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Product name Price Company and contact details Platform Reviewed <strong>Digit</strong> rating<br />
PFMatch 1.0 £750 The Pixel Farm, www.the pixelfarm.co.uk M | W Jul <strong>04</strong> 4.5<br />
Relatively affordable tracking solution for broadcast, auto-tracking with good post-tracking cleaning and refinement tools. The interface is a little glitchy<br />
Premiere Pro 1.5 £525 Adobe, www.adobe.co.uk, 020 8358 5857 Windows Sep <strong>04</strong> 4.0<br />
The interface has been given a grown-up redesign, and there’s some new features too. Great integration with Adobe’s other video products<br />
ProCoder 2.0 £299 Canopus, www.canopus-uk.<strong>com</strong>, 01189 210 150 Windows <strong>Digit</strong> 76 4.5<br />
Encoding quality is great, and encoding to multiple targets simulaneously is fast <strong>com</strong>pared to the <strong>com</strong>petition. Lacks backwards <strong>com</strong>patibility<br />
RealProducer 10 Plus $200 RealNetworks, www.realnetworks.<strong>com</strong>, 020 7290 1206 L | W Jul <strong>04</strong> 2.5<br />
It’s the first <strong>com</strong>mercial tool to support the Real 10 platform, but RealProducer 10 Plus barely improves on the free version<br />
Sapphire $549 GenArts, www.genarts.<strong>com</strong>, 001 617 492 2888 M | W Jan 05 4.0<br />
An expensive set of plug-ins, but the collection offers great a wide array of useful tools. The results are excellent, too<br />
Shake 3.5 from £1,786 Apple, www.apple.<strong>com</strong>/uk, 0800 783 4846 M | W Feb 05 3.5<br />
An exceptional tool for post houses putting together top film and <strong>com</strong>merical work, but it’s not the right software for everyday jobs<br />
Squeeze 4 $449 Sorenson, www.sorenson.<strong>com</strong> M | W Jan 05 4.0<br />
Compression Suite that’s simple and intuitive, with good export format option. Results are good quality, but you can’t output from Windows to Mac<br />
StoryViz €3,000 RealViz, www.realviz.<strong>com</strong> Windows Jan 05 4.0<br />
Previsualization software that offers real-time preview rendering, import options, and real-world camera correlation. It’s pricey, and tricky, though<br />
Vegas 5 £425 Sony Pictures <strong>Digit</strong>al, mediasoftware.sony.<strong>com</strong> @ MVS <strong>Digit</strong>al, 0845 456 0801 Windows Jul <strong>04</strong> 4.0<br />
Ideal for short-form <strong>com</strong>bo editing and <strong>com</strong>positing – thanks to a curves-based editing system and top-class audio tools. Lacks high-end colour controls<br />
Visual Communicator £258 Serious Magic, www.seriousmagic.<strong>com</strong>, 01635 294 300 Windows Jan 05 2.5<br />
It’s the easiest live video tool so far, with good keying features. However, the stock media is awful, and you can’t add your own templates<br />
Xpress Studio from£2,599 Avid, www.avid.<strong>com</strong>, 020 7534 2800 M | W Oct <strong>04</strong> 4.0<br />
This end-to-end creative studio for video work beats the <strong>com</strong>petition in terms of tools, but it’s expensive and, not as well integrated as some packages<br />
Graphic design software<br />
ADC plug-ins $99.95 Kodak, www.asf.<strong>com</strong>, 01442 261122 M | W Nov <strong>04</strong> 4.5<br />
Standalone versions of clever <strong>Digit</strong>al ICE technology to reduce noise and film grain while preserving detail. Works well, but not with mono<br />
ArtMatic Pro 3.0 £169 U&I Software, www.artmatic.<strong>com</strong> @ Eovia, 01483 797 498 M | W Feb 03 4.5<br />
As graphics toys go, ArtMatic is in a field of its own: you won’t find a better experimental art, animation, and squeak generator anywhere<br />
Backdrop Designer $199 <strong>Digit</strong>al Anarchy, www.digitalanarchy.<strong>com</strong>, 001 415 586 8434 M | W Nov <strong>04</strong> 3.0<br />
Flexible easy to use Photoshop plug-in that lets you substitute simulated backdrops onto cutouts and blue-screen images. Good effects but very slow<br />
Creative Pack $39 Flaming Pear, www.flamingpear.<strong>com</strong> M | W Nov <strong>04</strong> 3.0<br />
Formerly Furbo Filters, Photoshop plug-in Creative Pack offers four filters and special effects but no way of reverting back to the original image<br />
Deep Paint $249 Right Hemisphere, www.righthemisphere.<strong>com</strong>, 001 510 818 2880 Windows Nov <strong>04</strong> 3.5<br />
Photoshop plug-in that’s like adding a miniature Painter to Photoshop. Lets you paint normally or use a wide range of tools for natural-media effects<br />
<strong>Digit</strong>alizer $22 Panopticum, www.panopticum.<strong>com</strong> M | W Nov <strong>04</strong> 3.0<br />
Photoshop plug-in that creates an image out of text characters. It’s decent value, but bugs are evident on images over 5MB<br />
