How to Use My Images and Videos

The world has changed, and because information is ubiquitous, some think they can acquire hard work for their own purposes for both personal or commercial use. The music and movie industry looses billions to pirates, thiefs, and ignorant folk that think when they buy a blu-ray or CD that allows them to do whatever they want with the media. False! You get a license to view the product or listen to the music for non-commercial purposes only. If you can figure out a way to share the image, give an attribute to the creator too.

Any photograph or video I put online belong to me, or we can license the images for your own use and manipulation for a fee to be determined. The fines for infringement range from $750 to $30,000 per image or video by USA law.

I will use a simple Creative Commons license for images:

Creative Commons License
This work by Ismael Rosales is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License
This work by Ismael Rosales is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

I will use a simple creative commons license for video:

Creative Commons License
This work by Ismael Rosales is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License
This work by Ismael Rosales is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Only Final Cut Studio

Final Cut Studio 2 Box

Earlier this month Apple Computer revealed a new direction in the Final Cut Studio roadmap. In view of the release of the Adobe Production Studio, Apple made a majority of their Pro Applications into an all or none bundle. Previous editions of Motion, DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Soundtrack Pro stood as individual applications, but as of now are available only as part of the $1299 Final Cut Studio integrated suite. Shake, Logic Pro, and Aperture continue to be sold as stand alone tools.

Apple also announced the introduction of the Universal version of Final Cut Studio available by the end of march 2006 for a $49 upgrade fee, just in time for NAB in Las Vegas. Historically, Apple has used the NAB show in late April to showcase the development of the Final Cut Studio. In 2004, Apple and Panasonic stunned the high definition world with the introduction of the DVCPRO HD native codec into a Final Cut Pro timeline. In 2005 apple revealed Soundtrack Pro, and a tighter fusion of the Final Cut Studio applications. 2006 should be an interesting time for Apple as they prepare their software for both powerPC and Intel chip architectures.

Final Cut Studio box image courtesy of Apple.

Adobe Premieres Production Studio

In front of a well fed and eager crowd Giles Baker and Steve Kilisky of Adobe Systems demonstrated the Adobe Production Studio to the Motion Graphics Los Angeles User Group meeting at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. Adobe sponsored a taco bar buffet line to warm up the appetites of creative professionals, and then walked through a vivid scenario using all the tools in the Adobe Production Studio, including Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, Adobe Audition 2.0, Adobe After Effects 7.0 Professional, Adobe Encore DVD 2.0, and a taste of Adobe Photoshop CS2. The glue that binds all these applications together is a unified dark gray user interface presentation layer, along with Adobe Bridge asset management and preset rangler, and the ability to import projects built in After Effects directly in Premiere Pro or and Encore DVD without rendering or final assembly, called Adobe Dynamic Link. Any change in the After Effects composition, updates automatically in the timeline.

Premiere Pro and After Effects also feature float based processing of effects to ensure maximum color fidelity and encourage the use of high dynamic range images. Premiere Pro now offers multicam editing. Most Production Studio applications also support GPU OpenGL acceleration for realtime previews of effects and edits.

Adobe seems to being playing catch up to Apple, with Motion, Final Cut Pro, and Soundtrack Pro already featuring multicam editing, GPU acceleration, 32-bit effects support, and many more features. Premiere Pro does offer more complete integration with Adobe Acrobat with a feature called Clip Notes, a robust edit approval system using PDF to generate notes and comments into the editing timeline.

I discussed directly with the Premiere Pro product manager support for the Panasonic DVCPRO HD HVX200 camcorder, and he balked that the licensing fee for the codec was too great to include in Premiere Pro directly. The only method to edit DVCPRO HD is using the Matrox Axio system priced at $11,495. The Adobe Production Studio sells for $1699.

adobe after effects 7.0 professional screenshot
adobe after effects 7.0 professional screenshot
adobe after effects 7.0 professional screenshot
adobe after effects 7.0 professional screenshot
adobe premiere pro 2.0 screenshot
adobe premiere pro 2.0 screenshot
adobe clip notes screenshot
adobe clip notes screenshot
adobe audition 2.0 screenshot
adobe audition 2.0 screenshot
adobe encore DVD 2.0 screenshot
adobe encore DVD 2.0 screenshot
steve kilisky of adobe demonstates the adobe production studio
steve kilisky of adobe demonstates the adobe production studio

Panasonic Releases AG-HVX200 Camcorder

In a very large North American launch, Panasonic premiered the AG-HVX200 to the public via full page ads in newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. At the DV Expo in Los Angeles, Panasonic contracted with filmmakers to take the VariCam sibling HVX200 through it’s paces, with footage of a college basketball game, Hollywood street scene, a frame rate exploration of a backlit martial artist, and a green screen music video.

