Free Pan And Zoom Plug-In For Final Cut Pro X From FxFactory

Even though Final Cut Pro X has the Ken Burns Effect, take your pan-and-zoom effects to a new level with this free Pan and Zoom plug-in from FxFactory. No need for keyframing, no need for a degree in computer animation, but you end up with beautiful and professional results. You’ll need FxFactory 3.0.3, which is free, and then you simply download, install and register the free plug-in. Get the details on this free Pan and Zoom plug-in at Noise Industries’ FxFactory page. The plug-in works with FCP 6 and 7, Motion 5 and After Effects. They also have a video tutorial available:

Want more plug-ins for FCP X? Check out my massive — and growing — list!

Adobe Creative Cloud, Muse Now Available

Adobe has released Creative Cloud, a subscription-based way to affordably access and use the CS6 apps, including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop and more. Also released is Muse 1.0, which allows users to easily create nice websites without knowing code. Plus, two new Adobe Touch apps. Check out the press release:

Two New Touch Apps for iOS and Adobe Muse 1.0 Also Shipping

SAN JOSE, Calif. — May 11, 2012 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Creative Cloud™, a radical new way of providing tools and services* for creatives. A subscription-based offering, Adobe Creative Cloud is a hub for making, sharing and delivering creative work and it is centered around a powerful release of Adobe Creative Suite® 6 software, packed with innovation across its industry-defining design, Web, video and digital imaging tools. The CS6 product line includes new releases of Photoshop®, InDesign®, Illustrator®, Dreamweaver®, Adobe Premiere® Pro, After Effects®, Flash® Professional and other products.

In addition, two new Touch Apps† – Adobe Proto and Adobe Collage – are now available for iOS devices, as are new features and additional language support in both Photoshop Touch and Adobe Ideas. Emerging from a successful beta program, that saw over 700,000 downloads, Adobe Muse software also became available today to Creative Cloud members and individual subscribers.  Muse is a stunning new tool that enables designers to create HTML5-based websites without writing code (see separate release).

“Adobe Creative Cloud members receive full access to the entire portfolio of Creative Suite 6 tools, integration with our touch tools, file storage and sharing services and Web hosting – everything they need to go from idea to finished work, at a breakthrough monthly subscription price,“ said David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media Business, Adobe. “Creative Cloud will allow our product teams to unleash a constant stream of innovation, releasing new features, apps and services as they are developed.”

Adobe Creative Cloud Membership Delivers:

  • ·        Access to download and install all CS6 applications, new HTML5 desktop products – Adobe Muse and Adobe Edge preview – and integration with Adobe Touch Apps
  • ·        Easy storage and sharing of content across desktop, mobile devices and the cloud
  • ·        Integrated website publishing and hosting
  • ·        Ongoing innovation that provides members with the most up-to-date products and services

 Pricing and Availability

Adobe Creative Cloud membership is available today to customers in 36 countries and in multiple languages. Pricing for Creative Cloud membership for individuals is US$49.99 per month based on annual membership and US$74.99 per month for month-to-month membership. A special introductory offer of US$29.99 per month for CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 individual customers is also available. Education pricing is available. To learn more, please visitwww.adobe.com/go/creativecloud.

Adobe Touch Apps are available separately for purchase from the iTunes App Store‡ or Google Play for US$9.99 each. Special offers for Adobe Touch Apps are available for customers who sign up for annual membership of Adobe Creative Cloud. For more details, visit www.adobe.com/products/touchapps.

My Short Film Hellevator Is Almost Done

Hellevator, starring Greg Nappo, is a short film written by comic book legend David Michelinie (Iron Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Superman), and directed by me, that we shot on the Panasonic HPX500 a little while back. It was shot completely against a green screen, and required all sorts of visual effects to bring to life. My long-time film collaborator Jeremiah Hall took care of all the VFX, using Adobe After Effects CS5.5, Photoshop CS5.1, Boris Continuum Complete 7, and Twixtor 5. Just a few days ago, he delivered the last clip, which I dropped into the cut, and now we’re moving onto sound FX and mixing, with the help of my long-time film partner Grant Balfour, who also composed the score.

In addition to the film being shot in 720p24 on the HPX500, we shot the background plates with a Nikon D200, Canon 60D and even an iPhone 4S, plus recorded voiceovers on a Sony HVR-V1u. I did the first cut, all green screen clips in Final Cut Pro legacy, but when Jeremiah first started delivering FX shots, I turned to Final Cut Pro X, and started from scratch — I didn’t use the excellent 7toX to bring in the old cut, I started fresh in FCP X. I had about 40% of the FX, so I used the green screen clips to create a new cut, and then I’d swap out finished clips as I received them. I’ll be using FCP X to mix the audio, and have laid the music onto my timeline.

