Apple didn’t spend too much time at the Wonderlust event covering the video improvements coming to the iPhone 15 Pro, but this generation is seeing some major improvements for video professionals. From LOG color and ACES support to increased frame rate while recording in ProRes, these are some big upgrades – but what does this actually mean for the non video-professionals?
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If you’ve never heard of LumaFusion ($19.99), I won’t fault you for that. I hadn’t heard of it either until commenters on our YouTube channel vehemently encouraged me to give the app a shot.
Pardon me for initially being skeptical, as I’d heard this story numerous times before: “So and so has produced an amazing app that finally lets you truly edit videos on the iPad.” As a Final Cut Pro X devotee who’s often seen tethered to a Mac, I guess you can say I have trust issues when it comes to such lofty claims.
I’ve tried a handful of video editing apps on iPad, and have walked away disappointed every single time. Most of them promise something that they simply can’t deliver, while others show promise, yet ultimately fail in some key area.
The most competent video editing app that I’ve seen up until now — Corel’s Pinnacle Studio — featured way more power user features than competing apps like iMovie, but it sorely lacked in presentation and ease of use. Speaking of iMovie, Apple has the presentation part down pretty well, but the app falls laughably short in all but the most basic of features — “Final Cut Lite” it is not.
So there’s the backstory to my video editing woes on iPad. Thus, you can imagine how thrilled I am to be able to say that LumaFusion is an absolutely amazing video editing app on iPad (it also works on iPhone!), with a very bright future.
This, folks, is an app that not only has the power and the features, but is actually fairly easy to use, and isn’t fiendishly ugly to stare at for hours on end. LumaFusion shows what’s possible on the iPad, and like Affinity Photo for photo editors, LumaFusion isn’t perfect, but it’s definitely shaping up to be an absolute must-have for iPad video editors. Have a look at our hands-on video as we step through a dozen features that make this app so promising.
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Final Cut Pro X has gone through a lot of changes since it first debuted as a reboot back in 2011. Since then, the app has grown up significantly, but it’s been able to retain its relatively low barrier to entry in the process. Final Cut Pro X is remarkably simple to learn, but it has a fairly high ceiling for growth.
In this initial tutorial, I’m going to cover some of the basics about one of the fundamental aspects of Final Cut Pro X: library management. Knowing how Libraries are created and what they contain is extremely important. It’s one of the first steps in really getting to know Final Cut Pro X.
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GoPro has been having a rough time as its stock price has stumbled over the last few months. Its signature action camera is a niche product and competitors are releasing cheaper clones that replicate most of the same functionality. Now, GoPro has acquired two mobile video apps to offer a complete capture and editing solution for its users.
Apple has updated Final Cut Pro to allow 4k video to be exported to compatible Apple devices, with sharing support also added for the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Pro and 4th-gen Apple TV. The sharing window also now supports multiple YouTube accounts …
Even though the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus support 4K video recording, the 4K format is still gathering steam. TVs with 4K Ultra HD only became affordable in the past year (with major holiday discounts), but the lack of 4K content — and devices to even play 4K videos — have been sticking points. Apple’s just-released fourth-generation Apple TV doesn’t support 4K, and the only Apple devices that can play back 4K videos at full resolution without a separate 4K monitor are the 21″ Retina 4K iMac and 27″ Retina 5K iMac.
Even though they can’t actually display 4K videos, either through their own screens or accessories, Apple has enabled certain iOS devices to edit in 4K using the latest version of iMovie. So armed with an iPhone 6s Plus and two accessories, I decided to see whether the brand new iPad Pro was actually up to the task of editing and sharing 4K videos. The results were surprising, so if you’re wondering how 4K video editing actually works with Apple’s “Pro” tablet, read on…
Apple today updated Final Cut Pro X to version 10.2.1 with bug fixes and improvements. Apple’s release notes say that this update fixes a bug that would cause Final Cut Pro to quit at launch on some Macs. Support for Panasonic AVCAAM video at 25P and 30P rates has been restored, while Apple also says that dragging through the Timeline view is now more accurate. This 10.2.1 update follows up on the significant 10.2 update from April, which added 3D title support, new editing features, and support for several new cameras and video formats. Today’s minor update is the first to Final Cut since its pioneer Randy Ubillos retired from Apple.
USB-C is the sole port on Apple’s new 12-inch MacBook, and CalDigit today announced a version of its durable external drive that takes advantage of the new reversible USB 3.1 port. CalDigit Tuff features a USB-C port and cable for connecting the portable drive to the Apple’s ultra-thin notebook, and an included adapter cable ensures compatibility with the USB port that you’re used to seeing on your hardware as well. Since the new MacBook’s thin and light profile intends for it to venture out of your office and into the wild, CalDigit Tuff is ruggedized to endure drops, splashes, dust and other extreme environments.
