The MediaMotion Ball returns to the Sahara Hotels Golden Room during NAB on Monday, April 12th, 5:30pm!

"The MMB- is one of the not to be missed NAB traditions. An event for all media professionals who work in post production, 3D and motion graphics. Everyone is welcome. Our new low advance ticket price of $25 includes food, entry into the famous MMB prize draw and the opportunity to mix with your peers, suppliers and the who's who of our industry! For more info on the MMB click here."

Tickets are $25.00, includes food and entry in prize giveaways, and can be purchased here.

Labels: MediaMotion Ball, NAB

Jake Segraves of CineForm shows FirstLight, new from CineForm at NAB 2009.


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Labels: Cineform, NAB, Toolfarm :60

Peter McAulley of Boris shows off some of the new 3D Object filters in Boris Continuum Complete 6 at NAB 2009.


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Labels: Boris Continuum Complete, NAB, Toolfarm :60

Here's Wes Maggio from Wacom giving his spiel on Wacom tablets. He's such a pro!


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Labels: NAB, Toolfarm :60, Wacom Tablets

Toolfarm :60 Ep.02: Digieffects Robert Sharp, President of Digieffects, talks about new products Natural Forces and FreeForm AE, at NAB 2009.


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Toolfarm :60 Ep.03: Wondertouch Alan Lorence of Wondertouch is at NAB talking about the new After Effects plug-in pIllusion, a particle generator that works much like particleIllusion, and even shares libraries!


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Labels: DigiEffects, Digieffects FreeForm, Digieffects Natural Forces, NAB, pIllusion, Toolfarm :60, wondertouch

The first episode of the Toolfarm :60 is now available! We'll be posting them at MyToolfarm and also they will be uploaded as a regular podcast to iTunes in the very near future.

Since we know you don't have a lot of time, the Toolfarm :60 is a :60 second podcast (plus open and close) that will feature interviews, tutorials and whatever we feel like sharing. We'd love to hear your suggestions on what you'd like to see. We'll be blasting out a bunch in the next few days that were done at NAB, but after that expect one per fortnight.

Episode 1 features a quick interview with Wes Plate of Automatic Duck, shot at NAB 09. Wes talks about Media Copy 2.0 and Automatic Duck's new partnership with EditShare.


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Labels: Automatic Duck, EditShare, Media Copy, MyToolfarm, NAB, Toolfarm :60

Video via FreshDV

Labels: FreshDV, NAB, Particular, Red Giant, ToonIt

Guest blogger Mathew Schirado gives the NAB Wrap-up. Matt is much more of a hardware person than I am, and goes into a lot of products that Toolfarm doesn't sell, so enjoy the news. Matt has a way with words ;-)

We'll have an NAB video with some interviews coming hopefully this week.

---

Time to get back in the action...

Sadly this economy kept me from attending NAB 2009, but Michele Yamazaki was there in the thick of it. Yes, attendance was down, but ironically it meant shorter lines at the bathroom and more face-time with representatives at booths.

There were some rumors that Apple would announced Final Cut Studio 3.0 on Tuesday of NAB, but we got nothing. Subsequent rumor reports posted the announcement for the World Wide Developer Conference in June.

Avid perplexes me to no end. They announced Final Cut Pro support on Unity and ISIS storage systems, which is odd since I took pictures of them showing FCP and Premiere Pro doing just that at NAB 2007! Ummm....Beavis? Avid's new logo is nice, memorable. They're reshuffling their support plan options, offering Standard, Priority, Uptime and Enterprise, but I'm not impressed that they won't disclose each option's pricing. Will they be any more affordable? Or useful?
Avid's 1st quarter results were down about 17 million from last year, so their turnaround plan isn't paying off so far. With television broadcasters the one kind of client they hold consistently, and TV stations cutting operating budgets left and right, it makes me wonder about Avid's future viability.

Big players AJA and Blackmagic Designs were met by Matrox with cool news. AJA showed the 2-pound Io Express for $1000. Using a PCIe interface (ExpressCard 34 or optional desktop PCI card) It's the first portable Io for Windows and Mac, with HD-SDI and HDMI in/out, and Component analog out. It's AC or battery-powerable and works with FCS, Premiere Pro and "unnamed" others.

It's hard to justify buying a KONA 3 card now that there's the KONA LHi for $1500, offering 3G/HD/SD-SDI in/out, Component analog in/out, all the up/down/cross conversion capabilities of it's big brother, the same HDV and DVCPro HD hardware acceleration, and adding HDMI in/out instead of a 2nd HD-SDI output. The only thing I can see missing is 4:4:4 dual link and 2K support. The older KONA LHe is discounted to $1300 for a limited time.'

AJA's Ki Pro box ($4000) is a ProRes field-capture/recorder box with much of the Io HD's connectivity. It will mount as a hard drive over FireWire 800 to your Mac. You record to removable 250gig, FireWire 800 field packs (with optional solid-state media) or to two ExpressCard 34 slots (a la Sony's SxS flash storage). All the up/down/cross conversion you can eat during capture, and control it over WiFi with Safari or your iPhone/Touch. It's designed to mount below your camera, on top of your tripod head. A protective cage option gives you rail bars for adding follow focus or matte box to your camera.

John Flowers has written an open-source utility called HD Speed Test, available at www.unscale.com/DST.html. It tests hard drive or RAID read-write speeds using "real world" video test files, which give you much more accurate benchmarks for capturing/playing back various compressed or uncompressed video streams. Most advertised benchmarks are using data sets that your NLE will never use, inflating the performance of your storage system.

JVC's next-generation ProHD camera, the GY-HM700 ($8995) offers a standard Canon 14x lens on a solid-state, dual-SDHC memory card recording system. It will record HDV but also all of Sony's XDCam HD formats (19, 25, and 35 megabit), with under/over cranking, and an optional GY-HM700UXT SxS recorder module, just like Sony's XDCam EX memory cards. Files automatically have .MOV wrappers for immediate import and editing in FCP.

JVC's $4000, 3-pound, hand-held GY-HM100U also records to dual SDHC card slots, in 19, 25 and 35 megabit MPEG data rates, as QuickTime files. Two 32-gig cards offer up to 6 hours of HD recording time. You can output via HDMI or USB 2.0.

RED Digital Cinema "mentioned" RED ROCKET, a $5000 PCI Express accelerator card for crunching REDCODE files and outputting full-rez 4K out of four HD-SDI and 4 DVI connections. Works with Premiere Pro, FCP, AE, and any other app using the RED SDK. Don't expect to see any details until next year. They're shipping new Prime lenses and compared them favorably to the best competing lenses in the industry; get a 6 lens set for around $23,000. There's a hands-on training initiative called REDucation, and RED showed last year's demo reel played off of a REDRAY, with a data rate of 10 megabits per second (remember DV is 25 mbps). Holy cow!

Wow. Cheapest 35mm lens adapters for super cheap Canon palmcorders (or prosumer), with spinning ground glass elements, battery powered, giving you 35mm depth of field. A 43mm thread size, Canon FD mount is $375. Go to www.jag35.com to see a large line of adapters.

The Foundry's Nuke 5.2 was announced with many bug fixes, stereoscopic updates, Python scripting improvements, pre-comping tools, RED Redcode importing, and offering video monitoring on AJA's Kona and Xena cards as well as Blackmagic Design's cards. Download the update at www.thefoundry.co.uk.
Nuke 6.0 ($3500) was demoed as two versions, the original Nuke and NukeX, Nuke 6 contains a re-written paint/roto engine and the Keylight Keyer as standard. NukeX 6 ($6000) adds a 3D camera tracker, lens distortion tools and revamped Furnace plug-ins named FurnaceCore. Any NukeX projects will fully open inside of Nuke.

Matrox MXO2 Mini ($450) uses PCI Express or ExpressCard 34 to a MacBook Pro (you get one or the other with your purchase). It will output HDMI and Analog Component HD at the same time, as well as hardware up/down/cross conversion, HD to SD, SD to HD, 720 to 1080i or reverse . HDMI output is 10-bit 4:2:2 and can be color calibrated for inexpensive grading. HDMI 8-channel audio output gives you 5.1 or 7.1 surround mix monitoring. You can get Matrox MAX hardware included inside the unit for $850. What's MAX?

