Nebula Construction Kit examples from Peder Norrby on Vimeo.Red Giant has released a Nebula Construction Kit and Tutorial using Trapcode Mir and Form.Very cool! Going to have to play with this one.Check out their tutorial and download the kit from Red Giant.
I have been a gamer since I was a kid, and have had a lot of game systems through the years, but as of the Original XBOX I have really been a Microsoft Gamer. Sure I had a Sony Playstation 3, but I had only 3 games for it, and really only used it as a blu-ray player.I went from the Original XBOX to the XBOX 360, and had 6 Red Ring of Death failures on it, before it finally went out of warranty and died and I moved to a slimline XBOX 360 finally with HDMI out. I loved the system and it's online capabilities or I would have given up with all of it's failures.And I was so excited for the XBOX ONE, and even luckier that my mom ordered me one for my birthday (getting it on release day). It sounded like a great idea, a center for your media in your living room. You can even play television through it, and it would really be the main thing you need, but just hasn't quite worked out that way, even if it is a good game system.First off the ONE has been $499 VS $399 for the PS4. And the excuse was that it was because of the Kinect it came with, which was integrated into the system for motion and voice control. The problem is that there was no killer Kinect game that showed the need for it. It should have come with Kinect Sports Rivals at least, but even that is only a decent game (not better than the previous XBOX 360 Kinect Sports Games). And the system control with the Kinect is not even that good. You have to repeat yourself, and the movement controls are awkward at best.Sure the ONE is a very good gaming system, but the fact that Microsoft went for a cheap video card, means it is much less powerful than the Sony Playstation 4, and really isn't capable of doing 1080P output. More like 720p. And that is really unacceptable in this day where basically everyone has a 1080 HDTV. Really it should have been able to do Rock Solid 1080P 3D out of the box.And the ONE has huge overhead, running literally 3 OS's at once. For the system there is the Gaming Layer, the system layer, and the TV layer (which is not a DVR, but will just let watch TV and control it somewhat with a new guide and vocal commands, but they don't work very well). So you are running 3 OS's at once, and having to run the Kinect as well, further eating performance. Sure it is really cool to be able to instantly jump out of what you are doing and into the main menu and then jump back, but it does eat system power, which would be fine with more power, but since for raw power the system is already behind it's cheaper rival the PS4 (I know not anymore), you are…
RedShark News has a great review of the new Panasonic GH4 4K camera. Great article on the camera, though it is for PAL users instead of NTSC, but that is the only fault.Also talks about an interesting program from Thomas Worth that is a Mac Command line app to convert the 4K 4:2:0 footage to 1080 4:4:4 footage using the extra picture resolution. Which sounds great, though I don't know how it could have more color data.This camera sounds amazing. I wish Canon would take these lessons to heart and make their lower end cameras have amazing features like this camera.
Parrot has announced it's replacement to the AR2, the Bebop, and it looks awesome!It has a full HD camera, with a undistorted fish eye lens and 3 axis image stabilization and 180 degree field of view.The Bebop also has a built in GPS, so it doesn't need an additional module like the AR.2The Freeflight app is being upgraded to version 3, but even more exciting is the SkyController addition.This has an almost 2 Kilometer range, and use flight sticks instead of the virtual controls on your smart phone. And you can even connect first person glasses, or even the Oculus Rift for head tracking camera moves!No word on price, but likely more expensive than the $300 AR.2. Still looks very cool, and with a full HD camera, could be a valid camera for some productions.Pretty exciting and something to look forward to.
Cheesycam has published a DIY on created a video Tripod Platform Push Dolly.I love this DIY stuff. I really need to make a site for the lightbox I made recently.
Red Giant has released version 1.0 of it's new GPU accelerated Universe Plug ins. These include 31 free GPU accelerated plugs ins and currently 19 Pro plug ins that can be had for $10 a month, $99 a year or $399 for a lifetime subscription. And they promise dozens of new tools in 2014 alone. Already these protools include a version of Knoll Light Factory, Toonit and Holomatrix.I love Red Giant's stuff, so this is a great thing. Not sure about all these subscriptions though. So far the small businesses I work with have been very averse to a monthly fee, but the free plug ins are great to have.
So following BlackMagic Desings lead, AJA has jumped full force into the Camera creation game with their new CION.This is a 4K ENG style Camera with only PL lens mounts (unlike BlackMagic having Canon EF Lens models) and even without a viewfinder (except a small LED on the left side). I will cost $8955, and doesn't even have a viewfinder, but can use industry standard ones, and rails and batteries. You will need to get AJA storage though, as it uses yet unpriced AJA Pak SSD drives and a USB 3 Dock for them, unlike the BlackMagic which uses CFast 2.0 Media.It does seem to be more a standard size and use more industry standard accessories than BlackMagic, and has a higher resolution recording capabilities, even without a replaceable sensor.We will have to wait and see image quality, but this 4K APS-C sensor camera is certainly going to give BlackMagic a run for it's money.
Jesse Peppin at HDSLR Shooter has a great look at the new AJA Cion vs the BlackMagic Ursa, and he likes the AJA better overall, at least for his purposes.Overall it sounds like the AJA is a little more Pro, with the ability to record above ProRES HQ in ProRES 4444 (even with the URSA's upgradeable sensor). Still with no viewfinder you either need a bigger investment or to already have rails and other gear to go with it.And the worst thing of the Cion, other than not having a viewfinder of it's own, is that is uses AJA created storage, unlike Blackmagic which uses off the shelf components. Of course hopefully you can then trust them more, but they will cost more.He is right though, this looks to be the Canon/Nikon of the Videography set.
Lytro has put up a pre-order for their new SLR style Illum camera. It is $1499 with a $250 deposit to preorder. It has a higher resolution 40 Megaray sensor than the previous Lytro camera, but will export a 4 MP 2D image. It has a 30-150mm equivelant lens with a constant f2 apperature through the zoom. And a 480 x 800 LCD. You can check out the specs at their site. This is an exciting camera. I just can't wait until they create a video camera with this tech!
Electronista is reporting that the next generation Thunderbolt will reach 40 Gbps, though will have new connectors, and use up to half the power but still be able to charge 100 watts. It will support display port 1.2, PCI e 3, HDMI 2, and USB 3.This would mean a much improved MacPro, though still not PCI e 3 x16 speed.