CalDigit Tuff starts at $139.99 for 1TB HDD with availability starting in July (new MacBook orders currently deliver in 4-6 weeks). A solid state drive version with up to 1TB of storage will also be available while a higher capacity 2TB HDD option will be offered.
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Image via Engadget
Adobe has announced its next major upgrades to its popular Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements applications, with each being bumped up to version 13.
Both apps add new editing features, such as “photomerge compose” for lifting subjects from one photo and quickly moving them into another with proper lighting and other effects. New cropping tools allow you to automatically compose perfectly cropped by detecting faces and other details and determining how to best frame them in the shot.
Earlier this week, Apple released OS X 10.9.4 with various enhancements and bug fixes for wake-from-sleep and WiFi connectivity. In addition to those fixes, many professional video editors who use Mac Pros are reporting that graphics rendering and performance issues found in the preceding OS X 10.9.3 have been resolved. Graphics card incompatibility issues with 2013 Mac Pros bundled with AMD D700 and D500 graphics engines resulted in videos stalling during the exporting process, pink and green lines appearing in exported video, and various application crashes and freezes with key video production apps like Adobe Premiere Pro and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve…
Adobe VideoBite, an iOS app designed to make video editing as quick and easy as possible, has been updated to allow titles, photos and music to be added, turning it into a fully-fledged editor while retaining its simple user-interface.
Heartwarming Apple ads aside, I’ve always been rather skeptical of the real-world practicality of video editing on a phone, but I have to confess that VideoBite does make it a very slick process. Trimming clips, for example, involves nothing more than pressing a heart icon at the beginning and end of the bit you want to keep. Adding transitions and music is just as easy, and your finished masterpiece is saved to your camera roll, with exports to Facebook, YouTube and email also supported …
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Alongside the release of the new Mac Pro, Apple has updated Final Cut Pro in the Mac App Store to take advantage of the machine’s immense raw processing power. Specifically, Apple says that playback and rendering has been optimised for the Mac Pro’s dual GPUs.
Final Cut 10.1 also adds 4K support, including monitoring across Thunderbolt 2 and HDMI displays as well as 4K titles, transition and generators. The update also adds a whole slew of other minor features and changes to the modern (if controversial) video editing suite.
[kickstarter url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cchu/palette-a-freeform-interface-that-controls-any-sof width=640]
Trackpads and keyboards are great for many things, but there are some tasks where there’s no substitute for a physical dial, slider or button. In video editing, for example, there’s a reason that professional kit uses a rotary dial to move forward or backward through the video clip. Photo editing and audio work are also far easier with physical dials and sliders.
While there’s a whole world of dedicated hardware controllers out there, the Palette project on Kickstarter takes a particularly neat approach: a modular system that you can design to your own requirements. There’s a power block, button, rotary dial and slider, and you can mix-and-match them in any layout you like, and they can be made to work with any software …
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Vloggr, an app that launched on Kickstarter today, is an interesting new app designed to quickly shoot and edit video blogs. The app sports a fairly simple interface that allows you film and reorder clips, then publish them to your social networks with a few taps.
The Kickstarter campaign is seeking $6,000 to cover the app’s development costs . A few of the rewards for early backers include promo codes to download the app at launch and your first vlog featured on the app’s website for a month.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU8WnvCzST4]
Autodesk Inc. announced today that it is now shipping the latest version of its professional video-editing suite for Mac, Autodesk Smoke 2013, starting at $3,495 SRP per license*. The latest version of Smoke provides a new user interface that combines Autodesk’s creative tools and effects with its track-based editing: ConnectFX for high-end effects, and Creative Tools—featuring “a robust toolset with proven high-end finishing tools.”
While noting a successful run for the trial download of the software, Autodesk said it implemented even more features and enhancements based on user recommendations. The new features include the ability to drag and drop a clip from the source player into the timeline, ability to expand/collapse the timeline FX pipeline area, and a redesign and streamlining of the UI and interface elements to speed up workflows.
“The anticipation for Smoke, since its thrilling announcement at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Vegas in April, has continued to build throughout the community of creative professionals. As a leader in high-end effects and 3D, Autodesk is committed to making that technology increasingly available to a new generation, and the new Smoke is case in point. The Smoke team has fielded thousands of inquiries and product recommendations in the process of developing Smoke 2013. I’m so excited to announce it’s here,” said Mark Strassman, Autodesk Media & Entertainment vice president strategy and marketing.
To accompany the launch today, Autodesk posted over a dozen videos showing off some of the features of Smoke 2013 to its YouTube page. We posted a few of the videos below that walk through the new user interface, ConnectFX, editing, and powerful 3D visual effects.
