HD For Indies

NAB 2006 "Other" Software Wrap Up
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Hey all - so at long last, here's my NAB 2006 Other Software wrap up notes.

So just what is "Other Software?" - anything that isn't an NLE for the most part - logging software, plugins, standalone one trick pony apps.

It took me so long to get all this transcribed from audio, emailed press releases sifted, brochures sponged for actual facts instead of "marketing copy', that I don't have the time/energy/inclination to go through another pass and format all this. So here it all is, a big gob of data, not in any particular order of preference:

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Algolith - makers of a range of products from consumer hardware to content producer plugins. Their core competency (as I see it) is in the areas of noise reduction and signal cleanup. They also have some nice scaling technology.

-MTNR (Multiple Type Noise Reduction) - reduce the additive and multiplicative noise, speckle and film grain.

-Noise reduction can be used in pre-processing. When removing noise it is hard not to remove details.

-they showed some realtime analog hardware for use in production
-they showed some post processing for mosquito noise reduction, see some during i-frames (pops at the i-frames)
-hardware that goes in AFTER the hardware box, before the receiver or set, is $995 for SD/HD, is intended for living room usage (not production, unless you get crap footage in to start with), that unit is for analog
-for HDMI based, is $3K, has 2 HDMI in, 1 out, 2 component analog in, one out, and is shipping
-didn't get the update I was after in terms of their plugin stuff, had to scoot - the page with the plugin info (and they have some NICE STUFF) is here.

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BORIS BLUE

Boris Blue is a standalone, Windows only app 3D motion graphics thing that does particles, new at the show
-all kinds of cool realtime particle stuff using OpenGL card
from their press release:

- Adjust parameters with interactive real-time playback, including streaming video and audio.
- Direct streaming of video and audio from a hard drive.
- Powerful 3D Particles use any shape as a particle while emitters can include multiple particle types. Multiple attractors and repellers provide dynamic particle interaction.
- Extrude text, custom splines or imported EPS files with custom bevels and surfaces.
- 3D Model Import preserves individual geometry groups, texture maps, and bump maps.
- Sophisticated Materials include Texture Maps, Bump Maps, and dynamic Reflection Maps with per pixel lighting controls.
- Vertex Deformers provide true 3D warping of 3D objects.
- Image Processors and Generators include keying, tinting and toning, distortions, and transitions.
- Masking, compositing, and color effects provide precise control and RT performance.
- OpenGL hardware-accelerated rendering lets you export High Quality movies at or near real-time speed.


$1000

Boris Continuum Complete also now runs on Intel based Macs, as does Boris Calligraphy, Boris Red 4.0 will be next to support Intel based Macs

-also have new training DVDs
-Boris Red 4.0 new features from the press release:

Significant new features in version 4.0 include:
- 16-bit per color channel image processing
- New procedural paint brushes create ribbon and roller brush paint effects
- New raster paint engine with sophisticated clone paint brushes
- Convert bitmap files to vectors that can be extruded and animated
- Support for Wacom tablet with multiple paint input channels
- More than 40 new filters include a new Motion Key filter that removes moving foreground objects from a clip and a new Motion Path filter animates objects on a spline path
- Import EBU subtitle files to generate standard subtitles for multiple languages and DVDs
- Improved integration with Avid NLEs, including support for the AVX 2.0 architecture
- Support for PPC and Intel processors on Macintosh systems
- A new Type On Container automatically creates type on title effects

-they also released a Media 100 roadmap, which I won't describe, because it is my personal opinion that product is going nowhere and is totally doomed and I wouldn't recommend it to my readership

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Synthetic Aperture's Color Finesse 2.1

I finally got a quickie demo of Color Finesse 2.1, but unfortunately Bob Courier was away from the booth when I came by. But here's what I got from the brief demo I received:

-can use XML to get project from FCP into this standalone app
-SD is pretty much realtime, HD is not
-GPU help? Unknown
-can scrub through individual clips
-can jump shot to shot to shot
-can gang up clips so that any adjustments made to that group will apply to all, and then tweak those individual shots from there
-Is there a master shot that's like a style sheet?
-you click on multiple shots to highlight them all, changes made to one affect the others, Command-G groups shots, gives a green underscore under each shot in the group....red line above indicates selections...
-full workflow: FCP export XML, go to standalone CF 2.1 app, import XML, do all your grades, then render the timeline, which will only render those shots changed, then export a new XML from CF v2.1; import that XML into FCP that will make a new FCP project and link to the old/new footage as needed. (this is pretty much identical type workflow to Final Touch HD)
-overall, I think they've done a nice piece of work - the color correction tools, and the quality of the output, are outstanding. However, I think the market has passed them by for high end users - Final Touch HD offers realtime (or very near realtime) performance in SD & HD with the grades applied, in addition to supporting vignettes and power windows. For the desktop based crowd, they'll be impressed with Color Finesse's capabilities - at $575 for the plug-in based version that works with FCP, AE, and Premiere Pro, it's potent. The SD version of the standalone app, which offers more features (not sure which ones, need to clarify), it's $995....which is the same price as Final Touch SD. Jumping up to HD resolutions, Color Finesse is $1995, whereas Final Touch HD is $4995. Now, I have an experiential bias with Final Touch HD - I used it daily for about six months, and watched it grow from an about 50% there product to a 90%+ there product in terms of fulfilling production needs in a realtime color correction suite with a 20 year veteran da Vinci operator.

