Software Category: Digital Rebellion Blog

Combining odd and even frames in Shake

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:27:57 MST

I've just finished helping a guy with a Shake issue via email and I think the solution would be useful to others. He had a situation where he had one movie clip with all the odd frames from a sequence and another clip with all the even frames, and he wanted to combine them into a single file.

At first glance, it would appear to be as simple as using the Select node to switch between them, however you would miss out half of the frames by doing this. Here's the solution that worked for him:

1. Import the two files into Shake via the FileIn node.

2. Add a TimeX node to the first clip and set it to 0.5*time (this doubles every frame) and do the same for the second clip.

3. Add a Select node and plug the output of the two TimeX nodes into it. So that it's not confusing later on, make sure the output of clip 1 goes to the first input and clip 2 goes to the second.

4. In the Branch parameter of the Select node, set a keyframe at frame 1 with a value of 1 (i.e. the first input), then step to frame 2 and keyframe the value to 2 (the second input).

5. Load the parameter into the Curve Editor by clicking the clock icon next to the Branch field so that a tick icon appears, and then click the Curve Editor tab.

6. In the Curve Editor, change the Cycle parameter to MirrorValue.

7. When you render the FileOut, make sure to double the frame range as the sequence is now twice as long.

Speeding up Compressor

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:47:26 MDT

Is Compressor taking too long to encode? Here are some tips to speed it up.

Don't export directly to Compressor from Final Cut Pro

Although sending your timeline directly to Compressor may seem faster because it cuts out the step of exporting as a QuickTime movie, it is much slower overall because Compressor needs to request each frame one-by-one from Final Cut Pro instead of just reading the data out of the movie clip. It gets even slower if you're using Frame Controls or doing multi-pass encoding.

Just go to File > Export > QuickTime Movie (not QuickTime Conversion) and make sure Setting is set to Current Settings and Recompress All Frames is switched off. This ensures that the movie will not be recompressed unnecessarily.

Here's a tip - if most of your timeline is already rendered, deselect Make Movie Self-Contained. This creates a small reference movie that links to the render files on disk instead of writing the data into the file. This will be much quicker to export. If your timeline is not rendered, however, this setting is unlikely to offer any speed advantages over a self-contained movie.

Once the file is exported, drag it into Compressor and set up your batch as normal.

Only use Frame Controls where necessary

Frame Controls allow you to improve the quality of resizing, retiming and deinterlacing operations, however they should only be switched on when you are actually performing one of these operations.

In addition, you should use Better quality instead of Best, as Best is usually reserved for extreme circumstances and in most situations gives you a massive performance hit with no benefit.

Perform heaving-lifting in a separate pass to the encoding

Using Frame Controls with a multi-pass or long-GOP encoder can really slow things down because the Frame Controls processing will need to be reapplied to every frame each time it is read. Even if you're not using Frame Controls, compressing from a processor-intensive codec such as HDV or H.264 can seriously slow things down.

It makes sense, therefore, to perform all these processor-intensive operations on an intermediate movie clip (ProRes would be a suitable codec for this) and then drag in the intermediate clip and encode it to the desired format.

But there is an easier way. Job chaining is a little-used yet very powerful feature of Compressor that allows you to plug the output of one job into the input of another for additional processing.

Here's how to do it:
1. Drag your movie clip into Compressor.
2. Drag either the ProRes 422 for Interlaced Material or ProRes 422 for Progressive Material (depending on your source media) setting onto the job in the batch window.
3. Go to Job > New Job with Target Output. This will add a new job to the batch with a chain symbol to show it is linked to the job above it.
4. Drag your desired output setting onto the chained job and set up the destination as normal.
5. Submit the batch

Use a cluster

A cluster is a group of computers where each machine processes a portion of the movie simultaneously, potentially providing a massive speed boost. This service is provided by Qmaster and can be set up in the Qmaster section of System Preferences or the Apple Qadministrator utility.

You will need Qmaster set up on each computer in the cluster, and all computers should have the required codecs installed and have full access to the source media and cluster storage area.

If you have a multi-core computer, Qmaster can emulate the effects of a cluster by launching multiple copies of Compressor side-by-side to process the movie in a "virtual cluster". This can make a dramatic difference to encoding times. I wrote a tutorial on this a while back.

Conclusion

Compressor is not the fastest encoder in the world but with these tricks you can make it a lot more bearable. One important trend to note is that the simplest method isn't always the fastest - with a little extra setup beforehand you can save a significant amount of time overall.

How to run Final Cut Studio 3 on a MacBook

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:30:30 MDT

I've been meaning to post this for a while but haven't had the chance until now. I had to be an early adopter of Final Cut Studio 3 because I develop software that interfaces with it, but I had no desire to edit on a x.0 release so I decided to install it on my MacBook solely for testing.

The only problem is that, unlike FCS 2, the FCS 3 installer refuses to continue because it requires a 128 MB graphics card. Only Motion and Color are heavy on the graphics card, so the other applications in the suite will work just fine on a lesser machine. Luckily the block is easy to work around.

Here's how I got it working on my MacBook:

1. You will need to change one of the files on the DVD. As you cannot write directly to the DVD itself, you will need to create a writable copy of the disc. Put in the Final Cut Studio DVD and open up Disk Utility (located in /Applications/Utilities).

2. Select the disc in the left-hand pane and click New Image in the toolbar.

3. Set Image Format to Read/write and Encryption to None.

4. Type a relevant filename and click Save. It will take several minutes to process.

5. Open up the disk image and ctrl-click on Install Final Cut Studio. Select Show Original.

6. A new window will appear with the FinalCutStudio.mpkg file selected. Ctrl-click on this file and select Show Package Contents.

7. Navigate to Contents/Resources and ctrl-click on the Requirements Checker bundle. Select Show Package Contents.

8. Navigate to Contents/Resources and open up minsys.plist in Property List Editor (if you have the Apple developer tools installed) or TextEdit.

9. Under the heading AELMinimumVRAM change the number from 128 to a number lower than or equal to your current video memory. I changed mine to 32. Alternatively you could change block to warn and the installer will warn you but let you continue installation.

10. Save the file, close all the folders that appeared and double-click Install Final Cut Studio on the disk image. You should now be able to install Final Cut Studio without problems.

Some of the applications in the studio also contain a minsys.plist file that will need to be modified. These applications are Final Cut Pro, Motion, Color, Soundtrack Pro and DVD Studio Pro (even though the latter apparently has no changes from FCS 2).

11. Ctrl-click on the application in question and select Show Package Contents.

12. Navigate to Contents/Resources and open minsys.plist in either Property List Editor (if you have the developer tools installed) or TextEdit.

13. Under the heading AELMinimumVRAM change the number from 128 to a number lower than or equal to your current video memory. I changed mine to 32. Alternatively you could change block to warn.

14. Color will still warn you about your screen resolution - however you can just select Never show again and continue.

That's it! You will need to repeat steps 11-14 whenever you update Final Cut Studio.

Note: Some people have suggested simply removing the Requirements Checker application but I do not advocate deleting files.

Mac OS X 10.5.7 released

Tue, 12 May 2009 16:26:04 MDT

Apple has finally released the much-delayed 10.5.7 update to Leopard. There was much speculation that it was delayed to coincide with the full release of Safari 4 which is currently in beta, however this is clearly not the case as Apple has just released Safari 3.2.3 and an updated beta of Safari 4 (you won't see this in Software Update until you update to 10.5.7 though).

