Final Cut Studio 3 to bundle major Motion, Soundtrack upgrades
The third major release of Apple's Final Cut Studio professional video and audio production suite will offer a mixed bag when it comes to advances in individual component applications, half of which will be touted as new releases while the other half see more muted upgrades.
While details are still admittedly limited, people with rudimentary knowledge of Apple's plans for the software say the suite will introduce major new versions of Final Cut Pro (v7.0), Motion (v4.0), and Soundtrack Pro (v3.0). The remainder of the application upgrades will reportedly consist of point release, and include Color (v1.5), Compressor (v3.5), and DVD Studio Pro (v4.2.2).
A complete breakdown of Final Cut Studio 3.0 component apps with general descriptions is therefore:
Final Cut Pro 7.0: for real-time editing for DV, SD, HD and film.
Motion 4.0: for real-time motion graphics and animation design.
Soundtrack Pro 3.0: for advanced audio post production and sound design.
Color 1.5: for real-time professional color grading.
Compressor 3.5: for high-performance encoding with output in various formats.
DVD Studio Pro 4.2.2: for professional authoring, encoding and burning of DVDs.
Of interest is that DVD Studio Pro 4.2.2 will represent the first upgrade to the DVD authoring application in roughly two years but won't introduce any new features. It appears as if the software will follow the path of iDVD, a similar offering geared towards the consumer market that was hung out to dry alongside the release of iLife '09 as Apple pushes online distribution.
Final Cut Studio 3.0 is currently undergoing beta testing under the code-name Sideways in the form of a 2.8 gigabyte disk image. Some of its component applications, including Color 1.5 and Motion 4.0, have been accessible to some of Apple's professional video editing partners for months so that they could evaluate the software when run atop betas of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
The finalized suite, along with an update to Final Cut Server code-name Dingo, are believed to be on track for a release sometime later this summer or early this fall, following the release of Snow Leopard.
While details are still admittedly limited, people with rudimentary knowledge of Apple's plans for the software say the suite will introduce major new versions of Final Cut Pro (v7.0), Motion (v4.0), and Soundtrack Pro (v3.0). The remainder of the application upgrades will reportedly consist of point release, and include Color (v1.5), Compressor (v3.5), and DVD Studio Pro (v4.2.2).
A complete breakdown of Final Cut Studio 3.0 component apps with general descriptions is therefore:
Final Cut Pro 7.0: for real-time editing for DV, SD, HD and film.
Motion 4.0: for real-time motion graphics and animation design.
Soundtrack Pro 3.0: for advanced audio post production and sound design.
Color 1.5: for real-time professional color grading.
Compressor 3.5: for high-performance encoding with output in various formats.
DVD Studio Pro 4.2.2: for professional authoring, encoding and burning of DVDs.
Of interest is that DVD Studio Pro 4.2.2 will represent the first upgrade to the DVD authoring application in roughly two years but won't introduce any new features. It appears as if the software will follow the path of iDVD, a similar offering geared towards the consumer market that was hung out to dry alongside the release of iLife '09 as Apple pushes online distribution.
Final Cut Studio 3.0 is currently undergoing beta testing under the code-name Sideways in the form of a 2.8 gigabyte disk image. Some of its component applications, including Color 1.5 and Motion 4.0, have been accessible to some of Apple's professional video editing partners for months so that they could evaluate the software when run atop betas of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
The finalized suite, along with an update to Final Cut Server code-name Dingo, are believed to be on track for a release sometime later this summer or early this fall, following the release of Snow Leopard.
Comments
Despite the push to online distribution, I do feel that on the professional level, it is still important to author to DVD and more important Blu-Ray. As a small professional project studio, I need to work on DVDs for Artists to use in installations and museums, and for long term archival of historical media.
I am hopeful there will be an affordable pro authoring program for Blu-Ray on the Mac.
See the recent release by Neil Young to realize how important this is.
DVD Studio Pro 4.2.2: for professional authoring, encoding and burning of DVDs.
It's cute that someone considers DVDSP a pro app.
Programmable effects on a GPU will be so fast, even on the 9400M. 16 x 1.1GHz rendering power.
And is the "major upgrade" to STP going to be a fix of the horrible bugs that make the app borderline unusable in its current version? Or a few new features and stability that is just as bad? That's what happened when 2.0 shipped, they souped a few things up but it was WAY more buggy than the latest 1.x version so many users had to revert to the old version until they fixed some of the bugs.
Also, what will be availablity of STP 3 for Logic users since Logic Studio includes the app? Will Logic get an update about the same time, will the update be available some other way, or will Logic users be stuck with the old version for months until Logic is updated (which based on the history of the app, may not necessarily be a bad thing)?
It's cute that someone considers DVDSP a pro app.
You mean Apple?
Also, perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought Apple announced some time ago that they were discontinuing Shake and that they would be introducing an app that replaced it, newly built from the ground up. Anyone know what's going on there? Or is the repalcement supposed to be a combination of Motion and Color?
You know, it would be really great to put this in context in terms of 64 bit support and integration with Snow Leopard. All this is, is a list of components and version numbers. Big deal. Tells me nothing (except what the version numbers are going to be.)
I am sure you would expect more information when Apple makes their formal announcement and not from a rumor mill.
"Of interest is that DVD Studio Pro 4.2.2 will represent the first upgrade to the DVD authoring application in roughly two years but won't introduce any new features. It appears as if the software will follow the path of iDVD, a similar offering geared towards the consumer market that was hung out to dry alongside the release of iLife '09 as Apple pushes online distribution."
Despite the push to online distribution, I do feel that on the professional level, it is still important to author to DVD and more important Blu-Ray. As a small professional project studio, I need to work on DVDs for Artists to use in installations and museums, and for long term archival of historical media.