I need to spend more time with Color Finesse to be fully fair, but my gut says that the budget starved, time rich folks will be able to get good results with Color Finesse, but won't have access to a toolset as rich as Final Touch's. (then again, Final Touch has STEEP hardware requirements.) Those needing something closer to a daVinci on the desktop, with similar expectations about closer to realtime performance, will quickly look to Final Touch's product line.

Thinking more about it a week later, it is not such a cut and dried comparison - FTHD is really designed for facilities and dedicated colorists, not as an add-on to the typical editor. The hardware requirements are STEEP and rigidly fixed, whereas those for CF are more flexible. CF starts at a lower price point as well, which many indies may find to be the Mission Critical Feature.

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Silicon Color's Final Touch SD/HD/2K

See related photos on this page

-stopped by the Apple booth and saw FTHD (Final Touch HD) being demo'd on a Kona3 board, and even there it wasn't quiiiiiiiiiite realtime yet for HD - 1080p footage was playing out through the Kona3 was about 23fps at best. Last I heard, and I haven't tested myself, was that Kona3 was getting better frame rates than BlackMagic products.
-but you SHOULD be able to get 720p24 in realtime then, since it is a much lower bandwidth
-Final Touch 2.5.4 is latest version
-so no new version at the show
-Render node - there's a Final Server, it asks as a traffic cop, and doesn't actually deal with the content, the server runs across Ethernet as a metadata server - it is just pushing commands around (XML based) and sending those instructions (the color grade info, for instance) to turn the image into what they want it to be -the Final Server needs this grade on X file which is on Y drive. In essence, the Final Server issues job tickets. Nodes pick up job tickets, go to the SAN and pick up jobs and frames (can run over GigE if you want but a lot slower), pull the file and blasts the file into frames (SD, HD, 2K), everything done at a frame level.
-the frames go to all the nodes, get processed, rendered out, and sent back and processed back into a QuickTime file (I asked repeatedly if you'd need 2x the file size for an x sized shot to render, and was told NO not necessary the way it is done with wrappers)
-then I got switched over to Olivier, who wrote it, and he confirmed that if you needed a 100 MB shot to get rendered, you would NOT need 200 MB of free space for the frames and the QT file. They put the frames directly INTO a QT file as they go is what it sounded like Olivier was saying. QT file is built on the fly as you go, "don't need any extra" he said.
-if you had a 1GB storage device and a 1GB shot to convert, you'd NOT need 2GB, just 1GB of storage
-price point for render farm for HD - $2000 for 5 seats, for 2K is $10,000
-price points not changed - $1000 HD, $5000 HD, $25K 2K version
-working on porting to Universal Binary, for Final Render is ALREADY on Universal Binary - since Final Render is GPU based, hardware requirements for render nodes - can you do stack of minis? Since GPU based, still requires G5s since they code for the GPU used in G5s. No mini render farms yet, MAYBE someday if they changed their code base. Any Linux or lower cost box? Since no QuickTime on any Linux flavor, end of argument there.

Mike's Comments: I still think Final Touch HD is the premiere color grading environment on the Mac -the combination of serious software tools, realtime playback (OK, pretty darned close - realtime playback, just maybe not full frame RATE in realtime), integrated serious control surfaces, powerful secondary color correction as well as multiple vignettes and multiple grades, Final Cut Pro integration, etc. makes this the one to beat. YES it is pricey and has steep hardware requirements, but it is powerful and fast. I was just starting to mess around with version 2.5 when I stepped away from the business that was using it, but at that time, some of the last of my concerns about XML integration with FCP were being addressed. Last September when I started working with it, every single client built job was a nightmare of hand holding, modifying client FCP files, and long QA and QC sessions after bringing the color corrected footage back into FCP to make sure everything worked right and the edit maintained integrity. But by January, 95% of that was working right. And with version 5.1, hopefully as Apple fixed some Media Manager issues and XML issues, perhaps some of the last major wrinkles were being addressed concerning XML workflow. The last things that I KNEW of that caused me vexation were no preview in FTHD of footage that was time remapped via the Motion tab in FCP, and stills, titles, and graphics used in FCP didn't show up in FTHD. These were usually survivable, however, and the huge benefit of NOT WAITING TO RENDER to see it play back, even if at something over half the frame rate, made it well worth doing.

