Hey... Rumor guys... Apple Professional Apps are here to stay.

Labels: Apple, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Studio, Motion

Guests include Robert Sharp, President of Digieffects; Michael Horton, founder of the LA FCP User Group; and Carey Dissmore & Steve Griffiths of IMUG and the Media Motion Ball 2008 in Las Vegas at NAB.

Philip Hodgetts, President, Open Television Network discusses Avid's new customer outreach strategy and what he's cooking up himself for NAB.

Michele Yamazki, VP Marketing/Web Develpment Czarina at Toolfarm.com talks about the latest Toolfarm news and other happenings.

Robert Sharp, President of Digieffects discusses his acquisiton of DigiEffects and why it's "not your father's Digieffects"

Michael Horton, Founder, Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group talks to Plugged-in. You might know him as Grady Fletcher, Lt. Daniels, or even Rick Jones, but we know him as the 'Godfather' of User Groups and Michael is here to tell us about the FCPUGNetwork NAB Supermeet 7.

Carey Dissmore & Steve Griffiths, Founders,iMug Online & Co-Chair, Media Motion Ball 2008, stop by and talk about the classiest dinner event at NAB now in its 11th year.

CALL US TOLL FREE: 877-809-8145

Listen now!

Labels: Apple, DigiEffects, Final Cut Pro, NAB, Podcast, User Group

This update to Plugin Manager improves reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Aperture, Logic Studio and related SDKs.

Labels: Apple, Apple Aperture, Apple Logic Studio, Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro

I wouldn't miss it for the world! The IMUG Media Motion Ball and meeting up with our vendors and customers for a couple of days is worth the trip. It's a shame Apple won't be there. Last year I demo'd FxPlug plug-ins at their booth and had a great time. I'll miss them, but I can imagine it must be crazy expensive to rent booth space and pay for transportation and hotel rooms for all of their employees. I can't blame them. They'll be missed but I'll still be there.

Labels: Apple, Avid, Event, NAB

Guests: Philip Hodgetts, Michele Yamazaki, Michael Mongillo and Daren Dochterman Listen now

Show 18 highlights include:

Philip Hodgetts, President, Open Television Network
Philip discusses the NAB pull outs by Avid & Apple and investigates the rumors that Apple may be selling the Pro Apps.

Michele Yamazaki, VP of Marketing/Content Creator and Web Czarina @ Toolfarm
Michele talks about the killer new MyToolfarm

Michael Mongillo, Director, Mean Time Productions
Indy Director from Connecticut, Michael talks about making a movie with Michael Madsen and how to get your productions off the ground.
ORIGINALLY AIRED ON CONNECTICUT PRODUCTION SCENE--JULY 2006

Daren Dochterman
Conceptual Artist, 2D & 3D Animator, BetaFive
Daren discusses updating Star Trek: The Motion Picture and his role on other major motion pictures.
ORIGINALLY AIRED ON CREATIVE COW'S RED HOT ROUND-UP--JANUARY 2007

CALL US TOLL FREE: 877-809-8145

TRT: 88 min.

Labels: Apple, Avid, Event, MyToolfarm, NAB, Podcast

Need we say more.

Labels: After Effects, Apple, QuickTime

Time for Show 17! MacWorld Part Deux. Live from the CalDigit Booth #S-2610 at MACWORLD 2008 in San Francisco!

Thank You Jon Schilling & CalDigit!

Show 17 highlights include:

• Jon Thorn Macintosh Product Manager, AJA
• Shane Ross, Editor
• Neil Bauman, Founder-Insight Cruises
• Ned Soltz, Writer

Labels: After Effects, Apple, Final Cut Pro, Podcast

Noise Industries FxFactory 2.0.2

The latest update to FxFactory brings five new plug-ins to existing FxFactory Pro 2 customers and improved versions of the CoreMelt Motion and Editing Packs with high-precision rendering, contextual parameter UI and a redesigned masking system.

There is a new demo available for FxFactory 2.0.2.

idustrial revolution SupaWipe

SupaWipe is a brand new plug-in by idustrial revolution, and quite simply the coolest object transition for Final Cut Pro 6 and Final Cut Express 4. Effects that would require manual keyframing, multiple layers and lots of setup time can now be accomplished with a few clicks.

