Tenomichi 3D Edit

The Shaders are 3D Edit's truly unique feature, and each clip can have up to seven of these applied. They're like video-effects filters on steroids, accelerated by your 3D graphics card. Options include chroma keying, colour correction, plus all manner of wild and wacky effects. Even when you've got a few applied to multiple layered clips, 3D Edit still manages to play them back at a reasonable frame rate, which is impressive. The system does have quirks, though, with some Shaders only working in combination with others.

3D Edit is sold in twoÊversions, and there's a free demo as well. The difference is in what you're allowed to download from Tenomichi's website. Silver Pass just gives you some new effects, whereas Gold Pass gives you all the new effects and every other new feature release.

Radical ideas always take some getting used to, and 3D Edit is unlike any other Windows video-editing app we've seen before. It clearly has an amazing 3D engine with incredible rendering power, but overall it's lacking some important elements. For example, the titler hasn't been added yet, although there's a button ready for when it becomes available in a future download. Output options are also limited. Your finished video can only be rendered as a DV file, and there's no direct output back to tape.

Nonetheless, 3D Edit is an incredible piece of technology. While we couldn't recommend buying it instead of a mature standard application like Adobe Premiere Elements or Pinnacle Liquid Edition for the time being, it's well worth trying out the demo. As more features are added, 3D Edit will become a lot more powerful, and then it really will give Adobe and Pinnacle something to think about.

Author: James Morris