MAX is a hardware acceleration technology for crunching H.264 encoding jobs. Available as a PCI Express card called CompressHD ($495), users can accelerate Apple Compressor so exporting H.264 for BluRay, iPod, AppleTV, YouTube, Flash or mobile occurs faster than realtime. One 90-minute long export on an octo MacPro only took 18 minutes using CompressHD. This same MAX hardware can be ordered this summer in the MXO2 (normally $1595, to $1995) and MXO2 Rack (normally $1995, to $2395)

Like free? Celtx version 2.0 is out for Windows and OSX 10.4 and up (Linux coming), and it's a great open-source film management/scheduling/scriptwriting/storyboarding/online collaboration application. Add annotated PDF's , photos, videos and sound to your project. You can add new productivity tools with Toolbox, or help code your own as a developer. Publish your project to mobile devices like the iPhone. New paid web services called Celtx Studios offer storage, archiving, previews and collaboration options. Download it at www.celtx.com.

Zaxwerks 3D Serpentine AE plug-in ($120) will extrude and animate any 2D shape along a 3D motion path, termed a noodle. Noodles can have bump and reflection maps applied, and receive 3D lighting.

FreeForm AE ($199) from Digieffects uses an intuitive 3D mesh for reshaping and distorting a flat layer, for animating billowing cloth for example. FreeForm AE offers displacement mapping, and a custom 3D render engine for speedy renders.

nVidia announced the Quattro FX 4500 graphics card ($1800) for MacPro 2008 and 2009, This top professional card, with 1.5 gigabytes of VRAM, is much cheaper than the previous one, costing over $2800.

Earlier this year Blackmagic Designs updated the DeckLink HD Extreme PCI capture card, offering dual-link 3Gb/s HD-SDI in/out at 4:4:4 uncompressed color space, as well as a hardware downconverter, 2K support, and HDMI. You also have all analog HD/SD in/out connections for $995.

Last week Blackmagic offered Linux driver and SDK support on all of its DeckLink, Intensity and MultiBridge products. They cut the price of the DeckLiink SDI to $295 from $395, the Intensity Pro HDMI card to $199 from $349, and the HDLink Pro to $495 from $795. Shipping in June, the Blackmagic UltraScope ($695) is a PC software scope monitoring app bundled with their new DeckLink Optical Fiber PCI card ($495 separately). UltraScope requires a 24 inch monitor, but is designed to replace hardware video scopes costing thousands of dollar, using any cheap Windows PC on hand. The DeckLink Optical Fiber is the same as the Decklink SDI but with HD-SDI Optical FIber in/out ports, which can handle extremely long cable runs.

Terragen 2.0, a powerful 3D landscape and sky generation program, is available for $299 with animation enabled, and $199 without. A bundle with XfrogPlants twenty-two 3D vegetation and plant libraries costs $699. Terragen was initially developed at Digital Domain, and there's a Classic version you can use non-commercially for free, or register for $99 to use on a job. Go to www.xfrog.com and www.planetside.co.uk to find out more.

Funniest story I heard was DaVinci's booth (www.davsys.com) showing their Resolve color correction hardware, with prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, in a corner, for a technology demo, they had Resolve "software-only" running on a standard MacBook Pro.

Autodesk Mudbox 2009 ($749) is out now for both Windows and Intel Mac. It's a 3D sculpting/painting app like ZBrush, and got a five star review at MacWorld UK (http://www.macworld.co.uk/procreative/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=3223). You can download a trial at http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/mform?siteID=123112&id=10707843.

Labels: Autodesk, Digieffects FreeForm, NAB, Nuke, The Foundry, Zaxwerks Serpentine

Save an extra 30% on Red Giant and Trapcode software, including bundles, upgrades and academic. This sale ends tomorrow, April 29, 2009 at 11:59 PM PST, so don't miss out! Just how many products are included? Too many to list! Check out all the available products here!

Use coupon code NABRG2009 at checkout and save big!

To find out when the sale ends in your time zone, visit the World Clock site.

Labels: NAB, Red Giant, Sale, Trapcode

That's right - Noise Industries NAB Specials end at midnight! Save 20% on all Noise Industries products (new licenses) through Sunday, April 26!

If you need to pick up FxFactory or some SUGARfx transitions, or maybe even some of the awesome idustrial revolution effects, this is a great time to save.

Labels: FxFactory, NAB, Noise Industries, Sale

I sat in on a sneak peek of Adobe's new roto tool, which at this time is called Magic Matte. Here are a couple of pix from the presentation.

Labels: Adobe, NAB

Imagineer mocha for Final Cut v1 is a standalone 2D tracking tool designed for the Final Cut community. It is packed with features that help editors and VFX artists tackle more complex jobs and enable them to finish projects within Final Cut. mocha for Final Cut enables you to obtain high quality tracks, even in situations where objects are moving out of frame, lack detail, motion blur and heavy grain. Tracking data is exported in XML format for use in Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express.


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mocha for Final Cut features:

• Create solid tracks with Imagineer's planar tracking technology
• Export tracking data in Final Cut Pro XML Interchange Format
• Works with Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express

From now until the 30th of April 2009 save 25% on all Imagineer Products, including mocha, mocha for After Effects, mocha for Final Cut, motor, mokey, and monet! View all Imagineer Products

Labels: Imagineer Systems, mocha, NAB, Sale

Save an extra 30% on Red Giant and Trapcode software, including bundles, upgrades and academic. This NAB sale starts tomorrow, April 20th and ends on April 29, 2009 at 11:59 PM PST, so don't miss out! Just how many products are included? Too many to list! Check out all the available products here!

Use coupon code NABRG2009 at checkout and save big!

To find out when the sale ends in your time zone, visit the World Clock site.

Labels: NAB, Red Giant, Sale, Trapcode

It's gonna be a scorcher!

Labels: NAB

Boris Motion Graphics Pack for Adobe and Final Cut Pro on Sale through April 24th!

Boris Motion Graphics Pack combines the power and flexibility of Boris RED, Final Effects Complete and Continuum Complete. Create projects faster, for less money. Motion Graphics Pack takes the place of multiple plug-ins, while also offering features that no other plug-in offers. Meet tight production schedules. Create dynamic titles, composites, effects and vector graphic inside your editing system and take advantage of cutting edge support for OpenGL hardware acceleration, the perfect combination of efficiency and raw speed. If you need effects for your NLE, build them inside your NLE. No tedious cycle of exports and imports, no media management issues, and no format hassles.

Boris RED adds motion graphic features that have never before been available inside of nonlinear editing systems: 4-point motion tracking with corner pinning, vector paint, rotoscoping, EPS file import, animation, & extrusion, 3D animation, and exceptionally powerful vector titling.

Continuum Complete FxPlug provides the widest range of compositing, image processing, keying, color, distortion and temporal effects ever offered to Final Cut Pro and Avid editors - all using their native filter interfaces.

Final Effects Complete FxPlug delivers a comprehensive collection of effects plug-ins for leading digital nonlinear editing and compositing solutions. Ranging from graceful blurs and edges to radical warps and particle generators, Final Effects Complete dramatically augments your creative arsenal without forcing you to learn an entirely new application.

Regularly $1595, NAB Special ONLY $995- Get 3 Boris products for the price of Boris Continuum Complete alone!