The release notes are quite brief, however it is possible to get a much better overview by looking at World of Apple's seed notes for the 10.5.7 beta. This is not a comprehensive list but gives a good indication of the final changes.

There's some good stuff in there - lots of networking fixes and several changes aimed at improving sleep/wake reliability (I've actually stopped putting my MacBook to sleep because it either wakes up constantly every 10 mins or never wakes up at all). It also contains updated graphics drivers. There's really nothing serious in there so you can update at your leisure. It's very much a polish update.

If you are thinking of updating though, remember the Golden Rules:
1. Never update in the middle of a project
2. Wait a week or two for problems to surface
3. Perform a clone of your system before installing
4. You will experience greater reliability from the larger combo updater

10.5.7 Delta Update (10.5.6 -> 10.5.7)
10.5.7 Combo Update (10.5.x -> 10.5.7)
10.5.7 Server Delta Update (10.5.6 -> 10.5.7)
10.5.7 Server Combo Update (10.5.x -> 10.5.7)

The bundled security update is also available separately for Tiger users as Security Update 2009-02.

Update: Mac Mini users are reporting problems already. It seems like certain DVI displays are not being recognized correctly on Mac Minis.

Best and worst of iPhone 3.0

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:34:53 MDT

Apple released details of iPhone OS 3.0 yesterday. It's got all kinds of great features - turn-by-turn GPS, copy and paste, MMS, tethering, to name a few. Here's my take on the best and worst features.

The Best

Stu Maschwitz from ProLost was particularly impressed with the new accessory APIs, which is probably the biggest new feature that no-one is talking about. Do not underestimate the importance of this - it is HUGE. This bridges the gap between software and hardware and takes the phone from a simple smartphone to a full-scale development platform.

No other phone developer is offering this. A lot of them are jumping on the app store bandwagon now but Apple just increased the gap even further. Apple is once again taking advantage of their control over hardware and software - I believe Apple's toughest rival is Google but it would be difficult for Google to replicate this with Android as they do not control the hardware.

Of course, hardware development is more complicated from a business perspective as you'd need to manufacture it, handle billing, arrange shipping and keep inventory (which is always a little risky, particularly in a recession). So this is purely aimed at companies and not bedroom developers. I don't know if Stu will get his wish for an iPhone scope (I hope so) but it will be very interesting to see what developers come up with. There are loads of on-set applications here ranging from remote operation/focus pulling to synchronized iPhone timecode slates to an app for editing camera/lens metadata. I could totally see the RED guys embracing this technology.

The Worst

The most worrying aspect is the new in-app payment system. I can picture only a few scenarios where this would be genuinely useful (such as an e-book reader or GPS app with its own maps) and I can see a lot of developers abusing this. It really will bring out the worst in developers.

The problem with the iPhone development platform is that it's far too easy for developers to charge money. If they were selling software on their own sites they would need to pay for marketing and sort out a system for billing. It's a lot more complicated and there are more up-front costs so they'd need to ensure they were selling something of value.

With the iPhone it is very easy for someone to create a poor application in five minutes and charge for it, and if some poor sucker buys it that's a win for the developer. If no-one buys it, then the developer hasn't lost anything either. It's win-win for them.

There are lots of applications on the app store for $0.99 that are completely valueless (for example the multitude of "flashlight" apps that display a white square on your screen). The devs are charging $0.99 because they can. It's too easy. And Apple's just made it even easier. I see this as a bad thing for the consumer.

Although I am certain this will be abused, I think the benefits of the accessory APIs will far outweight abuse of this feature. If developers need to keep inventory, they will have to ensure they have something worth selling. Sure, not every developer will choose to use in-app purchasing, and I'm sure many will offer excellent value for money. But when the new apps are accepted into the store, it will be important to read the small-print and be aware of exactly what you are getting for your money.

Having said that, I can't wait to see what developers come up with.

Guide to Final Cut Pro Internal Tools

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:48:09 MDT

Did you know Final Cut Pro has a hidden menu? Just hold down Cmd + Option + Shift and click the Tools menu. You should now see a new menu item called Internal Tools.

This is a debug menu used by the developers of FCP, but it actually has some uses for us mere mortals as well. It's especially useful for plugin developers and system troubleshooters, but some features benefit all users. Here is a rundown of what's in the menu.

Adjust Windows

When you open the Audio Mixer, Frame Viewer and several other tools in the Tools menu, they open in a tabbed window called the Toolbench. This normally appears on top of the Viewer and is hidden behind it when you select the Viewer again.

The Adjust Windows menu item adjusts the window layout so the Toolbench can fit in without being obscured by other windows. If you don't have the Toolbench open when you click this item, it will leave a gap in your window layout.

Before

After

To restore the default window configuration again, press Ctrl+U.

App / Perf Info

This generates a text file containing just about everything you could ever wish to know about your FCP configuration.

Probably the most useful part is the Project / Sequence Information section. This gives various statistics about your project including the total number of clips placed in your timeline and the proportion of those clips that were unique. It will even tell you how many edits you performed per minute (don't let your boss see this!).

Log OpenGL Profile Costs

This function displays timing information about OpenGL Profiling in the Console. It will do nothing until you start profiling (see the Statistics section below), at which point it tells you how long (in ms) it took your machine to process the given frame sizes and codecs.

One thing I noticed about this is that it takes a fair while for the data to be posted to the Console - around 1-2 minutes.

Log VM Footprint

This outputs the current memory usage to the Console.

Resident refers to data in physical memory, Virtual refers to data on the disk ready to be copied into main memory as required. Note that the system often assigns more virtual memory space than it needs, so not all of that space will actually be used. So if you see a ridiculous number like 4 GB, it is not necessarily a cause for alarm.

Movie Dumpster

This one crashes Final Cut Pro for me, so I wasn't able to ascertain exactly what it does. However, Apple offers a tool called Dumpster on their developer site which gives you a large amount of technical information about a specific movie clip. I would imagine this would be similar if it worked.

Playback Meter

This will show you how your media drives are performing, and is probably the most useful tool in the menu.

If you are not using a RAID, only the audio bars will work. Everything is fine while the bar is green, but if it turns yellow or red, this is an indication that your computer cannot keep up.

Screen Size Override

This allows you to fool Final Cut Pro into thinking that you have a different-sized monitor.

Just select the desired resolution from the pull down menus and press Ctrl + U to automatically resize the windows to the new dimensions.

If you mess things up, just restart Final Cut Pro and press Ctrl + U to restore the windows to the correct position for your screen resolution.

Statistics

This displays a lot of technical information about what's going on under the hood of FCP.

For instance, select the Render check box, drag the playhead across the timeline and then click the Average button. This will average the times taken to perform the various function calls required to render the image to the screen. If your system is getting sluggish, you may find it useful to use the Averages function to see which areas are taking a long time to process.

Most of the checkboxes are self-explanatory so I won't elaborate on them here. However, I would advise selecting them one at a time otherwise you'll end up with an overflow of information.

If you want to clear the text box, click Reset. Copy copies the entire data to the clipboard and Copy Avg copies only the averages. Unset All deselects all of the checkboxes.

