Apple unveils Final Cut Studio 2

It would appear there is a new Final Cut Studio 2 out. And new Final Cut Studio Server (available this summer). Cool. :)

Yes, just saw this too. A very unusal time to release this news on Sunday. Have never see the new product released on SUNDAY, normally release on either Monday to Wednesday.

Funky :)

Looks excellent! I only wish I could afford it :)

Wonder how much new stuff will make it into FCE...

I just watched the Demo Reel for the new Final Cut Studio 2... http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/action/?movie=nab

It rocks... and I was brought to tears by the song as soon as I realized it was "What a Wonderful World" by Joey Ramone :(

Poor Joey, being used in their marketing... even a very cool Demo Reel. :(

Sebastian

Poor? He's probably proud and honored that his music is being used posthumously.

Poor? He's probably proud and honored that his music is being used posthumously.
"Spicy" and "Cheesy" from a Dorito's Commercial when he's singing/saying "And I think to myself..." don't exactly bring to mind "Proud" and "Honored"

Sebastian

Between Motion 3 and Color I had to get a mop to wipe up the drool.. I could've really used both of them last week..

My main issue now is that I need to figure out how much I can get for my organs on the black market so I can but a RedCam.. ;)

Heh. $17K for the camera plus $3K for the lens is the only the start of the blood-letting. What will really drain you is the money for the multi-terabyte storage array you'll need to record at 2K or 4K.

The days of 1GB per 5 minutes on DV are at an end.

"Spicy" and "Cheesy" from a Dorito's Commercial when he's singing/saying "And I think to myself..." don't exactly bring to mind "Proud" and "Honored"

Well, that's not Apple's fault. :)

Presenting at the National Association of Broadcasters conference on Sunday, Apple unveiled Final Cut Studio 2, a significant upgrade to its industry leading video production suite that delivers new creative tools designed expressly for editors.

Final Cut Studio 2 includes Final Cut Pro 6, which introduces Apple’s ProRes 422 format for uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes and support for mixed video formats and frame rates in a single Timeline; Motion 3 featuring an intuitive 3D environment, paint and new behaviors; Soundtrack Pro 2 with dozens of innovative tools for multitrack editing, surround mixing and conforming sound to picture; Compressor 3 delivering powerful batch encoding for multiple formats with a single click; and DVD Studio Pro 4.2 for SD and HD DVD authoring. Final Cut Studio 2 also introduces “Color,” a professional color grading and finishing application for ensuring consistent color and creating signature looks.

“Final Cut Studio 2 was specifically designed to enable the rapidly growing community of over 800,000 Final Cut editors worldwide to animate, mix, grade and deliver their work as a natural extension of the editorial process,” said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. “Final Cut Studio 2 is the most powerful production suite on the planet.”

At the core of Final Cut Studio 2 is Final Cut Pro 6, the latest version of Apple’s Emmy award-winning editing software which includes a new Open Format Timeline that lets editors mix and match virtually any video format and frame-rate in a single Timeline without transcoding. ProRes 422, a new full raster, 10-bit 4:2:2 post production format produces stunning HD quality at SD file sizes, making it ideal for working efficiently across a SAN or on a MacBook Pro in the field. Companies including Panasonic, Sony and RED are embracing ProRes 422 as they continue to innovate on the next generation of cameras. Final Cut Pro 6 also includes optical flow based SmoothCam technology to remove unwanted or jarring camera movement with simple, easy-to-use tools. Deep integration with Motion includes the ability to edit Motion templates with video drop zones and editable text fields directly in Final Cut Pro.