Labels: Adobe, Boris, Boris Continuum Complete, Boris RED, Final Cut Pro, NAB, Sale

Posted to LinkedIn by Andy Black, Chief Marketing Officer at The Foundry:

You are invited to The Foundry mini-theatre at NAB (stand SL326) to see demonstrations from leading visual effects professionals :

MONDAY 20th APRIL - Exhibition Hours 9am - 6 pm

09.00 Jack Binks - The Foundry - Plug-ins
10.00 Greg Astles - Intelligent Creatures - Watchmen
11.00 Nathalie Bergeron - The Foundry - Ocula
12:00 Dav Rauch - The Orphanage - Iron Man
13.00 Nathalie Bergeron - The Foundry - Nuke/Ocula
14.00 Greg Astles - Intelligent Creatures - Watchmen
15.00 Nathalie Bergeron - The Foundry - Nuke
16.00 Dav Rauch - The Orphanage - Iron Man
17.00 Jack Binks - The Foundry - Plug-ins


TUESDAY 21ST APRIL - Exhibition Hours 9am - 6pm

09.00 Dav Rauch - The Orphanage - Iron Man
10.00 Jack Binks - The Foundry - Plug-ins
11.00 Greg Astles - Intelligent Creatures - Watchmen
12:00 Dav Rauch - The Orphanage - Iron Man
13.00 Nathalie Bergeron - The Foundry - Nuke/Ocula
14.00 Greg Astles - Intelligent Creatures - Watchmen
15.00 Jack Binks - The Foundry - Plug-ins
16.00 Matt Plec - The Foundry - Nuke
17.00 Nathalie Bergeron - The Foundry - Ocula

WEDNESDAY 22ND APRIL - Exhibition Hours 9am - 6pm

09.00 Nathalie Bergeron - The Foundry - Plug-ins
10.00 Michael Garrett - Freelance VFX Artist - Nuke
11.00 Pete O'Connell - Mr X - Nuke
12:00 Barry Berman & Jason Hill - Blizzard - World of Warcraft
13.00 Ted Schilowitz - RED & The Foundry - RED & Nuke
14.00 Michael Garrett - Freelance - Nuke
15.00 Pete O'Connell - Mr X - Nuke
16.00 Barry Berman & Jason Hill - Blizzard - World of Warcraft
17.00 Nathalie Bergeron - The Foundry - Nuke/Ocula


THURSDAY 23RD APRIL - Exhibition Hours 9am - 2pm

09.00 Barry Berman & Jason Hill - Blizzard - World of Warcraft
10.00 Michael Garrett - Freelance VFX Artist - Nuke
11.00 Nathalie Bergeron - The Foundry - Nuke/Ocula
12.00 Pete O'Connell - Mr X - Nuke
13.00 Jack Binks - The Foundry - Plug-ins

Labels: NAB, Nuke, Ocula, Red Camera, The Foundry, Tinderbox

Next-Generation Media 100 Software with Multicam Editing and Matrox MXO2 Support

Marlborough MA - April 15, 2009 - Media 100, a leading provider of advanced editing systems for the corporate, broadcast, postproduction, and new media industries, today announced Media 100 Suite, next-generation Media 100 software with Multicam Editing and Boris RED for $1,295. In addition to AJA video I/O cards, Media 100 Suite supports Matrox MXO2 for portable, broadcast-quality input/output, monitoring, and up/down/cross conversion. Media 100 Suite also includes a new Voice Over Tool for audio recording direct to the Media 100 timeline.

"Media 100 Suite is the most significant upgrade to the award-winning Media 100 video editing software since it was acquired by Boris FX," comments Wickham Strub, Product Manager, Media 100. "Ideal for music videos, studio and on-location television, concerts, and live events, multicam editing allows for real-time switching between multiple camera angles. And our new suppor-t for Matrox MXO2 gives editors an affordable and professional solution for mobile input and output."

Media 100 Suite New Feature Highlights

• Multicam Editing. Media 100 Suite's new Multicam Editing feature facilitates real-time editing in a familiar, easy-to-understand user interface. Cameras can be added to an existing multiclip as their source media becomes available, allowing editors to begin cutting a multicam shoot faster than ever before. Cameras can be synced via timecode, sync marks, or in-points. When syncing via timecode, additional footage can even be assigned to an existing camera - helpful when a camera has been stopped to change tapes or batteries.
  
• Voice Over Tool. Media 100 Suite's new Voice Over Tool allows direct-to-timeline audio recording while playing back timeline audio and video. Primarily designed for recording narration, it allows for multiple takes nested inside a single clip in the timeline - all while receiving real-time sound cues and visual feedback. Voice Over can be done in stereo or 2 channels allowing different narrators to speak different parts. Other possibilities include simultaneously recording dialogue to separate channels or laying down a live music track. Voice Over takes advantage of Media 100 Suite's new Multicam Editing framework by automatically recording different takes into a multiclip. Operators can record several takes in one Voice Over clip and either choose one take or cut between the takes inside the clip. Different takes may be reviewed and compared from within the new Voice Over Recording Window.
  
• Matrox MXO2 Support. Media 100 Suite now supports Matrox MXO2. Matrox MXO2 is a portable I/O device that delivers broadcast-quality input/output, monitoring, and up/down/cross conversion. Compatible with MacBook Pros and Mac Pros, MXO2 weighs under 3½ pounds and lets editors work seamlessly in any Media 100-supported format.
  
• Other Media 100 Suite Improvements include improved Apple Color integration, support for 1080PsF video formats, full support of QuickTime timecode tracks, export of timecode "burn-in", support for 24-bit audio import, and the ability to output RP188 timecode with supported AJA video I/O cards.

I/O Support

Media 100 Suite supports AJA's KONA 3X/3, KONA LH/LHe, and KONA LS/LSe video I/O cards, Matrox MXO2, and Media 100 HDx. FireWire I/O and Panasonic P2 import are also supported.

Pricing and Availability

Media 100 Suite will be available in May 2009 for an MSRP of $1,295 USD. Customers may upgrade to Media 100 Suite from Media 100 Version 10 and higher, including Media 100 Producer, for an MSRP $595 USD. Alternatively, Media 100 Platinum Software Updates is available for an MSRP of $895 USD and provides one year of Media 100 Suite software upgrades. Media 100 Suite replaces the Media 100 and Media 100 Producer software applications.

Media 100 Suite will be demonstrated at NAB 2009 (April 20th through April 23rd in Las Vegas, Nevada) at Boris FX Booth SL5320.

About Media 100

Media 100, a division of Boris FX, is a leading provider of advanced editing systems for the corporate, broadcast, post production, and new media industries. Featuring the most intuitive and easy-to-learn NLE interface, the company's product lines include Media 100 Suite and Media 100 Producer. For more information, visit www.media100.com.

Labels: Media 100, NAB

Just because you may not be going to NAB doesn't mean you can't reap the benefits! Save 20% on Noise Industries plug-ins for After Effects, Final Cut Studio and Avid through April 26, 2009!

You can download a free trial of the Noise Industries plug-ins here: Free Demos.

And here's that great promo for FxFactory.

Labels: FxFactory, NAB, Noise Industries, Sale

Sean Safreed, product director at Red Giant Software, has let a little bit of information on Trapcode Particular 2 out! Sean says, "Here is a taste of one of the features in v2. The feature is natural particle shading and it responds to After Effects lights in 3D space: Particular v2 offers much more realistic shading of particles"

Also, if you bought Particular 1.5.1 after April 7, 2009 you will receive a free upgrade to v2 when it ships. After that, Particular upgrades will be priced at $99. You can still get in on the free upgrade, so if you don't yet own Particular, what are you waiting for?

Peder Norrby will be showing Particular 2 at NAB at the Red Giant booth (#SL2529) on Monday and Tuesday at 2pm, and Wednesday at noon.

When will Particular 2 be released? It's looking like it will be out sometime in the summer, as Peder Norrby is still adding features and debugging Particular. Sean adds " I can say that Peder has listened carefully to a group of beta testers and users to push the boundaries of what is possible in After Effects (as he always does :-)."

Are you dying to get your hands on Particular 2? You know you are!

Labels: NAB, Particular, Trapcode

Tenth Anniversary of Final Cut Pro, World Premiere Announcements and User-Driven Workflows Spark NAB Evening Social Highlight

Los Angeles, CA / Boston, MA - April 8, 2009 - The Final Cut Pro User Group Network (FCPUG Network) have announced a sneak peak at the agenda for the 8th Annual NAB FCPUG SuperMeet, to be held in the Amazon Ballroom at the Rio Hotel (Las Vegas, NV) on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 beginning at 4:30PM. It is expected this event will be the largest gathering of Final Cut Pro Users and digital content creators and filmmakers during the 2009 NAB Show.

"We've got something for everyone," says Michael Horton, SuperMeet co-producer and founder of the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group. "This is one of the strongest agendas of user driven presentations we have had in years."

"Our SuperMeet marks the tenth anniversary of Final Cut Pro and much of what you will see on stage has never been seen before," added Daniel Berube, SuperMeet co-producer and founder of the Boston Final Cut Pro User Group. "We will showcase brand new workflows for Final Cut Pro as well as premiere exciting new products."

