this software basically is a confidence system with the ablity to view and grade 10 cineon film sequences before going to a DI (digital intermediate). for me, i would use it to see our 2k renders log color space before delivering things to the client. this helps to keep you from looking like a moron when you see a client in a $2000/hr di session and he goes... why is that color wrong? sadly this kind of program and a rig to run it isnt cheap.
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Apple Acquires Silicon Color
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Wow, great news
I sell Final Cut workstations (Xsan, etc.) for a living, and ironically just got signed up as a Silicon Color reseller about a week ago. All I can say is this is potentially great news, and a lot of people are definitely hoping that FT, Shake, and FCP have some sort of a love child that can really take over a huge chunk of the high-end post industry.
As for Final Cut and its place in the industry -- well, let's just say that Apple has a large and growing chunk of the post market, and if they pull a few good moves over the next several years, will really likely mop the floor w/ the other big-A.
Re: Hardware controller for Final Touch -- there are a couple, you either saw one of the MCS-3000 series setups by JL Cooper, or the other main one that is REALLY expensive, can't remember the name offhand. No reason to think Apple would kill hardware controller support, they did no such thing with Logic Pro, and added hardware controller support in Final Cut, Motion...
I sell Final Cut workstations (Xsan, etc.) for a living, and ironically just got signed up as a Silicon Color reseller about a week ago. All I can say is this is potentially great news, and a lot of people are definitely hoping that FT, Shake, and FCP have some sort of a love child that can really take over a huge chunk of the high-end post industry.
As for Final Cut and its place in the industry -- well, let's just say that Apple has a large and growing chunk of the post market, and if they pull a few good moves over the next several years, will really likely mop the floor w/ the other big-A.
Re: Hardware controller for Final Touch -- there are a couple, you either saw one of the MCS-3000 series setups by JL Cooper, or the other main one that is REALLY expensive, can't remember the name offhand. No reason to think Apple would kill hardware controller support, they did no such thing with Logic Pro, and added hardware controller support in Final Cut, Motion...
If you think he's "ridiculously incorrect" then I think you should do your research. FCP is predominately used in lower to mid range projects and is rarely used for big budget movies or prime time shows. It's not a knock on the program it's just fact right now.bretm said:
Lethal
mohaukachi said:
It's a looooot cheaper than a several-hundred-thousand-plus Da Vinci setup, that's for sure! But you are right, it's not "cheap," and why should it be, or else everyone would fancy themselves a colorist, and that would probably just lead to a lot of garbage. Who knows, for all we know, some of this code might end up in iLife (I never thought I would see Logic end up in iLife, that's for sure).
CHROMEDOME said:
It kind of looks like a sniper rifle.
Can you provide any lay-user details? I didn't bother looking at the tech specs, as I wouldn't likely understand what they were talking about.
It's ultra-high definition, but what makes it so special? Can no other camera do it that well, or in such a small package?
In a nut shell the camera does everything from 480p to 4k for the current price of 17.5k (body only). Right now the class of camera RED is targeting is 6 figures for the "low-end" camera (like the one Lucas used to shoot Star Wars Ep.III) and rental only for the hi-end (like the camera used to shoot the new Superman movie).parenthesis said:
If RED lives up to half its hype that'll still be enough to throw a nice curve ball into the digital cinema camera market.
Lethal
clintob said:
Opinions are like ***holes: everyone has one, and everyone except your own stinks.
So, is REDCINES software and Hardware going to be closed like the ipod. Big hype on the camera. Wouldn't be to funny if the only way you could do workflow was on their software. I'm sure we can convert but if the only thing that can read the DATA is this workflow REDCINE software this could be the next itunes/ipod when it comes to a closed system... which for them if the hype lives up would be great. "sorry boys, if you wan't to use our cameras you are going to have to use our software too" If Sony made the worlds simplest highest quality camera that captured files only in .XD9 format and no other software could handle it then I guess over time people would have to use that hardware software platform even if it wasn't "the best" just like the ipod/itunes phenomena.
Finally good color correction from Apple!
I would love to see this technology integrated into FCP. FCP is pretty good software, but I've always had two beefs with it: Color Correction and Media Management.
Looks like they might be making a move to improve their CC features. That's great news. That 3-Way color corrector was cool until I tried to use it. It's pretty effective if you simply want to shift your WB, but it's a lot of work to create sophisticated looks and duplicate the setting across an entire scene (or film).
Media management is the next big hurdle. A lot of people still use Avid because it has a rock solid media management tool. Avid's software is also a lot more stable. It's much less likely to crash when you ask it to work hard. I haven't used FCP 5(.1), but v4.5 was still pretty crashtastic. From what I understand, the Media Management tool remained virtually untouched between 4.5 and 5(.1). Can anyone explain this? I know that reviewers and editors have dogged Apple and FCP for years over the media tool, so why is it still the same?
Many editors also say that Avid is a more elegant interface. I don't know about all that. It seems like a pretty subjective statement to me.
One thing is for sure, FCP is still coming up. Avid is the big boy now, but the next generation of editors (i.e. the 20 year olds currently in school) are all learning FCP. Apple was no fool to offer it cheap and make it good enough for film schools. It has turned out to be an excellent marketing move for the short and long term.
