oct06 cowmag spread

8/3/2019 Oct06 Cowmag Spread

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Introducing Adobe Production Studio. Like everything else in the Adobe Creative Suite

family, its indispensable software completely upgraded, integrated an d built to work

together as one. It combines Adobe After Effects 7.0 Professional, Premiere Pro 2.0,

Photoshop CS2, Audition 2.0, Encore DVD 2.0 and Illustrator CS2 with a new work-flow

feature named Dynamic Link to boost productivity. And its all here to help you save the day.

Better by Adobe.

The real heroes of the film arent in the film.

obe.com/thehero05 Adobe Systems Incorporated.All rights reserved.Adobe,the Adobe logo,After Effects, Audition,Better by Adobe,Encore, Illustrator,PhotoshopPremiere are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.


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October 2006 Creative Cow Magazine


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XDCAM HD makes mea better cameraman. Mark Falstad

Jody Eldred came to a similar conclusion. Im very impressed with the skin tone, the way the reds work,the good detail in the darks and the highlights. I have $160,000 invested in my F900 HDCAM package. Butthe F350 really deserves to wear its CineAlta badge. In fact, its way too good for a camera at this price.

Astonishing HD picture quality and an incredible toolset at anaffordable price... thats the new Betacam.

2006 Sony ElectronicsInc. Allrights reserved. Featuresandspecificationsaresubject to changewithout notice. Reproduction in wholeor in part without written permission isprohibited.Sony, CineAlta, HDCAM, Betacam andXDCAM aretrademarksofSony. The NewWay ofBusinessis aservicemark ofSony. Iditarodisa registeredtrademark oftheIditarodTrailCommittee.

Its way too good. Jody Eldred

The image that the PDW-F350 puts out is absolutely stunning, says director/cameraman Jody Eldred.XDCAM HD is the new Betacam .

Eldred and Mark Falstad, both Emmy Award winners, took PDW-F350 camcorders to the ends of theearth. Eldred went to Israel to shoot 1080/24P. Falstad went to Alaska to shoot the legendary Iditarod

sled dog race in both news-style 60i and documentary-style 24P. Featured on Sonys XDCAM HD DiscSet, the results speak for themselves.

Falstad says, We shot pictures that I never dreamed possible. For instance, in the middle of the nightwith only a hazy moon and no chance of making a picture, I simply turned on the Slow Shutter at 64frame accumulation and we got the classic shot of a glowy tent in the mountains. And absolutely nonoise because I wasn't boosting gain. It was stunning!

To do time lapse, I put the camera on my tripod, easily set up the frame count on the LCD display and hitthe trigger. It was that fast. Overcranking at 60 frames per second, you can see slow motion of the dogspaws kicking up snow and the ears and tongues flying. And you can play it back immediately in the camera.The PDW-F350 gives me a toolset that I never imagined having, especially at a price of $25,800 [MSRP].

See Jody and Marks dramatic footage. Register to get yourXDCAM HD Disc Set at www.sony.com/XDCAM

XDCAM HD is The New Betacam


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H ere we are again, the new issue o Creative COW Magazine. Yes, itslate as many things happened along the way. Those who know me,know that I never like losing sight o goals I have set, so I sea rched or options tohelp avoid delays in the uture and a great one came our way....

The phone rang one day and it was Tim Wilson, who spent the last threeyears at AVID Technology where he has been their Senior Product MarketingDirector. Tim asked i we had any interest in having him join the Cow Team? Asone o the smartest people we have ever worked with; one whose k nowledgeo this industry, its people and its tools, makes him one o the shining stars in

the industry skies our answer was Are you ready to start today?He wasnt,but it never hurts to ask. Tims ull-time help will sur ace in the next issue but he did make some

signi cant contributions to this issue and I held back the magazine, in part, togive Tim a chance to introduce himsel to our audience. You will nd two articlesby Tim in this issue and watch or even more stu rom Tim in the days ahead. Tim takes his bow here in this issues article on the work ow and tools usedby the Food Networks Good Eatsprogram. He also penned the one entitledWork ow: Table or One.In Table...Tim rates all the various s uite packages orwhat they have and what they dont. His insights and rankings may surpriseyou.

Kathlyn and I couldnt be happier about the chance to reunite with TimWilson. Tim is an old riend whom we used to work with and who grew rom hisyears as one o our orum leaders a nd writers, into his leadership roles at BorisFX and later, AVID. Tim proves that when your ocus is helping people and youare willing to share what you know with others, great things happen.

This issues ocus is work ow, the domain o maximizing existing resourcesto enhance a companys abilities. Those abilities are ound in people, nothardware, except as an assist. Having Tim back on the team has allowed us tokick around ideas and consider things that will enhance the COW to the bene to our members. There are many things on the drawing board, a ew alreadywell underway o which some will be introduced in the next issue. We willannounce some o them in Decembers issue. Yes, December, as Tims already

ercely writing and wants to hit a December target. Did I mention that I loveworking with Tim?

I sometimes joke that when you cast your bread out on the waters, it o ten

comes back as sandwiches. Tim has proved it in his own career and his returnbrings some hearty eating or COW members in the days ahead. Thanks, Tim, or the years o riendship and or believing in the Creative

COW philosophy and ocus, one where its about people and helping thembecome better at what they do. It is an honor to have you here along or theadventure and to have you as a part o the COWs executive team.

Kindest regards,

Ron & Kathlyn LindeboomCreativeCOW.net

Ron LindeboomPublisher,Creative COW Magazine

FINDING YOUR WORKFLOW:Its All About PeopleTIM WILSON LEAVES AVID TO JOIN CREATIVE COW AND HELP DIRECT THE SITE AND THE MAGAZINE...

Tim Wilson Associate Publisher

Creative COW Magazine


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THE DIFFERENCE BETWEENWORK AND WORK OF ART

2006 AJA Video Systems

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE OURDESKTOP VIDEO SOLUTIONS CAN MAKE

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Attend NAB New York and access the latestcontent creation technologies, the most cutting-edge training in production and post-production,and the biggest names in the industry.

Mark your calendars now.

Javits Convention CenterNew York, New York


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In an industry that has o ten beenknown or lavish helpings o eyecandy, its odd that its Next Big Thing would seem more the heart-throbo accountants, than o artists andeditors. But the democratization o video that exploded in popularity

with the advent o Firewire, is takinganother major step today; a steplikely to have a bigger impact thananything that has come be ore.

In this article well look at someo the players and some o thechanges they are bringing to theproduction landscape.

Unlike some writers, I neverclaim to have all the answers anddo not mind learning publicly.What I have are many riends that Ican call on to help me t the puzzle

together. And while there maybe a select ew that already knoweverything in this article, I am notwriting or a hand ul o pioneers.Instead, I am writing or those tryingto make sense o all that is changingso rapidly. To that end, I have drawn

upon some highly knowledgeablepeople to help make sense o thechanging production landscape.

DEMOCRATIZATION MULTIPLIEDIn a nutshell, these new changesare designed to remove the barriersbetween individuals and theircontent, between workgroups andthe content shared between them;even between people that areworking together rom hal a worldaway in realtime. Its one thing

to have realtime e ects but whenthe power o realtime meets theproduction work ow, the big magiccan really start to happen.

Engineers have been hardat work streamlining productionprocesses and cra ting solutions

that overcome many long-accepted production bottlenecks.In systems like Avid Interplay, evenbilling/tracking unctions betweenaccounting and production aresupported. A big move or larger

acilities.DV camcorders and Firewire

drives opened the doors o production to a myriad o peoplein the late 1990s. Like DV, todaysnew productivity tools, media andproject management, tapeless

acquisition, DDRs, nex t generationnetworks and other new tools , areharbingers o a technological shi tthat will rede ne production, yetagain.

Whereas the DV Revolutionwas about empowering the

individual, this revolution is aboutbringing individuals together inways previously unimagined by allbut the dreamers among us whowill not take No or an answer.

The exciting part o thisrevolution is that its a revolutionan order o magnitude greater thanits predecessors; this, as it drawsits power rom the imaginationso many, enabled to reely work together. Sorta like the Cow, yousay? I couldnt agree more. n

Ron LindeboomCambria, Cali ornia USA

October 2006 Creative Cow Magazine12 Creative Cow Magazine October 2006 13

To begin to get the big picture o changing work ows and the ways inwhich walls and limits can be overcome in workgroup settings, letslook at the latest o ering rom Avid, who introduced Avid Interplayduring NAB 2006. With Interplay, you nd the king-o -the-mountaino ering and the one with the most ull- eatured eature-set.

