Final Cut Studio 2

So, Ladies and Gentlemen,

here it is.

Shake's SmoothCam integrated into Motion3

Support for the RED

new CC called Color (I guess its origin is the Final Touch)

new Compressor

surround

etc.:-)

...

Final Cut Studio 2

Jules

just watched all the promo clips. more than i expected in this release! i can't wait

Yep, and even more money out of my pocket. Oh well, haven't missed a version of FCP yet so why break the good chain. Anyone want to buy versions 4 or 5?;-)

Steve B)

This is what makes me incredibly interested in the new version:

"At the core of Final Cut Studio 2 is Final Cut Pro 6, the latest version of Apple’s Emmy award-winning editing software which includes a new Open Format Timeline that lets editors mix and match virtually any video format and frame-rate in a single Timeline without transcoding. ProRes 422, a new full raster, 10-bit 4:2:2 post production format produces stunning HD quality at SD file sizes, making it ideal for working efficiently across a SAN or on a MacBook® Pro in the field. Companies including Panasonic, Sony and RED are embracing ProRes 422 as they continue to innovate on the next generation of cameras. Final Cut Pro 6 also includes optical flow based SmoothCam technology to remove unwanted or jarring camera movement with simple, easy-to-use tools".

ProRes 422 sounds like it could be the bomb. Fact that Sony, Pani and Red are embracing it rocks. Integrated smooth cam and you have a huge winner. Now add this:

"New to Final Cut Studio is Color, which puts a logical task-based color grading and finishing workflow in the hands of every Final Cut Pro editor. The primaries in Color include advanced color correction tools such as gamma, lift and gain adjustments, as well as custom R, G, B and luma curves, and the secondaries provide the ability to isolate specific areas of an image with soft-edged mattes and custom-shaped vignettes, which can be tracked with ease. Professional scopes provide precise monitoring of chrominance and luminance values via waveforms, histograms and new 3D scopes....inal Cut Pro 6 directly to Color for grading, finishing and final rendering with 32-bit float 4:4:4 image processing."

Now that is the color correction i have been dreaming of for underwater clips!

I think they have really raised the bar for the industry this time

Press Release: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/04/15fcstudio.html

FYI: I am at NAB Wed and Thurs. Will report back on what i find.

-shawn

I wonder if I have the horsepower to run all the new rings and bells on my 'old' Quad <_< .... and oh my - looks like you need to have twin 30" monitors to really do all the new colour correction stuff justice.

Shouldn't this post be on the 'gear lust' thread?

Like Steve, will doubless upgrade. Damn the expense. Now didn't I just see another thread that mentioned Wetpixel anonymous? Was thinking of joining, but unlike AA, seems our buddies are into encouraging one to buy more toys to make them look normal !!

DVD STUDIO PRO 4

Supported Output Formats

DVD-R using Apple DVD-R drive or Pioneer DVR-S201 recorder

DLT tape (required for DVD-9 projects)

DDP to hard drive

CMF on DVD-R (Cutting Master Format)

Disk Image

HD DVD blue-laser replication

What about Blue Ray ?

There was no update for DVDSP. I guess they are waiting until this stupid "HD-DV or BlueRay" competition will end... I hope in the near future...

There was no update for DVDSP. I guess they are waiting until this stupid "HD-DV or BlueRay" competition will end... I hope in the near future...

It's ridiculous that Apple is selling its top machine 8 core bla bla bla, releasing a main update of its NLE and we still have those old SuperDrive writing our HD stuff with old old SD resolution. come on !

One of the worst things to come out of this is that many Mac users will have to upgrade their graphics card in order to use the new Color application that will be shipped with Studio 2. I have a Radeon 9800Pro card installed but to use Color, I will need a 1900 card. Except, they don't make the 1900 card for my G5. All other applications will work fine however and I really don't care about the Color app. I am installing a new 500gig internal drive and a gig and a half more ram on top of the 2 gigs ram I already have installed.

