lower thirds

This Week in Post Production: November 6, 2009

I'm starting a new weekly feature this week, aptly named, This Week in Post Production.  I'll aim to highlight some of the important, interesting news highlights in our industry - both from my clients as well as the major players impacting your daily lives.  So here goes; This Week in Post for the week ending November 6, 2009.

Imagineer Systems:  A couple of announcements from Imagineer this week, including new upgrades to their mocha and mocha for After Effects family of planar tracking tools.  New mocha versions, including mocha for After Effects, supports direct export to Red Giant Warp, a nice little workflow enhancement that a lot of users have been asking for.

The Company also announced a special promo for the month of November: 50% off mocha for Final Cut and mocha shape for Final Cut.  That's a nice little deal, check it out here:  www.imagineersystems.com.

CineForm: We're readying a press release on this, but you heard it here first.  Next week, CineForm will announce Neo3D for Windows.  You may remember Neo3D for Final Cut, announced at NAB 09 - that announcement captured a lot of attention and created a lot of excitement in the 3D post community.  Now those 3D production capabilities are extended to Windows.  More details next week.

GenArts Acquires Wondertouch:  Studio Daily reports on the news of the GenArts/Wondertouch acquisition this week.  GenArts CEO, Katherine Hays says in her quote that "in 2008, GenArts laid out its vision to accelerate growth via acquisition, innovation and strategic partnerships."  I know the Company has been in talks with a lot of players in the space, so while this news comes as no surprise, it'll be interesting to see who's next.  

Beth Marchant, EIC of Studio Daily, interviews Hays for the Studio Daily Blog.

These guys are definitely a company to watch.

Weekly Non Sequitur

And now for something completely different...

Gizmodo reports this week on a new iPhone app that supposedly interprets a baby's cry for parents.  Are you a pathetic parent who simply doesn't know what to do when that awful sound comes out of your baby?  There's an app for that!  As they so well put it, 'how did we all make it to adulthood without apps like this?'

Sigh....

Automatic Duck: Free Tools for Schools

Wes Plate of Automatic Duck made an incredibly generous announcement today aimed at schools/universities and students.  Recognizing that the back-to-school season is already a somewhat stressful time for both students and schools (not to mention the added stress for universities and film schools operating with slashed budgets and nearly obsolete resources), Automatic Duck is making this amazing offer.

The basic gist: eligible schools can get 5 copies of the Duck's entire suite of timeline translation tools absolutely free!  And that includes some of their newest and most popular tools, like the Pro Import AE, Pro Import FCP and Pro Export FCP.  And students get a 20% discount on everything as well.

Times are tough all over, but this amazing offer should make the back-to-school transition a little easier to take.

Read the press release here or visit Automatic Duck for more specific details.

CineForm Targets Hollywood Studios, High End Post with New Turn Key System

Judging by the positive reaction by the post production industry to CineForm's new software-based alternative to HDCAM SR (CineDDR), the higher end of the market (larger post facilities and Hollywood studios) are going to love this news: CineDDR DX.

CineDDR DX is the Company's first fully-integrated, fully-supported turnkey disk-based recording, playback and file/format conversion system.  While CineDDR allows users to build their own system using off the shelf PCs, CineDDR DX does it all for you, an 'out of the box' experience, if you don't mind the cliche.  

What I like about this news is the way CineForm developed this product.  While they don't talk publicly about it, the CineForm execs have some pretty close relationships with this high end market.  They talk to them, constantly.  And more importantly, they listen.  And what they heard was, "love the concept of moving away from tape-based systems, but don't really have the time or where-with-all to deal with building and servicing my own system."  So CineForm built one for them.

Check out the press release here or for more info, visit www.cineform.com.

So What Does a Planar Tracker Actually Do?

This video created by Imagineer's CMO, Ross Shain, says it all:

About a Planar Tracker from Kevin on Vimeo.

And then check out this August summer special: buy the full version of mocha or motor and get both shape plug ins (for Final Cut Pro and After Effects) for free!  Not bad...  But get the details here: www.imagineersystems.com

Imagineer Exploring New VFX Territories

VFX artists the world over will most likely perk up their ears with today's announcement from Imagineer Systems.  A couple of key things are going on here.

First, Imagineer has announced they're expanding.  Adding a new division within the company to focus on an entirely new direction.  What I really respect about this initiative is that, at its roots is a heart-felt desire to take the industry beyond the cross-roads it's reached.  Tapping into the groundswell of market  feedback -- feedback that's been saying, "we've reached a plateau.  We need a new approach to the VFX workflow; an approach that more closely mirrors the way we work today."

So, the company has formed a new division who's sole focus is developing new approaches, new architectures to support the way VFX artists are working, collaborating and designing today.  And to further support this initiative (the second part to today's news), Imagineer has formed a Think-Tank of industry veterans -- VFX pioneers, renowned designers, experts, really, who will participate and contribute to the direction of this new initiative.

2007 will be huge for Imagineer Systems, and more importantly, for their customers.  Anytime you have a vendor willing to bring in experts from all over the industry to contribute to a better solution, customers win.

Here's today's announcement:

Download is_division__press_release_vfinal.pdf

NAB 2007 Announcements!

There's a lot of news coming out of BourkePR clients today as we're really getting close to our annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for NAB '07.  This year should be very exciting for three of my clients exhibiting this year; they each have either very cool product developments or partnerships to tell attendees about this year, but here's a more in-depth look at the news from Automatic Duck, Imagineer Systems and Intelligent Gadgets.