Editing Hellevator in Final Cut Pro X

I’ll have a more in-depth article or set of articles on how we brought Hellevator to life once the film is done, along with clips or the entire finished movie. For now, check out our official Hellevator page.

Adobe CS6 Now Available

Adobe has announced that their CS6 collection is now available, with updates to Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and more. Go to Adobe’s website to learn more about all the apps. Here’s the official press release:

Adobe Creative Cloud Coming May 11

SAN JOSE, Calif. — May 7, 2012  Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Creative Suite® 6 software. The CS6 product line includes powerful new releases of Photoshop®, InDesign®, lllustrator®, Dreamweaver®, Adobe Premiere® Pro, After Effects®, Flash® Professional and other products as well as four suite versions – Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium; Creative Suite 6 Design Standard; Creative Suite 6 Production Premium; and Creative Suite 6 Master Collection.

Adobe Creative Cloud™, a radical new way of providing tools and services* for creatives worldwide is expected to be available on Friday, May 11.  A subscription-based offering, Adobe Creative Cloud is a hub for making, sharing and delivering creative work and it is centered around a powerful release of Adobe Creative Suite® 6 software, packed with innovation across its industry-defining design, Web, video and digital imaging tools. CS6 point product subscriptions will also be available May 11.

“We announced Creative Cloud and CS6 two weeks ago and these releases have caught the imagination of creatives everywhere,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media Business, Adobe. “Today we’re shipping CS6 and look forward to the beginning of an exciting new era as we introduce Creative Cloud later this week.”

Top new features across the CS6 product line include:

  • New levels of performance with tools that take advantage of Adobe Mercury Graphics functionality, allowing users to go from ideas to finished work faster than ever before.
  • Enhanced user interfaces that vastly simplify workflows, so users can focus on their content and achieve results quicker.
  • New capabilities that streamline the creation of responsive content, ensuring website and apps look great across virtually all screen sizes and form factors.
  • Remarkable new science, integrated into imaging and video apps, makes previously impossible tasks suddenly possible.

Adobe Creative Cloud membership delivers:

  • Access to download and install all CS6 applications, new HTML5 desktop products – Adobe Muse™ 1.0 and Adobe Edge preview – and deep integration with Adobe Touch Apps.
  • Easy storage and sharing of content across desktop, mobile devices and the cloud.
  • Integrated website publishing and hosting.
  • Ongoing innovation that provides members with the most up-to-date products and services

Pricing and Availability
Adobe Creative Suite 6 products are immediately available through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store in North America and Adobe Direct Sales. Estimated street price for the suites is US$2,599 for CS6 Master Collection, US$1,899 for CS6 Production Premium, US$1,899 for CS6 Design & Web Premium, and US$1,299 for CS6 Design Standard. Upgrade and education pricing as well as volume licensing are available. For more information visitwww.adobe.com/products/creativesuite.html.

Adobe Creative Cloud membership is available to customers in 36 countries and in multiple languages. Pricing for Creative Cloud membership for individuals is US$49.99 per month based on annual membership and US$74.99 per month for month-to-month membership. A special introductory offer of US$29.99 per month for CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 individual customers is also available.  Education pricing is available.  Learn more atwww.adobe.com/go/creativecloud.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Final Cut Pro X Workshop Tonight April 26, 2012 In Boca Raton, Florida

I know this is a little last minute, but my film society is presenting a Final Cut Pro X introductory workshop in Boca Raton, Florida, tonight, April 26, 2012 from 6 to 9 PM at America’s Production Company. FCP X certified instructor Jeff Fortune is the presenter, and Palm Beach County Filmmakers has teamed up with us. Get all the information plus directions at Palm Beach Film Society’s site.

Editoid Allows Final Cut Pro X Users To Automate Part Of Their Editing

This is really interesting… Editoid from iMageneering/Imagenharia in Brazil created an app that can help automate your editing in Final Cut Pro X, especially with reptitive editing like similar projects. It uses keywords to create templates, which will switch out footage for a new project via FCP X’s XML. Here is how it works:

1. At Final Cut Pro X’s project library, select a project and export its XML, saving it inside Editoid’s templates folder. Editiod watches that folder and automatically creates In and Out folders for each template.