Steve B)

Oops that is a good point Steve, and I actually am very interested in the new color application.

The card in my Quad is the NVIDIA GeForce 6600, a PCI (slot -1) card with 256 MB VRAM. I can sense the depressing answer to this, but will this card be sufficient? How do I find out? I'm lothe to invest the money in a FCS upgrade only to find I then have a whole new issue with the h/w.

Here you are:

Application-Specific Requirements

The following graphics card is highly recommended: ATI Radeon X1900 XT

Color

The standard graphics card in any Mac Pro, 17-inch MacBook Pro, 24-inch iMac with Intel Core Duo, or 2.5GHz or faster Power Mac G5 Quad:

ATI Mobility Radeon X1600

ATI Radeon X1600

NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, 7600 GT, 7300 GT, 6800 Ultra DDL, 6800 GT DDL, 6600, or Quadro FX 4500

They only seem to come in a PCI-Express format That's PCI-E as opposed to PCI-X The older G5s are AGP

Even if your card will work it is still the 1900 you will want unless new news comes out after NAB this week.

Color will be card dependant while Final Cut, Motion, DVD Studio Pro(which is the only app within the studio not to have had an upgrade, TitleMaker and Soundtrack will work just fine with your old card. Remember that Motion is very ram dependent which is the reason I am upping my 2gigs of ram to 3.5

Hope this helps,

Steve B)

Hah, I have the Geforce 7300GT....

Yes, Motion or any other program which makes live RAm preview need a tons of RAM.

For my side, I am extremely curious about Color. I have ssen formerly the Final Touch 2.5 HD, which can be seen as its predecessor. Colors are very important for me, especially secondary color corrections.

Jules

Hey guys,

The reason you need a serious card is not just because apple wants to sell more boxes (which the do). Color operates in a 4:4:4 10bit color space to ensure you get the best color correction possible. That means even HDV is decoded into this space. This a very serious color correction program for professional applications. That being said, most folks with some basic knowledge can get into and do some great stuff.

Do not expect the same workflow as you had with 3Way CC. I had a very detailed technical discussion with the lead engineer and product designer at NAB. I'll be posting an update shortly with my findings on inside details about FCS 2.

shawn

Thanks Steve; and done a little searching myself. Looks like this baby will need a serious card alright as Shawn says. Hmm, as a dilitante amateur it really is difficult to justify such professional post production expenses. I'll have to see how the next couple of quarters go commissionwise before I decide......

Okay, I will buy a Quadra-card. At least I can hook my second 30" display on it

Interesting info...inside word is that the ATI Radeon X1900 outperforms the NVidia Quatro with the FCS apps. Save the addl $1400 and buy the ATI. The machines at NAB were useing the ATI for the main demos. That is a pretty good indicator.

I have the X1900 because I heard that there was no improvement when using the Quadro with Aperture.

Just a few notes:

1. SmoothCam is in FCP.

2. Color: Is working 24 hrs so that 7 seconds reef scene looks a little better worthwhile? Esp if your final output is the web or DVD? If broadcast, someone else will deal with it anyhow unless you are creating your own program.

3. DVDSP can't be upgraded anymore to a level than it already is other than adding support for blue laser formats. Compression is done with Compressor and Photoshop does the layered graphics. Design of the DVD interface/template is pretty much all there. What is really needed is a better compression scheme that allows more control over encoding of various scenes, as MPEG encoding is a black art.

Szia Drew,

concerning SmoothCam:

according to the Apple site:

SmoothCam is integrated to FCP6

and

SmoothCam is integrated to Motion 3

Maybe both statement is right

Hi,

Jules

Szia Gyula

Igen, Motion has a smoothcam-like feature in the Match Motion plugin. It's basically the same filter I think but it'd be redundant as most of the motion should've been edited out in FCP already. Using match motion for graphics is probably the reason.

Anyhow, I personally think doing everything in FCP and then export to motion for the added graphics before going back to FCP for final edit would be the most common workflow.