Truelove Tech

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I noticed I haven't posted anything here since 21st June (and we all know what happened then!), I guess I've been in shock.

Disruptive technology is a big thing at the moment. Apple is especially famous for it, usually by creating something so compelling that it turns a market on it's head. This time they've created something (FCP X) so uncompelling (at least in my market) that it turns a market on it's head.

So, we are living in exciting times: 

The bad news is that all the Apple Pro Apps tricks we learned over the last 10 years are out of date.

The good news that after being forced to look at the alternatives we've discovered that while Apple have been focused elsewhere, Avid & Adobe have been working hard to provide solutions for file-based, multi-user workflows that we'd been hoping FCP8 would supply.

So it's a time of ecdysis, a time to grow.

MSP

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What's that all about?

 

FCPX File Menu:

No "Open Project" in iMovie either. You see all available Projects in the "Project Browser" after opening the App

 

iMovie Project Browser:

But where are those Projects? How do we share them?

This is going to be fun!

MSP

 

 

UPDATE...........................15/06/11 21:15 AEST 

well this triggered some interesting debate on Twitter and sent me back to iMovie to do some more research. 

It appears that Asset Management for FCP X is nothing new, it's been around in iMovie for a couple of years at least (although the only metadata iMovie allows you to attach to a clip is 'favourite').

The media and 'Project' are completely separate in iMovie and Project is nothing more than a single timeline (hopeful multiple timelines with Compound Clips in FCP X). Perfect for living in the iCloud.

iMovie Project Browser

 

The Media is presented in the 'Event Library', which is in fact another view of the File System and metadata such as 'subclips' and 'markers' are stored with the media for a 'smart browser' to view.

iMovie Event Library 

 

The same 'project' on an external drive in Finder. 

 

Phil Hodgetts described the 'Event Library' as a mini-DAM, but as somebody who often works on and sets up projects to be accessed by multiple people it seems an ideal way for multiple people to access and maintain a single source of metadata (especially compared to the horror of multiple people accessing a single FCP project). 

 

And it's elegant and usable by end users as much as Final Cut Server wasn't.

Currently iMovie won't access ethernet shared storage, but I can't imagine FCP X having that restriction.

 

Can't wait. 

MSP

 

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Ok you think I'm joking, but just because the world & technology weren't ready for it 10 years ago doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it.

It's definitely time for a redesign, I bought my first PowerMac G5 before my daughter was born and it's her 8th birthday on Monday, that G5 looked identical to today's MacPro.
There's been speculation about the next MacPro being like a taller MacMini, sounds about right, all the IO can be handled by daisy-chained Thunderbolt & USB (maybe Firewire for legacy devices for the moment), No need for PCI slots. 

It will need some serious cooling for those 12-core and more CPUs, the Cube had a central tunnel designed to keep G4s cool by convection without any noisy fans, but noisy fans are a problem that Apple solved years ago by using large slow moving fans.
If you remove the need for gravity cooling you can make vertical/horizontal orientation a user preference. What if the cube/tower was aprox. 9.5ins high? You could put 2 side by side in a rack and cool them front to back like a Xserve, great for an Xsan setup or a render farm.

If I was designing the NewCube I would put 2 or 3 (hot-swappable) drives on the front a la Xserve, but that could just be the Techie in me who just doesn't get the new paradigm.

One of the biggest problems would be the MSM Pros sneering at the new NeXT/Apple cube, Steve's famous obsession/failure, but when has Apple every cared about what the status quo thinks?
How about something to announce at WWDC if the iPhone5 is going to be delayed by couple of months and the talk will be about Lion?

I should say that I know absolutely nothing about Apple's plans, but when's that stopped anyone speculating about their future?

MSP

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As part of my handout notes for the Data Wrangling course I gave for AFTRS I put together a Glossary of some of the obscure terms that we use, feel free to point out anything I've omitted.