The agenda will feature breathtaking HD footage as screened by documentary filmmaker Arthur C. Smith, director of the acclaimed film, "Ice Bears of the Beaufort." From tapeless HD acquisition to post, Art will show how he is bringing the digital age to Alaska's Arctic Frontier by using the tools of digital cinema to produce this award-winning film.

Over 3 years in the making, "Playing For Change: Peace through Music" is the second film born out of an idea that director Mark Johnson had while watching two Monks play music in a NYC Subway 10 years ago. It is a powerful documentary that takes us around the globe then brings us together through the simple but transformative power of music. Jonathan Walls, co-director and editor, will present.

"Digital Guy" Bruce Nazarian will introduce for the very first time in public a simple workflow to author replicable Blu-ray discs entirely on a Macintosh.

Craig Yanagi of JVC and Tim Dashwood of DV Infowill give a hands-on look at "instant editing" in Final Cut Pro using native QuickTime files captured with the new JVC GY-HM700 Camcorder.

Karl Soule of Adobe will show off the newly announced roundtripping workflow involving direct import of Final Cu Pro project files into Creative Suite 4 Production Premium on both Mac and PC.

Final Cut Studio Guru Larry Jordan will give one of the first public demonstrations of the highly anticipated new music creation plug-in from SmartSound that works directly inside of Final Cut Pro. Post Production Supervisor Jeremy Garchow will show off a never before seen Final Cut Pro workflow that will shave hours of post off of Multi-cam production.

Kim Salyer of Video Arts in San Francisco and freelance producer/editor Joanne Dorgan will present a Final Cut Pro case study involving the Coca-Cola Pavilion and the Adidas Spiral Theater at the Beijing Olympics and filmmaker Steve Sherrick of Red User will discuss Indy-style Red Digital Cinema Workflow and show footage. And back by popular demand, San Diego's Wounded Marines Careers Foundation will premiere their newest video produced by their current class.

Rounding out the evening will be the "World Famous Raffle" with over $90,000 worth of prizes to be handed out to dozens of lucky winners, featuring "super secret" new product introductions as raffle prizes from JVC, AJA and Blackmagic Design.

The FCPUG Network will also be on the NAB show floor for the first time in South Hall with the "SuperBooth" (#SL10129), featuring a full four-day schedule of free half-hour training sessions by many of the countries most recognized Final Cut Studio Gurus and digital filmmakers. Presenters include: Alex Lindsey, Mark Spencer, Steve Kanter, Shane Ross, Rob Birnholz, Dan Berube, Philip Hodgetts, Larry Jordan, Arthur C. Smith, Jim Kanter, Richard Harrington, Noah Kadner, Anthony Artis, Ernie Schaffer, Adrian Ramsier, Gary Adcock, Rick Young, Karl Soule, Cynthia Stein, Scott Simmons, John Flowers, Norman Hollyn, Joanne Dorgan and Kim Salyer and Abba Shapiro.

Tickets are on sale now online only for $15.00 each and this event is expected to sell out. Historically every SuperMeet has always sold out.

For daily updates on the 8th Annual NAB SuperMeet and to purchase tickets, please visit: NAB 2009.

About the Final Cut Pro User Group Network

The Final Cut Pro User Group Network is a worldwide community of Final Cut Pro and Digital Video User Groups officially recognized by Apple. The FCP UG Network's mission is to build connections between Final Cut Pro users, filmmakers and professionals who wish to lead the digital filmmaking revolution. The FCP UG Network provides both advocacy and education about Digital Video on the Macintosh and membership opportunities for learning and growth in Digital Storytelling. More information is available here.

About the SuperMeets

SuperMeets are gatherings of Final Cut Pro editors, gurus and Mac-based digital filmmakers from throughout the world who use or want to learn to use Apple's Final Cut Studio suite of applications, most importantly Final Cut Pro. SuperMeets are held annually along side large trade shows such as Macworld in San Francisco, NAB in Las Vegas, IBC in Amsterdam and in 2009 as a stand alone event in London. The agenda usually includes appearances by Apple, demos of new products, digital video tips and tricks, and filmmaker show and tells. In addition there are over two dozen vendors showing off their wares as part of what the organizers call the FCP Trade Show.

Labels: Final Cut Pro, NAB, SuperMeet

San Francisco, CA, April 7, 2009 - Red Giant Software (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/), publisher of the popular Magic Bullet and Trapcode plug-ins, will show four new and updated products at the upcoming NAB Show in Las Vegas, NV (April 20-23, 2009).

Red Giant Software offers a vast range of visual effects plug-ins, with over 30 packages designed for Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Avid

• The product line features industry leading effects for designing realistic fire, rain, and water; adding popular looks; and creating perfect keys
• Red Giant effects have enhanced feature films such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Mummy 3, and Grindhouse, and add sparkle to cable and broadcast content from NBC Universal, Food Network, ESPN, Disney, CNN, Comedy Central, MTV, and TNT.

New Products at NAB 2009

• Visit the Red Giant Software booth SL2529H at NAB in Las Vegas, Nevada (April 20-23, 2008) to see demonstrations of four new products
• All products will be discounted during the show.

Trapcode Particular 2

• Now in beta, Particular 2 is being developed with constant feedback from industry pros
• Come see Peder Norrby unveil the incredible new 3D features in the next version of the most powerful After Effects particle system
• The expected ship date is summer 2009.

ToonIt 2

Red Giant ToonIt uses unique Toonamation algorithms to transform your image into captivating cartoon shading

• ToonIt eliminates time-consuming techniques such as rotoscoping and hand painting, and lends precise control over styles, shading and outlines
• The product will begin shipping in late April 2009.

What's New in ToonIt 2?

• New natural media effects go beyond simple cartooning with simulated airbrush, bristle paint, Gouache, or scratch board styles
• Choose from 40+ new unique presets that make it easy to choose a style
• New Heat Vision filter generates a Predator-like heat signature for people or objects in a scene

Key Correct Pro 1.1

• This set of 15 plug-ins can be in used in combination with any keyer to soften alpha channels, match foreground and background colors, fix outlines, and clean up noise
• Generate perfects keys to ensure seamless compositing within Final Cut Pro, eliminating the need for extra compositing tools.

What's New in Key Correct Pro 1.1?

• Now supports Final Cut Pro 6 and is fully compatible with After Effects CS4

New Product: Magic Bullet Quick Looks 1.2

For just $99, Quick Looks is a light version of our full Looks tool (Magic Bullet Looks) with the same speed and quality, but without the editing tools

• In just two clicks, users can choose from more than 100 presets from classic films, television shows, or music videos.

Red Giant TV Tuesdays

Be sure to tune in on Tuesdays to catch the next free tutorial on Red Giant's range of motion graphics, compositing and effects plug-ins

• The shows feature one or more Red Giant products used in combination with the tools built into After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, and more
• Host Aharon Rabinowitz shares his tried-and-true techniques for producing higher quality work in less time
• Each episode also offers a corresponding product discount available for a short time after the episode airs
• Red Giant TV

Stay Connected with Red Giant Software

Follow Red Giant Software through these external sites with news, tips, user videos, and more:

• Twitter
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Facebook

Pricing and Availability

• ToonIt 2 ($399) will be available in late April 2009
• Particular 2 ($399) will be available in summer 2009
• Key Correct Pro is available now for $399 USD.
• Magic Bullet Quick Looks is available now for $99 USD.

  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

Labels: Avid, Final Cut Pro, Key Correct Pro, Magic Bullet Quick Looks, Motion, NAB, Particular, Premiere Pro, Red Giant, Red Giant TV, ToonIt, Trapcode

Come get a copy of Greenscreen Made Easy signed by yours truly at NAB. I'll be at the bookstore in the South Hall on Tuesday, April 21 from 2p-2:30p. If you miss me in that window of time, not to worry, you can find me at several locations throughout the South Hall all week and I'd be happy to sign one for you.

Toolfarm will not have a booth at NAB but instead will be helping out a few of our vendors. Here's where you can catch us.