Barry Green’s footage looked fantastic. He shot multiple frame rates at 720p and also some 1080p capture. The Panasonic booth had a 17 inch LCD display as the presentation monitor, and the footage was 80% of the VariCam. Michael Caporale showed an experimental music video shot on a green screen. The original pre-composited material looked sharp, excellent contrast, and ready for green screen removal. Caporale also shot run and gun footage of a Hollywood movie premiere, which looked bright, color accurate, and competent.

Panasonic promised sometime in the future these shots should be available on a DVD. I hope that similar to the VCR-FireWire-NLE launch some two years ago, an editing software vendor release raw DVCPRO HD from the camera, so anyone can test their NLE of choice with actual image captures.

Panasonic also announced the availability of the AG-HVX200 targeted for 29 December 2005. DV Expo featured a near 2 hour walkthrough by Jan Crittenden Livingston, the product manager for the AG-HVX200, on the design and features of this revolutionary camcorder. Included here are keypoint slides from the presentation.

DV expo panasonic AG-HVX200
DV expo panasonic AG-HVX200
DV expo panasonic presentation P2 cinema realized
DV expo panasonic presentation P2 cinema realized
DV expo panasonic presentation P2 workflow
DV expo panasonic presentation P2 workflow
DV expo panasonic presentation P2 cinema
"DV expo panasonic presentation P2 cinema
DV expo panasonic presentation P2 cinema CCD
DV expo panasonic presentation P2 cinema CCD

Resfest Panasonic AG-HVX200 News

panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA

At the Egyptian Theatre on Friday September 30 2005, Jan Crittenden Livingston, Product Line Business Manager for the Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder thrilled a crowd of over 100 Los Angeles producers, directors, and high definition (HD) enthusiasts with the latest information on the upcoming DVCPRO HD product. Every aspect of the history and design methodology of this next revolution in affordable HD image acquisition became clear in the 1.5 hour lecture and hands on walkthrough of the HVX200 device.

This camcorder has extensive coverage from around the blogosphere, including HVX User, P2 Info Net, and Creative Cow P2 forum. The most interesting tidbits from the discussion and presentation in no particular order:

Panasonic showed coyness in revealing the HXV200 imaging block specifications, but rather had actual test footage from a prototype camcorder, and asked the audience to judge the final results, and not compare pixel count or CCD size. In the test footage at the booth, and some projected engineering style capture of a luscious tabletop scene of spinning desk accessories, textures, and reflective materials the image held it own. One audience member quipped that we did not actually see raw capture off the P2 card, but due to logistical reasons, the source material was transferred via analog component to an AJ-HD1200A VCR and played back on a DVCPRO HD tape, preserving the DVCPRO HD codec output.

For four days the prototype HVX200 played back a scene on P2 from the IBC 2005 Amsterdam show, with street cars during a night and daylight shot, and on the playback display, the images looked stunning with absolute clarity and image fidelity, even into the shadows. This also demonstrated the robustness of the P2 media, as hundreds, if not thousands of eager camera operators touched, prodded and cajoled the camcorder all weekend long. I left on the final day and the media and camera continued to play back the Amsterdam scene without tape wear or hesitation. The DVCPRO HD codec, based on the compression technology of DV, but at a color sampling of 4:2:2 instead of DV 4:1:1 is one step closer to the highest quality HD-D5, but at a more affordable price point. Panasonic has already announced in some future camcorder a full D5 unit, most like two years away. Currently, a HD-D5 VCR lists at $99,000 as compared to the $5995 list price for the AG-HVX200 camcorder. Another useful point during recording, using the P2 media, the camcorder will be able to remove redundant frames, so a 24p recording session will contain only the necessary information, rather than the limitation of a linear tape based system that maintained a constant tape velocity and needed to always record 60p, regardless of the variable frame rate setting. The output from the firewire interface follows this paradigm, always receiving the full 60p information stream.