New to Final Cut Studio is Color, which puts a logical task-based color grading and finishing workflow in the hands of every Final Cut Pro editor. The primaries in Color include advanced color correction tools such as gamma, lift and gain adjustments, as well as custom R, G, B and luma curves, and the secondaries provide the ability to isolate specific areas of an image with soft-edged mattes and custom-shaped vignettes, which can be tracked with ease. Professional scopes provide precise monitoring of chrominance and luminance values via waveforms, histograms and new 3D scopes. Color includes over 20 signature looks which can be customized to create a unique mood for any given project, and offers a seamless roundtrip workflow where projects can be sent from Final Cut Pro 6 directly to Color for grading, finishing and final rendering with 32-bit float 4:4:4 image processing.

Motion 3, the latest version of Apple’s motion graphics software, takes all the familiar Motion tools and extends them to a 3D environment. New camera behaviors add depth and realism with drag-and-drop simplicity. Vector based paint tools allow editors to easily create brushes with color, particles, video or pictures. A simple, yet highly precise match moving tool automatically maps any image or effect to the path of any other object. New retiming behaviors enable editors to slip and slide retiming effects on the Timeline without keyframes, while new audio behaviors allow users to easily create animations that respond to soundtrack volume and frequency. Motion 3 includes over 1500 new design elements including professional stock imagery, beautifully animated line drawings and stunning vector artwork.

Soundtrack Pro 2, a brand new version of the audio editing application in Final Cut Studio 2, features powerful new multitrack editing and recording tools in a streamlined interface that simplifies every aspect of the audio post production process. Soundtrack Pro 2 introduces a breakthrough heads up spotting display that lets editors precisely align effects and dialog with picture. Advanced take management tools enable editors to quickly combine pieces of the best takes to craft seamless performances. Stereo and surround mixing tools enable users to create 5.1 and stereo mixes in the same project, saving time and eliminating costly errors. Editors can work with a royalty-free library of over 5,000 professionally produced foley and sound effects, including over 1,000 surround sound effects and evocative multi-channel music tracks. A powerful new Conform tool enables users to synchronize and track changes between picture and sound editorial.

Compressor 3, the latest version of Apple’s industrial strength encoding tool, comes with a new streamlined interface and simplified workflows that make encoding and delivering in multiple formats easier and more efficient than ever. Powerful batch processing and job chaining capabilities enable editors to create pristine quality output for a wide range of delivery formats with a single click. Compressor 3 extends support for industry-standard codecs such as MPEG-2 and H.264 to include new drag-and-drop presets for delivery to broadcast television, web, iPod, Apple TV™, DVD and mobile phones. Dynamic filters applied during pre-processing now support timecode overlays, audio/video fade in and out, and animated watermarks that can be applied directly from Motion projects.

Apple today also introduced Final Cut Server, a powerful new server application that works seamlessly with Final Cut Studio 2 to provide media asset management and workflow automation for post production and broadcast professionals.

Pricing & Availability

Final Cut Studio 2 will be available in May through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $1,299 (US). Registered users of the current version of Final Cut Studio can upgrade for $499 (US) and registered users from any previous version of Final Cut Pro can upgrade for $699 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Final Cut Studio 2 can be found at Apple's website.[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ] (http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2664)

Yes, just saw this too. A very unusal time to release this news on Sunday. Have never see the new product released on SUNDAY, normally release on either Monday to Wednesday.

Funky :)

Umm this is NAB. The place for FCS to debut. Sunday is also the unoffical opening of it, as exibit starts tomorrow, and yesturday was the pre parties.

Sunday is THE day as far as NAB is concerned

I almost was able to goto the event, but unfortunely not as it's not in my schedule. Actually a lot of people was able to go but couldn't which seems like apple schedule this very very late in the process. Though it's nothing new at NAB. ALmost every big vendor send out invites like a day before the limit. Almost always it's insiders in apple who get to go simply because there's such a short window.

I'm surpised and not surpised. Almost everything is expected depending on your angles. You have one side like, "apple is going to go toe to toe with avid" while the rebuttal was, "Apple wouldn't scew their relationship with so many vendors"...with both side grinning.

But everyone I knew working with apple said, NDA, but it's going to be software(i.e. FCS).

In the end...they are going after avid, with the HW bob complete solution.

