Creative COW Reviews

Apple FCPX - Final Cut Pro X FCPX: What Pros Find Missing in Final Cut Pro X June 21st, 2011, was met with the news that Final Cut Pro X was finally available and what a thrill ride it has been! Professionals all over the COW -- all over the world -- have been debating, scurrying to test and review Apple's newest app. One such pro, Walter Biscardi, ran straight to purchase FCP X with all the enthusiasm of a kid going to the circus or a great new comic flick, but did he find what he wanted? Read on the see what Walter has to say about FCPX. Review Walter Biscardi Apple FCPX - Final Cut Pro X FCPX: Why We Can't Use Final Cut Pro X at Our Companies After a day of reading the FCP and FCPX forums, tweeting, and scanning the blogosphere, two COW leaders had a lot to talk about. Rich and Walter are not casual Final Cut Pro users... they've used it since version 1 and literally built their businesses using Apple tools. For them, today was the end of an era (Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Server were removed from sale). While both hope for the future, they each have strong opinions why they can't implement Final Cut Pro X into their postproduction facilities as it stands at release. Review, Editorial Walter Biscardi and Richard Harrington Apple FCPX - Final Cut Pro X FCPX: Ready or Not, Here it Comes... We knew that Gary Adcock was the perfect person to deal with an app that aspires to meet the needs of the hardest-core, highest-end pros. Or does it? What if Apple told you that Final Cut Pro X wasn't meant for you? Gary goes beyond his own knee-jerk reaction to the release to get under the hood of FCPX, and he likes a lot of what he sees. In Part 1 of his look at FCP X, he starts with an area FCP has historically struggled most, yet that matters most to editing professionals: media management. For an additional look at the subject of this article, see FCPX: Hardware changes - PART Two. Review Gary Adcock SmartSound - Sonicfire Pro Quicktracks: Low-Cost Scoring at the Speed of Sound The COW's man in Nepal, Jiggy Gaton, investigates SmartSound's Quicktracks while away from the studio, in Monsoon conditions, and finds it no longer necessary to have 100gb of music in tow. With Quicktracks, one can create scores and tailor tracks without leaving the comfort of the cloud. Review Jiggy Gaton AJA Ki Pro AJA Ki Pro Mini AJA started shipping its first ProRes-based video recorder, the Ki Pro, in the fall of 2009. Recording via HD-SDI in ProRes was impressive, but the Ki Pro was too big and heavy to be useful for much in-the-field work. Now AJA has shrunk the Ki Pro down to a fraction of the original’s size, added some features, taken a few away, and dropped the price in half. Viola, you have the new Ki Pro Mini. Review Helmut Kobler Apple Final Cut Pro Get: Dialog and metadata search for Final Cut Pro editors In this review, Los Angeles based director, editor, colorist, and Creative Cow Contributing Editor, David Roth Weiss, takes a look at a product aptly named "Get," from AV3 Software. It's a speech recognition search app for Final Cut Pro editors that will undoubtedly help get your projects completed faster and on the screen sooner. Review David Roth Weiss Freeform Pro FreeForm Pro: Setting new standards in After Effects for 3D Compositing & Visual Effects "FreeForm Pro runs in its own proprietary 3D engine, and it is most definitely 3D," says Tudor "Ted" Jelescu. "FreeForm Pro uses Adaptive Tessellation, true 3D displacement, Reflection Mapping, and Renders Depth Maps for use with other plug-ins, like Trapcode's Particular and Frischluft's 'Lenscare'". Read for more information and Tudor's first-hand experience with this amazing product powered by Mettle. Review Tudor Jelescu Panasonic AF100, DVX100, HMC150 Panasonic AG-AF100 Micro Four Thirds Video Camera Love the shallow depth of field you get from DSLRs, but miss all the video-oriented features those still cameras lack? Panasonic’s AF-100 merges a big DSLR-style sensor with all the video camera features you’ve taken for granted over the