The other options - Final Cut's built in color correction tools, Magic Bullet, Color Finesse, etc. - can't match up to the speed and power of Final Touch.

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MICROSOFT WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 11

-Windows Media Player 11 ships in about a month (so around now as I write this, May 16th)
-same codes, same DRM, same as version 10

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TeleStream Flip4Mac

See this page for related photos


-Flip4Mac for import into Final Cut Pro/Studio, Editcam import next month, XDCAM is available now, XDCAM HD available next month (they are separate modules), modules are all $500 apiece (and YES, XDCAM is a different module than XDCAM HD, but will XDCAM HD module ALSO do XDCAM?)
-also modules for Grass Valley Profile/K2, Grass Valley Infinity as well!

ALSO Graphics Factory - a whole pipeline for folks that need to batch process video to a bunch of different formats. Sounds like something to compete with the likes of Cleaner, Compressor, Compression Master, etc., but with lots of features for putting logo bugs, animations, watermarks, etc. onto the video and output to a wide array of formats. Build a template once, use it over and over in a batch type workflow from what it sounds like.

-they have Windows Media (free even!) available for Macs, but they do NOT as yet have a MacIntel solution - so there's a gotcha on the

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Stopped by THE FOUNDRY, makers of cool plugins for various apps -
-Tinderbox - no new plugs at show for Mac, and not GPU accelerated at this time

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Apple's Shake 4.1 is to support Intel based Macs. Since Shake is such a high end and expensive application, the only users that I think this will be relevant for will be MacBook Pro users at this time, since the high end Intel based workstations haven't shipped yet.

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Nattress Plugins released new plugins for the Final Touch line of products:

Nattress releases “Advanced Plugins for FinalTouch V1.5”, a suite of plugins that enhance the capabilities of Silicon Color’s FinalTouch SD, Finaltouch HD and FinalTouch 2k.
New in V1.5 is G Smart Denoise, a powerful noise reduction tool using an adaptive edge dependent averaging function so that the noise or grain gets removed without blurring edges. By adjusting the settings, G Smart Denoise can also function as a sharpening tool that only enhances edges, not noise.


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Noise Factory's FxFactory for Final Cut Pro


FxFactory is the first tool that will let Final Cut Pro and Motion users create, apply and share effects based on Apple's FxPlug plug-in architecture.

FxFactory will ship with a comprehensive collection of real-time plug-ins designed for quality and performance, taking advantage of modern GPU-based acceleration and graphics technologies only available on Mac OS X. The 100+ effects included are dynamically expandable.

FxFactory Expandability
FxFactory includes revolutionary effect management and authoring capabilities. Competitive offerings in the integrated effects industry limit users to a fixed set of plug-ins. FxFactory sets a new standard by letting end users create brand new effects in minutes, requiring no programming experience or coding.

Effect Market
More plug-ins will also be available at the Noise Industries Effect Market, an online marketplace where visual effect artists can share and distribute plug-ins created with FxFactory.

Noise Industries announced FxFactory Features
- Tight integration with Mac OS X graphics technologies such as Core Image, and Quartz Composer.
- Modern rendering engine based on OpenGL.
- Create new effects based on Quartz Compositions.
- Infinitely expandable architecture allows user to share, download and buy new visual effect plug-ins at the Effect Market.

FxFactory will be available by Summer 2006. Pricing TBA.


Red Giant showed off latest stuff - Instant HD for uprezzing footage in FCP, a new version of Magic Bullet, and After Effects 7.0 compatibility.

The Pixel Farm came out with some new toys - PF Clean for DI and film restoration, it does dust busting and rig/wire removal. Works on any res footage. PFTrack v3.5 is for camera move resolving/tracking, and is $5000, wasn't shipping at NAB though.

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Automatic Duck was showing some of their latest wares as well. They make good stuff for moving projects around between software products - Avid, FCP, After Effects, Pro Tools, etc.

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SyncVue got hyped by some people and websites I know, it is a tool for reviewing footage with multiple people in multiple locations. It relies of files copied to local desktops, so it doesn't have to do live streaming. It can sync everyone's playback so everyone is seeing the same thing at the same time. It runs over Skype, the popular VOIP service (Voice Over Internet Protocol). XML interchange with Final Cut and more. See the features page, or watch the Flash based demo. So if you need to watch stuff at the same time as your clients, this is a good option to consider.

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Similarly, CineSync is another remote viewing and annotation tool. You can all watch and know you're seeing the same thing at the same time, and draw on the screen for annotations as needed..

I don't know how the last 2 compare.

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HD Log is a Mac OS X logging application for Mac OS X that can hand off XML to Final Cut Pro.

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That's it for today. Tune in tomorrow for "Other Stuff" from NAB that wasn't so easily categorizable.

-mike