Whoa! I watched the FCServer video and they mention something along the lines of Windows users being able to preview segments. (Halfway through when the blonde woman is working). Just after that they show what looks like a Windows viewer client (??) because it's using a white pointer rather than the Mac black. The rest of interface was Pro Apps slate. They never showed it full screen to see if it had OS X or Windows window buttons.

I thought they were just referring to the video format, but is there a Windows client in the works?

I have been watching the videos. THIS IS AMAZING!
does anyone think they borrowed some of the 3D engine stuff from Pixar? Is that even possible?

Camera stabilization and the Color node-like approach are both derived from Shake. I can't wait until the successor to Shake is released. Shake's interface is not exactly the most intuitive..

Whoa! I watched the FCServer video and they mention something along the lines of Windows users being able to preview segments. (Halfway through when the blonde woman is working). Just after that they show what looks like a Windows viewer client (??) because it's using a white pointer rather than the Mac black. The rest of interface was Pro Apps slate. They never showed it full screen to see if it had OS X or Windows window buttons.

I thought they were just referring to the video format, but is there a Windows client in the works?

Final Cut Server will have a client each for Mac OS and Windows.

This is the motion upgrade I've been waiting for. Bye bye After Effects! :D

Do you think ? Still no expresions though ... so camera shake , wobble and WIGGLE funstions are probably still not going to exist. ( Unless apple has wiggle plug in , that'd be cool)

Do you think ? Still no expresions though ... so camera shake , wobble and WIGGLE funstions are probably still not going to exist. ( Unless apple has wiggle plug in , that'd be cool)
For me at least. :)

I'm not an advanced After Effects user, there are many features I've surely never touched, but I am a big user of the camera and lighting, and now that Motion has that I'm hoping to cut one more program out of my workflow (and budget). Being able to render my animations directly in the Final Cut timeline, which don't need to be archived because they are re-renderable, is a major time and workflow saver; I've been trying to use Motion as much as possible, but find myself back in After Effects whenever I wanted to use camera and lighting effects. So at least for me, Motion should now do everything I need from an animation program at this time :)

Regarding wobble and wiggle, one could always opt to just keyframe the camera (especially easy with Motion's recording capabilities) if Apple doesn't allow behaviors to be applied to the camera itself.

so what's the verdict from the pros? Is this is a big deal that'll sell a lot of software (and of course your movies/content) and hardware or just another day?

I don't think a proper verdict can be made until the pros actually got a chance to test this software themselves. With some of it not coming out for months, that's rather hard. :)

Final Cut Server is coming from Apple's acquisition of Proximity Corporation and Color comes from the acquisition of Silicon Color.

FC Server was needed to compete with Avid's Unity. Proximity has an impressive client base of 150 broadcasters. That does give Apple Server a great head start.

Color is what looks most exciting for me and what I do. Unfortunately I'm not at NAB this year to test it out.

I also wish I were there to ask about RED. Apple confirms that it supports REDCODE, which is Red's codec. But they don't explicitly say if and how FCP supports 4K.

Wow that RED camera + lens is a little more expensive than a Toyota Corolla but man its cheap in the world of pro gear though. Looks like it will be able to replace or get real close Film at that point.

For those who think 17+3K is expensive, try buying a Panavision camera and lets see how much film will cost.

Looks like for 30K you can build a nice setup for Pro work. (RED + Mac Pro and finalcut and other necessities)

I remember back when nonlinear editing was newfangled stuff running on turnkey systems costing a shitload of money, 30K would not even get you in the door just for the editor.

Panavision doesn't sell cameras. Rental only.

A new Arriflex camera can get over $100,000. From what we've seen so far RED does not really replace all of the functionality of an Arri 435.

http://www.arri.com/prod/cam/435xtreme/prod_img/xtreme_head.jpg

Whats a base gold + lens rental going for 4000-5000 bucks a week?

