Apple Releases Motion, Production Suite
Apple has delivered Production Suite, a real-time set of production tools composed of Final Cut Pro HD, Motion and DVD Studio Pro. Retail versions of Final Cut Pro HD and DVD Studio Pro 3 may have already hit the store shelves, but Apple needed to put off releasing Production Studio until Motion was ready.
Motion was announced at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2004 Electronic Media Show convention and is the newest member to Apple's family of award-winning graphics design applications.
For many customers, the wait may be well worth it. Motion is an entirely new motion graphics packages that offers real-time previews, procedural animation, and is also tightly integrated with Final Cut Pro HD and DVD Studio Pro 3.
Self-propelled (procedural) animation eliminates the need for keyframes by using "behaviors" to create movements. Motion has a drag and drop interface with over 40 behaviors that can be dropped onto either type or graphical content. Users may choose from basic, text, simulation or parameter categories.
Behaviors may be personalized or blended together to produce unique effects. Apple has also bundled specialized motion templates. Motion will not totally break from tradition: Apple bundles a keyframe toolset for precise frame-by-frame control.
Apple uses the term "self-propelled animation in place of procedural animation technology."
Commenting on the release Rob Schoeben, Apple's vice president of Applications Marketing stated, "Motion grabbed the spotlight, along with the best of show awards, at the National Association of Broadcasters convention. With its revolutionary technology, breakthrough ease-of-use and low $299 price tag, Motion will do for motion graphics what Final Cut Pro did for non-linear editing—bring the ability to create pro-quality results to the broader market."
Motion is available for an estimated retail price of $300 USD.
Final Cut Pro HD is another milestone for Apple. Rather than merely offering High Definition (HD) capture over PCI, Final Cut now supports the capture and output of video over FireWire. Some of the other new features are: real-time effects for HD and the option to scale between DV to SD, HD and film. The Apple Cinema Display supports High-definition Playback and is a part of Apple's HD product portfolio.
Final Cut Pro HD retails for $999 USD for a full version, while upgrades run $399 USD. Final Cut Pro 4 users can download the update to Final Cut Pro HD.
DVD Studio Pro 3 -- another component of the suite -- bundles a collection of new transitions; is capable of HD to MPEG-2 encoding (Compressor 1.2); displays a graphical view to map relationships between elements; and supports DTS multi-channel audio. Third party products including Adobe Photoshop can plug into DVD Studio as well as Apple's Soundtrack application.
The full standalone version of DVD Studio Pro 3 is priced at $499 USD, while upgrade pricing is listed at $199 USD. Apple is offering users of DVD Studio Pro 2 who purchased DVD Studio Pro 2 on or after April 18 a grace period upgrade to DVD Studio 3 free of cost.
Production Suite is available now for a suggested retail price of $1,299 USD.