SUGARfx World Cup

The jaw-dropping 3D theme by SUGARfx has been completely redesigned for Mac OS X Leopard and Final Cut Studio 2, with plenty of options to adapt the theme to your projects.

The new World Cup is available in two flavors: World Cup 1.6 LC, a simpler version (a free update for current customers) and SUGARfx World Cup 2.0 Studio, the advanced version with more theme elements and parameters.

Labels: Apple, Final Cut Pro, FxPlug, Leopard, Motion, Noise Industries, Universal

The Videoguys rated the top 10 video products of 1007.

1. Adobe Production Premium CS3
2. Apple Final Cut Studio 2
3. Matrox RT.X2 with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and Encore CS3
4. Sony Vegas Pro 8
5. Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks & Colorista
6. Newtek TriCaster Studio
7. Pinnacle Studio 11 MovieBox Ultimate
8. Black Magic Intensity Pro
9. Pioneer BDR-202 Blu-Ray Disc Burner
10. Canon HV20 HDV Camcorder

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Colorista, Final Cut Studio, Magic Bullet, Magic Bullet Looks, Red Giant, Sony Vegas

The 7th annual FCPUG Macworld SuperMeet January, 16, 2008 from 7:00PM - 10:00PM (doors open at 5PM) at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, CA.

Join LAFCPUG and the Boston, SF Cutters and FCP UGs from around the world at Macworld for the largest gathering of FCP users and Gurus on the Planet.

Labels: Apple, Event, SF Cutters

Customers purchasing Sapphire v2 for FCP now will also receive the FxPlug version when released

Cambridge, MA. January 8, 2008 -- GenArts, Inc., a leading provider of visual effects plug-ins for the film, broadcast and video industries, today announced an upcoming version of Sapphire Plug-ins for Apple FxPlug products including Final Cut Pro and Motion.

GenArts is offering the new FxPlug version at no additional charge to customers who purchase or upgrade to Sapphire v2 for After Effects and compatible products. Currently Sapphire Plug-ins supports Final Cut Pro through the After Effects API, but the FxPlug version will provide additional features such as drag-on Transition effects for FCP, support for Motion, and effects categorized as Generators, Filters and Transitions. The forthcoming version for FxPlug products will contain over 200 image processing and synthesis effects, including the latest effects in the Sapphire Plug-ins suite such as FilmDamage, ZDefocus, Cartoon, BleachBypass, GradientMulti, SwishPan, Light3D, Deband and Vignette.

A preview of the new version can be seen at the Macworld FCPUG SuperMeet on January 16th at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. The FxPlug version of Sapphire Plug-ins is planned for release in the first half of 2008.

About GenArts, Inc.

Founded in 1996 in Cambridge, Mass., GenArts, Inc. is the premier provider of digital visual effects plug-ins for the film, broadcast and video industries. Their product, Sapphire Plug-ins, equips digital artists with a collection of over 200 state-of-the-art image processing and synthesis effects such as: Glows, EdgeRays, LensFlare, Lightning, FilmEffect, Warps and Textures. The effects seamlessly integrate into a number of editing and compositing systems including: Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro and Premiere Elements; Apple Final Cut Pro and Shake; Avid AVX Products; Autodesk Compositing & Editing Systems and Combustion; Eyeon Fusion; and Quantel generationQ products.

Sapphire Plug-ins have become the industry standard for high-end visual effects creation by providing unrivaled image quality, a unique organic look, and ease of use. They have been used extensively in an array of television programs, music videos and feature films, including: Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2, and 3, Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3, Superman Returns, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Wars Episode I, II and III, Sin City, The Matrix trilogy, X-Men 1, 2 and 3, Titanic, Lost and CSI.

Additional GenArts product information can be found at www.genarts.com.

Labels: Apple, Final Cut Studio, FxPlug, GenArts, Motion

Posted by Ko Maruyama to the AE List:

The next MGLA - well, it's no longer MGLA. It's a group that meets every third Tuesday of the month to talk about Motion Graphics and other digital graphics creation and content. As Chris explained to the group in December's meeting, the name "MGLA" was originally intended for the continuation of the group, but there'll be a new name for the group soon.

