In my day-to-day efforts to test the portability of my PowerBook, I visit some interesting locations. Last month I went to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The latest and greatest electronic devices for making films and producing television programming are always presented at this conference. It was my first visit and was an education. Industry rumours suggested Apple could be announcing something special at the show and, because I could telepathically hear slot machines calling my name, I had no alternative but to attend. One of the first events, even before the show started, was an Apple By Invitation Only press meeting and lunch. I have been to hundreds of these affairs and usually from two to 20 journalists show up. But this time, even though Apple had seating for 2,000, the presentation was packed and not even standing room was available. Chatting with broadcast industry analysts and journalists at the pre-meeting reception, I was surprised to find that Apple's Final Cut Pro was fast becoming the standard for production editing for everything from hot sitcoms to blockbuster films. I had been aware of its popularity as a 'presumer' product - inexpensive, easy to use, get the job done without a lot of mess and fuss - and I knew it was the tool of choice for many independent filmmakers, but I had assumed that the more expensive applications actually owned the pro video production market. Well, I was wrong. I learned that Apple's Final Cut Pro and Shake, Apple's special effects application, were involved in the editing of the last seven Special Effects Academy Award winners, including the most recent recipient, Lord of the Rings. The crowd was hoping to see the release of Final Cut Pro 4 and Shake 3.5, and they were not disappointed. Apple actually announced Final Cut Pro HD (High Definition). A couple of years back, Panasonic introduced an inexpensive pro camera, the VariCam, which has sold incredibly well. But buyers have been using them in standard TV mode because of the high cost of final editing in HD. For this same reason (a lack of inexpensive and good editing tools), the introduction of high definition to TV production has stalled. But when run on the newest G5 machines, Final Cut Pro HD will edit and preview up to 10 streams of DVCPRO HD video in real time. Think picture in picture, in picture, in picture... 10 times, all high-definition resolution. Very impressive. And Final Cut Pro DV's native support for the Panasonic camera's DVCPRO video format means that users will not have to buy expensive converters to change the production into its final use format. Final Cut Pro HD can edit in DV (digital video), SD (standard definition), HD (high definition) and film. It can output to pro tape formats, mpeg-2, mpeg-4 and QuickTime for DVD, Web or 3G devices. However, Final Cut Pro HD was not the hot announcement at the NAB. What drew gasps from the crowd was a completely new application called Motion. Motion is Apple's revolutionary program for creating motion graphics in video. If you have used Adobe's After Effects you will be captivated by Motion. Traditionally, moving or morphing graphics or fonts in video involves an understanding of timelines (your video displayed as a horizontal bar marked with time segments at the bottom of the editing page) and key frames (what frame your effect starts as and what form it ends as). If you figured out how to use these tools, congratulations, but there is now a better method. Motion uses proprietary Dashboards and Gestures that control only the special effect and behaviour for the object you are working on. Click on an object, draw an L on your screen, and a list of effects pops up to the left. Drag the desired effect to the highlighted object and a dashboard controller appears. Tweak the sliders and arrows on the Dashboard and see the effect in real time in your video. If you have multiple effects on an object, use the Gestures feature that interprets a gesture to execute a command. Like drawing an L to open a list, you can make a vertical line on your screen and the list of effects appears. Select one and its dashboard appears for editing. What you lose with this system is a dozen tool bars and palettes between you and your work. What you gain is the most intuitive, speedy and uncluttered interface I've ever seen. Final Cut Pro simplified the process and empowered video creatives while cutting budgets; DVD Studio Pro and Shake, Apple's visual effects software, did the same. Now Motion (US$299) takes the whole thing to a new level of simplicity, economy and capability. E-mail Dave Horrigan at horrigan@electriciti.com with your Mac queries
