AVID releases AVID Studio for the iPad

FCP.co has an article on the newly released AVID Studio for the iPad. Here is the link to it in iTunes. It is currently $4.99, but will jump to 7.99 in 30 days. Looks pretty cool. Looks higher end than iMovie for the iPad. Looking forward to trying it out.Big-screen moviemaking comes to the touchscreen with Avid® Studio for iPad.We’ve distilled the world’s leading film-editing technology into an easy-to-use app that enables you to edit video, audio, and photos at the speed of your creativity.''Swiftly arrange your clips in the Storyboard, make precision edits using the Timeline, and add high-quality transitions, effects, and a soundtrack.Then share your movie directly to YouTube, Facebook, and more—or export your project to Avid Studio for the PC and continue editing with even more advanced tools.'Easily Access Your MediaWork with any media on your device—video, audio, and photosAccess media from external devices via an iPad Camera Connection Kit (sold separately)Capture video and photos from within the appSee your media organized by Albums, Events, Faces, and moreEditGet started quickly with how-to materialsEasily navigate your project with intuitive gesturesSwiftly arrange clips in the StoryboardMake precise edits and trim individual frames in the Precision TrimmerUse the Razor Blade tool to cut on the fly and delete or replace the second half of the clipEasily replace one clip with anotherEnhanceQuickly create multi-layer 3D animations, transitions, and titles with included Montage templatesEasily composite video tracks to create layered looksAdd high-quality fades and dissolves to help your story flowGenerate professional-looking motion titles and graphics with full control over text, font, color, size, position, and rotationCreate amazing Picture-in-Picture effects with full control over position, size, and rotationPan and zoom on your photos to create high-impact slideshowsEnjoy full-screen playbackCreate SoundtracksUse your own audio or choose from the included sound effectsTrim audio to any length, set levels, and fade audio in or outShareEasily share movies via YouTube, Facebook, email, and much moreExport projects to Avid Studio for the PCPro Technology, Pro ResultsCreated by Avid, the maker of the world’s leading film and music editing technologyEasy enough for the hobbyist, powerful enough for the pro

Bunim/Murray drops Final Cut Pro for AVID

Arstechnica is reporting that, that top reality show producer and long time Final Cut Pro proponent Bunim/Murray has dropped final Cut Pro and is moving back to AVID media composer.Due to the large volume of media generated by our reality shows, we needed to re-evaluate our editing and storage solutions. At the same time, we were looking for a partner who would understand our long-term needs,Basically FCP X is not good enough, and FCP 7 is old and gettiing long in the tooth, and with AVID now being 64 bit, they felt the need to make the move.

Blackmagic released HyperDeck Update to DNxHD

MacTech has an article on Blackmagic Design having announced a Pulbic Beta of their version 2.0 software for the HyperDeck, which gives Avid DNxHD format to the device.I actually wonder if ProRES will stay as a big format now that FCP X is no longer pro software, looks like AVID and Premiere will be the way to go.

Avid Assistant Editor Handbook

The AVID assistant Edtitor’s Handbook has been released.The Avid Assistant Editor's Handbook provides new users a solid foundation for working in Avid, and it can accelerate an Avid assistant editor's transition to a coveted editor role. There is also a comprehensive chapter on multigrouping that details this often-used process and often-encountered job requirement.Sounds interesting, and anything to teach assistant editors is a good thing, and I am sure there are quite a few editors who could use this as well.

Scott Simmons on Media Composer 6

Scott Simmons from the Edit Blog at the Prod Video Coalition has a must have article on Media Composer 6. It is a must read for some of it’s gotchas on ProRES. While it can fast import ProRES footage like it can with DNxHD footage, it cannot then Consolidate ProRES footage, which means copying without recompressing, it can still only do that with Avid compressed footage. You have to Transcode ProRES footage, so it adds another layer of compression into the mix.

Walter Biscardi on AVID Media Composer 6 at Creative Cow

Walter Biscardi from Biscardi Creative, has a great article on beta testing AVID Media Composer 6 over at Creative Cow.It is most interesting because he was a die hard Final Cut Pro user, who only used AVID when it first came out, but now seems totally sold on AVID. And says it is more rock solid with an AJA Kona 3 than Final Cut Pro ever was, and way better with it than Adobe Premiere is.Way to go AVID! I just think they should permanently make the upgrade from FCP $1000 instead o $1500, but any which way they are going to slaughter the market, I just hope Adobe is up to making enough competition to keep the innovative, just like Apple did for them.

AVID announces Media Composer 6 64 Bit

AVID has announced the fully 64 Bit Media Composer 6, and if you buy or upgrade to Version 5.5 from October 15th you get a free upgrade to 6 when it comes out.They also announced a software only version of Symphony.The most exciting thing is being able to use AJA, Black Magic and Matrox I/O cards, no more need for expensive AVID hardware. And AVID has made the program completely 64 bit without losing features (yea screw you Apple). And it has a new interface which has added tabs to bins (taken from FCP 7, which FCP X does not use), but still looks familiar, if darker.Full ProRES support on a Mac (read only on PC) including being able to just wrap them in an MXF for full AVID support, without re-rendering. Nice!This is exciting as all hell!The prices are as follows:Media Composer 6.0 starts at $2499 with upgrades starting at $299. NewsCutter 10 starts at $2499 with upgrades starting at $499. Symphony 6.0 starts at $5,999 with upgrades starting at $499. Nitris DX starts at $5,499 USD.

Automatic Duck Plugs Ins are FREE!

I honestly thought with them moving to Adobe that the old plug ins were gone for good, but it seems not as Automatic Duck has released all their old plug ins for FREE!I already owned Pro Import AE 5.0, which allows you to import either Final Cut Pro 7 or AVID Media Composer sequences into After Effects. You use Free XML exporter for FCP and it works almost perfectly. A must have.Pro Export FCP 5.0 is for FCP X and is to allow OMF export.Pro Export FCP 4.0 lets you export either OMF or AAF from FCP to AVID, and I previously owned this.And their is Pro Import FCP 2.0 which allows you to import an AVID sequence into Final Cut Pro.And they are all FREE. So download them now. Sure they will not be updated again, but free is a huge price drop!

Biscardi Creative on Premiere and AVID with Davinci Resolve

Biscardi Creative has an interesting article on workarounds to use Adobe Premiere Pro and AVID Media Composer with Davinci Resolve which is currently made to work with Final Cut Pro 7.It looks like there is no easy solution right now, as Resolve reads Premiere’s XML, but not all of it’s media is compatible, and you need a $500 plug in to make it work with AVID. Otherwise you basically need to export a quicktime and use scene detection to make a grade (so no dissolves).Not an ideal solution for sure.

PVC on some usefull AVID tools

Scott Simmons has posted an excellent article on some new and old useful features in Media Composer. I didn’t know about the Stereo for sure (much like Premiere Pro AVID can now have Stereo tracks and Stereo clips), and think these are well worth checking out.