.mov quicktime container file format
.mxf a video container file format
1080i50 interlaced 50fps HD spec (1980 x 1080)
1080p25 progressive 25fps HD spec (1980 x 1080)
720p progressive HD spec (1270 x 720)
AVCHD a Codec
Blu-ray An Optical disk format for storing lots of data
CF Card a generic data card format
Checksum a check for the integrity of a copied file. 
Codec enCode-Decode - an algorithm used for compressing video files 
Contour small rugged HD file-based camera 
DAM Digital Asset Management 
DSLR Digital SLR 
EX1 Sony File-based camera 
EX3 Sony File-based camera 
H264 a Codec 
HD High Definition 
Hero small rugged HD file-based camera 
LTO Data tape format 
Metadata Data about data 
P2 Panasonic data card format 
Proxy A low-res copy of the primary representation 
R3D Red RAW format 
RAID Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks 
RAW Data straight of the camera's sensor 
redundancy Multiple copies for security 
SD Standard Definition 
SD Card a generic data card format 
SXS Sony data card form-factor
XDCAM Sony file format 
XML a file format for storing metadata 
GoPro same as Hero 

Cheers
MSP

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There's a lot of talking on the internets at the moment about Twixtor, particularly this video.

But I want to draw your attention to another of their products Reel Smart Motion Blur.

I discovered this product when I was researching a retiming tool and playing around with twixtor and also Kronos from The Foundry.
I needed something that could produce an acceptable result in a PAL broadcast environment from gopro footage shot at 30fps, the added spice was that the gopro shoots with autoexposure and when the it light it's exposing for gets bright it starts to increase the shutter speed.

I was working with footage shot inside a car driving in The Outback, it was very bright outside! And as the car was driving past fences, telegraph poles, windmills, even the occasional tree, dropped frames stood out like dogs...

I took the 30p footage and spread it out over 50 frames in a 50i timeline using Compressor, this gave a reasonable solution in low light, but in the brighter footage we were getting presenters with 7 fingers when they moved their hands.
RSMB applied to the footage at 30fps before the retiming fixed it all up beautifully.

I've also discovered that it works very nicely on motion graphics created within FCP, infinitely better than the excreble 'Motion Blur' option in the Motion tab and much more convenient than 'sending' to Apple Motion or creating the graphics in Adobe After Effects.NB. You have to nest your graphics and apply the effect to the sequence rather than apply the effect to the graphic elements directly.

Did I say it cost $89.00! and works inside FCP
http://www.revisionfx.com/products/rsmb/overview/

Try to ignore the terrible website, the product is actually quite good.

MSP

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The ability to assimilate large amounts of information in a short time and to be able to 'dump' this information quickly to make room for the next project.

MSP

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http://www.isteadyshot.com/

looks nicely made anyway.

MSP

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http://media.fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-ep092.mov

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I really like the look of Storm. Although The Foundry are heavily backing it as a Red solution I see the style of workflow as being the future of moving images. Just like in stills photography where RAW shooting has become the standard professional practice using programs such as Aperture and Lightroom to manage the data (in fact decoding of RAW images is even built into OS X). I think the same thing will become universal in video... The DIgital Negative. 

At the moment this workflow has been pioneered by Red with lots of stumbles along the way, but just as all serious still camera manufacturers offer a RAW shooting option, all video cameras will have this, starting at the top end with Arri etc, but before too long Sony, Canon etc.

I also like the way it integrates into FCP, as Apple looses interest in the Pro market others move in to fill the gaps in it's products. Thanks to Apple's forsight in designing the project files around XML even as the FCP the program dies it's being reborn.

I can see Storm growing into something more as well, all the current surviving professional NLE's are over 10 years old and have their foundations (and still a lot of their code) in Mac OS 9. There needs to be an application that is written from the ground up to fit the current requirements for new media. When these Apps were created video editing was a niche within a niche, but now video has become the mainstream tool for communication.

