Week
of June 1 1998
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Jun
5
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The National Association of
Photoshop Professionals (NAPP)
(www.photoshopuser.com)
describes itself as an organization not
just for Photoshop experts, but "for
people who realize there's more to learn
about Photoshop than there is time to
learn."
They offer a magazine, website, help desk
and discounts on software, plug-ins and
stock photography.
They
are also partnering with Adobe on the "Fab
5 Digital Imaging Tour" which showcases
Photoshop. The show, in various forms,
moves through most of the country this
summer (www.adobe.com
Events page "Events:Digital
Imaging")
Adobe is also offering the Digital Video
Invitationals covering After Effects and
Premiere. (www.adobe.com
Events page "Events:Digital
Video")
- Jul
15, 1998, Boston
- Jul
29, 1998, Denver
- Aug12,
1998, Portland
- Aug
26, 1998, Vancouver, BC
- Oct
27, 1998, Los Angeles
- Nov
5, 1998, New York
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Jun
4
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Pinnacle Systems has announced the
miroMOTION DC30 plus non-linear
digital video editing and capture solution
for the Mac OS. The miroMOTION DC30 plus
supports Apple's QuickTime 3.0, and comes
bundled with Adobe Premiere 4.2.1, which
can be upgraded for free to version 5.0.
The miroMOTION DC30 plus supports capture
rates as high as eight megabytes per
second (compared to three megabyte per
second for the DC30) and hardware
acceleration is supported during "make
movie" and "preview" modes in Adobe's
Premiere, reducing drawing and rendering
times.
The
miroMOTION DC30 plus processes full NTSC,
PAL and SECAM resolutions at full frame
and field rates with square pixels and
supports CCIR 601 rectangular pixels,
NTSC, PAL and SECAM for
broadcast-compatible video. PAL and SECAM
formats are only supported by versions
sold outside the United States. The board
offers 4:2:2 YUV TrueColor support and
Motion-JPEG compression up to 2.2:1.
Lip-synching is improved with on-board
audio support. Audio is CD-quality, 16-bit
stereo at a 44.1 kHz sampling rate.
Support for both S-video (S-VHS, Hi8) and
composite video (VHS, Video8) are
standard. The miroMOTION DC30 plus is
compatible with Pinnacle's DV300 (their
digital video solution.)
The
board is available now at an estimated
retail price of $999 (US).
(www.pinnaclesys.com)
Pinnacle also has a $50 mail-in-rebate
offer to customers in North America who
purchase a miroVIDEO DC30 plus
between May 15 and August 31,
1998.
Looking for a still digital camera and
thinking about the Nikon Coolpix
900? There are two very detailed
reviews of the camera already available on
the web at:
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Jun
3
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Microsoft has licensed the recently
introduced MetaCreations MetaStream
3-D graphics file format and related
run-time engine for incorporation into
future versions of its operating systems
(press release "Microsoft
Corp. Announces License Of MetaStream 3-D
Technology From
MetaCreations".)
MetaStream technology will be integrated
into the Microsoft DirectX APIs, Microsoft
multimedia services found in the Windows
operating system, and as a file format in
DirectX (.X files) that will be supported
by Advanced Streaming Format (ASF), a
feature in the Microsoft NetShow
server.
DirectX is a group of API technologies
designed by Microsoft to make Windows
operating system-based computers more
efficiently handle multimedia elements
such as full-color graphics, video, 3-D
animation and surround sound.
In addition to a plug-in fro creating
MetaStream files using Ray Dream,
MetaCreations is offering a the MetaStream
Game Toolkit (MGT) to the game development
community. The MGT tools permit control of
the process by which MetaStream-compatible
objects will scale during game play,
adjusting the processing power of a given
machine.
A Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 version
of the MetaStream browser plug-in is at
the MetaStream web site (www.metastream.com)
A Macintosh-compatible version of the
plug-in is in development.
Synthetic Aperture has released
Video Finesse 1.0, a collection of
plug-in filters for Adobe Premiere
for Macintosh, and are designed to work
with digital video camera produced
content.
- Levels
Adjustment Filter - provides
traditional "proc amp"
controls--pedestal, gain, gamma, chroma
level, and hue as well as knee control
(with adjustable level and slope) and
black stretch. It also provides full
color correction capability through
individual control of the red, green,
blue, luma, and chroma channels.
- Skin
Detail Filter - reduces the amount of
detail in skin-tone areas
- Gamut
Limit Filter - adjusts "illegal" colors
to fit within broadcast
specifications.
- Bandwidth
Limit Filter - eliminates high
horizontal frequencies from the video
image.
- Dropout
Filter - eliminates video artifacts
caused by tape dropouts and other
impulse noise.
- Sharpen
and Soften Filters
Video
levels can be observed via waveform
monitor and vectorscope displays. Video
levels and out-of-gamut color areas can be
overlaid with a "zebra" pattern.
Pixel-level samples allow easy observation
of filter effects. Filter effects can be
seen in a "before and after" split preview
window. And all Video Finesse filters
process preview images at full resolution,
and can display the results within
Premiere's preview window.
