Product Reviews

The rise of Final Cut Pro is astounding. In the last few years, Apple claims to have racked up some 800,000 paid-for users worldwide, covering broad uses in small post-production houses, broadcast and film. If you caught our preview, the new features doubtless excite you. Now we've had time to look at the final release, we've picked out key features that will affect your creativity and workflow.

Final Cut Pro 6

Final Cut Pro 6 finally allows you to mix different video formats in a timeline: SD and HD, PAL and NTSC, and different aspect ratios, frame sizes and frame rates can all sit side by side.

While it sounds great in principle, we have reservations about mixing frame rates, as frames are simply dropped or repeated. However, it would be asking too much that processor-intensive Optical Flow technology be used to generate new frames as Compressor does. Apple highlights further issues - including timecode/frame rate issues - for Cinema Tools users and working with Edit Decision Lists.

Motion's FxPlug architecture is now the default plug-in format, allowing hardware-accelerated effects here, too. FxPlug support was introduced in a previous version, but around 30 new visual effects now support it. The most impressive of the new filters is SmoothCam, another example of Optical Flow technology. Pixel-by-pixel analysis steadies footage, working in the background as you continue to edit; it's temporarily paused during playback.

Analysis requires some care, as it's applied to the whole media file, not just a clip or subclip. Apple's suggested workaround uses reference movies. With the inability to work just with subclips, we wish analysis took scene break detection into account. Regardless, the results are impressive.

Master Templates tighten integration with Motion, with editable text fields and drop zones exposed inside Final Cut Pro. In particular, this is a massive time saver when placing lower-thirds. Further, you can alter text size, tracking and drop zone positioning, and when circumstances demand it, you can open a copy of the template in Motion to edit just that one instance.

To support Motion projects in Final Cut Pro, sequence settings now give control over the quality (draft, normal or best) of Motion files in the Timeline, and final rendering can be forced to best. In all, we're really pleased by the integration with Motion.

Motion 3

Motion's creative abilities are vastly extended with new 3D capabilities. Existing features such as behaviours and particle effects have been updated to work in 3D, too.

You can keyframe multiple cameras and lights just like other objects. Basic camera behaviours include dolly, sweep and zoom layer - the last one focusing a camera on an object. Lights can be ambient, direction, point or spot, each with independent colours, fall-off rates and intensities. Lights don't cause objects to cast shadows, so clone layers can be used to simulate this.

Optical Flow technology is also present in Motion, although it doesn't appear to use analysis files from Final Cut Pro. Analysis isn't a background task here, although it wouldn't suit Motion's workflow. Aside from steadying shots, match moving can track motion in QuickTime movies and of other objects. Tracking is planar, so 3D transformation isn't taken into account. 3D is a natural progression for Motion. Of course, you can continue to work in 2D and still make use of cameras and lights.

When saving files, the Collect Media option saves media to a folder next to your project file. This takes the pain out of sharing projects with colleagues.

We tested Motion on a high-spec PowerBook G4 with maximum Ram on the motherboard and GPU. Cameras were responsive but a tad sluggish even in an empty canvas. Low-end users should bear in mind Motion's hardware requirements.

Color

Color evolved from Apple's acquisition of FinalTouch, and looks very different to its other applications. Colour correction is an important part of post-production, and Apple's rationale for Color is making previously inaccessible tools available to all users. In FinalTouch's case, the price of several thousand pounds was prohibitive. That's not to say you can just dive in. Grading is a skilled process, and Color gives the impression that it's for knowledgeable pros.

Color's Composer window contains eight rooms to guide you through the process - Setup, Primary In, Secondaries, Color FX, Primary Out, Geometry, Still Store and the Render Queue. Each contains a wealth of dedicated controls; enough that FinalTouch was an award winner in its field.

Apple's minimum display requirement is 1680 x 1050 pixels and we recommend that you take heed; Color's windows aren't resizable nor scrollable, and are sized to fit your display, so running on a lower-resolution display may crop elements from the window. Some elements, such as the node view in the Color

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FX room, can't be scrolled around.

We can't fault the inclusion of Color, but it's likely to initially overwhelm those without relevant experience. However, effects from the Color FX room can be saved and shared as XML-based descriptions, hopefully fostering a community of shared effects. Meanwhile, FinalTouch users will be overjoyed at the cost saving.