Both Auto Profile and RT Verify go through each item in the Browser (video clips, sequences, images, etc), playing each one four times and averaging the data. Sequences take longer because the profiler initially tests with only the V1 track enabled, and then gradually enables V2 and V3 to perform compositing tests (if such tracks exist of course).

It's worth mentioning that since it goes through everything four times, it will take a while to finish processing, depending on the size of the project. You cannot switch to another application either or the profiling will fail. I would advise creating a brand new project with short media clips and sequences. If you truly have serious bottlenecking, this will still be apparent in the shorter sequence.

All the timing information is stored inside the Profile.csv log. Although you can view this in TextEdit, it will be difficult to read because it will not be formatted correctly. A spreadsheet application, such as MS Excel or the free NeoOffice or OpenOffice packages, is recommended.

If you are experiencing poor performance, look at the timings in this file to see where the major bottlenecks are. For instance, a slow FXScript filter could be indicative of a CPU bottleneck or an inefficient script. A slow Flop operation could be indicative of a GPU bottleneck.

Auto Profile and RT Verify appear, on the surface, to perform exactly the same task. However, it is likely that Auto Profiling actually updates your RT information whereas RT Verify merely performs the test without changing anything. This is difficult to verify without official documentation though.

Most of the functions in the Internal Tools menu will be too technical for a lot of users, and so the menu will likely remain something of a novelty. But if you are troubleshooting performance issues or developing applications and plugins for FCP, it is an invaluable source of information on the inner workings of Final Cut Pro.

The only downside is that the menu must be reactivated every time you start Final Cut Pro. If anyone knows of a way to enable it permanently through a preference file, I'd love to hear about it.

Compressor error: "Unable to connect to background process"

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:03:41 MST

The "Unable to connect to background process" and "Unable to submit to queue" messages are common errors that unfortunately have many causes.

Before you do anything else, check that your version of Compressor is compatible with your operating system. Only the versions included with FCP 5.1.x and 6.0.x are compatible with OS X 10.5. If you have an incompatible earlier version, you will need to either upgrade Final Cut Studio or downgrade your operating system.

Try the following steps:

1. In Compressor, go to Compressor > Reset Background Processing.

2. Run Compressor Repair.

3. Trash Compressor preferences (can also be done in Compressor Repair).

4. Try these steps (use at your own risk).

Do the following if nothing else works:

5. Disable your internet / network connections.

6. Reinstall Compressor and Qmaster.

7. Perform a full erase and install of the operating system and reinstall from scratch.

Getting to Know the Terminal Part 2: More File Operations

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:26:29 MST

In the previous article, I showed you how to launch the Terminal and perform basic tasks like navigating through folders and dealing with files. Today I will build on this with more advanced file operations, working with directories, and wildcards.

Working with Directories

To create a new directory, navigate to the relevant parent directory using the cd command and type the following:

mkdir MyNewFolder

Remember: as discussed last time, if you want a file name with spaces, you must do either of the following:

mkdir "My New Folder"

or:

mkdir My\ New\ Folder

What if you need to create several new directories? Simple:

mkdir Dir1 Dir2 Dir3

A little-known feature of the mkdir command is that you can create multiple directories with just one command. Just separate them with spaces.

If you want to create a long chain of directories (e.g. Renders/Video/TIFF) you can use the -p parameter like so:

mkdir -p Renders/Video/TIFF

Press Enter and it's all done, instantly. Imagine how long it would have taken to do that within the Finder GUI! This is why the command-line is still used in the 21st Century even though we have pretty GUIs to look at.

To remove a directory, use the rmdir command:

rmdir Renders/Video/TIFF

The above command assumes that all directories are empty. If they are not, an error will be returned. To remove a directory and all its subfiles and folders, use the following command:

rm -dR Renders

(the d parameter tells it to include directories, R tells it to be recursive)

Wildcards

Last time I mentioned file operations such as cp for copying and mv for moving files. But what if you need to perform an operation on a large number of files at once?

Wildcards can be used to substitute characters. So if you want to copy, say, 100 files that are named Image.001.jpg to Image.100.jpg, you would use wildcards to substitute for the numbers. This will allow you to copy all of the files with one command instead of a hundred like so:

cp Image.*.jpg Renders

Question mark (?) substitutes a single character. So for instance, if you had files called render_v1.iff, render_v2.iff and render_v10.iff and you typed ls render_v?.iff, it would return only renders 1 and 2 because they are a single digit whereas render 10 is two digits.

Asterisk (*) substitutes a potentially infinite length of characters (including no characters at all). Use this if you don't know the precise length of the substitution. In the example above, if you type ls render_v*.iff, it will return all three files because it matches both the 1- and 2-digit numbers. You can also type, for example, *. jpg to return all JPEG images or *.* to return all files in the directory.

So, going back to the 100-frame image sequence previously mentioned, you would type ls Image.*.jpg to return a list of all of the images. That's all well and good, but what if you don't want to return all of the images - what if you only want a specific range?

Braces ([ ]) can be used to be more specific. In the above example, type ls Image.[20-30].jpg to restrict the results to frames 20-30. You can also restrict characters in the same way, such as [b-f] (remember that everything is case-sensitive).

If your numbers or letters don't fall into a sequential range, you can pick a set of non-sequential numbers or letters such as [brz] or [179] to match any of these characters. You can also combine them with ranges like so: ls Image.[1-10,12,14,20-40].jpg. This will return frames 1-10, skip frame 11, return 12, skip 13, return 14 and display frames 20-40.

And if you don't want specific characters to be returned, use the following syntax: [^bgv].

Combining the examples above: if you want to match a file starting with the letters a-c or x-z, with three miscellaneous characters in the middle, ending with a three-digit number at the end, you would type ls [a-cx-z]???[0-9][0-9][0-9].*. As you can see, it gets complicated pretty quickly.

But imagine if you had to search through and move or copy those files manually. It would be time-consuming, tedious and prone to human error. The command line comes into its own when you want to perform operations on a large number of files at once.

Editors can get away with not knowing this (although it can be very useful for them to know) but it is required knowledge for anyone who wants to get into visual effects.

I had originally planned to cover permissions here but I'm going to move it to the next article because I went into a lot of detail and it's too large to add on the end of this one. I'd much rather delay it than miss out information.

So next time I will be covering file permissions, symbolic links and opening, viewing and saving text files.

Getting to know the Terminal Part 1: Basic File Operations

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:28:06 MST

The Terminal is an application that drives fear into the heart of a lot of Mac users - an application they only dream of using in their worst possible nightmares.

It's really not that scary - in fact, it can actually be a very useful timesaving device. You can perform operations on a large number of files at once in a fraction of a second, saving a lot of time.

Although the GUI is prettier and more intuitive, constantly moving, clicking and dragging the mouse around the screen wastes time - not to mention that rendering the GUI takes away precious processing cycles from the operation you are trying to perform. And you don't even need to constantly type things either - you can write a shell script to perform a task and set it to run automatically.

If you are thinking of entering the visual effects industry, most employers will expect basic command-line knowledge and shell scripting abilities. While most VFX houses use some form of Linux, Mac OS X's Terminal is almost identical with the exception of a small number of proprietary commands.

So let's get started.

Setting up

First of all, open up the Terminal by navigating to /Applications/Utilities and double-clicking the Terminal application. I find it useful to ctrl-click the dock icon and select Keep in Dock so it is always there for convenience, but this is up to you.