Yeah but you are talking a huge price differential and I think with the RED you are getting a shit load of bang for the buck at the moment and no film cost.

I see a new future with this new stuff coming down the pipe, opening up the doors for some quality stuff from smaller productions etc..

Could Apple ProRes 422 be the key to something even bigger? HD quality at SD file sizes. Hmmm... Could this be used to deliver HD iTunes content?

Of course, Apple really means compressed HD at uncompressed SD file sizes, which are not small to begin with (17MBytes/s?). These editing codecs are completely different from delivery codecs like H.264, so don't jump to conclusions.

Yes, just saw this too. A very unusal time to release this news on Sunday. Have never see the new product released on SUNDAY, normally release on either Monday to Wednesday.

It's not released. Still, a product announcement on a Sunday is rare. A trade show like this is a bit of an exception, they need to promote it when the expo opens tomorrow.

Panavision doesn't sell cameras. Rental only.

A new Arriflex camera can get over $100,000. From what we've seen so far RED does not really replace all of the functionality of an Arri 435.

http://www.arri.com/prod/cam/435xtreme/prod_img/xtreme_head.jpg

Ah! For my old Arri 16Bl Quartz with Nagra. Nothing like having an assistant follow you around with a recorder.

Ah! For my old Arri 16Bl Quartz with Nagra. Nothing like having an assistant follow you around with a recorder.

Then having to resolve 1/4" to mag, editing on a flatbed, mixing down from selsyn locked dubbers....

Good times.

I have been watching the videos. THIS IS AMAZING!
does anyone think they borrowed some of the 3D engine stuff from Pixar? Is that even possible?

Probably not. Pixar and Apple share a CEO but that doesn't mean they'd share code as freely.

Camera stabilization and the Color node-like approach are both derived from Shake. I can't wait until the successor to Shake is released. Shake's interface is not exactly the most intuitive..

The smoothcam looks even easier to use in FCP6 than in Shake. I'm sure the Shake version probably has more control but damn. Nice job Apple. I have high hopes for Phenomenon ..I hope it's ready by NAB 2008

Final Cut Server is coming from Apple's acquisition of Proximity Corporation and Color comes from the acquisition of Silicon Color.

FC Server was needed to compete with Avid's Unity. Proximity has an impressive client base of 150 broadcasters. That does give Apple Server a great head start.

Color is what looks most exciting for me and what I do. Unfortunately I'm not at NAB this year to test it out.

I also wish I were there to ask about RED. Apple confirms that it supports REDCODE, which is Red's codec. But they don't explicitly say if and how FCP supports 4K.

Yeah I'm thinking 4K work "must" be ProRes 422. I've downloaded all the docs I can on Apple Sales web and if there's any clarification I'll update.

Oh yeah Soundtrack Pro rocks. Now I needs a 5.1 monitoring system.

Blue Sky?

http://www.abluesky.com/user/images/cat/view/ProDesk_51.jpg

Also of note. FXplug isn't just a scripting enviroment anymore. It's a full fledged GPU enabled plugin architecture. We're going to see some really cool stuff for this now that developers can tape into the GPU through FCP

Color ...you can tell Apple "quickly" integrated Color into FCS. It's widgets and UI still smack of Silicon Color. I'm sure Apple squashed some bugs which vexed owners and it's going to be solid but watch out for the next version where Apple engineers get some time to work on it.

This is a fantastic update. Multiple res and format on the timeline is a huge timesaver. My only real complaints about FCP up to now have been bugs rather than functionality so hopefully they will have been addressed.

Motion 3 looks superb. 3D manipulation in AE can be a pain, it looks as if M3 should provide a smoother more intuitive workflow. Yes there is now wiggle and all that stuff.

Soundtrack is starting to look like a professional piece that I could actually use rather than having go the Digital Performer/Logic/ProTools route. It SO needed the easy crossfade function.