Arguably, Avids greatest strength as a company lies in theiro t-venerated powers in media management and their support orworkgroups. Interplay takes that heritage and moves it well beyondanything that the company has done be ore. Avids President/CEO,David Krall, rolled out Interplay during NAB 2006 and to say that it wasimpressive would be an understatement. Why?

MANAGEMENT & SECURITY This is a system that brings it all together: Interplay tracks, routes andmanages acquisition, le management, raw and subsequent le versionsand revisions, which programs were used and which people in thehierarchy are authorized to make decisions and at what level. It givesappropriate access to workgroup les using passwords to insure that lescannot be accessed, deleted or modi ed by your entry-level employeesor part-timers. It builds walls that keep processes allocated to those whomyou want accessing them and it denies them to anyone else. It can alsowork with les rom applications like Microso t O ce and Filemaker, et al ,

AVID INTERPLAYwww.avid.com/products/interplay

Pros: Incredible width and depth.State-o -the-art capabilities.Plat orm agnostic, works withmost all tools and systems.

Cons: Capabilities come with ahigh cost that may be outsidethe reach o many smaller or independent studios.

Alternatives: None, though aew eatures are ound in syncVUE.

The monitor at le t shows AvidInterplay with areas o the screendevoted to le viewing, hierarchy,access and in ormation.

so there is a lot more going onhere than just tracking creativeassets rom your Avid Suite,Photoshop, Maya, etc.

One o the real secretsabout Interplay is that it isapplication agnostic, so it willwork with any Final Cut Pro andAdobe stations in your company.Work with Quantel or Discreet?It works with them, as well.

Interplay comes with ahealthy price tag, targetinglarger companies where thiskind o capacity costs themless than the wages o a singleemployee, in many cases. And

Avid Interplay administrative engine, where work begins


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Avid Interplay , continued rom previous page

14

can be taught to recognize otherswhich the system does not yetsupport.

Once one o these les isadded to the Interplay system, ittracks every revision o a le withina project. The Interplay system canalert you regarding non-completed

les so that when theyre neededat delivery time, they are ready, notsuddenly a crunch-time item.

One o the nicest eatureso the Interplay system is that asteams or individuals completetheir respective assets used inthe production, these assets areautomatically updated anywherethe asset is used. While this kindo unctionality is seen in tools likethe Adobe Production Suite, e.g.,it is taken to a whole new level inInterplay.

Many unctions o theInterplay system work without theuser having to do much, beyondimporting les into the system. Forthose needing custom tracking to


or what it does, I personally haveyet to meet the single person whocould do all that this system can do,at the speeds in which it can do it.It justi es its starter price o around$18k or an entry system.

THE INTERPLAY STRUCTUREWhile Interplay is broad in itsabilities, it is relatively easy to use.It makes sense and the pieces arewhere youd expect them to be.It uses a module-based systemwith optional modules that can beadded to enhance your system totarget speci c needs based on yourcompanys work ow.

The system is made up o theollowing modules:

STANDARD MODULE

Interplay AccessOPTIONAL MODULES

Interplay Assist Interplay LowRes Encode Interplay Trans er Interplay Archive

While the depth and rangeo eatures will take some time tomemorize, the inter ace itsel iseasily recognized and understoodby anyone with an understandingo the undamentals o computer-based hierarchal navigation.

By using these navigation andinter ace undamentals, users canaccess what Avid CEO, David Kralldescribes as: ...tools or searching,archiving, viewing, logging, auto-matic transcoding, dual-resolutionencoding, and intelligent trackingo multi-resolution proxy les, all o which streamline collaborationbetween people and eliminate time-consuming production tasks. Inaddition, the Avid Interplay systemis open to any media productionenvironment accommodatingmore than 100 di erent media and non-media le types and can link to production tools rom virtually any other company. It does elegantly.

Interplay not only tracks over100 types o les and assets but it

Interplay Access, where les are assigned, accessed, settings are made, and user access is controlled.

Interplay Assist, where les are tracked and Metadata is controlled.

October 2006 Creative Cow Magazine 15

acilitate the needs o their studioor a particular job, Interplay allowsusers to add custom metadatausing the Interplay Assist module.In Interplay Assist, administratorscan add metadata that expands theproject management unctions.

Using Avid Interplay LowResEncode, users can per orm unctionssuch as setting varying levels o display resolutions or users. Keyeditors and others who need to work with the ull high-resolution HD

les, or example, can use ull 10bitHD 1080 les. Those whose dutiesdo not require ull access to thehigh res les, can be set to use 8bitSD resolutions like DV or other lessresource taxing ormats. This helpsstudios maximize productivity ontheir Avid Unity or other network.

One nicety o LowRes Encodeis that while users may be seeingdi erent resolutions, each usercalls the same le in the older. There are not a bunch o di erent

les in olders or each varyingresolution. The varying resolutionsare handled invisibly by Interplay.

Avid users expect Avid tohave strong media management

unctions. Interplay Archive unc-tionality leverages large contentresources that many lm studios,broadcast operations and otherstudios have. Interplay Archive canaccess both current and archived

les across the system backbone. The overall ow o the

Interplay system draws on Avidsuid inter ace design, married

to its long-venerated mediamanagement strengths. The systemdoes most o the work but alsoallows administrators to expandthe system to support the design,editing and other tools in use.

While some will point to AvidsAlienBrain acquisition as the sourceo all this power, the truth is, its onlypart o the picture. Added to the

eature set acquired with AlienBrain,Avid has added the kind o eaturesand support that can only come

rom a company that has made anart o supporting workgroups.

As o this magazines printing,this is as good as work ow tools get and it has the pricetag to match.

n

Created by an editor or editors,syncVUE is a work ow supporttool to assist reviewing video lesvia the internet, synchronizingQuicktime movie playback andviewing across multiple locations.

Introducing syncVUEImagine this: Your client is sittingin their ofce, on the road orelsewhere, and you are also sittingin your ofce, at home, on the road,wherever. Both o you are viewingthe same video in per ect sync shuttle, jog, pause and youreboth looking at the same rame.How nice would that be? syncVUEgoes well beyond being merely avideo player.

Connecting Through SkypeBe ore starting with syncVUE,you must rst set up a Skype.comaccount. Skype is a ree voice-over-IP / live chat tool. Your Skypeaccount name will be your licensename with syncVUE, so you willneed this in ormation when youregister your syncVUE license.

Licensing & TransfersOne o the clever eatures brought tosyncVUE is the ability to extend andretract licenses. So instead o askingyour client to purchase a license touse this tool, or purchasing a lot o licenses or a lot o clients, you canpurchase a ew yoursel and extendthem to clients as necessary.

In my case, Ive purchasedthree licenses. One is permanentlyassigned to me, tied to my personalSkype ID. I also have two others,bcmclient1 and bcmclient2, thatI can assign and move based onan end date I have assigned eachlicense. At any time, I can clear outa license and assign it to someone

else, by rotating the Skype nameto the correct client at the time o a scheduled review. So all my clienthas to do is download the syncVUEplayer and log in.

Since the syncVUE license istied to your Skype account, youcan install syncVUE on as manycomputers as you see t. I have iton my G5, Powerbook and Mac Miniso I can use whichever computer ismost convenient. Windows users,dont worry about me re erring toApple products, as syncVUE works just as easily with Windows.

Distributing Your Video FileFirst, everyone must download thesame Quicktime le. The video leactually plays o the users owncomputer, with syncVUE providingsynchronization. syncVUE workswith any Quicktime ormat, so thechoice o codec, rame rate and sizeis up to you. Just keep in mind theamount o time it will take to getyour le to the client. Reviewingan uncompressed 10bit HD le inper ect sync would be cool, but doyou have a week to upload it?

Walter BiscardiAtlanta, Georgia USA

Synchronizing Client/Editor/Team Remote Video File Viewing

Intelligent Gadgets syncVUEwww.syncvue.com

Pros: Simple, power ul, low cost,fexible licensing program, easy tomove licenses as jobs, contributorsor viewers need to change.

