The year was 2001, and the new set of Star Wars trilogies was in full swing. Fans everywhere, empowered by the advent of cheap digital video equipment (and probably annoyed by the lackluster Phantom Menace) were creating their own films based in the Star Wars universe. Browsing message boards at the time, everyone always had the same questions: “How did you make those great light sabers?” or “How did you make that blaster fire?” More and more, I kept seeing the same answer pop up: AlamDV. This was an inexpensive, rather primitive rotoscoping and special fx software that was really made for a few specific purposes; namely light sabers, explosions, and blaster fire. As the years passed, AlamDV became more sophisticated and was renamed EffectsLab, and the company that made it, FXHome, became known as the producers of compositing software that could rival the big boys. I’ve followed FXHome’s rise over the past seven years, and have been very impressed by their success in breaking into a subset of the video software industry that is pretty much dominated by Adobe’s After Effects.
VideoWrap's wizard layout is simple, elegant, and stylishly designed.
Now it seems as if FXHome is taking their programming talents and applying them to an entirely different aspect of indie filmmaking: digital distribution. VideoWrap is intended to be a low-cost means of getting your video out to the widest variety of mediums possible, all through a simple and elegant, wizard-based interface. After all, what good are all of those Star Wars fan films if nobody is able to watch them?
VideoWrap can automatically create a webpage with Flash video embedded in it..
Ease of Use
Installation was a snap; the defaults were fine, and no problems were encountered. Since this is a standalone application and not a plug-in for a host, there was no need to set a plug-in folder. You just install it wherever you want. Activation was also simple. The program asks for your Program Key, which is basically a text file that is sent to you when you order the software. You simply point the program to the location of the program key, and the program is activated! I wish all software activation was this easy.
The program itself is wizard-based, meaning that it walks you through a step-by-step process, asking you questions along the way to get to the final output. First you pick your source video, then your aspect ratio, then your output medium, and finally your destination directory. It is very simple and very easy to use. There are also pictures and logos for all of the output selections; the PS3 output shows a picture of a PS3, the Youtube output shows the Youtube logo, etc. It is a nice-looking interface that belies its low cost, and shows that the programmers at FXHome have a flair for integrating form and functionality.
The only downside to this wizard-based workflow is that there really isn’t any way to see what’s going on under the hood, so to speak. The compression and encoding settings are completely hidden, and there is no way to tweak settings on a more advanced level. However, the whole point of the software is that it allows you to create output that conforms to certain specifications, without having to know anything about those specifications. Therefore, if you really feel the need to tweak parameters, this is not the software for you.
The year was 2001, and the new set of Star Wars trilogies was in full swing. Fans everywhere, empowered by the advent of cheap digital video equipment (and probably annoyed by the lackluster Phantom Menace) were creating their own films based in the Star Wars universe. Browsing message boards at the time, everyone always had the same questions: “How did you make those great light sabers?” or “How did you make that blaster fire?” More and more, I kept seeing the same answer pop up: AlamDV. This was an inexpensive, rather primitive rotoscoping and special fx software that was really made for a few specific purposes; namely light sabers, explosions, and blaster fire. As the years passed, AlamDV became more sophisticated and was renamed EffectsLab, and the company that made it, FXHome, became known as the producers of compositing software that could rival the big boys. I’ve followed FXHome’s rise over the past seven years, and have been very impressed by their success in breaking into a subset of the video software industry that is pretty much dominated by Adobe’s After Effects. 