The user group continues in 2008 with a kickoff meeting by our two major sponsors. Adobe Systems and MAXON Computer are coming to give the Power Integration Tour presentation. It promises to be a big one, with several of the CINEMA 4D users from the Hollywood community spreading the word around and to be in attendance.

Chris is graciously giving us time to keep the same format on the web pages - until Warren can figure out how to flick the switch to the new site design, and more importantly what the new name is going to be! :) For now, the sites appear the same on http://www.mgla.org and http://www.mgla2.org.

The next meeting will be on January 15, 2008 from 7:00 - 10:00pm (yes, the night of the first day of the MacWorld Expo, so there'll be plenty to talk about).

It's the same spot - Barnsdall Art Gallery Theater in Hollywood, California. If you need directions, they're still on the website. We'll have prizes from both MAXON and Adobe, as well as other prize sponsors! (Including Toolfarm!)

Okay, so what's the new name going to be, Ko?

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Maxon Cinema 4D, MGLA

Oh, this is a fun one! Keith Larsen & Alan Spaulding of Plugged-In talk to loads of people. Check out this crazy guest list!

• Greg Clarke, Intelligent Assistance
• Michele Yamazaki, Toolfarm
• Jim Kanter, Digital Film Institute
• Michael Horton, LAFCPUG
• Frank Capria, XProve & KingPin Interactive
• Andrew Marcus, Buck & Buck
• Anne Renehan, Apple
• Gary Adcock, Studio37
• Mik Vitti, VittiPhoto Productions
• Chuck Whitlock, AJA Video Systems
• Jon Thorn, AJA Video Systems
• Nick Rashby, AJA Video Systems
• Dan Berube, BOSFCPUG
• Brian Maffitt, Total Training
• Steve Martin, Ripple Training
• Ben Kozuch, Future Media Concepts
• Christopher Phrommayon, Apple
• Gene Czarnecki, CZAR Productions
• Daren Dochterman, BetaFive.com
  
• Stephanie Joyce, SmartSound
• Rob Birnholz, Absolute Motion Graphics
• Don Peebles, Apple
• Bob Donlon, Adobe
• Terry Curren, AlphaDogs
• Anita Engleman, Adobe
• Douglas Spotted Eagle, VASST
• Larry Jordan, Larry Jordan Associates
• Jerry Hofmann, JLH Productions
• John Dickinson, Motionworks
• Ko Maruyama, MGLA
• Chris & Trish Meyer, Cybermotion
• Kiki Stockhammer, NewTek
• Rich Lenoce, Middlesex Community College
• Ramy Katrib, Digital Film Tree
• Carey Dissmore, Carey Dissmore Productions
• Kevin Monahan, SF Cutters
• Steve Jobs, Apple
• Jon Higgins, Northeast Utilities Corporate Communications
• Lacey Girard, Northeast Utilities Corporate Communications
• Daina Dodge, Northeast Utilities Corporate Communications

Labels: Adobe, Apple, John Dickinson, Ko Maruyama, Podcast, SF Cutters, Total Training

San Francisco, CA, December 4, 2007 - Red Giant Software Magic Bullet Looks was recently awarded a 2007 Vanguard Award by Digital Content Producer. Vanguard Awards go to the most groundbreaking new products for video production professionals that are released in the calendar year.

Magic Bullet Looks is a revolutionary, new color correction tool. Looks' powerful tools can be used on-set or in the edit suite to subtly adjust tone, color and focus to simulate the appearance of classic films or duplicate specific production conditions. Users can choose from more than a hundred Look presets, all neatly organized into 10 categories, to help set the mood for anything from a wedding video to the next Sundance original. For more information, please visit Magic Bullet Looks in our Plug-in Finder.

Other Vanguard winners include:

• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium
• Adobe Flash Player 9
• AJA Video Systems Io HD
• Apple Final Cut Studio 2
• Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro
• Ciprico MediaVault 5100 series
• Microsoft Silverlight
• Panasonic AVC-Intra
• Panasonic BT-LH80W
• Red Digital Cinema Red One
• Sony BVM-L230
• Sony PMW-EX1 and SxS flash memory card

About Red Giant Software

Red Giant Software LLC (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/) 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.

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Creative Suite, Final Cut Studio, Magic Bullet Looks, Red Giant

Here's the official press release:

Noise Industries released FxFactory 2 with support for Final Cut Express 4 as well as Final Cut Studio applications and Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger. It also FxFactory Pro has been completely redesigned with better rendering quality, better performance, contextual parameter interface, better compositing features and much more.