Soundtrack Pro 2

Soundtrack Pro has many new features, including 5.1 surround-sound mixing. You can switch the panner in a track between stereo and mini-surround variants; when the latter is double-clicked, a more usable Surround Panner HUD becomes visible.

While dragging the puck to place sound, visual feedback shows its distribution, with further controls including rotation and width. It's all fairly intuitive, although you'll need an audio interface with at least six outputs to hear the true mix.

The Conform tool is a great addition, taking the pain out of matching a current audio edit to a new video one. Its suggestions can be reviewed, modified and accepted, filtering out unchanged clips and accepted changes as you go. Once finished, a new project is created. Tape-style scrubbing also gives useful feedback when scrubbing through the Timeline.

Audio and video podcasting features allow for creation of chapter markers using a simple Blade tool. You can customise chapter names, and podcast markers create slideshows to accompany audio podcasts in iTunes and on an iPod. MP3 is supported in addition to AAC.

The Multitake Editor builds a good take from several imperfect ones. After importing takes into a multitake track, they're chopped up using the Blade tool, and the required segments are selected. You can set independent fade-in and -out types at each transition point, and all takes remain linked to the track should you decide to make changes later.

The new Spectrum View displays a thermal image of your audio, which can be edited using the intuitive Frequency Selection tool to remove unwanted sounds, such as a bumped mic.

There are plenty of new tools in Soundtrack, but it's the Conform tool that really stands out by easing the normally laborious process.

DVD Studio Pro 4.2

There's little to say about DVD Studio Pro, which receives a very minor bump and little in the way of new features. Existing owners can't receive this through Software Update, but there's nothing upgrade-worthy here.

You can import Soundtrack Pro Audio File projects, allowing non-destructive editing of audio, but only left and right channels are imported if there are more than two.

You can import a wider range of H.264 assets without re-encoding, and Apple recommends using Compressor rather than the built-in Mpeg encoder to convert remaining non-native assets.

If you're authoring SD DVDs, it remains an excellent, flexible solution. However, it now has a competitor in Adobe Encore, which is available as part of Premiere Pro CS3.

DVD Studio Pro's future direction remains unclear, so we recommend keeping an eye on our website for news as it happens.

Compressor 3

Compressor's default layout is different to the last release, and custom layouts can now be saved. Most of it remains familiar, but the Batch window is a big exception, with batches organised into tabs.

You can now chain jobs so the results of one are sent to the next. Curiously, deleting items higher up a chain neither deletes nor prompts about items that depend on it. They're also better presented: collapsible rows are gone, and each job is held inside a rectangle. Everything behaves much like before, but the visual presentation makes it easier to inspect a batch.

The Settings and Destinations tabs now allow nested folders for better organisation, and can occupy separate windows. Apple device presets now include Apple TV (HD and SD), and iPod VGA to complement the existing QVGA one. At this stage, the iPhone isn't catered for.

Mpeg-2 support is refined, with a stream usage setting to tailor parameters by target format - SD and HD DVD, Blu-ray, or generic settings. Elementary and transport streams are now joined by support for program streams, and closed-caption support is available for Mpeg-2 and QuickTime output.

An MP3 encoder is now included to stand alongside podcasting features. Markers are added in the Preview window, and annotations (metadata) in the Inspector.

Once a batch is submitted, the History window shows a progress bar for active jobs, although you can still launch Batch Monitor to inspect in more detail.

While the changes to Compressor might be overlooked or seen as minor, this version feels easier to use. In terms of format support, we previously bemoaned the lack of WMV and RealMedia support; neither they nor FLV support is bundled, but third-party solutions are available at extra cost, some of which integrate with QuickTime, and so with Compressor, too.

Conclusion

Final Cut Studio 2 builds on a solid foundation, with a powerful new application and excellent new tools. Despite the addition of Color, it's cheaper than the previous version, and upgrade prices are reasonable.

It lacks a dedicated image-editing tool like Photoshop, but we can't see it being worthwhile for Apple to impinge on Adobe's territory; those who need it still have to consider Photoshop's price tag.

Before you get your wallet out, take note of application-specific requirements, particularly of Motion and Color.