*You can buy Smoke directly from Autodesk (save $700 until Jan. 25) or at Amazon. EDU discounts are also available.
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Lumify, a new app launching today for the iPhone, is an Instagram-like social experience for video that allows users to share 20-second montages set to music. The free app analyzes video clips from your device’s camera roll, allows you to select soundtrack music from your iPod library, and then automatically creates a “lumified” montage for you. According to one of the developers, former Senior Product Manager at Google and YouTube Kuan Yong, “Lumify is the first mobile app capable of analyzing and editing 1080p HD videos in real-time, entirely on the iPhone.”
Technically, we are ridiculously fast and easy video editing…We use advanced algorithms to mash up your videos in real-time. We highlight the most interesting parts and pair them with music for a 20-second montage…In the end, we want to help you take video in a new way. Just point and capture each moment as it happens. We take care of the rest.
From 9to5toys.com:
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Today only, Amazon’s Goldbox deal is Adobe Photoshop Elements or Premiere for $47/each or $69.99 for the combo. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for these photo and video editing applications from Adobe which are available in both boxed and downloadable formats for Mac and PC.
By comparison, both are available at the Mac App Store (Photoshop/Premiere) for $80/ea. For a list of all of Adobe’s current discounts and specials click here.
Want to brush up on Premiere? Here’s a great tutorial
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FzHzlMneaeQ]
(adult topics/language: NSFW)
There is a lot of buzz on the net right now on Louis CK’s self-promoted video which he launched this week for $5, DRM free. We love the idea and loved the 1.1GB video. One interesting note, via Reddit interview: Louis CK does his own editing on Final Cut Pro:
You’ve been listed as a video editor on most of your projects. What program do you use to edit and why have you decided to take on this role?link
I love editing. I have used Avid in the past but I exclusively use Final Cut Pro now, though I am concerned about the future… You always have to put three dots after the future… editing is part of the process. It’s how you form everything. In some ways not editing yourself would be like a sculptor dropping some clay off at a guys house and saying “Make a naked lady chasing a bull. and do it nice.”
The experiment seems to be a success…
The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we’ve sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video.
Get the video here (highly recommended).
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Adobe today quietly released Photoshop Elements 10 and Premiere Elements 10, bringing with them new Facebook and YouTube integration, video editing and burring features, object-based search, and new color correcting and text curving and flowing effects.
New Facebook features allow you to auto analyze your images to identify people and tag them based on your Facebook friends. Those tags are then carried over to Facebook when uploading from Elements. A new object-based search is one of the most impressive enhancements, allowing you to find images containing a particular object such as a house or vehicle.
Other features include auto enhance and color correct for video footage, allowing you to “Automatically boost tone and vibrance without affecting skin tones, or use sliders to adjust color with complete control”. You can now also paint 1 of 100 new paint effects onto specific photo areas, add new text effects, and immediately upload video clips to Facebook and Youtube. Learn more about all the new features in these latest releases here.
Adobe’s store now has Photoshop Elements 10 or Premiere Elements 10 for $99 each (upgrade $79/ea) or both for $179.
Or, you can grab Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Premiere Elements 10 for $99 each on Amazon now. Curiously, Adobe hasn’t yet updated Photoshop Elements 9 Editor in the Mac App Store. It will be interesting to see what happens there.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgXUh1HrYOw]
TheNextWeb reports that Apple has begun returning the $299 purchase price of Final Cut Pro X to customers who are unsatisfied with the product’s features and capabilities. Cupertino has begun issuing refunds to those who have filed an official request using Apple’s Mac App Store Customer Service form.
Some customers have received sympathetic email responses from Apple support staff, including:
“Moving forward, I understand that you are not satisfied with the app “Final Cut Pro”. I can certainly appreciate you would like a refund, and I would be more than happy to help you out with this today. In five to seven business days, a credit of £179.99 should be posted to the credit card that appears on the receipt for that purchase.
Please note that this is a one time exception because the iTunes Terms and Conditions state that all sales are final.”
This is an interesting gray area because Mac Apps purchased through the Mac App Store aren’t usually up for return so long after they are purchased (unless you re in Taiwan). Whereas boxed software, especially Pro level stuff, usually has a longer guarantee even if there are restocking fees.
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There has been a big stink (several actually) about Final Cut Pro X’s lack of ‘Pro’ features. One such glaring omission has been the lack of Final Cut Pro 7 XML imports. MacMagazine.br did some digging and found that the code for doing Final Cut Pro 7 imports is actually inside Final Cut Pro X and for some reason hadn’t been enabled for shipping.
As per usual, Apple will likely enable that functionality (and many others that are missing) in updates to Final Cut Pro X. If you are daring, MacMagazine offers a workaround that might be able to import now (they haven’t yet tested).