A window like this will appear:

The title bar of my window says "Terminal - bash - 80x24".

bash refers to the shell I am using. There are various different shells available, each with minor differences. We will just concentrate on bash. Incidentally, if your title bar doesn't say "bash", type bash and press enter.

80x24 refers to the number of characters that can be displayed on screen at once - 80 horizontally and 24 vertically. If you resize the window these numbers will change. It doesn't matter if yours has a different value to mine.

Directory navigation

You will see something like this on screen:

Last login: Mon Jan  5 15:27:17 on ttys000
MacBook:~ Jon$

MacBook is the name of my machine, Jon is my username. The ~ indicates that the current directory is my user directory. To view the full path of the current directory, type:

pwd

This stands for Print Working Directory and on my machine outputs the path /Users/Jon. The working directory is the directory the shell will perform all commands in unless specifically told otherwise.

To change to a different working directory use the cd command like so:
cd Documents

The prompt changes to MacBook:Documents Jon$.

It's worth noting at this point that all commands are case-sensitive, so cd Documents is not the same as cd documents, and cd is not the same as CD.

There are some specific shortcuts you can use with the cd command that are summarized below.

cd .. (that's cd followed by two dots)
Moves up one directory. If the working directory was /Users/MyName/Documents, it would change to /Users/MyName.

cd - (that's cd followed by a dash)
Goes back to the previous directory you were in. So if you were in /usr/bin and you changed to /Library, this command will refer you back to /usr/bin again.

cd /
Changes to the root directory

It's worth mentioning here that shell commands are easily confused by spaces in a file path. If you must type a path with spaces, you must either:

a) Surround it in quotes
cd "~/Desktop/My Spaced Filename.doc"

or b) Use escape characters
Escape characters are characters placed before a potentially conflicting character (a space in this case) so that the shell knows to treat it as text and not as a command. The escape character for the Unix shell is \ (backslash).

cd ~/Desktop/My\ Spaced\ Filename.doc

Viewing directory contents

If you want to view the contents of a directory inside the Terminal window, use the ls command. ls is short for "list" (you'll notice that shell commands are generally quite short as they need to be typed often).

cd /
ls

Returns:

Notice that ls returns system files and folders that would normally be hidden by OS X, except for files and folders that have a dot at the front of their name such as .DS_Store. You can show these by typing ls -a (short for "all").

You can also specify a directory as a parameter such as ls /usr/bin and it will list the contents of this directory instead of the current one.

You can set several options when you call ls such as:

ls -l (that's lower-case L)
Returns more detailed results including file sizes, permissions and modification dates.

ls -1
Forces one entry per line.

ls -h
"Human-readable" mode displays file sizes in kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes instead of bytes.

ls -R
Recursively lists subdirectories (be careful - this can take a while).

You can combine as many of these parameters as you like such as:
ls -l -R

Or more simply:
ls -lR

(note: some parameters automatically override others)

These are just a few parameters of many. For exhaustive details of the parameters available, type:

man ls

This is an important Unix concept that also translates to OS X. Man (manual) pages are documentation files easily accessible from the shell using the man command. They will tell you everything you could possibly want to know about the command such as its syntax, parameters, compatibility and return values (more on that in the upcoming scripting tutorial).

You can use man with any command such as man cd, man ls, man echo. With the man page open, press Space to go to the next page and press q to quit and return to the shell.

This gives you documentation instantly at your fingertips, even if the machine you are using doesn't have an internet connection.

Basic File Operations

Use the cp command to copy files like so:

cp [source file] [destination path]

Here's an example on my system:

cd ~/Desktop
cp UntitledDoc.txt ../Documents

This will set the working directory to my desktop. It will then copy UntitledDoc.txt to my Documents folder (remember that .. refers to the parent directory).

You can also create a duplicate of a file within a directory by changing the destination filename:
cp UntitledDoc.txt UntitledDocDupe.bak

To copy a folder and all its subfiles and subfolders, use cp -R. Type man cp to learn about the other parameters.

To move a file, use the mv command with the exact same syntax as the cp command.

To rename a file, you can either use the rename command (same basic syntax as cp) or use mv like so:
mv myfile.txt mynewfile.txt

To delete a file, use rm:

cd ~/Desktop
rm myfile.txt

Some useful rm parameters are listed below:

-d
Delete directories as well.

-f
Force delete files, even if they are write protected.

-P
Overwrite files before deleting them. This is similar to the Secure Empty Trash option in Mac OS X.

-R
Recursively delete files inside subfolders. Use with the -d command to delete a folder and all of its subfiles and subfolders.

That's it for the first tutorial. In Part 2 I will be covering more file operations, working with directories, wildcards and permissions.

Pro Applications Update 2008-05 is out

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:44:35 MST

Apple just released Pro Applications Update 2008-05. This is identical to Pro Applications Update 2008-04 except it now comes with Color 1.0.4.

The news is still hot off the press so Apple haven't gotten around to updating their release notes at this point in time, however, given the timing and the fact that only one application was modified, it is safe to say that this patch was released solely to fix the dreaded XDCAM bugs in Color 1.0.3.

If you are currently running 1.0.3 and suffering from the XDCAM bug I would advise updating to this version. If not, the Golden Rules (TM) apply as usual:
* Never update in the middle of a project.
* Don't update if you don't actually need any of the features included in the update.
* Always clone or backup your system beforehand.
* Wait for at least a week to see if there are any reported problems with the patch.
* Wait even longer if you're using third party hardware or plugins e.g. the AJA Kona card or FXFactory plugins.

Update: Changelog is now up:

XDCAM Clip Relinking Is Fixed
XDCAM EX, HD, and 422 clips now relink properly.

ISO Changes in the RED Tab Appear Correctly
Instances where the Color UI did not accurately reflect changes made to the ISO parameter in the RED tab of the Primary In room have been fixed.

Improvements to the Blur Node in the Color FX Room
Adjusting the spread parameter of the Blur node no longer causes the clip to scale up.

Mac OS X 10.5.6 released

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:00:16 MST

Apple just released Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6. Here are the most relevant changes for video professionals (not many as we're frequently overlooked unfortunately):

Graphics

* Includes general improvements to gaming performance (I think they are referring to improved OpenGL performance in general, which affects applications like Motion and hopefully will boost poor GeForce 8800GT performance).
* Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.

Networking

* Improves Apple File Service performance, especially when using a home directory hosted on an AFP server. Important: If you are using Mac OS X 10.5.6 (client) to connect to a Mac OS X Server 10.4-based server, it is strongly recommended that you update the server to Mac OS X Server version 10.4.11.
* Improves the performance and reliability of TCP connections.

General

* Includes Mac OS X security improvements (always good).
* Adds a Trackpad System Preference pane for portable Macs.

See the full list here.

The changelog (which I don't have access to but was leaked on the net) for one of the beta versions of this patch listed a fix for various hiding bugs. I know several people have had a problem with Final Cut Pro where they have been unable to show it again after hiding, so it would be interesting to see if this fixes the issue.

Once again, don't install this update until it's been out for at least a week (minimum) and you've checked around internet forums to see if people have experienced any issues. When you do update, always assume the worst WILL happen and clone or backup your hard disk first. Never update in the middle of a project and don't update early if none of the issues fixed affect you.