• Digieffects booth - booth SL2529D in the Plug-in Pavilion. Alicia or I will be at the Digieffects booth at various times during the entire show.
• Red Giant Software - also in the Plug-in Pavilion. I'll be showing Red Giant Magic Bullet QuickLooks on Monday (4/20) from 4p-5p, Key Correct Pro on Wednesday (4/22) and Thursday (4/23) from 10a-11a. I'll also be helping Red Giant out at the Final Cut Pro SuperMeet on Tuesday night.
• Boris FX - Booth SL5320 in the South Hall. I'll be showing some new features of Boris Continuum Complete 6.0 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 12p-2p.

If you can't make it to the show, follow us on Twitter where we'll be giving updates of the show. Also, see all NAB related postings on our news blog here.

Labels: Boris FX, DigiEffects, NAB, Red Giant

Peder Norrby will be showing Trapcode Particular v2.0 at NAB, Las Vegas. I thought this was a secret but then I saw it on Ninja Crayon today, so the cat is out of the bag!

Visit the Red Giant Software booth #SL 2529 in the Plug-in Pavilion. He'll be showing Particular 2 at the following times: Monday April 20 at 2 pm, Tuesday April 21 at 2 pm and Wednesday April 22 at 12 noon.

I'll also be demoing some goods at the Red Giant Booth. Come see me show Primatte Keyer Pro and Key Correct Pro. I'll put the schedule up in the near future.

Labels: NAB, Particular, Red Giant, Trapcode

Demonstrations of pIllusion AE, Anticipated Plug-in for Adobe After Effects, to Take Center Stage

Overview

wondertouch, the award-winning developer of particle effects creation tools for the digital content creation industry, invites members of the press and convention attendees at NAB 2009 – April 20 through April 23 – to stop by the wondertouch booth #SL2529B (located in the Plug-in Pavilion), where it will showcase the range of its particleIllusion software product line.

In a challenging economic environment, demand for particleIllusion from digital content professionals continues to expand as a necessary tool that easily integrates into production and post-production pipelines to provide the widest range of particle-based effects and efficient workflow.

Technology Demonstrations

pIllusion AE – plug-in for Adobe After Effects
At its NAB booth, wondertouch will showcase the beta version of its highly anticipated pIllusion AE plug-in for Adobe After Effects. The plug-in affords motion graphics and visual effects professionals working in the film post-production and pre-visualization, commercial broadcast, standard and HD video, and motion graphics industries easy access to the more than 2600 emitters available in the powerful particleIllusion library from within the AE environment. pIllusion AE is designed for use with After Effects version 7.0 and newer.

Pro Projects Volume 1
Pro Projects Volume 1, released earlier this month, will be on display for the first time at NAB. The Pro Projects Volume 1 collection contains five projects designed as animated backgrounds with an abstract graphic look that is geared to motion graphics artists or for those requiring abstract stock clips, digital video backgrounds, or other animated content. Each project is comprised of a collection of particleIllusion 3.0 emitters arranged into logical layers that are combined as a complete ready-to-render package that is completely customizable.

particleIllusion 3.0
particleIllusion 3.0, the company’s cornerstone application, is a standalone particle effects application designed as an easy-to-use, low-cost, high performance tool to quickly and simply add particle effects to any image, animation, or video footage. It enables creative professionals to efficiently and easily customize and modify effects, or create entirely new and realistic effects.

particleIllusion features an ever-growing collection of over 2600 different preset emitters such as smoke, fire, explosions, water effects, sparkles, colorful motion graphics effects, and many others. OpenGL hardware acceleration provides real-time (or near real-time) previews of most effects and ultra-fast rendering of final output. Praised for its power, speed and ease-of-use, particleIllusion has become the “industry standard” for the creation of dazzling visual effects. The current version of the software is available on the Windows and Mac OS X platforms.

pIllusion SE
pIlllusion SE is the low-cost introductory version of particleIllusion. The application is built on an older version of the particleIllusion engine, but still enables users to create a huge number of effects.

Pro Emitters
The wondertouch Professional Emitter Libraries (Pro Emitters) for particleIllusion 3.0 is a collection of 12 libraries that each contain 30 emitters thematically grouped to provide sophisticated, ready-to-use, motion graphics-style particle-based effects. The Pro Emitters supplement the already impressive selection of different preset emitters that ship with particleIllusion 3.0, as well as the additional emitters that the company releases free-of-charge each month; arming artists with an impressive variety of effects choices to easily customize particle effects projects quickly and cost efficiently.

wondertouch Booth Location and Hours
wondertouch software demonstrations at NAB 2009 will take place at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas in booth # SL2529B (in the Plug-in Pavilion), located in the South Hall, Lower Level, as follows:

Monday, April 20th: 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday, April 21st: 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 22nd: 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, April 23rd: 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Labels: After Effects, NAB, particleIllusion, wondertouch

- Booth SL326 -

London, UK. March 26th 2009 Much has changed at leading VFX software developer, The Foundry, during the last twelve months. This will be reflected on the show floor at NAB 2009, as the company plays host to a series of exciting 'behind the scenes' demos and product announcements at its booth #SL326 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Continuing the development and support of its Academy Award®-winning compositing and plug-in technologies has necessitated the addition of 15 staff globally. The company now has offices in Los Angeles, a local presence in southeast Asia and has expanded into two additional floors at its HQ in Soho, London.

Blockbuster VFX demos on Nuke: At NAB 2009, The Foundry will let its customers do the most of the talking. Leading visual effects professionals will treat visitors to a series of behind-the-scenes looks at how Nuke was used to great effects on the international blockbusters Iron Man and Watchmen as well as the game World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

New Nuke products: The Foundry team will showcase Nuke 5.2, the latest release of its acclaimed compositing software, featuring new pre-comp tools, Python UI and metadata improvements, plus support for 3D LUTs and OpenGL GLSL shaders, video output cards and a RED R3D Redcode format-reader enabling full 32-bit floating point processing. RED Digital Cinema will be represented on The Foundry's booth on 21st, 22nd and 23rd April demonstrating the new RED-to-Nuke workflow.

Visitors can take a look at Nuke 6.0 (due for release in Q3), which promises a new Paint and Roto toolset. The release of 6.0 is set to coincide with the launch of NukePro, a brand new product offering incorporating lens tools, a camera tracker, FurnaceCore and Keylight all in one compositing package. All Nuke 5.2 orders with maintenance taken before the end of NAB 2009 will receive NukePro automatically as it becomes available later in the year, delivering a saving of over $2,500 on list price.

Plug-in developments: The Foundry has reinforced its commitment to the development of industry-leading creative and image-processing plug-ins with the recent appointment of Tom Cowland as plug-in product manager. Brand new products on show at NAB are FurnaceCore for Fusion (also integral to NukePro) and Tinderbox 4 for Nuke. Future releases planned for later in 2009 include a new keyer for Autodesk and Adobe and some exciting tools for Final Cut Pro.

Ocula 3D stereo toolset: The Foundry is also continuing development of Ocula, its range of stereoscopic plug-ins, with the release of new tools driven by production feedback later in the year. Ocula was used by Digital Domain on a stereo 3D commercial spot for SoBe broadcast to 96million viewers during SuperBowl XLIII, and is currently being put through its paces by Weta Digital on James Cameron's Avatar.

FXGuide and FCP: During NAB 2009 The Foundry is also sponsoring FX Guide's Bar Camp on 20th April at the Renaissance Hotel and is again supporting the FCP Supermeet on the 21st at the Rio Hotel. To attend please visit www.lafcpug.org/nab_2009.html.

About The Foundry
The Foundry is a world-leading innovator of visual effects and image processing technologies that boost productivity in motion picture and video post production. On February 10th 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a Sci-Tech Award® to The Foundry's development team for the Furnace image processing suite. The company now has two Academy Award® winning technologies including the high-end compositing system Nuke.

The Foundry's products support a wide range of host platforms including After Effects, Autodesk® Media and Entertainment Systems, Avid DS, Baselight, Film Master, Nuke, Scratch and Shake. The company has also driven OpenFX, an open standard for visual effects plug-ins, now broadly adopted by host and plug-in developers such as Autodesk®, Assimilate, FilmLight, Digital Vision, Eyeon Software Inc, Grass Valley, Soluciones Graficas por Ordenador (S.G.O.), Photron, Final Cut Pro and others.

