The purpose behind Pinnacle Systems' Power
Tools is to add the finishing touches to Liquid Edition, for even a robust nonlinear
editing (NLE) system like this one can benefit from further enhancements. Like many other
NLEs on the market today, Liquid Edition gets the job done, but Power Tools completes the
picture. The Power Tools package is a bundle of programs that Pinnacle has previously sold
separately, but has now packaged together at considerable savings to provide the Liquid
Edition nonlinear editor with the full tool kit necessary to achieve a broader range of
goals and capabilities.
Power Tools ($500) is divided into four parts. They are
Impression DVD, Commotion, Title Deko Pro, and Hollywood FX Pro. Each one takes the basic
functions available in Liquid Edition and pushes them to the max, ensuring that the video
producer/editor can go as far as he or she needs in any direction.
For example, Liquid Edition is packaged with
"lite" versions of Title Deko and Hollywood FX. While Liquid Edition can burn to
DVD and has a number of built-in animated special effects, the addition of Power Tools
increases and expands the degree of control, and adds a variety of special features, some
essential for certain types of production.
TITLE DEKO PRO
The basic version of Title Deko included with the base
Liquid Edition package is no slouch. You can choose between a number of preset title
styles that provide a decent selection of font styles and colors, along with edging and
shadows. Motion can be applied to titles through transition effects or by using the
standard roll or crawl. You can even have your titles follow a motion path to help attract
the attention of your audience.
However, there are certain text effects that a professional
must have to be on deck with a full functioning character generator ready for any graphic
challenge. Moving up to Title Deko Pro doesn't necessarily make things easier for you, but
it will give you an even greater degree of control with tons more options.
With Title Deko Pro you can quickly change the size and
scale of your letters via keyboard commands and a multifaceted control panel with a whole
range of parameters to modify. Apply kerning (the space between letters) and leading (the
space between lines of text) to have your titles appear just the way you want. Rotate your
titles to any angle or draw a curved line and then have your lettering follow the curved
base line as you type, a major improvement over the lite version, where letters are always
on a horizontal line. Instead of working with title presets, with Pro, virtually every
nuance of your letters can be modified, from the thickness of outlines to the degree of
softness and transparency applied to shadows.
One of the features I look for in a text editor is quick
title alignment. Text bar icons instantly justify letters right or left, or center your
titles both horizontally and vertically on the screen. You can also use your numeric
keypad to send titles to specific points on the screen, like top left, bottom right, or
middle center.
Title Deko Pro also includes a spell checker, a feature yon
certainly don't find on all titlers. You might not regard this as very important until you
let a piece of work exit the studio with a spelling error, an embarrassment that is quite
humbling to say the least. You might be surprised how easy it is for the mind to mentally
adjust to mistakes, especially when you are under a project deadline. Sometimes a built-in
spell checker can be worth its weight in gold.
IMPRESSION DVD PRO
Although Liquid Edition is a very powerful program for
creating DVDs, it lacks one essential element for professional DVD development: the
ability to output in a format-suitable DLT, or Digital Linear Tape, the format preferred
by DVD duplication houses. For that, you need DVD Pro. Because DVD Pro functions as a
stand-alone product, it offers all of the functions necessary for DVD creation, importing
video clips, placing them on a timeline and the creation of animated menus linked to
chapter points.
It also lets you set up for eight audio tracks and up to 32
different sub-title tracks. People viewing your finished DVD can turn sub-title display on
or off, another feature important for professional DVD development you won't find within
the standard Liquid Edition toolkit.
HOLLYWOOD FX PRO
Hollywood FX started out as independent software back in
1994 before it was acquired by Pinnacle a few years back. This means that FX is no new kid
on the block, but the result of many years of evolution toward the development of special
effects specifically designed for the video producer. It provides the editor with a
tantalizing collection of eye-catching effects that can be utilized in template form as
well as in a broad range of parameters that you can modify to create customized video
effects. It excels in the delivery of 3D, using hardware-accelerated rendering for fast,
spectacular results.
Because Hollywood FX Pro functions as a plug-in to Liquid
Edition, its effects are available from directly within the NLE. In its simplest
application, to add an effect, all you have to do is drag and drop it on the timeline.
This opens the FX window, where you can choose a transition and make any modifications to
customize its appearance.
Change the flight direction. Add or modify shadows and
lighting, the elements that define 3D. With the Pro version included with this package,
lighting, camera angles and surface textures are key-frame controlled, allowing you to
further determine how attributes are applied at every stage of the rendered animation.
By combining special effects with material from your video
clips library, you can create multi-layer 3D composites, so that things like spinning
cubes can have full-motion video on every face. Three-dimensional objects created in other
programs can be imported and utilized in your effects. Create 3D titles and then apply
motion and changing light, taking your video production up a significant degree in
sophistication and professionalism, crossing over a definite line of separation from less
powerful editing systems.
The Hollywood FX Pro plug-in includes a suite of instant
warp plug-ins, classics, like Peel and Twirl, to the ever-popular Explosion and Alpha
Particles, effects that go well beyond the basic 2D wipes you get with basic NLE packages.