FxFactory 2 supports Final Cut Express 4 as well as Final Cut Studio. A single product will let you use the same plug-ins in three hosts: Final Cut Pro, Motion and Final Cut Express.

FxFactory 2 runs on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard as well as Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Look for improved performance and new, exclusive plug-ins when running under the new version of Mac OS X. FxFactory sports a new plug-in management interface which lets you browse installed plug-ins and see thumbnail previews of all the visual effects on your system.

The new effect browser displays relevant status information and lets you search, for example, for all transitions available in a given plug-in package. A quick look to the effect categories can help you determine where each plug-in is found inside Final Cut Pro, Motion and Final Cut Express.

The new version of FxFactory is fully compatible with your existing plug-in collection. Look for updated versions of your favorite plug-ins by CoreMelt, idustrial revolution, SUGARfx and Futurismo Zugakousaku to take full advantage of the new features in FxFactory 2.

What's new in FxFactory Pro?

• FxFactory Pro 2.0 includes 122 filters, generators and transitions. 50 plug-ins are new to this release. All FxFactory Pro plug-ins now support high-precision rendering and are fully customizable.
• Contextual parameter UI. When running FxFactory Pro plug-ins inside Final Cut Studio 2 and Final Cut Express, users can now enjoy a simplified parameter interface: parameters will be disabled and/or hidden when they are not relevant to the current effect configuration.
• Masking. A new masking engine is now part of many FxFactory Pro plug-ins. This advanced functionality saves an extra compositing step without sacrificing performance
• Better quality. Many plug-ins in FxFactory Pro are now capable of field-based rendering, a technique which provides better performance and better quality by avoiding filtering artifacts. The improved plug-ins require Final Cut Studio 2 applications and Final Cut Express.
• Super-fast glows. A new, completely redesigned "NI Glow" category sports a series of highly optimized glow and light spill variants. The ubiquitous "Glow" effect is fast, flexible yet simple to use, and capable of high-precision rendering.
• Improved classics. Some of our most popular plug-ins were improved or completely redesigned according to your feedback. For instance, new versions of Perspective Reflection and Videoconference sport a much easier configuration. New options and features make many old favorites better than ever.
• Better development features. This new version brings dozens of improvements for plug-in developers: an improved editing interface, new Core Image units for Quartz Composer, new or improved custom parameters and access to the latest features available with Final Cut Studio 2 applications and Final Cut Express (such as contextual parameter UI and field-based rendering techniques).

Upgrading from FxFactory Pro 1.0
Current FxFactory Pro 1.0 customers may upgrade to FxFactory Pro 2.0 for only $129. Upgrade pricing is available at our online store.

Please note that if you purchased FxFactory Pro 1.0 on or after September 15th, 2007 you are entitled to a free upgrade. Please email sales@noiseindustries.com to request your registration code.

FxFactory Pro no longer bundles the Motion and Editing Packs. Although the Motion and Editing packs are now available separately from CoreMelt, this change does not affect users upgrading from FxFactory Pro 1.0, who will retain their license to the Motion and Editing Packs acquired when purchasing FxFactory Pro 1.0. The CoreMelt Motion and Editing Pack plug-ins may now be found under the effect categories that begin with "CM" (e.g. CM Glow).

Labels: Apple, Final Cut Pro, FxFactory, FxPlug, Motion, Noise Industries

Apple released Mac OS 10.4.11 Update, an update to DVD Studio Pro, Color, Compressor, Cinema Tools and Motion. Check out HD for Indies for all of the details.

Labels: Apple, Apple Cinema Tools, Apple Color, Apple DVD Studio Pro, Compressor, Final Cut Studio, Motion

Apple today released Final Cut Express 4, a significant upgrade to its powerful video editing software based on Apple's award-winning Final Cut Pro 6, with a new low price of $199. Final Cut Express 4 adds support for the latest AVCHD cameras, allows mixing of standard and high definition content on a single timeline, includes the ability to import iMovie '08 projects, and gives users access to hundreds of sophisticated FxPlug cinematic effects and filters.
"Almost a million digital filmmakers have made Final Cut their editing application of choice," said Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Product Marketing. "With the introduction of Final Cut Express 4, Apple makes it easy for anyone to join the rapidly growing community of Final Cut editors worldwide."

