Product Reviews By SLFCPUG Members

The following mini-reviews are the opinions and experiences of the individual members, and do not reflect any product endorcement or warning by the S.LA.FCP Users Group as an entity. They are provided as a courtisy to the reader. All products were won in raffles and drawings at our monthly meetings.

"FxFactory Editors Pack"
from Noise Industries
Thanks to a bit of divine intervention along with a touch of good ol' fashion horse tradin' I won one of last Wednesday night's FxFactory raffle giveaways. This is a wonderful bundle of effects and transitions that I would recommend to anyone into video editing. All of the effects of course may be tweaked to fit your needs but once you do create a really cool effect, you can save it as a preset for later use. A lot of the effects already have a few presets saved and ready to use. Very cool! Another thing that is pretty cool is that if you click the little purple question mark next to the effects name in the effects window, another window pops up and shows a sample of the effect as well as a description of what each control is for. There is lots of helpful information on their web site and there are ways to share effects with other users although I have not had the chance to look into this yet. It seems like a great idea though! FxFactory is a great product, easy to install and use and highly customizable. I hope everyone will win FxFactory at one of our meetings!
-K.L.

"Motion 3 Fast Forward"
from Ripple Training
Ripple Training, one of the best third party tutorial sources on the market, has a new tutorial for Motion 3, the version of Motion that ships with Final Cut Studio 2. Motion 3 introduces 3D space, which will take some learning by those not already familiar with working in 3D space. This tutorial is really well done, one of the best Ripple Training has ever done. And they always do great tutorials. This will get you up and running with Motion 3 quickly and easily. It covers a lot of tools and techniques, and won't take you forever to get through. It comes with tutorial media so that you can repeat the lessons yourself, or follow along. If you are new to Motion 3 and want to learn it, this is a great first step. I'd follow it up with the APTS book "Motion Graphics In Final Cut Studio 2" if you're fairly serious about doing motion graphics work. And then the APTS book "Motion 3" if your really serious, in that order, ascending to more and more difficult work as you go. "Motion 3 Fast Forward" is a wonderfully done tutorial, top quality, and a really fun, fast, exciting learning experience. A must have for anyone wanting to learn Motion 3.
-B.B.

"Apple Pro Training Series: Encyclopedia of Color Correction/Field Techniques Using Final Cut Pro"
from Peachpit Press
I am very glad to have this book. It dramatically enhances my knowledge of color correction. I am especially thankful to have won it at one of our user group meetings. It helps me look at the video / images in a new light. The training steps are useful. To give insight on methods anc concepts. The graphics are good. Good examples on how to use filters and to what extent. The visuals help expand my thinking around color correction.
-S.S.

"Final Cut Studio 2"
from Apple, Inc
I went to a FCP meeting a while back and was lucky enough to win a copy of FCP Studio 2. Yes that's right, the whole shebang. And it only cost me 20 bucks. ($5 per raffle ticket.) I've never won anything this big before, I was quite excited. ...I can a sure you that FCP Studio 2 is freakin sweet and doesn't really need a review. I'm so grateful for winning it I can't give enough thanks.
-J.S.

"QuickTime Pro Quick-Reference Guide"
from Peachpit Press
I was lucky to win a copy of the book; Quick Time Pro Quick Reference Guide, from the Apple Training Series library. This slim volume is easy to read or to just keep as a reference source. I always took the Quick Time Pro software for granted. True, it is the usual output for a Final Cut project. I never gave it much thought. Turns out it is a powerful editing program itself. With it you can edit movies, sound or photos and export them in a variety of codecs. The guide explained codes so even I could understand them and contains a chart, Codec Central, with the pros and cons of each. I will be looking at the other Quick Reference Guides. For someone like me, who is lazy, and doesn't want to have to read a lot in order to do a specific task, they are made to order.
-J.M.

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