I have to say, the first thing that struck me about the new Final Cut Studio 3 from Apple was not the new features.  There are many and most of them are advantageous to workflow.  As I get the opportunity to play with them, I will give you my review of each.  But have you seen the box?  Final Cut Studio 2 came in this huge box with all the manuals as hard copies.  It weighed a ton!

When I went to the Apple store to buy my copy, I also picked up a new wireless mighty mouse.  As I was standing at the counter getting ready to buy my goods, I noticed that I had what appeared to be two mighy mice.  As I looked closer I noticed that one box was in fact Final Cut Studio!  That’s right, the new program fit in a box the same size as mouse.  Now that is pretty cool, because I could actually carry it out in a bag and didn’t need a hand truck to get it to the car.

I did get Final Cut Studio installed yesterday and everything wen’t as smooth as possible!  I was doing the install on my new iMac and had the upgrade version.  At the magic point during the process, I was asked for my previous product code.  I inserted the code and the install continued.  So after a few hours of sitting at the computer and loading disks, the install was complete.

I will let you know how all the features are as I get to use them.  I am most excited about the new features in Motion and will explore those first.  If there are any specifics that you are interested in, let me know and I’ll try it out and give an update.

After Effects has been the standard for animation and compositing work.  Apple Motion 3 is making the process accessible and simple for all users.  When Apple finally adds 3D to the application, it will make major waves in the animation and compositing world.

To illustrate the animation tools of Motion, I have created a short animation in the spirit of Jib Jab.  It is the introduction of a fictional hunter named Blanda Bob.  By using Photoshop to create the various components, you can animate them using some very simple features built into Motion.  I hope this inspires you to take a second look at the power of Motion.

In this Apple Motion 3 tutorial you will learn how to animate a brush stroke to reveal an image or logo using mask.  Enjoy.

In worship services all over the country, projectors are displaying the text of the song on large screens for the audience to view.  Most of these presentations use animated backgrounds to enhance the display.  There are several places that I would recommend you look when getting ready to acquire these animated backgrounds.

Digital Juice produces high quality backgrounds that have been packed in what they call Jumpbacks. They have over 50 different bundles to choose from each containing a wide array of backgrounds. They are packaged according to themes and are a high quality. They retail for $99, but are frequently on sale for much less. They are a great resource for your graphic needs.

Another quality source for animated backgrounds is Digital Hotcakes. They have an entire worship series of animated backgrounds. They are high quality products for about $49 per package. The one thing that Digital Hotcakes provides that is exciting is access to free backgrounds. The offer free downloads from their current inventory and they offer a free demo DVD containing several backgrounds.

In a few weeks we will be having a series of tutorials that will teach you how to use Apple’s Motion 3 program to create you own custom backgrounds. Motion is a high power application that is very user friendly. Keep looking for these tutorials coming soon.