And another thing. Avid still refuses to set a date and/or version for the release of Universal Binaries. WTF is that about?
I would love to see this technology integrated into FCP. FCP is pretty good software, but I've always had two beefs with it: Color Correction and Media Management.
Looks like they might be making a move to improve their CC features. That's great news. That 3-Way color corrector was cool until I tried to use it. It's pretty effective if you simply want to shift your WB, but it's a lot of work to create sophisticated looks and duplicate the setting across an entire scene (or film).
Media management is the next big hurdle. A lot of people still use Avid because it has a rock solid media management tool. Avid's software is also a lot more stable. It's much less likely to crash when you ask it to work hard. I haven't used FCP 5(.1), but v4.5 was still pretty crashtastic. From what I understand, the Media Management tool remained virtually untouched between 4.5 and 5(.1). Can anyone explain this? I know that reviewers and editors have dogged Apple and FCP for years over the media tool, so why is it still the same?
Many editors also say that Avid is a more elegant interface. I don't know about all that. It seems like a pretty subjective statement to me.
One thing is for sure, FCP is still coming up. Avid is the big boy now, but the next generation of editors (i.e. the 20 year olds currently in school) are all learning FCP. Apple was no fool to offer it cheap and make it good enough for film schools. It has turned out to be an excellent marketing move for the short and long term.
And another thing. Avid still refuses to set a date and/or version for the release of Universal Binaries. WTF is that about?
No high-end tweaking needed
You are incorrect.
Final Touch 2K and HD System Requirements
Computer
Apple Power Mac Quad 2.5GHz G5
2GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 4500FX
Mac OS 10.4.6
Storage
A fast disk subsystem capable of sustaining at least 320MB/s
Displays
2 displays - Minimum resolution of 1280x1024.
For SDI out, a Blackmagic Decklink or AJA Kona is required.
Pretty standard stuff.
pxlmvr
mcorange said:
You are incorrect.
Final Touch 2K and HD System Requirements
Computer
Apple Power Mac Quad 2.5GHz G5
2GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 4500FX
Mac OS 10.4.6
Storage
A fast disk subsystem capable of sustaining at least 320MB/s
Displays
2 displays - Minimum resolution of 1280x1024.
For SDI out, a Blackmagic Decklink or AJA Kona is required.
Pretty standard stuff.
pxlmvr
I think you misunderstand what RECINE is for. You use it to downconvert the 4K files (assuming you even shoot at 4K) into pretty much any standard rez and file format you want. It's not like what Sony is doing w/HDCAM and their Xpri NLE, for example.mi5moav said:
As far as general crashing goes I think a lot of it depends on how well the systems are set up and maintained. I think Avid still has a bit of an edge, but nothing significant anymore. I've worked on enough of each to know neither can be trusted.sartinsauce said:
AFAIK, the reason why the Media Manager hasn't been significantly changed in FCP is that it would require a complete rebuild of how FCP handles all the files behind the scenes. *Hopefully* FCP 6 is a complete rebuild from the ground up (or close to it) and the MM gets a big face lift.
Elegant? I know a lot of people think it's a more efficient UI but elegant? Maybe back in the mid-90's when it was first developed.
Lethal
snarton said:
Yes. This will make the Motion/Shake/FinalTouch app all the more important.
Thank you apple for bringing high end finishing to the masses.
OutThere said:
True. I wonder how Apple will use this. If they just add it to FCP not many people will be able to use it on their systems if they using a MacBook Pro or even an older dual proc. G5. I can hear the complaints already.
jholzner said:
FT Standard Def, only requires STR of 50MB/s which 2 laptop drives in RAID0 can easily do- actually a 160GB 7.2k rpm Seagate Momentus stated to be shipping in 1st Q07 by Seagate, may do this in a single drive. Only HD requires 320MB/s (which is the same data rate needed to capture the uncompressed 4k output from the upcomming RED camera
), so a RAID of 10 SATA drives can do this easily, and there are such turnkey systems available for less than $5 (Apple's Xserve Raid are more expensive ). Since Apple has just acquired this product, (no univeral binaries yet, so MBP is a non issue at present ); we could expect some changes for the UB version of this software, that may allow it to run on a Santa Rosa/Merom 2.5GHz upgrade MBP to be announced at the April 2007 NAB (they annouced the upgraded 17in PB at NAB). Express Card ports will allow SATA2 bandwidth, which is enough for 320MB/s data flow. But if you look at the current 'system' prices of FT on their website, they aren't pricing it to pros would can't afford 10TB RAID subsystems. $27k for FT2k, yikes!Currently the ATI x1900 and the AJA cards combo are prefered over the NV Quadro. With new mobile GPU's based on smaller 80nm process being released by both ATI & NV in the next few months, a MBP might have enough GPU power to run FT2k also, assuming Apple can figure out how to kept those higher-end laptop GPU's from melting the MBP, lol.
Benifits of the RED camera are well covered in Wiki:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RED_Digital_Cinema
Really cool high-end 4k camera, IMO, is the PHANTOM 65, which should give you true 70mm film-like widescreen performance on a big, big theatre screen. Note, the P65 also has ISO of 600, which is far greater than the 4k Dalsa Origin
PHANTOM 65