The new Open Format Timeline in Final Cut Express 4 allows users to mix and match DV, HDV and AVCHD material*, all in realtime using the same industry-leading editing and trimming tools found in Final Cut Pro. Supporting both 1080i and 720p HD resolutions, Final Cut Express 4 automatically performs the necessary scaling, cropping and frame rate adjustments. When starting projects from scratch, the new simplified setup automatically configures everything based on the first clip dropped on the Timeline.

Final Cut Express 4 makes it easy to import iMovie '08 projects and enhance them with advanced editing capabilities such as multiple layers of video and graphics, picture in picture effects and animated titles. It includes over 50 new FxPlug filters, including Soft Focus, Vignette and Light Rays, with hundreds more available from a rapidly expanding FxPlug developer community. With enhanced audio controls, users can automatically raise any clip to its maximum level without distortion using the new Soft Normalize and Gain controls. Final Cut Express 4 also features LiveType 2, which provides an intuitive environment for creating dynamic and fun animated titles and includes an extensive library of animated fonts, textures, templates and effects.

Pricing & Availability
Final Cut Express 4 is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Owners of previous versions of Final Cut Express can upgrade to Final Cut Express 4 for just $99 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Final Cut Express 4 can be found at Toolfarm.com.

*AVCHD is only supported on Intel-based Macs.

Labels: Apple, Final Cut Express, Universal

LME's 102 Innovative transitions for Apple Motion easily applied to footage layers. The collection includes flashes, light bursts, color and time distortions, zoom blurs, halftone grunge, implosions, color thresholds, funhouse mirror extremes, circular zooms, pixel distortions, broadcast mutations and dozens of others.

These transition presets are not available with Apple's Motion application. They are crafted using dozens of the available Motion effect plug-ins that come with the application.

LME did the experimenting so you don't have to, with 102 innovative transitions not available in any other collection. Some look like the transitions you see on television, commericals and other broadcast design, plus dozens of dazzling original ones never seen before.

Labels: Apple, LME, Motion, Preset

Winning Software Solution Will be Announced October 25 in London

San Antonio, Texas - October 24, 2007 - NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3D animation products, announced today that its LightWave v9 has been nominated as one of five finalists for the 3D Software of the Year Award by MacUser, a leading European computer trade publication. The latest version of LightWave 3D, designed to provide optimized speed and 3D graphics performance to users of the latest generation of Intel®-based Macs as well as PCs, takes full advantage of the advancements in Apple's operating system and development environment. The 3D Software of the Year will be determined by the publication's readers and unveiled at a gala event at The Hurlingham Club in Ranelagh Gardens in London on October 25.

"This recognition by the editorial staff of MacUser reflects the overall positive response we've received among the Mac audience for the faster rendering speeds, multi-core support and overall increased performance of our Universal application of LightWave v9 offers," said Jay Roth, President, NewTek 3D Division. "Mac users are at the forefront of pushing the limits, and setting new standards, for graphics hardware and software. We're confident we'll do well in the end-user voting for this award."

Pricing and Availability
LightWave v9 is available now from resellers and distributors worldwide for a suggested retail price of $895US for full units and $395US for upgrades from previous versions of LightWave. The Universal Binary version of LightWave is available to registered owners of LightWave v9 at no additional charge.

About NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek is an Emmy® Award-winning and leading provider of full-featured video editing, live production, presentation, animation and special effects tools including TriCaster, TriCaster PRO, TriCaster STUDIO, VT[4], SpeedEDIT, 3D Arsenal, and LightWave 3D®.

About MacUser
For 22 years MacUser has dominated the Macintosh publishing sector, and it is now the longest-standing Apple title in the world. Its unique fortnightly frequency allows MacUser to be first to market with the latest, and frequently exclusive, news and reviews. The magazine boasts the largest and most experienced editorial team in the UK market, and its rigorous approach to product-testing ensures the highest-quality Mac product reviews available anywhere in the UK. MacUser educates its professional readers to make the right buying decisions and inspires them to stretch their knowledge and enjoyment of Mac computing.

Labels: Apple, LightWave, NewTek