Cons: Supports only Quicktime, nosupport or Windows Media les.

Platforms: Macintosh OSX,Windows XP.

License costs: $189, one; $179 or 2-4; $152 or 5-8; $113 or 20-25;

WORKFLOW, continued


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October 2006 Creative Cow Magazine16

Viewing Multiple FilesYou can review multiple videos in asingle syncVUE session. Just placethe videos into a older and haveyour client do the same. How many?As many as you want. Now go intothe syncVUE Pre erences and use

the Browse button to nd yourvideo older. Remember to tell yourclient to do the same thing.

As you send new les to yourclient, have them also put theminto their local older which is usingthe same hierarchal structure andnaming as your local olders. I youand your client keep the media lesin the same older structure usingthe same names, you can reviewmultiple video les with your clientas easily as viewing raw clips in yourediting system.

The syncVUE Inter ace

syncVUEs inter ace is simple andstraight orward. It uses the samebasic VTR controls that users areaccustomed to: play, pause, stop,backward. It also has a volumecontrol and time display. A sidedrawer contains the participants. There is also space or Locators andNotes.

Inviting the client, or clients,to join the review session is quiteeasy. Once you add your client to

your Contacts list in Skype, syncVUEre ers to this list and then sendsa note to your client. Ive actuallygone ahead and created some clientaccounts so they dont even have tocreate a Skype account i they dontwant to.

A ter you set up licenses and assign them to Skype accounts that youcan move and reassign as necessary, you then invite these users toparticipate in sessions.

You can have voice conver-sations and i your computers andconnections are ast enough, itworks very well. Generally, you onlywant one person to control videoplayback but you can actually gointo a ree or all mode whereeverybody has control o playback though that will cause issues i

you both hit something at the sametime.

Look Ma! No Hands!Loading video is easy once youhave the Asset Folder set in yourPre erences. Once you select aQuicktime le rom within yourAssets Folder, this will not only loadup the le on your system, but alsoon your clients computer at thesame rame. This is usually the rstWow! moment or clients. Heythe video just popped up on myscreen. Cool!

The name o the le appearsin the upper right o the playerwindow so you can veri y that youreboth watching the correct video. The timecode display also shows,though you can switch that to aregular Counter i youd like. Totalruntime or the le is displayed nextto the timecode along with elapsedtime.

As you play the video, eitherviewer you or the client canplace Locators in the timeline bysimply hitting the Tab key. You canadd a note to each locator as you goalong, or come back and add thenotes a ter youre done.

In the image on the ollowingpage, you can see the locators onthe timeline and i you look at theLocators window to the le t, youcan see who added what. This isgreat because I may see somethingtechnical in the video, so Ill justplace a locator or one reason,

The syncVUE inter ace is intuitive and uncluttered.

Now Shipping


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Menu > Export Locators.i multiple people must review

the same clip, have one personreview it, export the Locators toperson two, and so on. Then the lastperson sends you the nal exportwith everybodys notes.

Final Cut Pro editors canbring the locators directly intotheir projects where they appearas Markers. When you use the FCPExport youre creating an XML le.Now make sure that the same clipyour client viewed is on your FCP

system. From within Final Cut Pro,go to the File Menu > Import >XML.

Youll get a video clip with thelocators converted to Markers. ThesyncVUE notes are there and it tellsyou who created the note. Again,this is huge i multiple people areinvolved in the review process.

The Verdict This is the most impressive tool Ihave ever seen or helping creative

pro essionals be more productive.Its not a ashy plug-in or a supercomputer or a multi-million dollarsuite but it is a tool that easi ly allows

or collaboration o people andthat collaboration is o ten the key toa great project. Developer MichaelBuday understands that and now,whether youre across town or acrossthe globe, there is now a simp le toolthat truly osters collaboration on agrand scale.

Im giving this 5 out o 5 Cows,the highest ranking we have. I we

had a Cow o the Year award, Idput in my vote or syncVUE.For more in ormation, visit

syncVUE.com and skype.comn

Walter Biscardi operates Biscardi Creative Mediain the Atlanta, Georgia area. He has 13 Emmy Awards to his credit and is also the HD editor for the Food Networks popular Good Eats show.Walter is a longtime Creative Cow leader and friend who can be found in our FCP, AJA, SiliconColor and other forums.

while the client may see somethingrelated to the content to review.In the Notes window you can seethe note I added to veri y the shotused.

Youre ree to scrub, rewind,ast- orward, whatever you would

normally do when viewing videosand syncVUE will keep all the playerssynced to the same picture. Theremight be a slight lag o a ew ramesduring playback depending on

le size, computer and connectionspeed, but whenever playback is

stopped, they all stop on the samerame. You collaborate rather thanwaste time asking are you lookingat the same rame I am?

Cant seem to set up the timeor everyone to get together? Or

maybe your deadline is just so tightyou cant spare those 20 minutes tostop editing and review the videowith the client? No problem, yourclient can review the video(s) ontheir own, export their locators andemail them to you using the File

Locators are ound on the timeline beneath the image window. Notes can be assigned to each Locator.

Special thanks to the Gwinnett County Communications Ofce or permission to use images in this article.


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WORKFLOW: TABLE FOR ONE?

So anyway, Ive been thinkingabout work ow. Good thing,since weve devoted a whole issue toit. We see it applying best to teams,smoothly accomplishing their goals.Some o the so tware we discuss inthese pages can help.

Integration can be easier totalk about than work ow becauseit speaks to us as individuals. At its

best, it relieves the stress o toomany applications and too littletime, on every single job.

Think o integration as work-ow or one, with each o the

integrated applications serving asthe members o your team. You can

eel integration. You work less. Younish aster.

Note that I did not say inte-gration rees you to be morecreative. Ive used those very wordsbe ore, but the more I think about

it, the less I believe it. The mostthat so tware can o er creativity isstaying out o its way. Dont think I take that lightly, though. Most o us would give our gold teeth orso tware that stays out o our way.At least some o our gold teeth,anyway.

The dedicated, talented, andgood-looking olks who make up

corporate li e know you want it. Theyve remade their products,and in some cases their companiesthemselves, to bring you betterintegration. Integration may bethe only thing that excites them asmuch as it engages you. Anotherthing not to take at all lightly.

Today On The ViewLike you, I have a perspective onintegration as a paying customer.I was one o the owners o a small

production company or a decade.Ive also worked or companies thatmake and sell integration, givingme a view rom inside the belly o the beast. Part o my jobs includedevaluating the competitions inte-gration, with two goals: seeing i there was anything worth swiping(there usually is), and ndingweaknesses to exploit (there usually

are).Be ore I begin, note that this

isnt a comprehensive, objectivereview o the major eatures in eachsuite. This is my view o the lay o the land.

Im not in any way speakingor any companies I used to work or, o course. Dont assume that my

opinions are held by even one otherperson inside those companies,because theyre largely not. Butone o the reasons why you visit

the Creative COW website and readthe COW Magazine is or strongopinions. Here are some o mine.

Get yer score cards! Cant tellthe players without a scorecard!

Its not my opinion that thereare three major players in theintegration game. There are, andthats all there is to it. All have some

orm o integration among theirso tware applications, which is parto what makes them major players.

Theyve all got di erent avorso integration, however, basedsolely on one thing: what theyvegot and others dont. I they donthave integrated 3D, then you dontneed integrated 3D. I they donthave integration via XML, then youdont need XML. I they dont haveAdobe A ter E ects...well, you knowyou need A ter E ects, so eel reeignore the rest o their pitch.

Accordingly, part o every-bodys grade is determined byhow well they integrate with A terE ects. Another part o the scoreis how well they integrate withthird-parties. And o course, howwell a manu acturers productsintegrate with each other. There area ew extra credit points to sprinklearound, too. There is no curve.Neatness counts.

ADOBEAn automatic A since they haveA ter E ects, right? Yes, but thatsonly one part o the grade. They havea chance to lose points elsewhere.

Except they dont.Heres one o my avorite

examples o integration. All DVDauthoring applications worth theirsalt use layered Photoshop les tobuild menus. Adobe Encore takesthis to another level, as changes inPhotoshop automatically update inEncore.