The inclusion of Color for 'free', a $25.000 piece of software last time it was on the market, is truly astonishing. There is NOTHING on the market that can compete at this level and many smart people will be buying FCS and an OctoMac just for this. Amazing.

NB.
ProRes422 is not a proxy format by the way, its an 8 or 10bit intermediate. With the AJA hardware in and out there should be no need for further on-line conforming.

If anybody DOESN'T think that the RED camera is going to take over the film world then they really haven't been paying attention.

Same here. Why are there no 8800GTS/GTX, or even a 1950XTX for the Mac Pro...? It can't be that hard to put an EFI Rom on one of those.

I really hope that we'll see the upcoming ATI Generation (R600) for the Mac Pros soon. Aperture and FC would benefit greatly.

It isn't difficult. Apple decides what we need, and they provide that.

Many of us don't agree with Apple's choices, but tough. That's what comes from selling only a few open boxes. Other manufacturers simply aren't interested in producing cards for it. Even ATI, who has been Apple's biggest supporter over the years, has given up recently. Hopefully with CS3, and Apple's new software, enough machines will be sold for that to change, but don't wait for it.

Anyone with experience in AfterEffects have any impressions on the Motion update? My initial impression is: improved, but still needs improving to really compete w/AE.

Motion 3 seems to be encroching more into AE's field, but without actually using it, it's hard to tell just how far. Motions advantages have been with working with feel, AE's advantages have been with with precision. I wouldn't be surprised to see both converging more and more.

Any ideas if the NAB Apple event video will be posted to Apple.com today? I'm really looking forward to seeing it... almost as much as the iPhone keynote video.

If anybody DOESN'T think that the RED camera is going to take over the film world then they really haven't been paying attention.

Cameras have been launched for the past 7 years where this same claim has been made every year.

The problem with this assertion is that in real world production no one camera fits all situations. When shooting film, productions are typically using 3 or 4 different types of cameras. Because they all have different advantages and abilities.

Productions that only shoot digital are giving up some advantages that are gained with shooting film. In reality the one area where digital cameras are making a major inroads into movie production is in visual effects. VFX people prefer to work with digital images, and the rest of the movie is typically shot on film.

A proxy and an intermediate would basically be the same thing. It looks as though you are pointing out that ProRes422 is a video format in of itself.

But if the intent is to finish with uncompressed 4:4:4 HD ProRes422 can be used as a proxy.

A proxy and an intermediate are not the same thing as you well know.

Nope. You're still not getting it.

If you don't think he's getting it, explain it to us.

A proxy and an intermediate are not the same thing as you well know.

They don't mean exactly the same thing but both terms imply a state between the raw material and finished product.

Its a film camera replacement. Many, many DP's own their own cameras and many have placed (multiple) orders for RED.

As I described above there isn't really one type of film camera. There are different cameras that perform different tasks and RED does not in any way replace them all.

DP's that shoot Hollywood movies don't own their own cameras, because you don't use one type of camera for everything.

Its mostly in the video world where people actually own their own equipment and would more than likely be the customer base for RED.

Could Apple ProRes 422 be the key to something even bigger? HD quality at SD file sizes. Hmmm... Could this be used to deliver HD iTunes content?

OMG you could be right!!! :wow:

i really wish apple would open this product line to offering standalone products. i know it's all designed to integrate flawlessly with the rest of the products in the suite but i honestly don't need final cut, dvd studio pro or soundtrack pro, but i could make some good use out of motion. it looks great but i can't justify to my boss spending $1200 on a suite when we are really only going to use one of the apps, which originally sold as a standalone app for $300. if they were to bring that back...i would be very interested

But they don't explicitly say if and how FCP supports 4K.

I think this is explictly stated in:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/action/?movie=red

The Apple booth is pretty nice. I didn't bring my card reader or camera cable, so I can't upload any pics. Also, I didn't ask, but nothing there gave me any indication that AVCHD was going to be supported in any manner. I tried to ask Brad Wright of HDVxDV if he was planning to make a conversion program (IMO, he's the obvious third party that would do it), but he left the booth that I saw him at and I didn't see him again.