Labels: After Effects, Autodesk, Avid, Furnace, NAB, Nuke, Shake, The Foundry, Tinderbox

Many were saddened at our decision to postpone the next full-blown Media Motion Ball until 2010 (it will be back!), but as promised, we are organizing an alternative user gathering for Monday, April 20th from 7:00 - 10:00pm in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada during the NAB conference and expo.

We've heard from a lot of you and we think we have a great event planned for these challenging times. Best of all: It's FREE!!

The IMUG/Media Motion events have always, at their core, been about fostering opportunities for face-to-face interaction amongst members of our online communities. This simple principle guides us, the rest is just pure awesomeness.

True to our principles we've found a great local pub in Las Vegas, a true 'locals' joint, to have our gathering. There's great Mexican food onsite and great beer, wine, soda, music, shuffleboard, darts and more. The location is near The Palms.

Great news: Due to the generous support of our sponsors, there'll be a generous amount of free drink tickets provided to attendees, and great door prizes too! Look for announcements in the next couple of weeks as we roll out the details.

Great people, free drinks, camaraderie with your peers in the industry, and door prizes... what's not to love?

We've created a sign-up form on our website, since, even for a free event, we've simply got to come up with a head count and figure out how many drink tickets we'll need, etc.

I just booked my cheapest trip to NAB in over 12 years through a charter flight/hotel package. The hotel/flight deals are simply crazy-stupid-cheap right now, and suddenly there's this huge surge of interest in folks attending NAB. It's pretty hard to stay away with great travel deals and now a Media Motion Cafe event to get to!

Head on over to http://www.imugonline.com and sign up for this FREE event today!

All the best,
Carey Dissmore
IMUG/Media Motion organizing team

Labels: MediaMotion Ball, NAB

From Claudia Crask of SF Cutter:

April 28th will be at Adobe 601 Townsend in San Francisco. Mark Spencer a San Francisco Bay Area producer, freelance editor, and Apple-certified Trainer for Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, and Motion.

Mark is teaching a number of classes at NAB - look in the Certification Training Schedule and will be presenting at the SuperBooth. Be watching for schedules, I will try to get an NAB .ning page going for everyone to connect and post info, parties and things to see.

Read more about Mark and his many accomplishments

Mark Spencer's motion website is a treasure trove of all things about Apple's Motion.

Also joining us is John Skidgel, a top Flash Video expert

Both John and Mark are SF Cutters and top people in the field.

Adobe will present a NAB wrap up - of new technology and things they cannot talk about yet, but will be big news by April. Thanks to Adobe for their Sponsorship of SF Cutters, the FCPUG Supermeets and many, many user groups, Final Cut Pro, Flash, Photoshop, InDesign, SF Mograph - all too numerous to list. It's an awesome job and lots of individualized attention and support.

We will have Mark Spencer's Motion books compliments of Peachpit Pressand John Skidgel's Flash Video CS3 compliments of Focal Press in the Raffle.

All presentations subject to final confirmation, and cooperation of the universe.

April 28th will have an increase to $15 per meeting for non Pro Team members to cover the cost of chair rental from May - Oct. and other increased meeting location expenses. This took a lot of deliberation, but basically I do not want to turn people away from meetings because of seating, if at all possible. and frankly it's a long time overdue for me not to stress out over it either. Things cost what they cost.
If we come into more sponsorship at some time we will adjust the monthly rates.

Labels: Flash, Motion, NAB, SF Cutters

Zax put a teaser up on the Zaxwerks blog last week about an upcoming product called Zaxwerks Serpentine. By the look of the image, I'm guessing the product extrudes paths in 3D space. It looks super sweet. I think it is also likely that we'll see it at NAB09.



We've started a page in our Plug-in Finder for Zaxwerks Serpentine and we'll add more information as it comes in.

Labels: NAB, Zaxwerks, Zaxwerks Serpentine

Word on the street is that Final Cut Studio 3 will be available next Wednesday, March 24. I've been following this for the past few weeks and the blog-o-sphere is abuzz. Will Phenomenon, the alleged Shake/Motion hybrid, be included?. How about that storyboarding app that we blogged about in February? How about the Final Cut Pro, Color, Soundtrack Pro, etc. being combined into a single app? How big would that be?!

It has been 2 years since FCS2 was out. I demoed the beta of Motion at NAB07 with beta plug-ins... oh, fun times! Seriously, it was a lot of fun.

Labels: Apple, Apple Color, Final Cut Pro, Motion, NAB, Shake, Soundtrack Pro

Via Scott Simmons The Editblog:

Are you going to NAB this year? Do you need a free pass to the show floor?

Yes Apple isn’t going to be there and neither is RED or Quantel … But Avid is, Adobe is, all of the other camera manufacturers are going to be there. Plus there’s a lot of other great small software developers that will be on the show floor so there’s going to be a lot to see. Plus the Final Cut Pro SuperMeet will be happening as well. You might can find a good deal on a flight if you try hard or fly Southwest and you can definitely find a good deal on a hotel. Get a pass to the show floor and get to Vegas. I looks like I’ll be there too and I am very excited. And I will not eat at any buffets this year.

To get your free pass that includes access to the exhibit floor and the opening keynote (a $150 value) go to http://nabshow.com/passport and enter this code: TP01.

If you're NAB alumni, I've also received the code DM01 for a free Alumni Exhibits passport.

I wrote an article last year or the year before called The NAB Survival Guide. I'll dig it up and repost it. I have a busy week planned once again, working between the Red Giant, Digieffects and Boris booths and even doing some book signings for my new book with Jeremy Hanke, Greenscreen Made Easy.

So, I ask again:

Labels: Boris, DigiEffects, GreenScreen Made Easy, NAB, Red Giant

NAB is just around the corner, it seems. Are you going this year? Is the economy making it difficult for you to take trips like this? Is the absence of Apple and other companies a reason that you would not attend? Is it an event that you wouldn't miss? How do the parties and things like the FCP Supermeet influence your decision to go? Please tell us your thoughts about the NAB conference. We're curious.

Labels: Apple, NAB, Poll

The New York Post|Production Conference will be held from November 11 - 13. I went the first two years and it was really cool. Much smaller and lower key than NAB in Las Vegas, plus focused more on what I'm interested in.

Cutting-edge technical training sessions will be presented by an elite team of manufacturer-authorized instructors, developers and power users. This event is for professionals at all levels, and is the East Coast's largest resource for the latest and most up-to-date production, post-production and content delivery education. With the recent updates to Apple Final Cut Studio 2 and Adobe Creative Suite 3, there has never been a better time to take advantage of this one stop training opportunity.

Labels: Adobe, Creative Suite, Event, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Studio, NAB

Workflow Management Tool Receives Best of Show Acknowledgment

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada April 29 - GridIron Software today announced that its newest product -- GridIron Flow was awarded 'Best of Show' by Videography editors at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, which took place April 14-17. Flow is a revolutionary new approach to workflow management for creative pros that dramatically simplifies the design process for print, web, film, and video projects. Flow is currently in beta with a select group of creative pros. Registration for a free public beta planned for late spring is available on the Gridiron website at http://www.gridironsoftware.com.

"Gridiron Flow represents a tremendous step forward for industry professionals with its ability to work seamlessly in the background as it automatically tracks and displays the relationships of all files used within a project," explains Videography Contributing Editor Ned Soltz. "Even more impressive is its ability to create project packages for archival or shared purposes. And it's priced at a point where the power of Flow is accessible to large and small users alike."

The NAB Vidy Awards are given by Media's Broadcast & Video Group of products, which also includes DV magazine, DV Expo and the Creative Planet Community of web sites. A select panel of engineers, production and post professionals and editors joined the magazine staffs to judge the Best of Show awards for each publication.

"The Vidy Best of Show award is a great honor and wrapped-up an excellent week at NAB. It was very exciting to share Flow with our Nucleo Pro customers and the video and broadcast industry professionals who stopped by to see demonstrations at the show," said Steve Forde, CEO of GridIron Software. "We got a lot of great feedback from customers and look forward to working closer with the creative professional community when we launch the public beta of Flow."