Its a simple example, but areminder o how many o theirapplications we all use, tied togetherexceptionally well. Photoshop andIllustrator. Illustrator and A terE ects. A ter E ects and Flash. Andround and round they go.

Dont count Premiere out.As Ive traveled across This GreatPlanet o Ours, Im convinced thatits bigger than all other NLEs

combined. So what i many Premiereusers are pro essionals using video,rather than video pro essionals?Adobe still gets to count the money.Premiere is also many peoplesentry into Adobe suites, and they

eel very, very strongly about it.I also think having the ormer

Macromedia inside Adobe trulyrepresents the tip o an icebergabout to scrape everybody elseshull. Ill talk much more about itin the next issue, but Flash on theweb is bigger than QuickTime andWindows Media combined. Nowthink bigger. Much bigger.

One reason everybody hasintegrated suites is that Adobemade such a big bang when theyintroduced both o theirs. Theydidnt have to. We were alreadybuying most o it at ull price.

But Adobe even urther assuredour loyalty, and vastly expanded itsalready massive customer base bythinking like customers, nessingthe integration among theirproducts wed been reaching or, ata truly compelling price. They set astandard that will likely never evenbe approached. You know its true.

Did I mention they have A terE ects?

ADOBE SCORE:

A ter Efects integration: As we say in Boston, out thewazoo.Extra credit: Inventingintegrated suitesMore credit: Inventing twointegrated suitesEven more extra credit:Theyre both really, really good suites

Extra, extra, extra credit:The amiliar Adobe inter ace. What? More extra credit?Getting taken over by Macromedia. I mean, buyingMacromedia.Final grade: On a scale o A(abs o steel) to F ( abs o veal), Adobe goes to 11.My ondest wish or the

uture: That the peeps learn tospell A ter E ects (not A ter FX)and Photoshop (not PhotoShop).

APPLEApple earns a ull letter grade oracknowledging that A ter E ectsexists, with some mild integrationbetween it and Motion. However,read Wes Plates take on it in GreatWork ow or Good Eats elsewherein this issue or the rest o the story.For editable elements passingbetween them both? AutomaticDuck to the rescue.

From there, youd better likehow Apple apps integrate: its aboutall youre going to get. As a Maclover, it saddens me to see the Maclandscape become more barrenas Apple chases more applicationdevelopers rom the plat orm.

Fortunately, each o the ap-plications in Apples suite is strong especially Final Cut Pro andDVD Studio Pro and theyre wellintegrated with each other.

Silicon Colors Final Toucho ers the only signi cant nativethird-party so tware integration,but its exciting.

Things will get interestingast when Final Cut Pro nishes

becoming a real Mac app. Addingthe FX Plug technology currently

ound in Motion potentially super-charges it.

O course, it may also placeMotion rmly beside the point,i theres anyone or whom A terE ects hasnt already done so.

The uture has clouds onthe horizon. I nd the long-termprospect or pro essional videohardware chilling. Matrox, Apples

rst real-time video card? DigitalVoodoo, roaring out o the gatewith 10-bit SDI? Cinewave, bothaccelerated and making Applecredible in HD? All you kids: out o the pool!

Still, Ill never orget the thrillI elt when I rst saw MacromediaFinal Cut doing dual-stream videowith nothing more than a Targa2000RTX card inside a Windowsbox. It was the rst time I had theanswer to the question whetherediting and compositing could beintegrated in a single application:a resounding Yes! This is Applesball to umble.

Tim WilsonBoston, Massachusetts USA

Continued on page 39


12/25


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nd on virtually any modern laptopor desktop computer. Right out o the gate, this is a marked di erence

rom SANs which require expensiveFibre Channel cards and switches.

SD OPTIONS:Contrary to popular belie , GigabitEthernet, coupled with EditSharesRAID storage, is capable o evenuncompressed SD resolutions. In

act, FCP users can play and edit upto our streams o uncompressedSD on a single Final Cut Pro

workstation,running in realtime

over Gigabit Ethernet. Similarly, Avidusers can play and edit multiplestreams o uncompressed SD orDNxHD on a single workstationrunning the latest Avid Adrenalineso tware.

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I you have been looking at networking your studio but arent sure about how youllhandle some o the complexities o SAN adminstration, then EditShare may be or you.

EditShare puts multiple Giga-bit ports on its servers, so each

workstation can have its owndedicated Gigabit connection i needed.

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SYSTEM FEATURES:EditShare is the only non-Avidstorage solution supporting true Continued on page 44

WORKFLOW, continued

Networked File Sharing Without the Complexities of SAN Administration


13/25


Believe it or not, you havethe ability to shoot lm-resolution 2K les, 1080 HD, 720HD and standard de nition videowith any o -the-shel digital SLR(DSLR) camera. For under $2000or less., thats a lot o capability ata great price-point. So whats thecatch? Youre limited to time-lapsephotography and stop motiontechniques, but the results arenothing short o amazing. Ill leavestop motion to other articles on thesubject and well explore time lapsetechniques in this outing. Withsome experience, you can shoottime-lapse without it even looking

like time-lapse. When it comes tothis style o shooting, you can throwyour video camera out the window.A ter reading this article, youllsee why DSLR technology can besuperior in every way imaginable.

ResolutionWhen it comes to time-lapsephotography (AKA, intervalshooting), there isnt a true HDvideo camera on the planet thatllout-per orm the resolution, quality

and control o your standard DSLR. The best HD video cameras only goup to 1080 HD (which by the wayequates to only 2.1 mega-pixels)and the media is airly compressedin most cases. With a DSLR, notonly can you achieve 1080 HDresolution, you can even surpass2K lm resolution with little e ort.With some pro essional high-end pro essional DSLRs on themarket, you can even surpass 4K

lm resolution while paying onlya minute raction o what a GrassValley Viper or Sony CineAlta rigwould cost.

Its not just a matter o rame

size that makes DSLRs so muchbetter than HD video cameras ortime-lapse, its also a matter o image ormats.

With a high quality DSLR, youcan shoot in RAW mode, which isbasically the raw data taken by theimage sensor (CMOS or CCD). Whatthis brings to you is much greater

exibility in the post-productionprocess. White balance o ? Noproblem. Exposure slightly low? Noproblem. With RAW images, you

can adjust image settings based onthe raw data instead o adjustingthe image based on an image thathas already been processed, likeJPEG. By doing this, you can adjustyour image with much less noiseas a result. Its kind o like workingwith negative lm and adjusting thelevels be ore you create a print outo it. But like anything that deliversgreater quality, a RAW image willbe larger in le size than its JPEGcounterpart. But believe me, itsworth every extra byte.

FlexibilityAnother great bene t to shootingwith a DSLR camera is glass. Nothingbeats picking your lens o choice

or a speci c shot in mind. With aquality ast lens, the large DSLRsimage sensor can obtain narrowerDOF (Depth o Field); something aDV camera can only dream o .

Another interesting aspecto using DSLR versus any videocamera is size. Obviously DSLR

Using a DSLR Camera toCreate Time-Lapse Video

cameras are small when comparedto quality video cameras, especiallya broadcast SD or HD camera. I havea photography backpack that holdsthe camera, ve lenses, a largeselection o lters, ash, a ni tynotebook computer compartmentand miscellaneous items likebatteries, CF cards, cords, etc. All o this is smaller than a CineAlta HDcamera itsel .

Control There are several ways to controlyour DSLR. Canon has a ni ty digitalshutter release controller (Model TC-80N3) that works per ectly withmy Canon 20D. With it, you can setinterval times (minimum o onesecond intervals) and the remotewill accurately snap away as i itwere you physically hitting theshutter release button.

Another use ul way to shoottime-lapse is by tethering yourDSLR to a computer via USB orFirewire. Canon o ers ree so twareto its DSLR users which controlsevery unction o the camera romthe so tware, including time-lapse

recording. You can even shoot yourimages directly to the computer orthe camera or both!

I you anticipate shootingrames over an extended period

o time, then saving your imagesdirect to a notebook computer (oreven to an external FireWire drive

or even more space) is a power uloption. With memory cards at thecurrent capacity o 8 GB with 16 and32 GB on the way, external storagemay not be required. As a point o re erence, I can currently get about20 seconds worth o 24p ootage ona 4 GB CF card running in RAW modeat ull 8.2 mega-pixel resolution.