years. See how this cocktail turns out... Review Helmut Kobler MAYA Digimation Archive and Model Bank Library   Play Video Creative COW leader Michael Hurwicz reviews two collections of 3D models from Digimation: The Archive and The Model Bank Library. Review, Tutorial, Video Tutorial Michael Hurwicz - ARRAYS & RAID Set-Up - The iStoragePro Pocket View RAID Drive Jerry Hofmann takes a look at an extremely fast and portable drive solution. Review Jerry Hofmann Field Production Anton/Bauer Tandem 150 Modular Power System Want to charge an Anton/Bauer battery in just about any situation, whether wall power is available or not? Anton/Bauer's small, lightweight Tandem 150 is what you need. Review Helmut Kobler Sorenson Squeeze - NEW ! Jerry Hofmann takes a look at Squeeze 7 With improved video quality, faster H.264 encoding, simplified workflow with Squeeze's batch window, additional input and output formats, adaptive bitrate encoding, just to name a few of the new features, read why Jerry Hofmann is excited about this new release. Review Jerry Hofmann Boris FX All That And Then Some. COW Forum Host, Magazine Writer, Web Writer, Podcast Leader, Advisor, Contributing Editor and long time Boris Final Effects Complete user provides an enthusiastic overview of BCC 7's sophisticated and capable visual effects plug-in suite in this article. Review Nick Griffin Lighting Design Pros Litepanels Sola ENG On-Camera LED Light There are plenty of power-sipping LED lights that you can mount atop cameras, but very few have enough punch to fill up large spaces, or cut through daylight. Litepanels finally has such a light in the Sola ENG. It's powerful, controllable, and in some cases, a little loud. Review Helmut Kobler HD High-End Band Pro One World 2010 Trade Show These days, many video-oriented trade shows are struggling with declining attendance, reduced scopes and the nagging fear of irrelevance when customers can get so much information online. So how has the Band Pro One World managed to attract big-name vendors and over 500 attendees? Helmut Kobler attends and shares with COW members his experience at what felt like more of a "friendly mixer" where you can easily talk to vendors and friends, and see great products close up. Review, Editorial, Project Helmut Kobler Adobe After Effects Camera Tracker Review Bill O'Neil offers his insight into The Foundry's CameraTracker, a powerful tool which allows the user to pull 3D motion tracks and matchmoves -- all inside of AE. Read as Bill dips his toes into the water and begins to experience the possibilities available. He includes three movie samples and screenshots. Review Bill O'Neil Field Production Backing Up Solid-State Cards In The Field If you shoot video to solid-state cards, two products from Nexto and Panasonic make it easy to back those cards up in the field. At over $2,000, these gadgets aren't exactly cheap, but they can save a lot of time and effort. The Panasonic in particular can make a solid-state workflow feasible for just about any project. Review Helmut Kobler CalDigit CalDigit AV Drive with USB 3 Hard drives rarely feel fast enough, but CalDigit's new AV Drive ($258) is one of the first to use the new USB 3 interface, which is much faster than the USB 2, FireWire 800 and eSATA interfaces of yesteryear. You'll pay a little more for the AV Drive, but its speed easily makes up for the premium. Review Helmut Kobler ARRI Digital Cinema Comes of Age A long list of native features & supported formats are just a couple of the reasons Gary Adcock gives for believing that Digital Cinema Comes of Age. Review, Feature, People / Interview Gary Adcock ARRI ARRI ALEXA: A Weekend with ALEXA "It was just a date, she's not my girlfriend yet." After David Battistella spent a weekend with ARRI ALEXA, he ponders whether digital acquisition can overcome the nostalgia of "light hitting silver on a frame, from a roll of 35mm film." Read David's review for details of his experience with this whirlwind romance. Review David Battistella Panasonic HVX - HPX (P2) Panasonic AJ-PCD2 P2 Card Reader If