Flow automatically tracks your work allowing you to instantly see the relationships between all your assets in your most complex projects -- all without changing the way you work. It uses sophisticated Real-Time Asset Tracking technology to record all Import/Export, Save/Save As, and Copy/Paste actions in a project. Flow understands all the assets used in a project regardless of application; and maintains the relationships between stills, movies, sound clips, fonts, plug-ins, and color swatches on all local, network, and removable storage devices.

This award-winning software will be available later this summer for US$349 and will support Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard, as well as Windows XP and Vista. Creative professionals interested in learning more about Flow and participating in the public beta program are encouraged to register at: http://www.gridironsoftware.com.

About GridIron Software

GridIron Software is a leading provider of workflow solutions for creative professionals. We build powerful tools that enhance the creative process by eliminating the drudgery that creative professionals associate with design, video and web workflows. For more information visit: http://www.gridironsoftware.com.
GridIron Software

Web site: http://www.gridironsoftware.com/

Labels: GridIron Flow, NAB, Press Release

One of the biggest Plugged-In podcasts ever, Show 21 NAB Special Edition! Keith Larsen and Alan Spaulding talk to dozens of guests.

From the NAB Show

Rob Birnholz, Absolute Motion Graphics
www.absolutemotiongraphics.com

Zax Dow, Zaxwerks
www.zaxwerks.com

John Dickinson, Motionworks
www.motionworks.com.au

Harry Frank, Gray Machine
www.graymachine.com

Jim Tierney, Digital Anarchy
www.digitalanarchy.com

Wes & Harry Plate, Automatic Duck
www.automaticduck.com

Dan May, BlackMagic Design
www.blackmagic-design.com

Stephanie Joyce, SmartSound
www.smartsound.com

From the FCPUG SuperMeet

Kristi Prost, Larry Jordan Associates
www.larryjordan.biz

Jay Ignaszeski, Tek Serve
www.tekserve.com

Kevin Fischer, Lite Panels
www.litepanels.com

Kevan O'Brien, Adobe
www.adobe.com

Ben Syverson, DV Garage/PixelCorps
www.dvgarage.com

Brendan Cass, Quantum
www.quantum.com

Dan Montgomery, Imagine
www.imagineproducts.com

Marco Solario, Cinesoft
www.mediabatch.com

Francisco Scartozzi, Matrox
www.matrox.com

Frank George, Roland
www.roland.com

Jeff Greenberg, Philadelphia FCPUG
www.finalcutpronews.com

Greg Clarke, Open Television Network
www.opentvnetwork.com

Damon Hampson, Peachpit Press
www.peachpit.com

Jim Davis, LaCie
www.lacie.com

Justin McCarthy, Albatat
www.albatat.com

Jon Schilling, CalDigit
www.caldigit.com

Peter Wiggins, Ricardo Silva & Nancy Schopoff, Noise Industries
www.noiseindustries.com

Norman Zeledon, GMax Storage Solutions, LLC
www.gmaxstorage.com

Sharon Cedars, Lynda.com
www.lynda.com

Roger Mabon, G-Tech
www.g-technology.com

Steve Forde, Gridiron Software
www.gridironsoftware.com

Chris Heffner, Other World Computing
www.macsales.com

Simon Hollingworth & Victoria Battison, BlackMagic Design
www.balckmagic-design.com

Bernie Mitchell, Silver Platter Productions,
www.panasonic.com

Call the podcast toll free: 877-809-8145

TRT: 135 min.

Labels: Adobe, Automatic Duck, Digital Anarchy, GridIron, NAB, Noise Industries, Podcast, Zaxwerks

CE Raum, product designer for Imagineer Systems, demos the first part of company's new VFX architecture mogul, mogul review. At NAB, CE gave me a walk through of the product also. It is really going to change the way people work. Watch the video at Studio Daily.

Labels: Imagineer mogul, NAB, Studio Daily

Here I am at Denver International waiting for my connection and there's free wifi! I thought this might be a good opportunity to tell you about my experience at NAB 2008. I have about 10 minutes until I board, and I'll have to put up the photos later. Enjoy.

Sunday, April 13 - Arriving in Las Vegas

Alicia VanHeulen (fellow Toolfarmer) and I got into Vegas around 6pm and caught a taxi in the organized chaos outside the airport. I hate cabs. Hate em. I always get a weird cab driver who wants to come to my house or has some strange hobby he wants to tell me all about. This time, we got to spend 25 minutes hearing about how to prepare Lake Superior Whitefish.

We checked in at the Sahara, which was chosen souly on the fact that you don't have to walk through a casino to get to the monorail. We had plans to go to the FMC party on Sunday evening with John Kerr from Red Giant. It was $85 to get into the rooftop party at Pure at Caesar's Palace, however, RG was a sponsor, so we told them we were guests of John Kerr and they let us in with no problem. We had to walk through about a mile of corridors and stairways to get up to the roof where they had a small buffet of carved beef, shrimp on skewers and spring rolls, which were completely gone. We did have some refreshingly tasty drinks of vodka, cranberry, sprite, and grapefruit juice. There was a woman whose body was being painted on the patio, some people carrying around gobs of hula hoops, as well a big giveaway, that we didn't enter, unfortunately. We met some really cool people from Hawaii (Hi Shanti). We did finally meet up with John Kerr, Sean Safreed and Jeremy Hill from Red Giant, as well as our good friend Seth Hancock from ICVA and his lovely wife Lisa.

After the party, we headed to Mesa, Bobby Flay's restaurant, with the Red Giant guys and had a nice dinner. By the time we left, it was 3:00am our time, so we were tired, to say the least.

Monday, April 14 - Day one of the convention

7:45am - We took the monorail to the convention center. This was our first day on the convention center floor, and Alicia's first NAB ever. I took her to the doorway and pointed her to the Digieffects booth where she was starting her day, but I couldn't get in to the show floor due to the fact that I never received my badge! I had a printout receipt that I had registered in December. It took a while at registration but somehow they lost my registration. After 45 minutes, I was badged.

I headed over to Red Giant, where I had a presentation on Magic Bullet Looks at 10am. Looks is very easy to demo and lots of fun to use, and I have to say, the presentation went pretty well. I've just learned to get through the spiel within 10 minutes because people were standing and I wasn't giving a tutorial, but an overview. The Looks Theatre sold it for a lot of people. It was really great seeing everyone at the RG booth and meeting the new RG employees. Thanks for the nuts and popcorn, Beth! Delicious.

At 1:00pm each day I demoed Boris Continuum Complete and Boris Final Effects Complete at the Boris FX booth. This booth was on the middle aisle of the show floor in a highly trafficked area. Boris FX had a theatre set up with about 25 seats. It was the Motion Key plug-in for BCC that really seemed to get a lot of attention. I'll be putting together a tutorial for Motion Key in the next few weeks, because it really is an amazingly cool plug-in. It garnered lots of ooh's and aah's as a silver car driving across a busy street scene is removed from the shot with ease. I showed off the BCC UpRez plug-in, which converts SD to HD and uses a nifty feature called Magic Sharpen. I demoed the BCC Pan & Zoom which makes the Ken Burns style effects. I showed a few other BCC plug-ins and Final Effects Complete (FEC). Did you know all FEC plug-ins contain motion trackers and a feature called Pixel Chooser, which is a built-in masking tool? If you would've known that during the presentation, you could have won a Boris hat or training Class on Demand Boris Continuum Complete Training DVD.

Digieffects and Red Giant's booths were directly behind each other in the Plug-in Pavillion, which made things very nice for us. Digieffects was demoing the new Damage, as well as the Simulate and Natural Forces plug-ins for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Combusion and Boris Red, which will be out in 4-6 weeks. We hadn't seen the new plug-ins at all yet, so it was a big difficult to answer questions. We ended up setting up little comps with examples, but then found the best way to demo was by using the little blue button. What is this little blue button? It's the randomizer. Shin Kurokawa, the engineer at Digieffects explained that he put the button in for testing purposes so he could see the range of values for each parameter without having to change all of the sliders each time, and soon realized that it's brilliant for getting ideas and seeing what variety of looks that the plug-in can produce. Tim Kolb, David Vieria and Robert Sharp were also at the booth with us all week. Robert... smart move on the couch rental. You can't go wrong with a big comfy couch, especially after you've been on the show floor all day.