Automatic Duck (booth #SL3827F in the Plug-in Pavilion) announced today it'll launch Pro Import AE 4.0 for After Effects users during the show.  Duck founder Wes Plate will be showing off a slew of new features, as well as compatibility with Adobe CS3 and greatly improved support for HDV, DVCProHD and XDCAM.  Users will be very psyched.  Here's the press release with the details:

Download ad_pro_import_ae_4_announce_vfinal.pdf

Automatic Duck is also announcing a new site licensing program.  This is huge news for the Duck's customers with larger facilities -- anyone who's tried to install single apps across multiple seats knows what a pain this can be.  This new program makes large deployments simple.  Hey, since the Duck makes the editing workflow that much simpler, why not make large installations simple too, right?!  Well that's what they've done.  Here's the press release:

Download ad_site_license_announce_vfinal.pdf

Imagineer Systems (booth #SL729) will be showing off its newly-launched dedicated rotoscoping tool, motor, at the show.  They'll also be showing off monet and mokey.  The company will also be announcing a pretty big corporate move, but I'll tell you more about that next week.

Here's the NAB announcement:
Download is_nab_2007__press_release_vfinal.pdf

syncVUE!  And finally, Intelligent Gadgets has a couple of very exciting announcements that hit the wires this morning.  First, a new version is debuting at NAB that brings some very cool new features that make it that much more indispensable among editors and big production houses.  Scott Templeton, one of the founders of Pie Town Productions is quoted here saying how syncVUE was instrumental in the development of his Chicago facility.  Collaborating between LA and Chicago is not only making that operation viable, it's growing and thriving! 

This new version, called syncVUEpro adds some killer new features, like Voice Notes, Vector Graphics Overlays (you can draw right on the video, marking up areas you want fixed and all participants can see your notes in real-time!) and the ability to view and collaborate with online web video -- just point all participants to a URL and you can collaborate on synched web video -- this is HUGE!

Also, syncVUE announced a partnership with Tiger Technology, and will actually be sharing a booth with Tiger at the show (booth #SU14705).  The result of this partnership is a solution tailored for the VFX set using Autodesk's Stone file system.  syncVUE, combined with Tiger Tech's stoneGate solution now lets VFX artists to tap into Stone files, from any desktop system, and collaborate on those assets remotely using syncVUE.  This partnership is adding new value to  the review workflow for VFX artists. 

Check out the press releases here:

Download syncVUEpro_NAB07_announce_vFINAL.pdf

Download syncvue_tigertech_nab_07_announce_vfinal.pdf

See you at NAB!   

Raves for syncVUE

"I absolutely crave applications that make my life easier! I mean the goal is to be able to do what we love, for me its filmmaking , from anywhere in the world right? When the post process began for my on my latest film Fiesta Grand, I knew I needed the help of some talented individuals to complete my masterpiece. But what if they weren’t in Los Angeles or even worse across town? What was I to do? Luckily the smart folks at Intelligent Gadgets created a wonder app called syncVue."

That's Dave Basulto from FilmMakingCentral.com and contributing editor to DigitalMediaNet.  He recently got his hands on syncVUE and ran it through its paces on a project close to his heart.

Check out the rest of the article here on DigitalProducer.com.

Thanks Dave!!  See you at NAB...

Automatic Duck Heads to Indianapolis with Universal Plug Ins

Wes Plate of Automatic Duck heads to the Indy Final Cut Pro Users Group meeting tomorrow to talk about his newest timeline translation tools for Final Cut Pro users.  We announced last week that Wes had completed porting Pro Import FCP and Pro Export FCP to the Intel platform, so this will be one of the first times users will get to see these in action.

A regular presenter at the LA, Boston and NYC FCPUG meetings, Wes is using this opportunity to reach out to even more users in the midwest.

Automatic Duck Ports to Intel

Automatic Duck announced today it has completed porting its timeline translation tools for Final Cut Pro users to the Intel platform.  Friend and client, Wes Plate, has been gunning to get these new versions complete for his customers.  True to Automatic Duck style, they're really making things even easier for editors.  As Wes put it, "migrating to a new platform can be stressful enough -- you don't want to have to guess if your apps are going to work too."

Editors will also be happy to know that the Duck has teamed up with StageTools for this release and has added support for MotionPicture.  Now Pro Import FCP users have the ability to import image moves in Avid sequences using StageTools’ MovingPicture into Final Cut Pro.  What has become the preferred plug-in of thousands of documentary editors, MovingPicture lets users incorporate pans and zooms to images with really nice image quality - not easy to do.

SKYPE Connects the Editing Suite to the Client; No Traffic Jams

A new company out of LA called Intelligent Gadgets announced a new version of what is sure to become the must-have collaborative editing and approval tool for any editor with a client on the other side of town…or the state…or the country, for that matter.

syncVUE is a SKYPE-based digital media review and approval tool, which means, editors can now use syncVUE to collaborate with clients and colleagues on video projects from wherever they are, thanks to SKYPE.  A built in synchronized media player lets all the participants in a session view the same media as its scrubbed, reviewed, notes are taken on screen, metadata added during the review process – and it’s all in real time.

Earlier this week, the Company announced its Windows version  which basically rounds out their offering (corporate clients are often on Windows while the creatives are usually on a Mac – now both are covered).

A few of the trades have also reviewed syncVUE (Digital Content Producer),(DV Magazine) with more to come, I’m to understand.  The early results are quite good, with the press weighing in with some positive commentary.

In a recent interview with Film & Video Magazine’s, Bryant Frazer, Company president, Michael Buday – a veteran editor who’s parlayed his more than 20+ years of editing into creating syncVUE – talks about the pain and sweat that inspired syncVUE; check it out.

To be clear, I started working with Intelligent Gadgets last month, supporting them in their public relations efforts – they’re one of those companies I’m drawn to.  Great people with great ideas who deserve a moment in the spotlight. 

While I won’t always just write about only my clients, I’ll be sure to make it quite clear in my postings which companies are clients of BourkePR, and which are just cool companies with products that have crossed my transom.