Speaking o control, Id liketo emphasize the use o shooting inmanual mode, in both the cameras

shooting mode and the ocus mode.Its very important to set everythingto manual or your rames may havesporadic exposure levels, whitebalance levels and so on. Dont use asingle auto- unction on the cameraat all! This means setting your ISO,your white balance, your F-stop,your shutter speed and o course,your ocus setting. I you dontknow how to use those unctionsindividually, this is the per ect timeto learn (get out the manual!).Format OptionsSo now that youve got a ton o time-lapse photos taking up gigs o space,what do you do with them? For me,I throw the image sequence into

Creative Cow Magazine October 2006 25

This comparison shows the amount o picture in ormation in each o the relative ormats presented.

NTSC DV

720 HD

1080 HD

2K CINEMA

4.3 MP DSLR

D16 VIDEO

8.2 MP DSLR

CINEON/DPX

12.7 MP DSLR

4K CINEMA

16.7 MP DSLR




14/25

October 2006 Creative Cow Magazine26 Creative Cow Magazine October 2006 27CONVERGENT DE

4465 Northpark Dr., Suite 201, Colorado Springs, CO 80907 (720) 221-3www.convergent-design.comNow, you can wear your super hero costume.


15/25


Great Work ow for Good Eats

No matter what a televisionseries is about, producing aseries is all about work ow. Thecredits at the end o an episode listwho did a particular task, but howthey all work together is a story initsel . For a small part o that story

on one show, meet Good Eats, thetop-rated Food Network series.

GOOD EATSGood Eats has been a avoriteshow o mine and my wi e, Rebecca,pretty much since it debuted, saysWalter Biscardi, principal at AtlantasBiscardi Creative Media. Walter isalso now an editor and animator onGood Eats.

A large part o the showsappeal is its host, Alton Brown,aka AB. Because o his humorousapproach to the science o cooking,Alton has been compared to Bill

Nye the Science Guy; and becausehe builds many o his own kitchentools, to Mr. Wizard.

But hes doing more thana comparison to either o thosesuggests. He leads a highly irregular,i recurring, cast o characters

in a wide variety o locations,taking us all beyond science andgadgetry to elds including history,anthropology, pop culture, politics...and cleverly-presented cookingthat also happens to be good eats.With its extreme-angled steadicamshots moving as quickly as ABspatter, theres never been a cookingshow with style or content quite likeGood Eats.

Alton Brown: Pizza dough getsits rise rom the gas produced bybillions and billions o unicellular

ungi called yeast that chompdown on the sugar in our-baseddoughs. Have a look. [Shot o yeast

puppets loudly gorging.] Theyrereal pigs. And once their little

eeding renzy is over ...Yeast: [belching sounds]AB: ... thats right. Yeast belch

makes bread rise. The goal o Good Eats isnt

just to provide recipes although ABdoes. Its mission as a cooking showis to help viewers understand theunderlying principles o cooking,giving them the con dence to tweak any recipe theyre provided, and tocreate new ones o their own.

As a television show, its explicitmission is to entertain.

(Disclosure: my wi e and I aremajor ans o Good Eats. Its beenon Both First Run and Repeats/Keep Until I Delete status on allthree o the amily DVRs or years.Wouldnt want to miss an episode inany room. And despite a childhoodphobia o sweet potatoes that hesnever quite gotten over, ABs SweetPotato Wafes recipe is a miracle.You can nd it at www. oodnetwork.com. Try adding pecans.)

Ingredients: Start with one AvidMedia Composer AdrenalineAvid has been a staple o GoodEats rom the beginning, AB having

gotten amiliar with the companysNLEs during his years in commercialproduction. Ginger Cassell is theshows Avid editor, and the post-production process begins as tapescome out o the camera to her.

The HD ootage or GoodEats is shot in a 16:9 aspect ratio.However, The Food Network pre ersthat SD versions o shows ll the

rame. So while Media Composero ers a number o real-time tools

or aspect ratio manangement,

Ginger and company use theirdecks down-conversion to capturea center punch to uncompressed SDover SDI.

With ABs input, Gingercompletes a rough cut o eachepisode, which is then sent to thenetwork or review. Once her SD editlocks picture, she sends it to audiopost or both music and e ects.A ter editing in the nished audio,her master becomes the versionthat airs on The Food Networksstandard de eed. It also becomesthe basis o the HD version thatWalter creates.

Keep Things Fresh with LiberalAmounts o Audio ToolsWhile grudgingly acknowledgingthe use ulness o an olive pitter,Alton Brown amously has no use

or kitchen unitaskers.Patrick Beldens multi-tasking

toolset or audio post starts withDigidesign Pro Tools. I have serialnumber 6, he laughs. Ive beenusing Pro Tools or a looooong time. Thats or mixing and sound design.But or music creation, I use AppleLogic. And at Belden Music andSound, Patrick creates a lot o music

or Good Eats, playing all theinstruments himsel nearly 100di erent instruments so ar.

He starts with a QuickTimemovie and an OMF le o theepisode that Ginger sends him. TheOpen Media Framework (OMF) wascreated because, even a ter evolvingthrough a number o ormats, theedit decision list (EDL) providestoo little in ormation to be use ulin most contemporary production.An OMF le (usually called simplyan OMF in conversation) describeseverything about an entire show,including video ormats, manye ects, audio, and more.

The OMF Patrick gets romGinger gives him the in ormation heneeds to supplement the re erenceQuickTime or adding sound e ectsand writing each episodes originalmusic.

One o the most distinctiveelements o Good Eats is thetidbits, bits o trivia or technicalin ormation that serve as bump-outs to commercial and sometimes

it back to the Good Eats server.Ginger nishes her 4-channel mix

or the network by laying downPatricks stereo mix on channels 1and 2, with a split mix (one channel

or voice, the other or music ande ects) on channels 3 and 4.

Add Apple Final Cut Pro or HD The OMF technology that connectsGingers Media Composer withPatricks Pro Tools and Logic systemsalso connects the SD master toWalters HD post in Final Cut Pro.

With Avid playing such a centralrole in the SD production o GoodEats, a requent question is whythey didnt upgrade their MediaComposers to HD. The short answeris Walter. I already had the HDediting and color correction gear.And I also developed the entire HDpost process so it was easy enoughto just let me handle the actual HDpost or the show.

The hand-o between systemsis handled by so tware romAutomatic Duck Inc., which Walteruses to convert an Avid timeline toa Final Cut Pro timeline. OMF allowsAutomatic Duck so tware to providein ormation about the edits, but alsotitles, a variety o e ects, key rames

or both video and audio, and more. This let Walter recapture Gingers SDedit rom Avid as HD in Final Cut Proin about an hour, with per ect sync.

Automatic Duck makes that parto the process easy, although Walteradmits that they started down theold-school path o passing cutlists.I hate EDLs, he says. Theyre moretrouble than theyre worth, and I canwork aster with a simple printouto the In/Out points. Not as astas with Automatic Duck, o course.(See sidebar, Enabling work owwith Automatic Duck.)

To get good eats, you have toexperiment

Wed heard rumors thatHD might be coming [to TheFood Network], so we decidedto start moving production inthat direction, recalls the showsproducer Dana Popo . By the timethe network came to us to talk aboutHD, we were ready.

Getting ready took time. Oneo the rst challenges Dana noted

as transitions between scenes.Patricks music or these is basedon the shows ten-note openingtheme.

In the rst season, we usedthe same music or all o them, andit drove us all crazy. Each seasonis divided into three sections, and

or each o those segments, Patrick creates 8 or 9 new variations on theshows theme. I have over 600 o them, he laughs again, althoughto be honest, I lost count a longtime ago. Theyre in the bump-outsand tidbits, in the Muzak as Altonwanders around di erent locations,and all kinds o other places.

For an episode on peaches,theres a bit where Alton playsa character in China, with theappropriate costume. Hes holdinga peach, then tosses it to himsel playing a costumed character inPersia and so on. I created originalmusic or each o the nations, thenblended them with the showstheme music, he says. The peachends up in the South, where Icombined the show theme with TheBattle Hymn o The Republic.

Sometimes, entirely originalcompositions are the only way togo. For the same peach episode, Ineeded to create an opera. I had a

ew vocal samples, but no music,so I had to write that rom scratch.Other uses o original music includethemes or each recurring characterand the animations used on manyepisodes.

