Compositing can be a very deep and complex subject, especially when dealing with animation, but here we’ll try and keep it fairly simple and straightforward.  There is always talk amongst those in the industry when it comes to blue/green screen and working on an edit as to whether or not one should do their composite in whatever NLE software their working with or export to a third party software to handle the task.  Unless your working with animation, the answer, like so many in post production questions is a not a simple one.  Take for instance Avid, who has excellent composite tools available in their 3.0 versions ( and up ) that can do the job relatively pain free providing the ‘screen’ is a talking head or has minimal movement.  Final Cut does a decent job too, providing your using the newly acquired Ultimatte software that was made available earlier this year.  Both are good and most editor’s may prefer to use their NLE system to avoid the hassle of exporting and re-importing footage for what may be no difference other than minor ones no one notices. 

Avid has just announced the launch of version 4 for Media Composer and Symphony to the masses.  This new upgrade of Media Composer and Symphony offer improved stereoscopic 3D editing, enabling customers to view 3D material side by side in addition to over/under — ensuring greater accuracy of editing decisions and a wider choice of cost-effective monitors for stereoscopic viewing.  Mix and Match is a new function which provides customers with the flexibility to use media sources of different frame rates and resolutions (SD and HD) in the same timeline – eliminating external transcoding and time-consuming frame-rate conversions.  Users can monitor HD and SD cross-and-down converted formats from 1080p24 masters. This enables customers using Mojo DX or Nitris DX hardware to view HD material on a less-expensive SD monitor.  

Avid has also added support for Panasonic AVC-I and Ikegami GFCAM 100MBps formats.  The Production Suite versions have been updated to include new versions of Boris Continuum Complete, Sorenson Squeeze and SmartSound SonicFire Pro.  On a side note Avid has also introduced new versions of its NewsCutter editor for news broadcasters and Interplay production asset management system.

Interplay 2.0 was upgraded as well which lets broadcasters and post facilities work remotely. Lower bandwidth streaming proxies let Interplay workgroup members work with media anytime from anywhere, using a Mac or PC.  Of the numerous added feature of Interplay one which stands out for me is the feature of Final Cut Pro workflow support that offers check-in and check-out of FCP media with project links as well as media and metadata conversion of FCP-to-Avid and Avid-to-FCP projects.

Since FCS 3.0 was recently released, curious minds were wondering when Avid would respond to the Apple’s well received upgrade and they certainly have seemed too.  Media Composer and Symphony will be available on September 30.  I’ll give a full review when its public. 

Credit to the Digital Arts Staff for the specifics of the release.

Having worked as an editor for over seven years now, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve had the opportunity to export to the majority of different formats one can.  But now days I find more and more that both clients and studios alike are asking for streaming video for the web.  It may seem simple for some, especially considering all the YouTube videos that are uploaded these days, however, uploading to YouTube and properly putting video on a company website is completely different.  Usually I find out about how improperly it was done after the fact, and usually the people involved don’t understand what they did wrong.  So here we go.

There are alot of great programs out there but I prefer using Sorenson Squeeze.  It’s an excellent program which gives the user full control over all aspects of the encoding process, which is one of the main reasons why most people who are not industry savvy find it overwhelming.  Another very notable mention regarding Sorenson Squeeze, is that it carries one of the most important plug-in’s, On2Vp6, which is specifically for the purpose of exporting Flash.  On2Vp6 is a codec that gives you incredibly good video quality at a very small file size, but it’s also important to understand all the other options in Sorenson Squeeze as well to see what exactly to set your settings too.  I’ll give you the most important three. 

1.  First off, like I mentioned set your codec to On2VP6, which you may have to pay for given the fact that it is a licened plug-in. 

2.  Next your bitrate.  Now although you can go as high as you like you have to consider the fact that this is not just your video to watch.  People have to actually stream this, so going to high may limit some’s ability to watch the video without major delays.  In order to balance quality with a reasonable load time I would say to put your video ( should it be within reasonable size, ie 360 x 240 or 480 x 360) to around 500 kbs.  This should give you great video quality without too much lag. 

3.  An overlooked aspect is the buffer.  I can’t tell you how many times I get people complaining that they did everything right yet there still getting their video pausing in the middle since the it hasn’t finished buffering ( or in other words fully loading).  Sorenson gives you full control over all the buffer options so you can experiment to see what you prefer.  If your a real stickler about your video and you want no chance of a lag since it can ruin the “flow”, you need to set you starting buffer to around the 20 second mark and adjust your other buffer sizes according ( there are two others – optimal and maximum, just look at the difference between starting and the others and adjust them up).

So that’s it.  Now you can enjoy uploading great quality video in a small size to the web that people of all web server speeds will be able to appreciate.   Since this can be a source of frustration for new users, feel free to email me if you get stuck or have any questions.