However, it is good to install security updates as soon as possible (again, wait to see if people report problems, although this is normally rare with security updates). Luckily Apple have included the security content of this update as a separate download for those who don't want to risk upgrading their OS. It is available in Intel and PowerPC versions.

P.S. It's good to know that Apple aren't rushing to patch the XDCAM bug with Color 1.0.3 as, clearly, improving the performance and reliability of Chess is far more important ;)

Update 12/16/08: Lots of people reporting problems with this update.

Solving missing framework errors in Final Cut Studio

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:39:37 MST

If one of your Final Cut Studio applications crashes the minute you open it, chances are it's down to missing frameworks. If you click the Report button on the crash dialog, it will tell you the reason. Alternatively you can fire up the Console in /Applications/Utilities to see the message.

You'll probably see a message like this:

Dyld Error Message:
Library not loaded: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BrowserKit.framework/Versions/A/BrowserKit
Referenced from: /Applications/Soundtrack Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/Soundtrack Pro
Reason: image not found

Here's how to copy that file back:

1. Firstly, if you have another machine running Final Cut Studio, it's much easier to take the file from that machine (in this case /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BrowserKit.framework) and copy it to the same location on the current machine.

2. If you don't have that luxury, you will need to extract it from your installation DVD. Put the disc in the drive and open up the Terminal in /Applications/Utilities.

3. Type the following:

cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks
sudo gunzip -c '/Volumes/Final Cut Studio/Installer/Packages/ProAppRuntime.pkg/Contents/Resources/ProAppRuntime.pax.gz' | pax -r -s ',./System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/,./,' './System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BrowserKit.framework'

Press enter after typing cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks, then paste the next part as one whole line. After typing the sudo gunzip... line you may be prompted for your password.

If you are using Logic Studio, substitute Logic Studio for Final Cut Studio. If you are missing a different file, replace BrowserKit.framework with the other file's name (ProKit.framework is another common missing file).

4. If this doesn't work, replace the cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks line above with:

cd ~/Desktop

Then copy the same sudo gunzip... command from above. This will copy the file to your desktop. In the Finder, browse to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks and copy the file from your desktop to that folder. You may be prompted for your password.

5. If problems still persist after copying the file, it is likely that Final Cut Studio is expecting a later version of the framework than the one on the DVD. The only solution in this case is to copy it from a machine running the same version of Final Cut Studio as you, or to uninstall Final Cut Studio and then reinstall it from the DVD and patch it to the latest version.

Pro Applications Update 2008-04

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 03:31:57 MST

Yesterday Apple posted a big ProApp update containing updates for several applications.

Final Cut Pro 6.0.5

Improved High-Precision Rendering
If you render sequences using the high-precision video processing setting, make sure to update to Final Cut Pro 6.0.5 for improved reliability when rendering still images and footage in high-resolution formats.

Extended Metadata Support for the Panasonic AG-HMC150 Camcorder
Final Cut Pro 6.0.5 captures the additional metadata for footage recorded with the Panasonic AG-HMC150 professional AVCHD camcorder.

Improved Support for the Panasonic HDC-SD9 Camcorder
Final Cut Pro 6.0.5 provides enhanced precision and reliability when ingesting files from the Panasonic HDC-SD9 camcorder.

Improved Support for Metadata Imported from P2 Cards
Final Cut Pro 6.0.5 provides support for extended metadata that is captured on P2 cards.

However, one of the biggest features doesn't even come from Apple. RED have posted their Final Cut Studio Installer that adds native .R3D file support to FCP 6.0.5.

Compressor 3.0.5 and Qmaster 3.0.5

Using QuickClusters and Back to My Mac on the Same Computer
The QuickCluster feature of the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system is a simple and automated alternative to creating and configuring clusters manually. In previous versions of Compressor, enabling the Back to My Mac feature in Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard would remove any existing QuickClusters. This issue has been resolved. For more information about QuickClusters, see the Distributed Processing Setup guide.

Color 1.0.3

Improved Format Support

Color 1.0.3 provides support for XDCAM 422 media and for the RED plug-ins for Final Cut Studio.

The RED plug-in and accompanying documentation can be downloaded at http://www.red.com. For workflow suggestions and more information about this format, see HD and Broadcast Formats, available from the Final Cut Pro Help menu.

Improved Application Reliability
Overall application reliability has been improved, including in the following areas:

* Using trackers in the Geometry room
* Using the Reconform command
* Adjusting the Minimum and Maximum nodes in the Color FX room

Improved EDL Handling
Accuracy and reliability during EDL import have been improved.

Application of Display LUT Now Indicated Consistently
Color 1.0.3 consistently indicates when a display LUT has been applied to a project in the Project Settings tab of the Setup room.

Improved Handling of DPX Image Sequences
Color 1.0.3 provides improved reliability when reading and outputting the header information of DPX image sequences, including timecode, frame size, aspect ratio, and transfer code.

The Fix Headers Button Now Works Properly
The Fix Headers button, which appears in the clip bin of the Setup room when you select an image sequence, now correctly alters the header information of DPX image sequences.

Improved Handling of Interlaced Media
Interlaced clips with Pan & Scan adjustments in the Geometry room correctly render the exact range of clip media.

Tangent Control Surface Mappings Are Improved
The HSL qualifier and reset control surface mappings for the Tangent CP100 control surface have been fixed.

Shake 4.1.1

* This update addresses compatibility issues for QuickTime codecs greater than 8 bits.

I don't think anyone expected Shake updates but yes, you read that correctly. Apple later posted a knowledge base article clarifying that the fix was for the QuickTime component only so Shake itself will still display 4.1 as its version number. It's also worth noting that this only applies to people who applied for the Shake 4.1 crossgrade or purchased it after 4.1 came out - 4.0 owners will not be able to upgrade.

Pro Applications Update 2008-04 Release Notes

I know you're probably dying to install these updates but first, make note of the Golden Rules (TM):
* Never update in the middle of a project.
* Don't update if you don't actually need any of the features included in the update.
* Always clone or backup your system beforehand.
* Wait for at least a week to see if there are any reported problems with the patch.
* Wait even longer if you're using third party hardware or plugins e.g. the AJA Kona card or FXFactory plugins.

11-16-08 - New AppleCare articles

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:20:56 MST

Apple just posted some new ProApp-related AppleCare articles.

Final Cut Pro / Express

Final Cut Pro: Choosing a Hard Disk - The disk that contains your computer's operating system is called the startup disk or boot disk. In addition to the operating system, the startup disk also stores your applications (such as Final Cut Pro), your application preferences, system settings, and documents. Because the files on the startup disk are your most critical data, maintaining the startup disk is vital. Because digital media (especially high data rate video) makes your disks work harder, you should use dedicated disks for capturing and playing back your digital video and other media files. Consider your media disks as storage units that work long, hard hours, while your startup disk keeps your system properly organized. If a disk is going to malfunction, it's better if your critical data is separate from your replaceable media files. Depending on what kind of computer you are using, you may be able to use internal and external hard disks to store your media files. Each has benefits and drawbacks.

This is a very detailed article with a lot of useful technical information about the required minimum seek times, spindle speeds, etc for Final Cut Pro. Well worth checking out.

Final Cut Express 2: How to Delete the Preference Files - Learn how to resolve issues caused by unusable preference files in Final Cut Express 2.