I am hopeful there will be an affordable pro authoring program for Blu-Ray on the Mac.
See the recent release by Neil Young to realize how important this is.
Adobe Encore encodes to Blu-Ray I believe... and I've seen Blu-Ray drives coming out for the Mac... But haven't had any experience in using the two together.
My beef about Final Cut Studio is that it is a great program if you just want to make video for film and television, but for other projects with video Adobe makes way better products. My main reason for this is that I like to do 3D animation. After Effects can take in everything including 3D objects into a true 3D viewport for animation and compositing, and there are so many plugs that can extend these abilities. Motion on the other hand needs Shake if there is any 3D involved. If Apple would truly address all that Motion is lacking compared to After Effects, then I'd buy the entire studio hands down.
(with one universal UI, shortcut keys etc..)
Motion has got to get GPGPU capability. It's the perfect app for it. Well, Shake is the perfect app for it really but they like to push Motion instead.
Programmable effects on a GPU will be so fast, even on the 9400M. 16 x 1.1GHz rendering power.
And yet. It will still require a boat load of Ram for some reason
I hope Apple is cooking up something good for Motion, especially when they included the word animation in that description. I emailed Apple an idea through their feedback forums about possible getting some IK and 3D graphics import features. The 3D features could definitely use some improvement if Apple is really pushing this app. Some web formatting features would be nice as well, since After Effects is already kicking it's derrier in that department. I also hope - like many - that they get Blu-Ray support for DVD Studio Pro. (Better yet, they could just make Compressor and DVD Studio Pro as just one application like Adobe's Encore.)
My beef about Final Cut Studio is that it is a great program if you just want to make video for film and television, but for other projects with video Adobe makes way better products. My main reason for this is that I like to do 3D animation. After Effects can take in everything including 3D objects into a true 3D viewport for animation and compositing, and there are so many plugs that can extend these abilities. Motion on the other hand needs Shake if there is any 3D involved. If Apple would truly address all that Motion is lacking compared to After Effects, then I'd buy the entire studio hands down.
Amen! i agree!
A 'Creative Studio' including Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio is the update i'm waiting for!
(with one universal UI, shortcut keys etc..)
It's baffling that apple ships STP along with logic yet the two have absolutely nothing in common when it comes to interface, keyboard shortcuts, or even most of the feature set.
We just did a bunch for undergrads making HD video work. A Mac Pro with a Pioneer Blu-ray burner, SATA snaked to the spare SATA connector on the internal motherboard, works flawlessly!
But the dirtiest little secret that not many people know is that you can make BD-5 and BD-9 discs with a plain ol' DVD-R burner!
You just need the specified Blu-Ray volume (folder) structure on the disc and a standard DVD-R (single layer -5, dual layer -9) will hold anywhere from 25 to 50 minutes at full HD quality!
Toast makes this easy as pie to encode and burn. DVDSP needs this, at a BARE MINIMUM.
Throwing up live action menu's and authoring interactive Java games is a whole 'nuther animal... Apple, just get us the ENCODING and BURNING, and do it right.
I'd be okay if the advanced interactive authoring waiting until DVDSP 5.
I had a thought a few weeks ago about the whole iDVD issue. Maybe Apple is planning on making CD/DVD burning an OS service similar to the printing service? That would explain the lack up upgrades to the software. Any software that would need to use the service (iMovie, etc.) could provide their own templates and themes thus preserving the work flow.
Nah, they're just trying to move on to digital files. Unfortunately, though, before the public is ready.
=
Final Cut Pro 7.0: for real-time editing for DV, SD, HD and film.
Motion 4.0: for real-time motion graphics and animation design.
Soundtrack Pro 3.0: for advanced audio post production and sound design.
Color 1.5: for real-time professional color grading.
Compressor 3.5: for high-performance encoding with output in various formats.
DVD Studio Pro 4.2.2: for professional authoring, encoding and burning of DVDs.
Wow, that is an awful looking upgrade package. Final Cut Pro 7 better be amazing.
Motion is useless, the most talented animators know AE inside and out, AE has massive plug-in support and 3D programs make a point of offering excellent integration. Most of Motion's effects should be rolled into FC and just get rid of it. FC doesn't even understand how to back-up or consolidate the media from an embedded Motion timeline, so your media managed projects simply show offline media for all Motion effected clips.
Soundtrack is also useless. FC has enough audio abilities to get by, if that isn't good enough, it goes to sound mixing. There are several great apps for audio mixing (Logic, Pro Tools), no one uses STP in their audio suite. Roll some of the capabilities into FC and ditch STP as well.
Every one of our Final Cut systems uses DVDSP to create client copies and approvals. I don't have any clients that don't go back to their offices, sit around a monitor, and play back a DVD for the group to see. Networks, ad agencies, and corporate clients all do this. Its how their viewers will see it, its how they want to see it. Even the wedding videographers are going to want an easy way to create Blu-ray discs. Shame Apple has decided to ditch this.
Color is a fantastic color corrector, and the interface is outstanding. However, the integration with FC is terrible. It should function like a plug-in, not a separate app. Too many problems arise going back and forth, and a client can want changes months down the line. Two years after it was hurriedly grafted into the Studio and we're getting a .5 release. That's terrible.
I'm guessing that they're calling this "Sideways" because it really doesn't offer anything new. Apple needs to look at their user base. Image control is important (color correction, motion stabilization, rotoscoping tools), every film and television show out there takes advantage of these tools. Cheesy Motion effects are fine, but they should be rolled into FC, there's no good reason for this to be a separate app. Same with STP. As far as DVDSP goes, Apple should know that TV viewership is at an all-time high - 151 hours/month vs 3 hours/month for internet viewing and 4 hours/month for mobile device viewing. People like watching their TVs, DVDs and Blu-ray aren't going anywhere soon.