Eye Candy 4000 $169 Alien Skin, www.alienskin.<strong>com</strong>, 001 919 832 4124 M | W Nov <strong>04</strong> 3.5<br />
Eye Candy 400 is a collection of 23 plug-ins, so there is bound to be something that appeals to you. The Shadowlab option is particularly useful<br />
Flood $20 Flaming Pear, www.flamingpear.<strong>com</strong> M | W Nov <strong>04</strong> 4.5<br />
Handy Photoshop plug-in for creating water effects is cheaper and easier to use than its rivals. Well worth the money<br />
FreeHand MX £289 Macromedia, www.macromedia.<strong>com</strong>/uk, 01344 458 600 M | W Apr 03 4.5<br />
With its excellent MX Studio interface cleanup, great new tools, and a raft of improved features, this is the most <strong>com</strong>pelling upgrade since version 7<br />
Illustrator CS £435 Adobe, www.adobe.co.uk, 020 8606 4000 M | W Jan <strong>04</strong> 4.0<br />
The typographic reworking, 3D graphics features, and improved performance are all impressive, but Illustrator’s interface is showing its age<br />
ImageAlign $129 Grasshopper, www.grasshopper.<strong>com</strong>, 0064 7854 7279 M | W Nov <strong>04</strong> 3.5<br />
Photoshop plug-in that allows photographers to <strong>com</strong>pensate for lens problems like barrel and pincushion distortion. One of the best of its type<br />
Light! 2.0 $50 <strong>Digit</strong>al Film Tools, www.digitalfilmtools.<strong>com</strong> M | W Nov <strong>04</strong> 4.5<br />
Clever Photoshop plug-in that controls light and adds realistic shadows, even from objects not in the main image. Poor manual but still a Best Buy<br />
Mystical Lighting $179 Auto FX Software, www.autofx.<strong>com</strong>, 001 205 980 0056 M | W Nov <strong>04</strong> 3.0<br />
Lighting control Photoshop plug-in that gives you more in-depth tools and control than in Photoshop CS. However, it’s a bit slow<br />
Painter IX £249 Corel, www.corel.co.uk, 01628 589 800 M | W Nov <strong>04</strong> 4.0<br />
Painter IX has faster brushes than 8.1 and is all the better for it. There really is no better natural-media painting program on the market<br />
Paint Shop Pro 8 £85 Jasc, www.jasc.<strong>com</strong> @ <strong>Digit</strong>al Workshop, 0870 120 2186 Windows Jul 03 4.0<br />
Jasc pushes ahead with more design and correction tools to keep Paint Shop Pro strong enough to fend off rivals. The new look may confuse you<br />
Photoshop CS £515 Adobe, www.adobe.co.uk, 020 8606 4000 M | W Jan <strong>04</strong> 4.5<br />
This upgrade is all about improving efficiency and productivity. There are few new effects, but the user has much greater freedom to create<br />
Piranesi 4 £450 Informatix, www.informatix.co.uk @ CU, 020 8358 5858 Windows Nov <strong>04</strong> 4.0<br />
High-quality and fast painting tool for painting textures, ading depth and finishing 3D scenes. Primarily used by architects<br />
SPOTLIGHT: DESKTOP PUBLISHING TOOLS<br />
PHOTOSHOP PLUG-INS<br />
Perfect timing<br />
All characters in the<br />
TimeSplitters video game<br />
series are modelled using<br />
the same bipedal rig. Free<br />
Radical, the creative team<br />
behind the game, uses rigid<br />
bind in Maya, giving a<br />
prescribed geometry<br />
FLAMING PEAR FLOOD<br />
Make waves in your toolbox for only $20 by creating<br />
water effects, ripples and reflections. Other<br />
plug-ins do this too, but this is excellent value<br />
DIGITAL FILM TOOLS LIGHT!2.0<br />
Streaming light through windows, shadows<br />
where there were none, even light falling through<br />
the leaves of a tree. Good and only $50<br />
RIGHT HEMISPHERE DEEP PAINT<br />
Like having a miniature Corel Painter bolted into<br />
your toolbox. Either apply texture effects or paint<br />
with brushes and by cloning photographs<br />
Software in focus: Final Cut Pro HD<br />
In the five years since Apple first launched Final Cut Pro,<br />
it has emerged as one of the best digital video applications.<br />
It’s partly responsible for the demise of Premiere on the<br />
Mac, and it’s creeping up on Avid’s dominance of the film<br />
and broadcasting arena.<br />
The newest incarnation – Final Cut Pro HD – may sound<br />
like a massive leap, but the ‘HD’ tag is really just there to<br />
sound impressive. However, it does feature native DVCPRO<br />
HD support, and DeckLink HD cards are <strong>com</strong>paratively<br />
inexpensive if you want to work with full 1080p HD.<br />
Final Cut’s success hasn’t been about headline-grabbing<br />
features – Edition, Premiere, and Xpress Pro have been<br />
first with most creative tools. Final Cut has flourished<br />
thanks to an efficient workflow, and the plethora of hardware<br />
solutions that enable it to work with most formats.<br />
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