Video
Finesse is compatible with both PowerPC
and 68K-based Macintoshes and with Adobe
Premiere 4.2.1 and 5.0.
List
price for Video Finesse is US $195. Orders
placed for electronic delivery directly
from the company's web site
(www.synthetic-ap.com)
are eligible for a discounted price of US
$165.
Zapa Digital Arts (www.zapadigital.com)
has announced Ch@racterz, a 3D
animated technology that will work with
Microsoft Liquid Motion Web
animation tool. Ch@racterz, part of Zapa's
Smart Ch@racterz are 3D animated figures
with embedded behaviors and intelligence.
With Liquid Ch@racterz, the Liquid Motion
plug-in, users can select Ch@racterz from
their libraries and add them to a Liquid
Motion scene. These can be used or further
edited like any other Liquid Motion object
once it is added to the environment.
Zapa
has also announced that its
MicroSites product has been
enhanced for use with Liquid Motion in the
creation of online advertising. MicroSites
enables advertisers, marketers, and
merchants to create Web banner ads which
can be output in Microsoft's Direct
Animation format.
MacWeek has a review of
MetaCreations Painter 3D, a tool
that allows you to paint directly on a 3-D
model. The review is generally favorable,
though it does note that the program works
best with simple 3D models.
(www.macweek.com
review "Painter
3D draws on third
dimension")
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Jun
2
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Last week Microsoft announced it
will collaborate with Sega
Enterprises Ltd. on Sega's new
Dreamcast home video game system,
slated for release in Japan on Nov. 20,
1998, and in the rest of the world in
1999. Microsoft will provide an optimized
version of the Windows CE operating
system with integrated DirectX
services as the operating system for use
with Dreamcast.
Dreamcast will include 3-D graphics, sound
and input devices, as well as an on-board
modem to support Internet access and
network gaming.
The development tools provided with the
Dreamcast system's Windows CE Software
Development Kit (SDK) are built around the
Microsoft Visual Studio development system
version 5.0. The tools enable video game
developers to develop Dreamcast games on
Windows-based PCs. The initial SDKs are
expected to be available to Sega-licensed
developers by the end of May 1998. (press
release at www.microsoft.com
"Microsoft,
Sega Collaborate on Dreamcast: The
Ultimate Home Video Game
System
")
Eric Wenger (the inventor of KPT Bryce)
has now released MetaSynth, a new
application that combines graphics with
sound synthesis. It combines sampling,
wavetable, additive, subtractive, granular
and frequency modulation techniques with
graphical means for visualizing audio
information ever created.
MetaSynth maps picture coordinates into
time and frequency domains. A pixel's gray
scale controls the volume of a specific
harmonic at a specific moment in time.
Stereo position is determined by pixel
color.
A demo is currently available for Power
Macintosh. (www.uisoftware.com)
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Jun
1
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GoLive Systems, Inc., has released the $99
Personal Edition of GoLive
CyberStudio, its Macintosh-based Web
page layout tool.
GoLive CyberStudio Personal Edition
Features:
- Visual
Layout and Design Control
- Site
Management
- HTML
Native File Format
- User-Defined
Options
A
thirty-day tryout version is available
from the GoLive Web site or on CD-ROM.
GoLive CyberStudio Personal Edition
requires a Power Macintosh or 100%
compatible running MacOS 7.5.5 or later
and a minimum of 8 MB free RAM.
A
free competitive upgrade to GoLive
CyberStudio Personal Edition is available
directly from GoLive for owners of full
versions of the following products: Adobe
PageMill, BBEdit, Claris Home Page,
Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft Front
Page, NetObjects Fusion, and Symantec
Visual Page. Owners must provide GoLive
with the competitive packages by either
mailing them directly to GoLive. Users
wishing to have a package shipped to them
will need to pay a fulfillment fee.
Details are available on the GoLive Web
site (www.golive.com.)
Owners of CyberStudio Personal Edition can
upgrade to GoLive CyberStudio 3
Professional Edition for $199.
SuperCard will switch ownership
from Allegiant to Incwell this month.
Already there is an animation at Incwell's
website (www.incwell.com)
that asks the question "Is SuperCard
Dead?" and invites readers to tune in on
June 4th.
|The site also says that Allegiant
(www.allegiant.com)
will no longer sell SuperCard from May
31st - Allegiant was offering SuperCard
for $69.95 at their website, and they also
had the SuperCard 3.0.3 updater which you
should get if you have SuperCard 3.0 and
are running under System 8.0.
Some Director 6.5 users have
reported an "Invalid Palette" error on the
Macintosh when importing PICT files. No
one seems to know yet why this only
effects some users, but the current
solution is to remove the "PICT
import/export" Xtra from the "MIX" folder
in the Xtras folder of
Director.
Rumors are that Macromedia is
discontinuing their sound editor Deck
II. The functionality will be rolled
into a new multimedia tool.
Deck II had been part of the Director
Studio package, but is no longer
included.
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