Toon Boom Studio 4.5 released
I have a short list of applications I would really like to learn and one of them is the Emmy Award-winning Toon Boom. Today marks the launch of Toon Boom Studio 4.5 along with its Toon Boom Studio Importer to Flash (TBSi). This latest version improves upon the previous by enabling artists to create photo animation and live-action cartooning. Additional new features include a better integration with Photoshop (PSD) files, extended ease of use, the ability to print, more export options to iTunes and YouTube as well as the import of Flip Boom and Animation-ish projects. TBSi lets users import Toon Boom Studio projects directly into Adobe Flash CS2 and CS3, resulting in a streamlined workflow for adding interactivity to their projects.
Buy Toon Boom Studio 4.5 now for USD$399.99. Current customers owning Studio 3.5 and 4 can upgrade for USD$99.99. Please leave your comments and experiences using Toom Boom in the comments, I would love to know what you think.
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ScreenFlow screencasting software adds Automator support
I swear I’m going to start screencasting soon. And when I do, I’m going to use ScreenFlow from Vara Software.
The latest edition fixes a few bugs but also adds Automator actions for creating screen recordings in an automator workflow and support for Unicode text in marker tracks.
ScreenFlow sells for USD$99.99
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ScreenFlow adds audio waveform display and QuickTime chapter markers
ScreenFlow is an awesome application for creating screencasts with cursor and window highlighting and iSight integration. Once you start recording, ScreenFlow captures not only what you’re doing on your screen, but can also simultaneously record video form your iSight camera and audio from a microphone.
Today, Vara Software released version 1.1 and added several new features, including:
- Audio waveforms shown over clips
- Chapter markers for quick navigation
- AppleTV, iPod and iPhone export presets
- 20 – 40% faster export time
- Quality and scalability improvements
- New keyboard shortcuts
- Vertically resizable timeline
- Improved media panel
ScreenFlow sells for USD$99.99
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Final Cut Server shipping
Apple today announced that Final Cut Server, a software solution for media asset management and workflow automation, is now shipping. A scaleable server application, Final Cut Server automatically catalogs media and generates thumbnails, poster frames and low-resolution clip proxies for quick browsing in user specified formats. A cross-platform client enables a PC or Mac to use Final Cut Server’s broad search capabilities, which extend from simple keywords to complex combinations of IPTC, XMP and XML metadata. Final Cut Server also configures a range of highly specific access controls that define user permissions on an asset or project basis.
Final Cut Server scales to support workgroups of different sizes, ranging from a two-person post house to a multi-national news organization and can automate as much, or as little, of the production pipeline as needed. A configurable event-based response model tracks job status, monitors media changes, and automates review and approval notifications and complex sequences of tasks-all through a series of simple menu selections.
Tightly integrated with Final Cut Studio for a seamless extension of the workflow, Final Cut Server includes Compressor 3, Apple’s industrial strength digital encoding and compression tool, which delivers pristine format conversions for publishing to DVD, broadcast television, the Internet, Apple TV, iPod, iPhone and other mobile phones.
Final Cut Server is available immediately through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of USD$999 for one server and 10 concurrent client licenses, and USD$1,999 for one server and unlimited client licenses.
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Decimus Software acquires Polarian Technology, updates Screen Mimic
Decimus Software, Inc. has announced their acquisition of Polarian Technology, LLC, the developer of Screen Mimic, a utility for creating screen recordings, Flash demos, software training videos, application demos, and more. These files can then be easily uploaded to a website, used in a kiosk system, or in many other applications.
Version 2.3 adds a new menubar recording status control, and rebrands the product under the Decimus Software mark.
Screen Mimic 2.3 is available immediately for USD$65.00, and is a recommended and free update for all Screen Mimic 2.x customers. It is available as a full-featured demo. In celebration of the acquisition, Decimus Software is running a “50/50″ promotion. Through March 23, users may use coupon code FIFTYFIFTY to purchase Screen Mimic 2.3 for USD$50.00. Owners of competing products can use code FIFTYFIFTYUPG to get a competitive upgrade discount of 50%.
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Ecamm’s Huckleberry3 iSight Mirror turns attention the other way
One thing the iSight webcam lost when it became incorporated into the screens of iMacs and Mac portables is the ability to be repositioned. Ecamm’s Huckleberry Webcam Mirror gives current iSight users the ability to direct their webcam’s attention away from the user and onto the action happening “behind the screens,” as it were.
The Huckleberry is made from two acrylic mirrors and two mounting brackets. The device attaches to your screen and reflects the built-in iSight’s field of view. The new design of the Huckleberry 3 fits both MacBooks and MacBook Pros and comes with Ecamm’s iGlasses to flip and rotate the video image.
The Huckleberry costs USD$28.95.
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Use Vara Software’s ScreenFlow to add some serious wow factor to your screencasts
I’ve been bouncing around the idea of converting many of our Photoshop tutorials and a few of my Lab with Leo demonstrations to screencasts here on MacMerc. I was considering using Snapz Pro X and Mousepose and incorporating my iSight to bring a semi-human face to the videos at appropriate times during the demos, but I could never get it to work.
Today, I can across ScreenFlow a new release from Vara Software. ScreenFlow is an advanced screencasting software package that does all the screen, camera, and audio capture you’d expect but also offers timeline-based editing features. This allows you to mix down your screencast with some pretty impressive effects like 3D or 2D Zoom & Pan, Mouse Callouts, Foreground Window Callouts, Picture-in-Picture, Reflection, Drop Shadow, and much more. Just amazing–check out the videos.
ScreenFlow is at the higher end of the shareware license scale (selling at USD$99.99) but if the videos on the site are anything to go by, it is also on the higher end of the shareware quality scale as well.
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SimpleMovieX provides quick and easy editing of popular video formats
Aero Quartet has released version 3.6.2 of its lightweight video editor, SimpleMovieX. The progam works a bit like QuickTime Pro but allows you to edit AVI, MPEG and iPod MP4 movies natively, preserving quality. Version 3.6.2 adds a redesigned timeline and can create MPEG-4 file with chapter markers for use with the iPod or iPhone.
SimpleMovieX is perfect for anyone who has record TV programs and wants to remove the commercial. It’s also just as handy for editing video from a digital camera, mobile phone or camcorder.
SimpleMovieX requires Mac OS X v10.3 or higher and sells for USD$35.00. QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component is required to take advantage of MPEG-2 capabilities.
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Toom Boom issues Toon Boom Studio 4 patch for Leopard users
Toon Boom Animation Inc. today announced that a Studio 4 patch is available that will allow the software to run on Mac OS X 10.5. To obtain the update, visit their website, login, go to the My Products page and click on Download.
This Studio 4 patch is for Leopard only.
Toon Boom Studio offers true animation features designed to facilitate the creation of any styles of animation, including traditional frame-by-frame animation, key-frame animation, cut-out and photo animation. The product sells for USD$399.99
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Premiere Pro 3.1.1 gets its spots on
I don’t know how many Mac users are using Premiere Pro anymore, what with its brief absence from the Mac market and Final Cut Pro’s willingness to take its place. In any case, Adobe has issued an update via the Adobe Update Manager today that offers “official Leopard compatibility” and addresses several bugs in Premiere Pro and Encore.
Reading on The Genesis Project, a blog by Adobe staffer Dennis Radeke;
If you launch your copy of Premiere Pro 3.1 and go under help, you will see an Updates button, select it and follow the prompts to download and install the update.
So, do you prefer Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro? Let me know in our forums.
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