you ever wanted a simple, affordable P2 card reader....well, Panasonic never made one, and neither did anyone else. But the new AJ-PCD2 changes that, letting anyone add P2 compatibility to their workflow with little hassle. Review Helmut Kobler Panasonic HVX - HPX (P2) G-Technology G-Drive Mobile Portable Hard Drive Portable hard drives are great option for carrying gobs of media wherever you go. In this review, Creative COW leader Helmut Kobler takes a look at a unique portable drive -- the G-Drive Mobile -- from a company that's been building media-focused drives for years. Review Helmut Kobler Cinematography ARRI Alexa: Love at First Sight! In one of the world’s first overviews of the new Arri Alexa digital cinema camera, Creative COW Contributing Editor Gary Adcock has been taking an early shipping unit for a ride this week -- and what a ride it has been! Read on for the details of what Gary has learned about the Alexa operation so far, where he sees it going, and why Gary believes that Alexa is a true game changer. Review Gary Adcock Lightworks Lightworks Professional editing goes open source: top editors describe a powerful editing tool being unleashed on the public. Review, People / Interview David Battistella Broadcast Video Blue Ribbon Broadcast Switchers Integration is the name of the broadcast game, and both of these switchers generated traffic because of their integrated software that is changing the game. Read on for Creative COW's short review of two Blue Ribbon Award Winning Broadcast Switchers... Review Tim Wilson

Authors Gary Adcock (3) David Battistella (2) Walter Biscardi (1) Jiggy Gaton (1) Nick Griffin (1) Walter Biscardi and Richard Harrington (1) Jerry Hofmann (2) Michael Hurwicz (1) Tudor Jelescu (1) Helmut Kobler (9) Bill O'Neil (1) David Roth Weiss (1) Tim Wilson (1) Other Tutorials Adobe After Effects (642) Adobe After Effects basics (423) Adobe After Effects Expressions (59) Adobe After Effects Techniques (122) Adobe Audition, Soundbooth (21) Adobe Dreamweaver (18) Adobe Encore DVD (26) Adobe Flash (65) Adobe Illustrator (30) Adobe InDesign (11) Adobe OnLocation (13) Adobe Photoshop (204) Adobe Photoshop basics (50) Adobe Premiere Pro (198) Adobe Premiere Pro basics (126) Adobe ULTRA (8) AJA io (10) AJA Ki Pro (10) AJA Kona - Mac (20) AJA Kona - PC (9) Apple Color (22) Apple DVD Studio Pro (13) Apple FCPX or Not: The Debate (51) Apple FCPX Techniques (31) Apple Final Cut Pro (190) Apple Final Cut Pro basics (56) Apple iPad (8) Apple iPhone (11) Apple Motion (46) Apple OS X (15) Apple Shake (13) Apple Soundtrack (10) ARRI (34) Art of the Edit (78) Audio Professionals (34) Autodesk 3ds Max (43) Autodesk Combustion (31) Autodesk Smoke (10) AVID (111) AVID Editing basics (9) Blackmagic Design (38) Blender (15) Boris FX (82) Broadcast Design (8) Broadcasting (109) Business & Marketing (88) CalDigit (8) Canon Cameras (21) Canon EOS DSLR (8) Cinema 4D (63) Cinematography (168) Compression techniques (21) CoreMelt Plug-ins (15) Corporate Video (45) Creative COW Magazine feedback (10) Creative COW podcasts (9) DaVinci Resolve (18) Digital Delivery (11) Digital Photography (13) DSLR Video (54) DVD Authoring (19) Event Videographers (51) Field Production (14) Film History & Appreciation (75) HD High-End (86) HDV Format (40) IBC Expo (21) Indie Film & Documentary (126) JVC cameras/decks (8) Leitch dpsVelocity (11) Letters to the COW Team (45) Lighting Design Pros (18) Lightwave (10) Live & Stage Events (39) Matrox Video Systems (15) MAYA (55) Media 100 (35) Media 100 844/X (10) NAB Expo (77) Nuke (10) Panasonic AF100, DVX100, HMC150 (15) Panasonic HVX - HPX (P2) (44) Panasonic VariCam (22) particle Illusion (16) Podcasting (11) RE:Vision Effects (51) RED Camera (33) Red Giant plug-ins (8) SAN - Storage Area Networks (15) Sony DV (10) Sony NXCAM (13) Sony SRW Decks (11) Sony Vegas (56) Sony Vegas basics (35) Sony XDCAM - EX & Related (24) Sony XDCAM Optical Disc & Related (16) Stereoscopic 3D (59) Trapcode (23) Web Design (21) Web Streaming - Audio|Video (10) Windows Hardware & Software (23) Zaxwerks (21)