When you first open up Hollywood FX, the Envelop Editor
does not appear, because you won't really need it until you become more familiar with how
the program works. Once you've done some projects with templates and modified them a bit,
you can get much more into the engine of creating effects by opening the Envelop Editor
through the Windows drop-down menu and selecting Show/Hide.
The root of animations and effects is the motion and
appearance of an object over time. Specific frames in the effect's timeline are used as
checkpoints known as "key frames," moments when targeted objects have an
established position and scale or size. The editor controls the appearance of the effect
by modifying various parameters, like the speed of a dissolve or the transparency of an
object, so that it fades-in or disappears.
Since Hollywood FX works in 3D, we can determine angle or
position, rotating the object as it moves. Turn lighting on or off and change its
direction over time Even shadows can be modified. Drop shadows maintain their depth, while
those affected by moving light sources must change their depth and intensity, the essence
of realism in an effect.
By interpolating the relative changes between one key frame
and the next, pixels are modified and rendered over the series of frames in between,
generating visual changes that are the building blocks of the animation. Objects flying
through space follow a path that could be a straight line from point A to point B, or you
can use a "spline" to create sweeping curves for more graceful and natural
movement.
For example, when you put it all together, a flying title
will first come into view far off in the distance, appearing small at first and then
growing larger as it reaches the foreground. It tilts and pivots from side to side until
coming to a stop and then fading from view, all actions under your command. Preview your
work before committing to a full render by dragging the Current Time slider to get a quick
look at flow, allowing you to go back and make changes at the various key frames until you
get just the effect you want.
Your ability to manipulate key frames opens up unlimited
effects possibilities, allowing you to fully customize your productions, responding to the
objects and elements related to any given project. Unless you are able to customize your
work, it's easy to find yourself using the same favorite effects for all your clients.
Hollywood FX insures that never has to happen.
COMMOTION
The real jewel in the Power Tools set is Commotion,
Pinnacle's answer to Adobe After Effects. It takes two books to cover all of its features,
one thick manual just for its filter applications. But, as the name implies, Commotion is
about movement, giving motion to images, so important to generate the fluidity of modem
editing styles. It combines the power of a full-featured paint and graphics program with
video editing and animated effects, winning eight Emmy awards for its technical
achievements, including work on films like "Gladiator" and "13 Days."
Movement is motion and direction over time. The natural
interface for creating an animated sequence is the timeline. The timeline is multilayered
for stacking video clips and objects into a composite image.
Commotion provides painting tools for applying color
strokes over your video for easy rotoscoping, a popular special effect that mixes
animation and real video. Use a pencil or paintbrush to trace your subjects using classic
"onion skin" animation, where you draw on a translucent layer placed over top of
you video frames. By combining drawing with the progression of time, you can create
handwriting that appears across the screen, magic script written by an invisible hand,
another popular effect.
Special FX brushes can be used to apply textures just like
you would a solid color. The Cloning tool is specifically designed to help you paint with
matching textures from your scene, enabling you to remove unsightly distractions or fix
flawed portions of an image or layered object.
Commotion can even be used to take the shakes out of
band-held camera work. Using the Stabilize tool, you can select a pixel on-screen and
freeze its position. Instead of bobbing up and down or side-to-side as the camcorder
jiggles, the pixel is locked in place, holding the video still. This same pixel-locking
technique can be used to generate movement, as well.
With Motion Tracking, you can command a specific pixel in
one on-screen object to follow the movement of a second selected pixel that is inside an
object or subject. The two pixels are locked together so that one object can be made to
mirror the movement of another.
Like After Effects, Commotion imports Adobe Photoshop PSD
files, preserving layer structure by assigning each to a separate track on the Commotion
timeline. Commotion is also a powerful tool for working with alpha channels, with special
options, like the Miracle Alpha Cleaner and the Matte Feather Sharp settings, for ensuring
a crisp transition by eliminating distracting artifacts when layering one subject over
another. Use the Primatte Keyer to perform chroma-key overlays based on any color. The
sophisticated processing of the Primatte system allows you to work with difficult
subjects, like smoke, hair or glass.
Commotion includes an LE version of Kroll Light Factory.
It's like having a full-scale professional lighting kit at your disposal as you develop a
composite scene. Create, control and animate elements, such as position, color
temperature, angle or brightness and intensity, plus lighting effects like lens flares.
Purchased separately, the software in the Power Tools
package would set you back $1,100. By itself, Commotion lists for $499, which is also the
cost for the Power Tools Productivity Pack--an amazing savings when you get everything
together. For the video editor who has made the Pinnacle Liquid Edition his or her current
NLE of choice, then it makes sense to bust out beyond the base system and have every
plug-in and tool now available at your disposal.
PINNACLE PRODUCTS
Here's a list of Pinnacle products and their purchase price
when purchased separately:
- HollywoodFX Pro, $200
- Commotion, $500
- Title Deko Pro, $200
- Impression DVD Pro, $200
- Power Tools Package, $500
- Liquid Edition 5.0, $700
You can contact Pinnacle Systems by calling 650-526-1600 or
going to www. pinnaclesys.com.
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