Movie editing softwares - Avid Technology

This is the last of the movie editing softwares series. Actually we could go on covering more of these but I was thinking you only want to work with the 'big boys' as I do so stick with best and forget about the rest. Today we will be looking at Avid Technology movie editing softwares. Avid is an American company specializing in audio and video production since 1987, audio and video production only, nothing else. That's why it's more known to professionals in television and broadcast industry. What do they have to offer to their market against their competitors? Do they really have a competition? Let's go and find out.

DS Nitris

One of the most powerful movie editing software ever. This software is like After Effects, Photoshop, and Illustrator combined into one package! Now you can add textures, blurs, soft edges to text, you can even treat texts individually and animate it over time. Since the characters are vector-based, you always get that crisp edges on texts no matter how you bend or distort it.

Powerful 3D DVE, vector paint, motion tracking, keying, compositing, title, color correction tools, and a lot of processing power. As for the rendering, DS Nitris will take the fastest computer you can find and maximize it.

DS is now using Media Composer style interface and even works seemlessly together. You won't feel it much any different even with an effects heavy sequence imported to either of the two. And with realtime performance, you can't help but love this software.


Media Composer

Same interface packed with tons of features. Now it supports the widely popular XDCams using Sony's XDcam Transfer Tool. Enhanced control for content drag and drop to timeline, enhanced keyframing controls in the effects editor, and the ability to copy, paste, and even remove redundant keyframes from content already in your timeline. But if there is something missing from Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro, it is Avid’s superior timecode support and on-screen display with the new AVX version of the Timecode Generator plug-in. The SubCap Generator, a new AVX plug-in in this version, allows for the dynamic compositing of text and the coordinated graphics onscreen.

Sometimes, tools within the application can make or break a software, so here's a list of what's in store for you in Media Composer:

1. Avid MediaLog for logging video information and metadata
2. Avid LogExchange, which handles information for film-to-videotape transfers
3. Avid FilmScribe, to handle change and cut lists required when finishing to a celluloid master
4. Avid EDL Master, used to transfer or translate edit data into varying industry types and formats
5. Avid MetaSync Manager, a new tool designed for interactive object programming and metadata content creation on a Mac

Avid FX is now seamlessly integrated with Media Composer as a supplementary editing mode for your titling, on screen graphics, and effects needs

Rather than developing their own effects packages, Avid tries to scour the market instead for the best third party plugin available which includes:

• Smart Sound’s Sonicfire Pro 4.5, with both Core Foundations and Core Sessions libraries for audio content creation
• Sorenson Squeeze 5, for Internet and DVD compression
• Boris Continuum Complete 5, for advanced graphic effects and transition

However, Mac users will find it disappointing to know that it lacks a DVD software.

Now that Avid has opened its doors for a software only version, prosumers can now enjoy Media Composer's features without the industrial price tag of the hardware.


NewsCutter Adrenaline

The NewsCutter Adrenaline FX system significantly expands news editing capabilities with industry-leading speed, reliability, and the broadest range of professional news-oriented editing and workflow features in a single, turnkey PC-based platform. The system also supports a broad range of video formats from DV and IMX to uncompressed SD over a standard FireWire(R) connection, 24-bit audio, and the highest quality 3D effects in the industry, including Marquee(R) real-time 3D titling and effects.


Symphony Nitris

Realtime layering will give you a feel of what it is capable of. Load it with whatever you need in the production industry and still you won't get any dropped frames.

Avid Symphony is about color correction, this is the main reason why you'll buy it in the first place. With new features such as color cast removal and vector locks which were taken from the Adrenaline products.

Isolating the colors to be keyed is actually quite similar to the keyer in Autodesk Discreet Flame in that you can choose a vector display called SpectraGraph to help narrow down the key color. Its range of controls are far superior to those of the previous chromakeyers, and the results are clean. Or you can monitor the created alpha.

Speed doing repetitive tasks, scrolling, manipulating media, motion effects…simply getting the job done, the Symphony Nitris truly keeps up. Renders, when needed, are extremely fast, even in 16-bit processing mode. "Blue" dot effects render at close to previous "Orange" dot speeds. Even adding workspaces from my Avid Unity is faster than it once was.


Avid Xpress Pro HD

Installation is smooth, although you have to consider the hardware requirements are quite steep, and this has been always with HD intensive solutions.

The interface is almost the same with all Avid software. It will be a big effort if you haven't touched any Avid before but in the long run, this workflow interface is user-friendly and efficient to save time and effort.