Final Cut Express HD 3.0: Configuration error when using with iMac G5 (iSight) and Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) - If you open Final Cut Express HD 3.0 on certain computers, you'll get a "Configuration Error" message that indicates that your computer is missing certain hardware or software, or possibly an AGP graphics card.

Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express: Convert MP3 and AAC audio files for compatibility before importing - This document explains how to import MP3 and AAC-encoded audio files into Final Cut Pro 3, Final Cut Pro 4, and Final Cut Express.

Final Cut Express HD requires a Quartz Extreme AGP graphics card - To use Final Cut Express HD, you need a computer with an AGP graphics card that is capable of handling Quartz Extreme.

Final Cut Server

Final Cut Server: Unable to launch the specified application - In some cases the Final Cut Server client application may not open when you double-click the Final Cut Server.jnlp icon or Final Cut Server.app icon. This may happen after switching user accounts or restarting your computer from a volume other than the one you used to download the Java Web Start Final Cut Server client.

Soundtrack Pro

Soundtrack: How to Configure Digidesign Audio Devices - Learn how to use Digidesign audio devices with Apple's Soundtrack music application.

I guess they're talking about Soundtrack Pro here, not Soundtrack, as the original Soundtrack was discontinued 5 years ago.

Qmaster

Apple Qmaster: Optimizing cluster storage capacity - By default, the Apple Qmaster distributed processing system saves temporary process files in the /var/spool/qmaster directory on the cluster controller's startup disk. Computers in the cluster will access this location as needed. If you are processing large source media files that exceed the available storage space on the startup disk, you may run out of storage space on that disk.

Logic Pro / Express

Logic 8: How overlapping recordings are assigned to take folders - The Takes feature in Logic Pro/Express 8 is a powerful way to organize multiple recordings of a part in your projects. Here are some tips and explanations of what it will do in various situations.

Logic Express 8: Troubleshooting Basics - If Logic Express 8 isn't starting up properly or performing normally, try these basic troubleshooting steps to remedy the situation. Please note that these steps aren't exhaustive, and are not intended to cover any specific issue. They are fundamental, basic steps that are most effective in getting Logic Express 8 into good working order, and are the steps most often suggested by AppleCare Technical Support.

Using Compressor with multiple cores

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:04:18 MST

Here's a quick tip that a lot of people still don't know about. So you've just bought that shiny new Mac Pro, you finish your Final Cut Project, export to Compressor and wait.... and wait... and wait. Hang on a second, that brand-new 8-core machine is only utilizing one core!

Welcome to the world of Final Cut Studio 2, which is completely unaware of multiple cores in your system. Hopefully this will change in FCS 3 but in the meantime, here is a trick to using those cores in Compressor.

1. Go to System Preferences and open the Apple Qmaster section.

2. In the Setup tab, click Stop Sharing if Qmaster is already activated.

2. Select QuickCluster if it is not already selected.

3. Under Services, select the service marked Compressor and select the checkboxes for Share and Managed.

3. Then click Options for Selected Service.

4. Select half of the number of cores in your machine i.e. 2 for a 4-core and 4 for an 8-core (this particular machine has only 2) and click Ok.

5. If you are using Shake. Maya or have any other command-line renderer set up with Qmaster, select the Rendering item in the list and click Options for Selected Service.

6. Click the + button and add half as many Local machines as you have cores i.e. 2 for a 4-core and 4 for an 8-core, then click Ok.

7. Under the QuickCluster section, type a name for your new virtual cluster.

7. Click Start Sharing and close System Preferences.

8. In Final Cut Pro, export your sequence as a QuickTime movie. This is important. Do not choose File > Export > Compressor, as this will fail.

9. In Compressor, import the movie, set up your batch and click Submit.

10. Instead of "This machine", select the name of your new cluster in the Cluster list and click Submit. The movie clip will be processed by multiple cores in your machine.

This is called Virtual Clustering, and it is achieved by launching a new version of Compressor for every instance. This is much easier from the perspective of Compressor's programmers but it takes up more memory and is less efficient than if they were to implement true multi-core capabilities into the application.

So be aware that using this method will require considerably more memory than rendering on a single instance. Apple recommends in most cases one process for every two cores, although it all depends on the type of media you are working with and how much memory you have. If you set too many instances and don't have enough memory, your machine would slow down (or worse, crash) thus undoing the whole point of setting up the virtual clusters in the first place. Apple recommends 1 GB RAM per service but again, this depends on the media you are transcoding to.

How to reinstall Compressor and Qmaster

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:00:37 MST

We recently released Compressor Repair, which aims to fix some of the most common problems with Compressor - but it can't help you if you've got missing or corrupted files. Sometimes a reinstall of Compressor and Qmaster is needed (although these steps apply to any software in the Suite). Here's how to do it properly.

1. Download FCS Remover and run it.

2. Select "Compressor and Qmaster Only" as the preset.

3. Click Remove and enter your admin password.

4. Restart your machine, and when it boots up again, empty your Trash.

5. Insert your Final Cut Pro or Logic DVD (I'm using Logic here), ctrl-click on "Install Logic Studio" or "Install Final Cut Studio" and select Show Original.

6. Go into the Packages folder and run Compressor.mpkg (that's .mpkg, not .pkg).

7. When that finishes, run Qmaster.mpkg (again note the "m").

That's it! At this point, it is a good idea to update Final Cut Studio. Several users have reported that this method did not work until they had updated Compressor and Qmaster to the latest versions after reinstalling.

(Note: I've seen other people recommend Pacifist as a way of installing the files again once they've been removed. Pacifist is a great piece of software but if you make a mistake, it's possible to seriously screw things up unless you know what you're doing. I think this method is a lot safer and less susceptible to user error. However, if the above steps don't work for you, try Scott Simmons' Pacifist method here.)

Update: The article above was written for Final Cut Studio 2. To reinstall FCS 3, run the installer normally or use Pacifist (see above).

Vue 7 xStream and Infinite shipping now

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:30:09 MST

e-on Software today released Vue 7 xStream and Vue 7 Infinite. Vue is a 3D landscape generation product that has been used on many features including Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3. Infinite is the stand-alone version and xStream integrates fully into 3D modeling packages such as Maya and Cinema 4D.

The best feature in my opinion is the Ecosystem technology. This allows you to change a few parameters and automatically create a forest or some grassland or a desert, complete with random plants and rocks. Each object is varied slightly to give the impression that each rock and tree is completely unique. This makes it very realistic. It can also be used for other tasks, such as the vast robot army in the Vue 7 trailer.

Vue 7 takes this even further with Ecosystem III, which intelligently places objects according to the shape of the terrain. For example, it places fewer trees on a slope than on a flat area, as they would grow in reality. You can also create dynamic Ecosystems that stretch into the horizon without slowing your machine to a crawl. The Ecosystem Painter gives you precise control over your Ecosystem.

What's great about Vue is just how much you get "for free". If you add an Ecosystem to your terrain and then create some global wind, the plants will animate realistically with no input from you. Animating the sun and clouds creates realistic shadows on the terrain below.

There's also Solid Growth IV which minimizes flicker on far-off vegetation, the ability to render 360 degree panoramas (I love this), and something I've been waiting for - a water editor. Water was always pretty realistic but now you have a lot more control. You can now import camera tracking information from Boujou, MatchMover and SynthEyes (but not PFTrack it would seem) which is a big bonus.