A ter doing every Good Eatsepisodes since the pilot, I haveten seasons o elements that Ivewritten available to me, but at least2 or 3 episodes a season, I try to usenothing but original music to keepthings resh.

A nal musical note: more thana ew people have noticed ABsuncanny resemblance to musician Thomas Dolby. Alton occasionallyre ers to being blinded by science,and Patrick admits to sneaking a

ew notes rom that song into themix now and again.

Having now done this or awhile, Patrick can generally turnaround his nished mix balancedaudio, original music and sounde ects -- in 3-4 days, when he postsWalter Biscardis HD studio set-up where he works on Good Eats.

Tim WilsonBoston, Massachusetts USA

GOOD EATS: Exploring the work ow of the Food Networks popular program


16/25


was the aspect ratio itsel . We usea lot o extreme angles and a loto movement with our Steadicamson Good Eats. Shooting 16:9 wasa little limiting at rst because youcould see past the edge o the sets.She also notes that HD productionrequired di erent lighting, amongother reasons to account orthe di erent color space o HDcompared to DV, their previous

ormat.

Steep the HD Footage in thePanasonic VaricamWhat about the cameras used?In 2004, there was already a buzzbuilding around Panasonic Varicam.It allows DVCPRO HD to be capturedat 720p with a ramerate anywherebetween 4 and 60 ps, or lm-style

shooting exibility at a lower pricethan had been seen be ore. Theproblem was that only a hand ul o people were actually using it then.

The rst thing we ound isthat theres a lot o misin ormationabout HD. Many o those who think they know everything there is toknow about HD, dont, says Walter.The only way to ensure that whatyoure doing is going to work oryour client, especially when youredealing with a broadcast network,is to test, test and then test somemore.

Although the rst tests and therst hand ul o HD episodes were

shot in 24p, Good Eats director o photography Marion Laney, Altonand the network all agreed that 24pwith lm gamma was too so t. AsMarion continued to experiment,he ound the right balance o ramerates, shutter speeds, lters andother secret sauce to maintain a lmlook, only sharper. They settled on

720/30p acquisition in DVCPRO HD,setting up output to 59.94 HDCAM.Walters quest or a production

ormat needed its own series o experiments. With HDCAM speci ed

or nal delivery, he was encouragedto work in uncompressed ormaximum quality. However, a teradding transitions, color correctionand graphic overlays to his edit,Walter ound that even closeexamination on HD scopes showedonly minimal di erences between

uncompressed HD and DVCPRO HD

certainly not anything that wouldstill be visible by the time it reachedviewers. Dana came in and saw thesame thing, he says.

Another bene t o the choiceto go with DVCPRO HD is that Waltercan keep hal a season on his drivesat once, a major work ow boost.

Season to taste using AdobePhotoshop and A ter E ectsIn addition to editing, Walter spicesup Good Eats with graphics andtitles, and, or many episodes, MontyPython-inspired animations.

(Good Eats devotees will tellyou that while herbs come strictly

rom the leaves o plants, spicescome rom other parts o the plant,including seeds, roots, and bark. Theyll tell you even i you dontask.)

Something as simple as astatic on-screen super may not beas simple as it appears, says Walter.The show uses a unky ont with

a simple black glow around theedges o the text or the lowerthirds, and a white glow or the ullscreen graphics. I had problemswith both the Text and the Boris Text 3D generators in Final Cut Pro:neither one likes the i in that ont. The glow around that letter justwouldnt take at all. It looked like wehadnt applied anything to it.

We ended up creating all thegraphics in Photoshop instead,which also wound up helping our

work ow. We now create all the

graphics typically 30-50 or eachepisode -- in one Photoshop le, inorder o appearance. Then I simplyimport that Photoshop le as atimeline in Final Cut Pro.

Also smoothing work ow isthat all graphics work is done on aseparate workstation while Walteredits. Likewise, he doesnt overthink integration between his NLE andA ter E ects. Rather than sending

ull sequences back and orth, hemost o ten uses A ter E ects inconjunction with Photoshop oranimations, without touching theedit at all.

While the animationsintentionally look simple, they mostde nitely are not. Even workingwith Atlanta-based graphic artistBrian Mead, these animations cantake the better part o a month tocreate. One o the most di cultanimations came in the Raisingthe Bar episode last year which

eatured The History o Cocktails

in 60 seconds, says Walter. It wasa whirlwind tour rom colonial daysto today and had well over 400elements.

The secret ingredient or manyo these animations? Cast photos.

Walter points out that everymember o the crew is expected toappear on the show in some orm.But there are certain olks whocant appear [on camera] because

Walter Biscardi, Dana Popo , and a riend on the set o Good Eats

...continued on page 40


17/25


When HDV appeared, themarket was overjoyed at thethought o shooting and editingin HD with cameras that cost lessthan a new Mercedes Benz. Down-conversion o HDV to DV is anavailable option with the camerasas well. HDV cameras can recordDV25, and many o them can down-convert HDV recordings to DVduring playback. It can be beauti ulDV as well, easing the transition toHD with the ormat.

WHAT IS HDV?HDV is an MPEG-2 recording ormat.Only a ew o the rames that are inthe recording actually contain allthe in ormation about each pixelin it. For example, i you shoot withSonys HDV cameras in the 1080i

ormat only 1 in 15 rames actuallycontain all o the data that builds anentire rame. In act, Final Cut Procan only deal with this particular

avor o HDV, called a long GOP

(Group o Pictures) structure. Thissituation exists in all HDV recordingsregardless o ormat, including

ormats that require transcoding.JVC and Canon cameras requireLumiere HD to work in their 24 rame

ormats, which use a shorter GOPstructure, and FCP cant work withthis media directly. This conditioncreates processor intensive over-head and possible transcodingprocedures through a third-partyapplication, thus rendering andset-up times might be longer, andextra disk space is required. But, the

aster the Mac, the less pain ul therendering time is and scratch disksare less expensive all the time.

CAPTURING There are two ways to handleHDV-acquired ootage: one, in thenative ormat; the other, by down-converting your ootage to the DV

ormat. For DV, all you do is set-upyour computer to capture DV, and

set your camera or deck to down-convert the HDV tapes playback onthe y to DV. Piece o cake.

To set-up your computer tocapture and edit HDV natively, itsas easy as selecting the HDV easyset-up rom the Final Cut Pro menu.See Figure 1.

When you want to capture, aspecially designed Log and Capturewindow will open. See Figure 2.

Note the rame jog is gone, andwhile in the Clip Settings tab, youll

nd that you cannot monitor audiousing computer speakers duringyour log and capture process.When you need to do this, youllneed to monitor audio externallythough sel -powered or ampli edspeakers. Headphones also work byconnecting them to the camerasheadphone jack during playback and capture. The other di erencebetween this Log & Capture (L&C)window and the standard one isthat you cannot change the capturepresets in the Capture settingswindow. This L&C window isexclusive or HDV native captures.

RENDERING EFFECTSRendering e ects in the native

ormat requires patience. There aremore pixels that have to be readand the computer has to gure out just what each rame is supposedto contain, so rendering requires alot o extra computing cycles andtime adds up. How does it work? The computer has to regenerate itsGOP (Group o Pictures) structureto render e ects, record HDVback to tape, export a QuickTimemovie, or burn a DVD. FCP calls itCon orming. This con orming cantake a very long time or a Mac toper orm.

In my tests with a 5-minutesequence containing one Motionclip, and 6 simple 10-second titles,a little color correction on eacho the clips, a rendering o thoseelements took 34 minutes toCon orm. Then, when I selectedPrint to Tape, another 9 minutes o con orming took place. (Total 43minutes or a render and record set-up or a 5-minute simple program).Ill compare this same timing withidentical sequences with othercodecs later in this article. Edit to Tape isnt supported in HDV, youmust use Print to Video.