Opening a new project will give you an option to a wide range of HD standard settings. One of the key features that delights small post production studios is its capability to include both HD and DV formats in one sequence, a total time saver.

If you want a feel of Avid software without much of the hardware costs, try this.


So that ends up our three-part discussion about movie editing softwares. I hope these posts will help you decide which software fits your needs. Please do come back for more video production tips and articles.

Movie editing softwares - Apple Inc.

We are now on the second part of our movie editing software series and today's list will be coming from one of the giants in the industry Apple Inc. As we all know, Apple has provided the ever famous and highly coveted Mac OS. But this is not the focus of our topic today. Today we will try to discuss see what makes Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro, and iMovie stand up from their competitors.

Final Cut Express

If you are trying to edit your newly shot footage but are still intimidated by Final Cut Pro or limited by iMovie, then this software is for you.

You won't see much of the difference between Express and Pro, in fact, it almost looks the same except for some features that had been taken out. It's also so much the same that you might forget you are using a consumer application, dv-only editing software!

"But come on, let's get into the features already" I hear you say...

Apple made the Audio/Video menu panel idiot-proof by removing much of the confusion in the choices and replaced it with easy to use configuration options. This makes setting up your DV camera a breeze so you could go on with your editing already.

You will also notice a difference in the capture process. Final Cut Express does not allow multiple batch capture anymore, instead, you have no choice but to get into the in and out of the clip and capture. Now this forces much of the users to just capture all and minimize the effort. But one of the features of Final Cut Express is the ability to capture from a project file! Imagine you deleted all your captures just to find out you have to make very minor changes. Instead of painstakingly going through the whole process again, just press the "capture project" and the deleted capture clips are back again as if nothing happened.

Trimming buttons for your trimming needs has been left unchanged in the timeline. And Apple also decided to leave the trimming window as well.

By default, clips are being view as large thumbnails rather than the previous list view. This makes it easier from folks coming from iMovie to see their clips.

What you will find lacking in Final Cut Express is the animating tool. But this is understandable since they want to keep it simple for the users. However, you can still animate with the basic properties such as position, scale, and rotation.

You will also find it useful to have a Voice Over Tool which actually came from Pro.


Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro handles everything from basic digital video editing to uncompressed High-Definition video processing. Final Cut Pro is both powerful and affordable for a wide range on professionals.

Movie editing software has never been made this way before.

Open Format Timeline is the most notable feature of FCP. Now you can mix clips with different frame sizes, frame rates, and codecs into one sequence and FCP handles all the conversions in realtime. Though it's not perfect, it's a step ahead from its competition.

SmoothCam is an FCP plugin that stabilizes shots where other plugins failed. But the plugin still has rough edges. You will notice a slowdown in the performance when working with an HD footage since FCP always renders the entire shot.

Surround Sound is an additional feature unlike the previous versions. But you will need an additional hardware since Mac's audio port does not support this.

Suite Integration of FCP with other softwares makes it easy to move project application to another. FCP comes in with Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Compressor, DVD Studio Pro, and Color all in the Final Cut Studio Bundle.

Reliable Performance has always been an issue in movie editing softwares and Final Cut Pro delivers it well. It has always been noted with FCP's however, this is in exchange of the very steep machine requirements.


iMovie

With the popularity of broadband internet access comes iMovie's transformation to more of an online tool to get your videos published fast. iMovie is now focused on helping people organize, view, and edit movies all in one place. Best of all, uploading it directly to YouTube is part of options if you choose to. But some of the features from the previous version had been taken off. However, the thing that will amaze you is how iMovie has taken a different approach in editing videos. The interface looks more like iPhoto for moving pictures. This approach has restarted the learning curve from the previous version since the experience will be totally different. I recommend viewing online tutorials so as to get you started (right).

Skimming is a new feature that lets you skim through frames of your video. Want a specific frame? Skim, click, and drag to project window! Beginners and professionals would find this very useful. And this is the recurring theme in iMovie as it takes out the technical complexities so you could focus more on fun. For example, you don't have to bother about the frame rate and frame size, all of it is handled internally when starting your project with a few clicks.

YouTube is now integrated with as few as three clicks, your videos will be viewed by millions even before you get home from a party!

Simplicity has never been like this for iMovie. Even a total computer illiterate can start taking and editing videos. Of course, Apple has to sacrifice much of the advance features that people from the previous versions enjoyed, but nontheless the ease of use over shadows the advance features and the market will love it.


That's it for Apple's list of movie editing softwares. I hope you come back for more as we take a look into one of the considered professional movie editing software out in the market coming from Avid Technology.