Finally, it incorporates a new OpenGL engine that can render up to 4 times faster and the application has been optimized to take full advantage of multi-core systems.

e-on has released a cool trailer showing what Vue 7 can do. Well worth checking out.

Upcoming Snow Leopard features you should know about

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:20:07 MDT

Snow Leopard is the name of the next version of Mac OS X, due next year. The idea behind Snow Leopard isn't to add a lot of features but instead to overhaul and optimize the OS for maximum performance. Developers are already receiving pre-release versions - here are some of the biggest features:

* No PowerPC support - This operating system will be Intel-only I'm afraid.

* Full 64-bit support - This was somewhat rudimentary in previous versions and consequently developers didn't really take advantage of it.

* New default display gamma - This one is very important for editors. With previous versions of Mac OS X, the default gamma was 1.8 which was great for print work. The default display gamma in Snow Leopard is now 2.2, which brings it closer to most TVs and Windows computers.

* Cocoa rewrites for all applications - "Almost all" of the visible applications (including Finder) have been rewritten in Cocoa. Cocoa and Carbon are two different application programming interfaces (APIs). Basically, Apple has decided that it wants to transition developers away from Carbon (which is more convenient if you are also developing for Windows) and towards Cocoa instead. Consequently, Cocoa tends to get all of the new features (such as 64-bit support) while Carbon gets left behind.

Ars Technica speculates that Carbon applications in Snow Leopard could be "wrapped" in Cocoa. I imagine this would affect performance and it should be noted that Final Cut Pro is currently written in Carbon. A Cocoa rewrite of FCP is inevitable (and much appreciated) but of course, no-one knows when that will occur.

* And then of course, all the features mentioned in the original press release - Grand Central for more efficient multi-core processing, OpenCL for using the GPU as another processor (must be why the new MacBook Pros have two GPUs) and QuickTime X which offers "optimized support for modern codecs and more efficient media playback" which would imply some kind of acceleration.

So all in all, this looks to be a promising update for people in the film and TV industries.

Solving Logic Studio installation issues

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:10:02 MDT

I just bought Logic Studio so expect more posts on this in the future. Upon trying to install the application, I had the problem many people have been experiencing - Compressor is grayed out and refuses to install. I also noticed that upon completing the installation, Soundtrack Pro would crash when launching, citing a missing framework (ProFX.framework) as the cause. I don't know what causes this as I don't have Final Cut Studio installed on my Logic machine to conflict with it, and there were no receipts related to Compressor on my system. However, there is a simple workaround.

1. Install all the other components and let the installer skip Compressor for the time being.

2. On the main Logic installer disc, ctrl-click on Install Logic Studio and select Show Original.

3. Click on the Packages folder.

4. Double-click Compressor.mpkg and complete the installation process.

5. If you also got the same error as me about the missing ProFX framework when launching Soundtrack Pro, double-click the file PluginManager.pkg and follow the installer.

6. I was then able to launch Compressor but upon performing a test render, I noticed that Batch Monitor was missing (why, I don't know). So if you get that problem too, install Qmaster.mpkg.

This finally solved all of my problems and I was able to operate the Studio fully.

P.S. In case you were wondering, the difference between .pkg and .mpkg is that .mpkg (meta-packages) are containers for sub-packages (.pkg). The .pkg files only install one set of files whereas the .mpkg files can install a group of related packages.

iPhone SDK NDA dropped

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:05:43 MDT

Generally speaking, I love Apple, but sometimes they do things that are just plain wrong. And I've been disillusioned with them a few times in the past but every time they've fixed the issue and put themselves back in my good books again.

And so it was great to read today that Apple has dropped the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) from its iPhone SDK. The NDA was something that was introduced with the first pre-release of the SDK, which was totally acceptable as it was pre-release software. However, it was also carried on into the final release and developers were not allowed to help other developers with problems or give details on App Store rejections. It led to a lot of confusion and general dissatisfaction among the developer community, especially as the app review process seemed somewhat inconsistent and developers were not allowed to bring these inconsistencies forward publicly.

Apple said:

We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don't steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone's success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

This is a great day for iPhone developers and it is good to see that Apple is looking for ways to improve the development process. If they reduce waiting times and the number of steps required to submit an app, I will be very happy indeed.

[via TUAW]

Perian 1.1.1 released

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:49:04 MDT

Perian, the free QuickTime codec pack, was just updated to v1.1.1. It allows you to play back more obscure media in QuickTime such as Flash FLV, DivX, 3ivx and MKV.

Changes:
* H.264 in AVI fixed
* Some anamorphic AVI files are now supported
* Performance problems due to PIC fixed with Xcode 3.1
* Incorrect frame skipping on H.264 intra frames fixed
* Better character set detection
* The update checker is now much more polite
* Several parsing and rendering bugs with subtitles fixed
* Player freezing while loading subtitles with embedded fonts fixed
* Audio fixed for some older MKV files with AAC/FLAC
* Strange values in MKV chapters or video sizes are handled better
* Initial support for SAMI subtitles added
* Worked around a QuickTime bug (#5770288) causing frames to be lost during export
* New codecs: DosBox ZMBV, VP6+Alpha, Nellymoser ASAO
* FFmpeg: Crashing on PPC G3 fixed
* Fraps decoding artifacts fixed

Perian can be downloaded for free from Perian.org.

[via TUAW]

Pro Applications Update 2008-03

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:19:35 MDT

Don't know how I missed this. On Thursday, Apple released Pro Applications Update 2008-03 that patches both Compressor and Qmaster to 3.0.4.

Only one fix is included in the release notes but it's a big one:

Missing Clusters and Services Issue Resolved

Compressor 3.0.4 and Apple Qmaster 3.0.4, together with the Mac OS X v10.5.5 update, resolve an issue in which clusters were not visible in Compressor and Batch Monitor, and Compressor services did not appear in the Apple Qmaster pane of System Preferences.

I'm sure you know the drill by now - don't update in the middle of a project, only update if it's entirely necessary and make sure everything is backed up before you do.

This update is concerning to me for two reasons. Firstly, it requires OS X 10.5.5, completely locking Tiger users out. Presumably 2008-04 will require 2008-03 so will all patches require 10.5.5 from now on? Was 2008-02 the last Tiger-compatible patch for Final Cut Studio? There has been no official word from Apple on this.

Secondly, when you go to the download page it only lists 2008-03 as an option, with 2008-02 nowhere to be seen. How are you supposed to download Final Cut Pro 6.0.4? There's always Software Update but that's not really practical if you have a lot of machines. Apple seriously needs to rethink the way it offer patches to FCS users.

Mac OS X 10.5.5 released

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:18:03 MDT

Earlier this week Apple released Mac OS X 10.5.5. There are a lot of fixes but I will just list the ones potentially useful to Pro App users.

* Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air
* Includes extensive graphics enhancements [not sure what this means really]
* Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
* Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress Time Machine backups.
* Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a Time Machine backup volume does not have enough free space.
* Time Machine can now back up items in ~/Library/Application Support.

Usual disclaimer applies - don't update in the middle of a project, don't update unless it's absolutely essential and always have a backup or clone of your system handy in case things go awry.

The iPhone Development Story

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:28:14 MDT

Mike Ash has an interesting and witty article about the hurdles he went through when submitting his application to the iTunes App Store.

