Montage Video Editing Software for OS X Nears Completion
October 10, 2002
On display at the 113th AES convention in Los Angeles,, Montage is the crystallization of Arboretum's desire to change the way computers are used for video, film, multimedia, and music production at all levels.
A consumer-priced alternative to Apple's iMovie software, Montage was built for OS X from the ground up and is 100% Cocoa native. "Montage was created for aspiring movie makers who literally think 'outside the box, "' said Arboretum CEO, Georges Jaroslaw. "If you can see a movie in your mind, you can easilly create it in our software by editing and placing clips in the workspace. The user interface is completely transparent."
Media clips can be imported or captured in real time from a FireWire DV camera using remote machine control, then freely arranged in the workspace to make movies.
When video clips are dragged on top of each other instant dissolves are created - clicking on the resulting connection graphic brings up a selection of fully editable professional compositors, transitions, and wipes. In addition, over a dozen video effects including edge detection, emboss, film noise, and color tint are available and can be applied to any video clip; a realtime preview box takes the guesswork out of adjusting effect parameters. Text boxes can be placed over video clips or keyed against an editable background with adjustable duration for scrolling.
Audio clips can be edited, arranged, stacked, and processed to generate stunning soundtracks. There is no track limit because ... there are no tracks. The program comes with a wide variety of studio-quality effects from Arboretum's acclaimed Hyperprism engine, and more can be added via a flexible plug-in architecture. Users of other video programs who want to enhance their final movie with cutting-edge audio will find Montage an ideal complement to their current software.
Both audio and video can be easily time-stretched to accomplish anything from filling out a few seconds of a scene to creating awesome slow motion effects. Clips can be nudged forward or backward frame by frame, and locked to the timeline to prevent accidental shifts. And the Overview window makes it extremely simple to zoom in on any portion of a movie, plus move individual clips or even entire scenes at once.
Montage is designed for novice digital movie makers or professionals who want a dynamic, productive new type of workspace. The software will be available in Q1 of 2003 at an extremely competitive price. A fully functional, free trial version will be available at www.arboretum.com, as well as demo versions of Hyperprism, Ray Gun, and the new Ray Gun Pro.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
System requirements include an Apple Macintosh computer with a G4 processor (500MHz or faster recommended), 128MB of RAM, 20GB of free hard disk space, a FireWire port for video transfer, a CD-ROM, and Mac OS X v10.2 or later. A color monitor that supports at least 800 X 600 resolution is recommended.
STANDARD FORMATS & EFFECTS
Montage imports all commonly accepted Mac formats including 3DMF, AIFF, Audio CD, AVI, BMP, Cubic VR, DLS, DV, FLC, FlashPix, GIF, JPEG/JFIF, Macromedia Flash 5, MIDI, MPEG-1, MP3, M3U (MP3 Playlist files), MPEG-2*, MPEG-4 (MP4), Photoshop*, PICS, PICT, PNG, QuickTime, SF2 (SoundFont 2), Sound, Text, TIFF*, Virtual Reality (VR), and WAV. (*Some limitations may apply.)
Movies can be exported as AIFF, AVI, BMP, DV Stream, FLC, JPEG/JFIF, JPEG 2000 (Mac OS X only), MIDI, MPEG-4, Photoshop, PICT, PNG, QuickTime, System 7 Sound, Text, TIFF, and WAV.
Built-in video transitions include: Alpha Compositor, Channel Compositor, and Chroma Key (compositors); Crossfade, Explode, Implode, and Zoom (transitions); and Gradient Wipe, Iris, Matrix Wipe, Push, Radial, Slide, and Wipe (wipes).
Built-in video effects include: Alpha Gain, Brightness, ColorSync, HSL Balance, and RGB Balance (adjustments); Blur, Edge Detection, Emboss, General Convolution, and Sharpen (filters); and Color Style, Color Tint with B&W/Sepia/X-Ray/Cobalt settings, Film Noise, and Lens Flare (special effects).
Free built-in audio effects include: Hyperprism's Auto Pan, Band Pass, Band Reject, Hi Pass, Flanger, Lo Pass, More Stereo, Ring Modulator, Tremolo, and Vibrato.
The remaining Hyperprism range of effects (Bass Maximizer, Chorus, Compressor, Doppler, Echo, EchoTranz, Formant Pitch Shift, Frequency Shifter, Hall Reverb , Harmonic Exciter, High Shelf , HyperPhaser, HyperVerb, Limiter, Low Shelf, M-S Matrix, Multi Delay, Noise Gate, Pan, Parametric EQ, Phaser, Pitch Changer, Quasi Stereo, Room Reverb, Single Delay, Sonic Decimator, Stereo Dynamics, Tube/Tape Saturator, Vocoder) as well as Ray Gun and Ray Gun
Pro will be available as separate plug-in products with the Montage 1.0 release. Apple's Audio Unit format will be supported with the 1.0 release or the first 1.1 upgrade.
For more information, visit their web site at www.arboretum.com. |
