Unfortunately,
the freshman release of Soundbooth did not have one of the most crucial
audio tools for low budget filmmakers: an ADR mode. Hopefully, for the CS4 release, the kind folks in Adobe’s audio department will be able to provide
us with a specially designed ADR room that includes things like easy loops, moveable
3 second beeps, a teleprompter, and maybe even a cadence-conforming algorithm
similar to SynchroArts Vocalign.
Photoshop
CS3 Extended
While a huge amount of buzz was generated for most
of the other programs in the CS3 line up, I was rather shocked by how few
people truly credited the amount of work and improvement that went into Photoshop
CS3 Extended. It is so improved and customized from the basic Photoshop
CS3 that Photoshop CS3 Extended costs an extra $300 if you
buy it by itself and, quite honestly, it is different enough to deserve that sort
of cost difference. Luckily for us as microfilmmakers, the price of the Production
Package hasn’t increased a single penny despite the inclusion of this more
powerful version of Photoshop (or the additions of Flash, Ultra,
and OnLocation).
So
what makes PCS3 Extended so amazing for us as filmmakers? Well, for starters,
it allows the importing of video clips directly into Photoshop and allows
those video clips to be adjusted using Adobe’s precision tools and filters
on those clips. While there are still many video functions that work more efficiently
in After Effects, the ability to paint video in Photoshop allows
beautifully spectacular special effects and gore effects that would be much more
difficult without this video functionality. Additionally, high-rez screen captures
are easy as pie when you can grab the captures directly inside of Photoshop.
But
that’s barely scratching the surface of all the cool things Photoshop
CS3 Extended can do. Other impressive features include the ability to import
video as layers. From here, a number of things can be done, but one exceptionally
cool thing is to combine those layers into a smart object that can be interracted
with via the Smart Object>Stack Mode. While there are many Stack options, the
Median option will allow you to create an image that removes transitive items.
To explain what I mean, Adobe provided reviewers with a 30 second locked down
shot of the Golden Gate bridge with its constant traffic which we imported into Photoshop CS3 Extended and, with the previous equation, removed
all of the moving cars from the image. Basically, the median option looks for
parts of the image that don’t change and the ground and roadway changes
less than the moving cars, so the cars are erased from the image. While there
were still artifacts on the horizon line, these were easily removed with minor
use of the clone brush. The ability for filmmakers to use this to create pristine
plates of man-made objects for greenscreen and special effects work is very impressive.
Another
very cool addition is the 3D import feature that allows 3D models stored as .3DS
files or the new proprietary .U3D format to be imported into Photoshop
CS3 Extended and have their textures modified in Photoshop. While
you can’t paint directly on the model itself, you have an instant update
of how textures look on your model as you work. While there still need to be some
increases in export options, this can be terribly useful for photorealism in 3D
modeling, whether it be in creating a 3D version of an actor or actress for a
dangerous stunt or creating realistic damage to a sidewalk in a street scene.
(For
more information on this program, check out our standalone review here.)
Illustrator
CS3
Illustrator has added some cool improvements and new
additions, one of which is deceptively powerful.
Folks
who used the LiveTrace feature of Illustrator with Bridge in APSP
to create iPod-ad-style animation effects will be excited to know that the limitation
which prevented you from doing more than 10 frames at a time has been removed.
Additionally, you are no longer limited to CMYK color and can use the much more
common RGB color setup.
A
new eraser tool has been added which allows you to erase parts of objects with
newly reshaped outlines being created with vector points. For those of us who’ve
been frustrated by how different Illustrator is from Photoshop,
this is a very welcome improvement.