DVD STUDIO PRO/COMPRESSORDVD Studio Pro 4 will not importa re erence movie o a native HDVsequence to create an HD or SDDVD. However, Compressor 2 willimport a re erence HDV movie,and exporting directly rom FCPto Compressor 2 is also supported.You can export it as a sel -containedHDV QuickTime movie rst, thenimport that larger le as an asset

or your DVD in DVD Studio Pro 4.O course, included in export time is

the con orming process.Its common to have to encode

the HDV to MPEG-2 or the deliveryo an SD DVD. On my test machine(dual 2Ghz G5), this took about 37minutes or a ve minute sequenceexported directly to Compressor 2

rom Final Cut Pro 5.0.4, using a onepass CBR encode preset. In DV, the job would have been done in aboutone third the time.

I you had a long orm project,and were using a run-o -the-mill

dual G5, you might as well take amini-vacation while you wait or adual-pass VBR process to complete,were talking days here.

A 2.7 dual G5 machine runningFCP 5.1.1 did considerably betterwith this. It took just about 4.5minutes per- nished-minute o program to per orm the encoding.On the same 2Ghz G5 it wouldhave been a touch slower due toCPU per ormance di erences. Ican say that Apples improvementwith the Universal version o FCP5 is de nitely welcome. Howeverit still renders slower than othermore e cient codecs. But i you areconsidering working in native HDV,the crossgrade to the Universalversion o FCP is a must. Its justabout twice as ast con ormingHDV.

An ofine/online process issuccess ul i you plan to nish inanother ormat. The timecodeon the tapes is preserved withthe native ormat in the event o recapture.

A bright side to HDV is that thele sizes are small, they dont require

an expensive disk array to playback the les, and there is no loss o picture quality involved editingnatively. But in a world o time ismoney, this situation simply maynot work well or a pro essional. Tying up a computer or longrendering chores is a pro t killer.

APPLES INTERMEDIATE CODECApples Intermediate Codec is analternative codec used to turn theMPEG into a riendlier ormat.

Jerry Ho mannDenver, Colorado USA

Working with HDV in Final Cut ProYou can work success ully with HDV in Final Cut Pro, provided you know the secrets and the limits...

Figure 1 Easy setup for Native HDV 1080i60

Figure 2 HDV Native Log and Capture Window

A MAC HDV PROBLEM &MATROXS MXO SOLU

Monitoring HDV between a Mac anda video monitor using an HDV deck or camera cannot be done at thetime o this writing. In order to viewHDV externally, one must invest in acapture card or a converter box tobe able to per orm any meaning ulcompositing or color correction.Computer LCD displays areprogressive scan devices, and donthandle interlaced video well andyou cannot access color accurately.So using one as your external videodisplay is dicey without help...

There is a solution that wontcost you an arm and leg to help youhandle this problem.

A great solution or monitoringnative HDV externally (as well as anyother avor o HD) is Ma troxs MXO This ni ty device was shown or the

rst time at NAB 06. The MXO willallow you to get more accurate color

rom your Cinema Display, as wellas take care o the aliasing youll seewithout it, essentially turning it intoan interlaced display. It loops theDVI signal rom your display card onthrough to your Cinema Display.

When FCP isnt using the MXO,your monitor(s) work(s) just as i itwasnt there. It also has an output,which is uncompressed HD or canbecome a down-converted SDsignal - SDI, S, or component analog. This means you could accuratelylook at color on the standardde nition monitor you probablyalready own. Or i you have an HDmonitor, it will send an HDV signalto it as uncompressed HD via anSDI connection. At less than $1,000list, it does a lot, and could get youin the game without spending themoney it would take to buy a truebroadcast quality HD CRT.

The MXO is the only way, aso this writing, that you can viewHDV externally rom Mac laptops.So it de nitely has its place in manywork ows. The test unit I received

or this article worked right outo the box even with very earlyso tware drivers. Using it is as easyas selecting it as your externalmonitoring device rom the VideoPlayback menu in the View Menu.

Matrox has a winner here. n

Jerry Ho mann would like to thank the Colorado Film School or their help in making thisarticle possible. Check out this super lm school out at ww w.colorado lmschool.net


18/25


Setting up and using the AIC is aseasy as HDV native, just select EasySet-ups rom the FCP menu andselect the Intermediate codec set-up which matches the rame rateyou recorded. You may have to click on the show all button, whichallows you to see the intermediatecodec Easy Set-ups.

LOGGING LIMITATIONSOnce you select Log and Capture,no Log and capture window opens. The system simply starts capturingthe video. There is no way to logmaterial rst with this codec, andtimecode is reassigned to each clip.

RELINKING MEDIA, NOT!Happily at each camera cut, thesystem creates a new master clip,but unhappily, they all start withzero hour timecode. Woe be tothose who nish an edit, thensomehow lose the source media. Itwould be unsuitable or an ofineprocess because the timecode in theclips isnt what is on the source tape.You cannot recapture this materialre erencing the tapes timecode.

ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGESDuring capture, the AIC codecencodes the MPEG stream to anall I rame ormat, so you endup with an HD QuickTime moviethat contains all the in ormationcontained in each rame o video.Gone are the long rendering andcon orming times, however thereare costs involved. Its scratch disk storage space, and the timecodeassigned to these clips isnt whatson the tape.

In my tests with a side-by-sidecomparison between the nativecodec and the AIC, I could see abit more noise in the Intermediatecodecs playback especially i therewas noise in the original HDVrecording. Apple admits to thisslight loss o picture quality.

STORAGE CONSIDERATIONSFollowing, is a comparison o thestorage space used or native HDVand Apples Intermediate codec:

MPEG-2 HDV 720p30 = 2.5 MB/sec. (9 GB/hr.)

MPEG-2 HDV1080i60/50 = 3.3 MB/sec. (12 GB/hr.)

Apple Intermediate CodecHDV 720p30 = approximately 7MB/sec. (25 GB/hr.)Apple Intermediate CodecHDV 1080i50 = approximately 12MB/sec. (42 GB/hr.)Apple Intermediate CodecHDV 1080i60 = approximately 14MB/sec. (49 GB/hr.)

AIC les are 3 to 4 times the sizeo the native media les. Yet they arenot so large as to require aster drivesother than an interna l ATA, SATA, oreven a ast FireWire connected driveon my dual 2gig machine. Rendertimes are a lot aster, it only took 10 minutes to render the same veminute sequence.

When youre nished editinghowever, the AIC needs to transcodeback to HDV native in order toprint to video. On my dual 2Ghzmachine, this took 38 minutes withmy ve minute test sequence. Editto Tape isnt supported, but Print toVideo is. O course, you may not bedelivering an HDV tape to anyoneanyway, just depends on yourwork ow. You might want one or aback-up though.

HDV TO DVCPROHDConverting HDV to PanasonicsDVCPROHD ormat is a valid alter-native. The le sizes are roughlythe same as Apples IntermediateCodec and they are compatible withPanasonics P2, and Varicam HD

ormat, and so mixing the ootagewith these other sources should bea breeze i the need arises.

You can convert HDV toDVCPROHD with Compressor 2or with a simple batch export.I you do this, you need to keepthe same rame rate and size youshot your source ootage with. InCompressor 2, youll nd the presets

or DVCPROHD in the AdvancedFormat Conversions sub-menu. There are presets or 1080i as wellas 720p.

The downside to this is thedouble duty spent in so twarecompression a ter capture, as wellas consuming more disk space. This,

because you end up with the HDVles which Id not delete until Im

done as well as the convertedDVCPROHD les on your machine.

An added pleasure o workingin DVCPROHD is the act that its a4:2:2 color space. This is positive

rom the point o view that yourgraphics should look better, andthe render times are a lot aster.With my 5-minute sequence, therender time (including the realtime color correction) took 10minutes (notably the same timeas the Intermediate codec took).But this included the Full RT colorcorrection, which in the AIC or nativecodec, had to be rendered becausethey werent Full quality RT. This

ormat handles a lot more real timee ects than Native HDV. The lesizes are roughly the same as those

or Apples Intermediate codec. I ithad been a real world job and thedelivery was a tape, I wouldnt havehad to render the color correction,and would have saved 5 minutes o the 10 used.

I really liked what I saw withthe DVCPROHD codec. I sure didntsee any discernable loss convertingthe HDV to it, and it doesnt requirethose ast disk arrays to play. Thiscould be a much better work owto those without ast disk arraysand capture cards. In order to printback to HDV tape in the end, youdneed to con orm your sequence tonative HDV. (About 38 minutes onmy machine or our 5- minute testsequence).