The RED booth is a bit insane. It's an enclosure that looks like a red canvas "barn". The times I walked by the booth, the line to get in wrapped half way around the barn. I do agree with the sentiment that it's not all things to all people, but it looks like it's extremely adaptable too. As far as I can tell, the 4k res is not 4:4:4 so that might cause some problems for those wanting to composite at 4k. Not that it matters for FCS, I didn't see a clear indication in any of the specs that it supports 4k in any form.

Its a film camera replacement. Many, many DP's own their own cameras and many have placed (multiple) orders for RED. Who is forcing you to buy one? Do what you like.

Buddy I'm not talking about broadcast, I'm talking about FILM DPs, they don't own their own cameras, because those cameras are not for sale. And even if they were why would anyone buy what a studio would pay for?

I'm talking about RED in the realm of movie making which believe it or not is RED's primary purpose.

Why would Peter Jackson's DP spend his own money to buy a RED if studio would pay for the rental for every picture they worked on?

i was wondering about that, but I doubt it means anything. Apple seems to support codec's when it arbitrarily feels like it. With out a doubt eventually apple will support AVCHD and AVC-i.

Were you able find out why DVDSP does not support blu-ray?

I think they did add some stuff like XDCAM HD support, IIRC, announced at IBC last year. BTW, there is a new Sony on display that uses ExpressCard/34 memory cards in a format called XDCAM EX. I think they showed cards up to 32GB. You can pop the card into a MBP and just import the video from the memory card like you would a hard drive. Panasonic did similar with P2 being PC Card, but P2 doesn't work on newer machines without an adapter, it's like they jumped the gun by a year.

I asked about your questions and a few other things. AVC-Intra is supported, they even had one station showing that, it was converted into ProRes 422. AVCHD is "not right now", no time frame given, but then, even S

What the hell are you talking about? Final Cut Pro does not have bushed metal by ANY means whatsoever. Not even Final Cut Pro 5 did.

Well, friend, if you take a look at the transport control sections (you know, the bits where the play button is located) of the Viewer and the Canvas windows you'll see what I'm talking about - sure looks brushed to me! (You know it's nice to check these things before posting!)

And my point was also about the lack of consistency between FCP and the other members of the Final Cut Studio suite. So there.:p

I know what you mean Nick. Final Cut Pro is looking kind of old and stodgy when compared to the new hottness of Motion, STP and Compressor. I wonder why they made no attempts to align the UI elements.

Perhaps there's a planned update that is coming in the fall which will upgrade DVD SP to version 5 and refreshen FCP's UI a bit along with Leopard support.

We can dream - in any case, I still love FCP, and brushed is just an annoyance to my OCD I guess! And the overall suite looks very cool, esp. the increased integration/round tripping between apps etc. Must - justify - expense

We can dream - in any case, I still love FCP, and brushed is just an annoyance to my OCD I guess! And the overall suite looks very cool, esp. the increased integration/round tripping between apps etc. Must - justify - expense

It's strange. I think that I'm the only one around here that actually LIKES brushed metal. Well, maybe that's because I have had a machine shop downstairs for many years, and like metal. :lol:

I feel your pain guys. I am aslo quite obsessive when it comes to UIs and the fact that FCP6 STILL has the old interface drives me nuts. It would just make perfect sense to update it to match the rest of the suite, and it wouldn't exactly take much time either. WHY WHY WHY!?

Well anyway, like someone posted above we can only hope that apple has an update up its sleeve. But I seriously doubt it. :\

The worst part is - IT'S JUST THE BLOODY TRANSPORT CONTROLS!!

Hey, has no enterprising GUI hacker out there found a way to replace those few resource files with something more appealing? Of course Shapeshifter does nothing to FCP.

Anyone? Beuller?

So how soon after FCPro releases might we see any upgrades to FC Express? thoughts?