2. Select a Final Cut Pro X Event and export its XML, saving it inside the In folder for the template to be used. Editoid watches all templates In folders and automatically creates a new Project XML for each Event XML in the folders.

3. Now, simply double-click the generated Project XML in the template’s Out folder and Final Cut Pro X will open it and show the generated edit.

Check out the Editoid quickstart guide; there’s a 30-day trial, and the cost is $149. Find out more at iMageneering’s site.

Hat tip: FCP.co and Ben Balser

Adobe Launches Creative Cloud, CS6

Here are details on the launch. Macworld has a great breakdown about the Adobe Creative Cloud/CS6 and a “what-you-need-to-know.”

Adobe’s press release:

SAN JOSE, Calif. —April 23, 2012 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Creative Cloud™, a radical new way of providing tools and services* that will change the game for creatives worldwide.  A subscription-based offering, Adobe Creative Cloud is a hub for making, sharing and delivering creative work and it is centered around a powerful release of Adobe Creative Suite® 6 software (see separate release), packed with innovation across its industry-defining design, Web, video and digital imaging tools.

And:

SAN JOSE, Calif. — April 23, 2012 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the ultimate toolkit for design, Web and video professionals with the unveiling of the Adobe® Creative Suite® 6 product line and Adobe Creative Cloud™ (see separate release). Powerful new releases of 14 CS6 applications and four Creative Suites – Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium, Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design Standard, Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium, and Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection – drive home Adobe’s continued innovation across creative markets. A new subscription-based offering, Adobe Creative Cloud, will provide users with the ability to download and install every Adobe CS6 application* announced today.  Creative Cloud also integrates Adobe Touch Apps† into everyday work, introduces cloud-based sync and store capabilities, and powers the publishing of apps and high-impact Web experiences.

More on Adobe Creative Cloud.

Radical Media CTO Evan Schectman Talks The State Of The NLE

This is a must-see as @radical.media’s CTO Evan Schectman goes to Tekserve to discuss the current state of the NLE. @radical.media in New York City recently went all-in with Final Cut Pro X, Evan knows his stuff.

You should also check out his first look at FCP X from last summer. (Hat tip: Ray Sigmond)

NAB 2012 Coverage, Including Blackmagic’s Cinema Camera

I wasn’t at NAB, but the company I work for, Doddle, was. Here’s all the coverage from NAB 2012, including the surprise announcment of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. That one is a bit of a gamechanger, at least for Blackmagic Design, known mostly for their terrific capture/output/monitoring devices and DaVinci Resolve/Lite color correction software. Back to Final Cut Pro X posting shortly.

Final Cut Pro X: Fast And The Best Multitasking Video Editor

I’m working on two distinct projects right now in Final Cut Pro X, including importing 90 minutes of a speech for a corporate client, allowing FCP X to analize the 1080p30 Sony EX1 footage, rendering the timecode generator I dropped over the primary storyline and export as a 640 x 480 QuickTime for my client. I needed to do some additional work on another project, a short film I produced and directed called Hellevator, written by comic book legend David Michelinie (Iron Man, Superman, Spider-Man). My long-time friend and colleague Jeremiah Hall is taking care of the visual effects and uploading 720p24 clips (the animation QuickTime codec) to DropBox for me to grab.

Editing Hellevator in Final Cut Pro X

So with the first project handling analysis, render  and 480p export, Final Cut Pro X (10.0.4) easily opened Hellevator up, and I was able to quickly replace green screen shots with finished ones. There was no lag, no spinning beach ball of doom, none of that. FCP X handled all the tasks without a problem, and didn’t skip a beat. Plus, broadcast monitoring is still working well with the new Matrox drivers and my MXO2 mini!

Oh, and did I mention that I’m currently cutting on a mid-2011 base model Mac mini with an Intel Core i5 processor (dual-core) running at 2.3 GHz, with an Intel HD Graphics 3000 and 8GB of RAM, along with a FireWire 800 external hard drive, and a Mercury Elite-AL Elite Pro Dual mini RAID from Other World Computing? Now, imagine if I were on a quad-core Intel Core i7 iMac or MacBook Pro? Final Cut Pro X is a true multitasking workhorse. As a long-time Final Cut Pro editor, since 1999, I’ve waited a long time to be able to do this. Also, be sure to check out Final Cut Pro X in Action, which showcases the team behind TNT’s hit show Leverage.