Monday night was the IMUG Media Motion Ball 2008 at the Sahara Hotel, which I've attended the last 4 years. The crowd is generally IMUG and AE-List people. Brian Maffitt of Total Training was the speaker and once again and he was hilarious! Brian is a collector of crazy movie memorabilia and marketing gimmicks from William Castle fims. The presentation was about brilliant marketing campaigns for these movies. Macabre with the tagline 'So Terrifying We Insure You For $1000 against Death By Fright! (Not valid for persons with heart or nervous conditions)'. He showed us an original Tingler (filmed in "Percepto"). The best film of all, The House on Haunted Hill, filmed in "Emergo", in which an inflatable skeleton would pop out over the scene. Well, Brian had one of these inflatable skeletons with him at the dinner! We laughed, we cried, it was better than The Tingler.

Dinner at the Media Motion Ball was delicious as always. It was antipasto, salad and several Italian dishes. The highlight was definitely the dessert. Steve Kahn had arranged a surprise for everyone and that was Bananas (and strawberries) Foster over ice cream. Fabulous. I think overall I gained 5 pounds in Las Vegas, but I probably walked it off.

Alicia and I dined with Mark Spencer, author of Apple Pro Training Series: Motion 3, which I highly recommend. Also at the table was Niclas Bahn of Noise Industries on crutches, Niclas' girlfriend, Peter Wiggins and a few others from Noise Industries. Straight across from me was the guy who looks like Andy Samberg from SNL (who incedently ended up winning a Boris Training DVD during my presentation).

It was great to see everyone again at the MMB - it's kind of like a reunion every year. I get to meet up with Keith and Alan, the Plugged-in Podcast guys, Jim Kanter, who is one of our forum experts, a lot of the plug-in developers and those wild and crazy guys from Anchorage. They had gobs of giveaways, including several donated by Toolfarm. I didn't win anything, but I got to go on stage and draw a few names. The first name I drew was Lisa Hancock, who took home Maxon Cinema 4D. Toolfarm did give away lots of prizes, including several bundles of Professional Video Templates, Harry Frank's Expressions Training and his Trapcode Form Training, and two copies of Digieffects Damage.

We cabbed over to the party with Harry Frank and left the MMB early to go to Peder Norrby's party (Peder Norrby is the man behind Trapcode). Sadly, Ko Maruyama told us that not long after we left the MMB, Harry Frank's name was drawn for the big prize of the night, but since he left, he couldn't claim it. Bummer.

Peder threw yet another swanky party! The suite was very modern and silver and on one of the top floors of the hotel. From the main room you could see in the bathroom through a window and there was even a stripper pole in the shower! Crazy stuff. I have a feeling Paris Hilton had stayed in that very room last weekend. There were lots of people from the plug-in industry in attendance and a DJ spinning some great house music. Peder has a new product coming out called Trapcode Horizon, which helps AE users work in 3D space. He presented it at the Red Giant booth, but unfortunately, I missed his presentations. He wasn't showing anything at the party, just socializing. Horizon will be out near the end of summer, so stay tuned.

Tuesday, April 15

The second day on the show floor was busier than the first. I did another presentation for both Red Giant and Boris FX and each went smoother the second time around. Alicia and I also worked at the Digieffects booth showing the new plug-ins. I caught a couple of great presentations at the Adobe Booth - one about After Effects, presented by Steve Holmes, and one about working with video in Photoshop, presented by Richard Harrington. I use these programs day in and day out and they both managed to show me new things about the software. I took notes during both presentations and both really got the wheels in my head spinning.

I walked around and got a nice demo of GridIron Flow from Jim Geduldick. The GridIron booth was freakin' huge. Andrew Kramer, Aharon Rabinowitz and Mark Coleran were also hanging around the booth, demoing the GridIron goods. They were also giving away cool GridIron yo-yo's. You know the first yo-yo's were used as weapons? I learned that one from a tv commercial.

Pete from RE:Vision Effects gave us a nice demo on DE:Noise and Shade/Shape, and we also spent a some time with Jim Tierney of Digital Anarchy, as he walked us through ToonIt and some of their other offerings.

I also sat in on an awesome presentation by Harry Frank at the Red Giant booth. He showed off some cool projects that he did using Trapcode Form and Trapcode Particular. He broke down his technique into little bit-sized pieces. It was really amazing work. Harry is just so darn talented.

Colin and Jason Sharp from Toolfarm flew in Tuesday and the Toolfarm crew went to a fabulous dinner at B&B, Mario Batali's place. I tried the most amazing octopus appetizer, and had sweet potato ravioli with sage butter, as well as squab with beet risotto. Did I mentioned I think I gained weight? :-) Afterward we met up with some friends from Boris FX/Channel Wolves and walked a bit around the Venetian.

Wednesday, April 16

Another day on the show floor and boy, are my dogs tired! More presentations for Red Giant, Digieffects and Boris FX. By this time, I'm pretty good with the presentations. Also, this is Alicia's birthday. Happy Birthday! What did Alicia do on her birthday? Presented Magic Bullet Frames at Red Giant's booth. Now how many people get to do that on their birthday!? Haha. I also met Bert Kish at the RG booth. Bert was the winner of the MyToolfarm Red Giant NAB contest. He presented his winning video and also showed what went into the project.

On Wednesday night I ended up going out with Boris and his crew. We ate at an Italian place in the Venetian. I ate some really interesting pear ravioli with a bechemel sauce and some asparagus. Yummo. I just love the guys from Boris. They are all such nice guys. The food was fantastic as well.

Thursday, April 17

It's the last day of the show, so we got up nice and early and met Kevin Bourke who handles PR for the likes of Automatic Duck and Imagineer Systems for breakfast at the EGO Cafe, right outside the convention center. He told me about Imagineer mogul so as soon as I got into the show I went in to check it out. It was a private screening room and the presentation was given by CE and Alan Jaenicke of Imagineer. I am not entirely sure what information they'd like to be shared about this product, but I can tell you it's a subscription based product that includes software and hardware and is something that is in dire need. This product is going to be massive. Huge.

I also stopped by to see the GenArts booth and talked with Anish and Laurie. Lastly, we sat in on a private demo of Nuke at The Foundry's booth. It's awesome. I want it. We did get some free training DVDs on Nuke and we can download the demo. Too bad I am not doing any work that requires such a splendid piece of software. I didn't have much time to see anything else because we had to get to the airport.

What I learned at NAB 2008

I've learned a few tricks over the past few years at NAB that I think are worth sharing.

1. Avoid cabs if at all possible, unless you're looking for Lake Superior whitefish recipes and restaurant recommendations for Beverly Hills. Trust me. So, you ask, if you're avoiding cabs, how do you get around? There is a shuttle that goes between the convention center and the aiport that is free. That will save you $25 right there.
2. There is also a monorail. We bought monorail passes before the show and had them mailed to us. It was cheaper to buy 3 single day passes than it was to buy a three day pass. Weird. Now here's a great from Alicia. If you have single day passes, they are good for 24 hours. To maximize your usage, get to the station a few minutes earlier each day. If you use your card for the first time at 8:26am on Monday, you can use it at 8:23am the next day. You can start your next single day pass on the way back.
3. When registering for your NAB pass, it doesn't hurt to register twice! NAB will hate me for saying so, but I would have saved myself 45 minutes at registration on Monday morning if I would have registered again when I didn't receive my badge by mail.
4. Wear comfortable shoes and bring bandaids. Sunglasses are also mandatory, as well as a little bottle of vitamin E to rub on chapped hands and lips. The desert is incredibly dry and flying doesn't help matters.
5. Keep a pen with you to make notes on the back of people's business cards. This will help you keep them straight when you get back.
6. Free wifi is a bit hard to come by in Las Vegas. If they can make money off of something in Vegas, they will. One place you can get free wifi, or even check your email at one of their computers, is the Sprint Center at the monorail station at the convention center. Las Vegas' McCarran Airport (and Denver Airport which we flew through) also has free wifi. I love free wifi, but I'm Dutch, so I like anything free. :-)

Time to recover. A massage sounds really good right now.

Labels: Boris, Continuum Complete, Damage, DE:Noise, DigiEffects, Imagineer mogul, Imagineer Systems, NAB, Particular, Red Giant, Total Training, Trapcode, Trapcode Form, Trapcode Horizon