUT point; swipe with a single finger for the equivalent of a JKL scrub back and forth; drag a clip with two or three fingers to insert or overwrite an edit. The possibilities are there for a totally new experience when editing video. I once was able to work on a small edit on a Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet and it was a very interactive and unique experience. It would be even more fun to replicate that on-screen working experience with an iPad.

Of course there are laptops that allow for much of this interaction that I have mentioned above. And a laptop can somewhat allow that lean back experience that the desktop editing system does not allow. But IMHO, if I’m going to work on a laptop then I might as well sit at the desktop if at all possible as the laptop editing experience isn’t nearly as satisfying, with small screens, a cramped keyboard and a trackpad in place of a mouse or tablet. An iPad might allow for a totally new editing experience ... at least for part of the job. I for one would welcome some type of revolution in the way we put edits together and interact with our software. It’s not very often we get them.

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The on-set production stuff (slate, script, etc.) I could definitely see taking off, though the lack of multi-tasking somewhat inhibits it. In post, the idea of a display extension seems VERY useful—a color control surface app would be KILLER; not quite a hardware solution, but for $500, easily worth the price.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  02/07  at  04:31 PM

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You probably hit the nail on the head Brett802. It will be a shame as this thing has so much potential outside of a media consumption device. Maybe it can be well hacked. And then there’s always the JooJoo ... or whatever that Crunchpad is gonna be called now.

Posted by Scott Simmons  on  02/07  at  05:16 PM

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A slate would be good, but the iSlate has some sync issues where the camera cannot actually capture the flash frame. So some sync mode or double/triple fashing with sync beeps would be better. Also, it needs some better speakers for the sound mike to pick it up.

Logging would be great -

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  02/07  at  07:48 PM

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Why not something really adaptable, like this one:
http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/
or there could be so many other examples.
I have nothing against the iPad and I follow all the pro/con hysteria pretty much detached but still sometimes I do wonder why people put so much effort in trying to invent by any means all kinds of uses for a device that doesn’t actually seem to be suited to customization and “hackerish” usage in user-designed scenarios.
I do agree that there can be lots of uses for a tablet in a shooting or post-production scenario, but I hardly see iPad as being that tablet.

Posted by Dragos Stefan  on  02/08  at  02:25 PM

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I’ve started using the Logitech Touch Mouse free iPhone app as a remote keyboard. I’m currently going through long take corporate footage and its much easier to sit comfortably going through it and placing markers than doing so hunched over a keyboard. Helps me concentrate on what I’m watching. Would be nice to have a virtual shuttle dial that i can turn into a keyboard for making marker notes at the touch of the screen.

Posted by Robert Dee  on  02/09  at  04:43 AM

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anything that would take video to the iPad would be challenged - there’s not enough bandwidth to get a signal in there. The best I can think of - H.264 streamed over WiFi, but it would have to originate from the camera - I’m sitting here trying to think of all the pieces in the equation to make that work - ugh. Then it would have to be stored on the unit - how long until it fills up with video. Then what are you doing with that video later? It isn’t the offline, so it would need to temporally sync up with the dailies/offline/master footage later in the process to do us any good. Timecode coming in over WiFi (another challenge technically) would be a good option. But then the scripty needs FAST tools. Doable, but a limited market for the dev effort - so how much would it cost? And how much faster/better than paper based solutions? How much money is thrown at scripties in general? Hmm. So maybe not.

But there’s lots of useful things that could be done with this.

-mike

Posted by Mike Curtis  on  02/09  at  08:27 PM

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Mike, this would totally be an offline device. Have the main editing application compress to a super small (quarter screen sized would be fine for viewing on that device even if it had to upscale a bit for full screen playback) format and then load it when connected to the computer via the dock. You could easily fit a ton of footage and have space left over, especially on the larger devices. Send a list over to relink to the desktop when you’re done and finish the offline .... or finish for real.

And it wouldn’t be just for “scripties.” I’d use it to rough in a b-roll story on a music video, or knock out the radio edit in an interview. It’s more about a story-telling device in that case and looking at new ways to edit.

Posted by Scott Simmons  on  02/09  at  09:47 PM

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I’d like to try the iPad with some kind of VNC remote control for my Media Composer.
Could be nice to display and control the part of my computer monitor where I usually keep the audio tools: Touch enabled audio mixer and EQ tool

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  02/10  at  04:26 PM

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I dont see any sense in the repeated idea of an iPad as control surface for color correction:
the real power of a control surface is that I dont have to look at it to alter color values so I can concentrate on the image on broadcast monitor or projection. so ‘feel’ the colors with the eyes and feel the sliders and trackballs with the fingers…... all in the same moment.
or did I missunderstood something here?

Posted by Kurt Hennrich  on  02/11  at  11:01 AM

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Kurt, an iPad would never replace a dedicated control surface for grading. There’s nothing that’s going to be better than the standard of the trackballs, rings and knobs. It’s such an organic way to work. But they are expensive and I think if many editors (I say editors as dedicated colorists will probably already have a proper surface) who have to do some grading won’t have the $$ to spend on a control surface. If you have an iPad sitting around then that will make a better alternative than the mouse. I think most anything will be better than a mouse!

Posted by Scott Simmons  on  02/13  at  08:36 AM

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We just relased our new app: Storyboards > http://tamajii.com/storyboards

We’ll be happy to hear your comments about it. To us, it’s a perfect example of how an iPad can be useful in the movie making process.

Cheers,
Laurent

Posted by Ldom  on  12/07  at  04:09 AM

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