The Finder has changed over the last 10 years to give us Coverflow and Quickview wouldn't that sort of sophistication be great in an NLE browser alongside the metadata.

And it already has a multi-layered timeline.

And the price... first taste is free (well first 3 months) and after that $375 and it runs on a Macbook Pro with 2GB of RAM. We thought the price of Resolve we amazing, but this really is cheap, The Foundry are obviously going for a mass market, a market bigger than the 1000s of Red Camera owners out there.

I can't wait to get my hands on a copy in November.

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Cheap over-cranked HD footage using DSLR cameras. (NB.this technique can be used with any camera that shoots progressive footage at high frame rates)

 

Ingredients:

• Canon 7D 60D or 550D, GoProHD, Kodak Zi8 (for the real cheap-arses (yes, I have one))
• Apple Final Cut Studio 3

 

As well as shooting 1080P, Canon’s 7D and 550D can shoot 720P HD footage at 50fps and 60fps.

 

You can use Apple’s Compressor to conform this footage to 25 or 24fps to allow playback of the footage as HD Slo-mo.

 

Tip: in Australia (and probably the rest of the world) there is little traditional footage “Broadcast” at 25fps, nominally PAL specification. Most material finished on HD is consumed on computers either from Blu-ray or (more importantly for the future) file formats or Youtube or Vimeo, so broadcast specs such as 25 or 29.98fps are irrelevant, therefore I would shoot at 60fps and conform to 24fps to get the greatest ratio of speed change.

 

Duplicate the Apple Compressor setting Apple Prores 422 (HQ) (Setting not particularly important, but this is a good basis for editing in FCP and maintaining maximum quality)

A new setting will appear under the Custom setting folder.

Double click on the new setting to open the inspector.

Go into the second tab in the inspector Encoder and click on video settings, and change the frame rate from current to 24fps.

Also in the second tab set Audio to disabled.

Shot on a Canon 550D

Focus at the Forum from Mark Stewart-Pearson on Vimeo.

Shot on a Kodak Zi8

Kid on the Trampoline 2 from Mark Stewart-Pearson on Vimeo.

 

MSP

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I just got back from Future Reality's (http://www.future.com.au/future/Home.html ) launch of the new DaVinci Resolve V7 (http://decklink.com/davinci/resolve/ ), the biggest news as I sure you all know is that the company was bought by Melbourne-based video card maker Blackmagic and their flagship grading product has gone from a hardware solution priced in the 100s of thousands to software solution running on Mac OS X starting at $1300au.

There were 3 systems on display, a Macbook Pro-based setup with a Tangent Wave control surface (http://www.tangentdevices.co.uk/products_wave.asp ), a MacPro-based setup, with a RedRocket for realtime debayering of raw RED footage and a full DaVinci USB-based control surface and a full Linux-based system (which also included a very nice Blackmagic Ultrascope setup).
I had a play with the Macbook Pro system and loved the Tangent Wave and found the software worked fine on the low-end hardware.

The main demo was done by Warren Eagles on the MacPro system, using a beta version of the software (final release due... very soon). I was very impressed by the fluidity of of the workflow especially when working with 4K R3D footage (playback was at 2K as the RedRocket had to be installed in a 4-lane PCI slot, a MacPro feature). The auto trackers which don't require you to set any tracking points are amazing (at least on the demo footage!). The MacPro didn't seem to have any problems playing more than 10 grades simultaneously, although it did start to slow down when any blurs were added. The beta software could not import FCP XML, only EDLs at the moment, but I was told to wait for some announcements at IBC next month. The Scene Cut Detector was very nice for when you don't have either.

Other highlights included:
native support for most Apple codecs inc. H264 from DSLR and all forms of ProRes.
Stereoscopic support on all systems
Tight integration with Blackmagic's Decklink HD Extreme 3D (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/decklinkhdextreme/ )
Project and clip-based variation of all RED settings

Did I mention the price?

MSP
Sent from my iPad

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