REALTIME CAPTURING & CONVERSIONSBy now youre guessing that Idpre er another ormat than HDV

or editing, and youd be correct.I just cant abide the long rendersinvolved in Native HDV. So heresmy pre erred method o workingwith HDV shot material. Capturecards: not only will they convertthe HDV native to another HD or SD

ormat, they allow you to monitorit externally as SD or HD and thoseo you who composite, understandthe advantages o the 4:2:2colorspace. Ive long been an AJAuser and ardent an, so Ill talk about



19/25

Creative Cow Magazine October 2006 37

Worlds LargestPlasma Unveiled...P anasonic has unveiled their much-anticipated103-inch diagonal high de nition TH-103PF9UK monitor with an industry-leading three-yearwarranty and a suggested list price o $69,999.95. This 103 plasma display provides widescreenprogressive display at a ull HD pixel resolution o 1,920 horizontal x 1,080 vertical, and a contrast ratioo 4,000:1, with 4,096 equivalent steps o gradation.Its e ective display area is approximately 89 wideby 50 high and is equivalent in size to our 50-inchPanasonic plasma displays.

The development o this stunning, record-breaking at panel display is a technical eat o incredible magnitude, said Robert Harris, VicePresident o Marketing, Panasonic Broadcast.This super-large display will become the ultimatecenterpiece o any acility. From the lobby or con e renceroom o a corporate headquarters to the ocal point o a trade show exhibit, the TH-103PF9UK is a show stopper or a wide range o pro essional applicationsincluding video production and screenings, live events,and control and command centers.

With 16-bit color, the TH-103PF9UK isdesigned to produce breathtaking-quality images

and eatures a Super Cinema Mode and new image-enhancingtechnologies to reproduce crisp, lm-like motion and still imagesin native 1920 x 1080 progressive resolution. It produces high-contrast and rich, deep blacks resulting in an impressively highcontrast level (4000:1). Included in its outstanding eatures are aContrast Management system that optimizes the contrast or eachindividual portion o the image displayed and a high-precisionMotion Pattern Noise Reduction circuit that adjusts the imageto optimize picture quality by detecting motion patterns thatgenerate noise.

For more, visit: www.panasonic.com/proplasma

those cards, however Decklink andConvergent Design have solutions

or this, as well.AJAs LH series cards will

capture the component analog HDsignal rom your camera or deck and transcode it to any avor o HDas you capture it in real time. Youcould capture the HDV signal all theway up to Uncompressed 8- or 10-bit HD.

AJAs Kona 3 will do the samewith an additional componentanalog to HD SDI converter (AJAsHD10A). The Kona 3 card is capableo cross conversions, so you canmix and match HD source materialall you want capturing it to thesame codec no matter what it wasoriginally, as long as the ramerates are the same. What you do isrun the signal rom your camera ordecks component analog outputsto the HD10A, then rom there viaSDI to the card and convert thisuncompressed HD signal to the HD

ormat o your choice, as you capture

it. The LH series cards already havecomponent analog inputs, so theyreready to go. Both cards will down-convert to an SD signal and allowyou to use a standard de nitionmonitor externally, as well as sendout a ull uncompressed HD signalto an HD monitor.

You can preserve the originaltimecode using Kona and othercapture cards. For eedback on thelatest list, visit the Cows FCP orum.

Youll use Apples HDV devicecontrol setting or your Sony cameraor deck or control and capturetimecode through FireWire, or i you are using JVCs deck, you canuse the 9 Pin remote control, andget the timecode that way.

Now were getting places!Faster renders, no con orming,correct timecode, no 3rd partyso tware needed, and better video

ormats. I you add to this mix a astdisk array, you could actually captureuncompressed HD rom your HDVcamera or deck. As a side note,

Canons new HD camera is capableo recording uncompressed HDduring the shoot via its HD SDI port.Cool But with all uncompressedHD, youll need some pretty bee ydrives to play back the media les.Huge Systems (now Ciprico) 4gig

bre channel arrays would be whereId be looking. Speed to spare

My take on HDV is that it canshoot wonder ul pictures but itleaves a bit to be desired in post, i you edit it natively. O course i allyou have is time, its not an issue.Using the AIC codec saves time,but is dicey because it reassignstimecode. However, converting itto DVCPROHD or UncompressedHD not only preserves the timecodeand picture quality, it will speedyour render times and rom apros point o view, time is money.

n

Jerry Ho mann is an Apple Certi ed Expert in FCP, authored a book on FCP or New Riders and is a Creative COW FCP leader.

HDV in Final Cut Pro , continued from page 34

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October 2006 Creative Cow Magazine3 Creative Cow Magazine October 2006 39October 2006 Creative Cow Magazine3

Time-Lapse Video Using Still Cameras , continued from page 25

Adobe A ter E ects. Its simple; youliterally drag the older containingthe images right into A ter E ectsand it knows that its an imagesequence. I its an image sequencebased o RAW images, then a pop-up window will ask you or imagesetting options. At this point, youhave to know what rame-rate youwant the sequence to be in. I pre er24, but you can work in 25 or PALor 29.97 or NTSC. By de ault, A terE ects will con orm the imagesequence to 30 FPS, so change it tosuit your own pre erence.

Next, which resolution do youwant to work in? Obviously you canmake a comp running at 2K i youhave the hardware to play it back,

but or this example, Ill talk about1080 HD.

Since I like working in 24p, Imake a new comp at 1080p24. Youcan just as well make a 1080p30or 1080i60 comp, i you so desire.I you want to work in a true 60i

ormat, youll need to change yourimage sequence (the time-lapsephotos) to 60 FPS. Why? So thateach interlaced eld gets its owntemporal data. I you dont, thenyou will have a 1080p30 clip eventhough you think youre workingin 1080i60. Obviously making yourclip run at 60 FPS will increase thetime-lapse speed two- old, so keepthat in mind. Con used? I so, dontworry about it and work in 1080p30or even better, 1080p24.

Heres something amazing...

When you drop the image sequenceinto the new comps timeline, youllquickly see that the rame size o theimages is quite larger that the 1080HD rame size, at least with my 8.2mega-pixel camera it is. I literallyhave to scale my images down to55% to work in 1080 HD. Let me saythat one more time: I have to scaledown my images to 55% or 1080HD!

Part o the beauty o scalingdown the image is that you havetwo power ul options at this stageo the game: For one, you can cropthe image sequence into the 1080HD rame exactly how you wantit (sometimes you just cant ramethe shot per ectly at the location,

ya know?); Secondly, by having alarger source image than that o thesequence ormat, you can pan-and-scan the source in the HD rame.Imagine that, pan-and-scanning

or HD! With this, you can digitallypan the rame across ( aking a niceand per ectly controlled pan) or youcan zoom into the shot while nevergoing above the sources 100%zoom level.

Once you nish your sequencewith the right raming and anypotential key raming o pan orzoom, youre ready to output to your

avorite codec o choice or yourNLE. But be ore you do, make sureyour time-lapse ootage looks goodon a video monitor. I do a quick RAM preview and output it throughmy AJA hardware, a wave orm

vectorscope and to up to three HDmonitors including CRT, plasmaand LCD. This combined outputexam quickly gives me eedback on image quality, dynamic range,broadcast legality and so on.

Selling Your Cra tYou mean I can make money o this stu ? Heck yeah! A avoriteonline spot o mine is RevolutionStock Media, Revostock or short(revostock.com). There you cansell stock ootage in a completelyautomated ashion. Ive uploadedsome clips o my own (look orOneRiver Media under producers),which includes time-lapse ootageshot with my Canon 20D and variouslenses.

Getting AdvancedI you really want your ootageto stand out, use camera motioncontrol to physically pan, tilt, truck or dolly the camera or a trulycompelling e ect. Even though youcan pan-and-scan a lock-down shotin post, that does have its limits andit wont have the same dynamicperspective that a moving camerahas. Using a motorized cameratripod mount, you can achieve thisslow and steady motion control.Youll need a device that worksat a whopping .1 per second likethe Hutech AZM-100 motorizedtripod mount. Its an alt-az (altitude-azimuth) astronomy mount andserves my needs or such tasks.

By using a motorized mountlike this, and panning across anystatic subject like a clear mountainvista or a city sk yscraper, will make itappear that its not even time-lapsein the rst place making peoplewonder, how did

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