This camcorder may be the best product designed for the aspiring filmmaker and documentarian. Though the camcorder is chubby and larger than DV camcorders, the weight is low and controls are well placed, and it offers specifications unavailable in any other under $10,000 HD camcorder. This camera will have four channels of uncompress audio at 16 bit 48 kHz sampling, as compared to the paltry 2 channel MPEG-1 Audio Layer II on HDV camcorder. For a small budget film, or documentary sound is over 50% of the experience, and requires perhaps more care and handling than the picture. Previously, one would need to chain a DAT or MiniDisc recorder to the camera for high sound quality, but the Panasonic rig takes care of that necessity.

Now, the faithful must wait a few more weeks. Panasonic expects to receive shipping AG-HVX200 camcorders by the end of November 2005, but I suspect that it will premiere at the Tokyo Inter BEE 2005 show in mid November, and become more widely available by early 2006.

panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA
panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA
panasonic jan crittenden livingston
panasonic jan crittenden livingston
panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA
panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA
panasonic AG-HVX200 ergonomic design
panasonic AG-HVX200 ergonomic design
Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA
Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA
Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA
Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA
Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA
Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder at resfest 2005 LA

Intel and NVIDIA Inside

Apple Xserve

Apple is moving the Mac to an Intel chipset. Until that day in 2007, where all new Mac machines will be Intel inside, expect many surprises. The glue to any good chipset deployment is not only the underlying semiconductor design, but the application environment to write to the hardware, or application program interface (API). Apple Xcode is the technology that drives the software engine. When the multicore comes out with hyperthreading, then we’re talking a good move toward Intel. The chip will have at least two onboard processors, and two virtual processors. All eyes are watching the Intel Fall Developer Forum, to see the processor roadmap.

Along with advanced processors, comes 64-bit computing, which allows access to more than 4 GB of RAM (the 32-bit limit). Today’s Power Macs can hold 8 GB of RAM. I was told by Adobe, that Creative Suite 2 needs around 2 GB of RAM for all it’s applications, and Apple Motion definitely needs all it can get (4 GB at least). the future is always in flux.

At the end of spring and now into the summer, the GPU market has reached an inflection point. Unlike the 90 nm and 65 nm semiconductor barrier, both NVIDIA and ATI chug along with product announcements and advancements. ATI announced at Computex CrossFire, a method to bond multiple PCI/AGP video cards together for near double the performance. NVIDIA had already announced a similar solution they called SLI. NVIDIA stirred the pot again with the GeForce 7 series. if the GeForce 6 series did not scream enough, we have the latest and greatest with more transistors and higher performance.

NVIDIA spurs on interest in its product and introductions with unique characters, usually buxom women scantily clad to attract the gamers and young folk of the planet. if you recall NVIDIA creates these female persona to demonstrate the real time rendering of characters in cinematic motion. all in all we have luna, nalu, dusk, and dawn (summary below). Will these chipsets make it the Mac?

GPU NVIDIA history

G70
GeForce 7800
luna demo woman

NV40
GeForce 6800
nalu demo woman

NV35
GeForce FX 5900 series
dusk demo woman

NV30
GeForce FX 5800 series
dawn demo woman

NVIDIA digital production pipeline
NVIDIA digital production pipeline

Apple Siggraph 2005 Booth

Apple has historically used Siggraph to announce cool things. This year, on the opening day of the Siggraph trade show, Apple Computer announced its might mouse pointing device. This first ever Apple released multibutton mouse looks like the ordinary elongated apple single clicking device, but has a very small trackball and multiple clicking surfaces.

Also at the booth, Apple featured a fully functional studio workstation setup with full Xsan support and shared rendering and storage resources via Xserve RAID. The majority of Apple representatives work out of the Pro Applications Santa Monica Campus, and for all three days showed nothing but respect and loyalty towards their varied customers.

apple might mouse
apple might mouse
apple final cut studio station
apple final cut studio station
friendly apple staff
friendly apple staff
apple shake in use
apple shake in use
apple shake users
apple shake users
apple xserve G5 along with xserve RAID
apple xserve G5 along with xserve RAID