He sums up at the end:

Development for iPhone is an incredibly difficult process, much more difficult than it needs to be. The arduous process of shipping an application for the Mac suddenly appears to be absolutely straightforward after going through this mess. I really don't envy those companies who have staked their success to the iPhone platform. The amount of arbitrary hassle, uncertainty, and delay in the process can only feel vastly worse when your livelihood depends on it.

We are currently at the Step 3: Wait for your account to be verified stage. We have been at this stage for weeks now with no communication from Apple or any company appointed by Apple. And that is why none of our web apps have counterparts in the store as of yet. I fully agree with Mike that the iPhone development and submission processes are not up to the high standards we have come to expect from Apple and I hope this is a temporary phase.

[via TUAW]

After Effects CS4 to drop PowerPC support

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:10:23 MDT

There's a post on the Keyframes blog (the official Adobe blog of the AE product manager, Michael Coleman) stating that due to limited time and resources, they have decided to drop PowerPC support in After Effects CS4 in favor of adding new features for Intel users.

By focusing on Intel Macs, we save a huge amount of engineering and testing time. This means that we will be able to complete more features for a larger group of customers and deliver the best release possible. Plus, some CS4 technology is so new that it never existed on PowerPC Macs.

So After Effects CS3 is the last Universal Binary version so if you still have a PPC Mac, you'll have to buy it before the new one goes on sale (which is a bit tricky because a release date hasn't been announced). It should be noted that this only applies to After Effects and not Photoshop or the other apps but it's obvious that they will all go that way eventually.

I don't see this as a major issue as the number of Intel users is currently very large and will get even larger by the time CS4 is released. It's a shame for people with old PPC machines still kicking around (me) though, and it's reducing the resale value of the older machines. Universal Binaries were such a great idea but to companies who also develop for Windows and have very large codebases, it unfortunately makes more sense to make Intel-only versions.

What to do if you lose your Pro App serial number

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:24:11 MDT

Apple have a new AppleCare doc on their site asking a question that comes up quite often - what do you do if you lose your Final Cut Studio (or other Pro App) serial number?

You need to fax or email them proof of purchase giving details of the product purchased, the price paid, when it was purchased and the name and address of the reseller. I am emphasizing reseller here because the purchase must have been made from either Apple or an authorized reseller in order to qualify. If you bought it from eBay or from a friend, you're out of luck, unless they happen to be authorized.

This actually raises one more question - legal purchasers of Final Cut Studio are allowed to transfer their license to one other person as long as they remove all traces of FCS from their system, but most people sell their software and don't bother to fill in the transfer form. The article doesn't state whether the recipient of the transferred license would be eligible for this scheme, although I would imagine the answer is yes. Apple used to provide a way of offering feedback on AppleCare docs but unfortunately they no longer do this.

Hopefully we'll have another doc up soon answer another common question - what do you do if your disc gets lost, stolen or damaged?

[via LAFCPUG]

Leopard 10.5.4 update

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:41:50 MDT

Yesterday Apple released OS X 10.5.4. I'm going to post the full list of changes as it's quite short. I get the impression that this is not the full list of actual changes because Apple asked developers to test more than just these areas in pre-release versions of this patch, unless those additions were taken out for some reason.

General

* Includes recent Apple security updates.
* Resolves an issue with saving and reopening Adobe Creative Suite 3 files on a remote server.
* Includes additional RAW image support for several cameras.
* Addresses an issue that may result in a partially installed X11 application.
* Improves L2TP VPN client reliability.

AirPort

* Addresses AirPort reliability issues with 5GHz networks.
* Addresses AirPort issues that may result in slower performance in Logic Studio or MainStage.

iCal

* Improves overall iCal reliability for meeting requests, cancellation notices, delegation, and syncing with iPhone.
* Resolves an issue that prevents deleting an iCal event without notifying the creator.
* Addresses an issue in which events in all calendars affect availability. A checkbox now enables information-only calendars to be transparent from free/busy lookups.
* Resolves a UI issue preventing delegated calendars from showing up as a separate window.
* Addresses an issue with copying and pasting attendees from one event to another.
* Resolves an issue in which iCal may not delete events after a specified time interval, even when set to do so in iCal preferences.
* Addresses an issue in which To Dos cannot be marked private.

Safari

* Addresses a potential performance issue when loading secure web pages.
* Resolves issues that may be encountered when accessing secure web pages with client certificates that reside on a smart card.

Spaces and Expose

* Addresses an issue in which switching from a space with a Finder window keeps the Finder as the active application instead of the application residing in the destination space.
* Fixes an issue in which dragging an application from the list of application assignments in Spaces System Preferences does not assign the application to the desired space.
* Resolves an Expose issue that may result in only a subset of windows being shown.

Delta installer (88 MB)
Combo installer (561 MB)

The combo updater is recommended for safety. Usual warnings apply - clone your system before installing, don't update in the middle of a project and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Tiger users today received the Security Update 2008-004 patch which was included in the above update for Leopard.

PPC
Intel

This update marks a milestone for me. I always wait until at least version x.x.4 of an operating system before upgrading to it for professional use. This gives Apple time to iron out bugs and improve stability and gives third party developers time to make their software compatible with the new OS. So I will now be thinking about upgrading. It's complicated, however, by the fact that I am still on a G5 PowerMac and have a fair amount of PPC software that cost an arm and a leg to buy, so what I will probably end up doing is buying an Intel Mac Pro and gradually upgrading my software packages one at a time.

Mac Pro and Xserve overclocking tool

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:07:46 MDT

This has been going around the internet for the past couple of days. The German division of ZDNet has released an overclocking tool for Mac Pro and Xserve machines running Leopard.

Overclocking is the process of artificially increasing the clock speed of your processor and memory in order to make it operate at a faster rate. For example, you could make a 2.8 GHz processor operate at 3.0 GHz without the expense of purchasing a faster CPU. This is very popular in the Windows world, particularly with hardcore video gamers, who have managed to push CPUs beyond 4 GHz.

However, increasing the clock rate also increases the power consumption and heat output of the CPU. Upgrading the power supply and increasing the CPU cooling may be necessary - areas that may be tricky with tightly-designed Apple products.

I wouldn't advise doing this on a machine that you depend upon every day but it might be useful for a render farm machine where speed is important and the task will be taken up by another machine if there are any crashes or failures.

Another final thing to note is that your system performance will only be as fast as the slowest link in the chain. If you overclock your CPU but have a really slow hard disk or not very much RAM, the performance increase will be limited.

All in all though, this is a very useful tool for Mac users as long as they are aware of the dangers and potential issues. It could also encourage more video gamers to switch to the Mac.

Final Cut Server 1.1 update

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:03:02 MDT

Apple just released Final Cut Server 1.1. Here are the fixes:

QuickTime 7.5 and FCP 6.0.4 support - QT 7.5 is REQUIRED for this update. With Final Cut Pro 6.0.4, FCServer can now access the project file directly. It does not need to create a separate XML file in order to access the data. Remember to keep versions on your network synchronized - if you upgrade one machine to FCP 6.0.4 and FCServer 1.1, it is best to upgrade them all.

Updating Checked Out assets - You can now manually update Checked Out assets when not using Final Cut Pro (i.e. DVD Studio Pro, Motion, etc).

Edit Proxy Files - You must reanalyze your 1.0 proxies after installing 1.1.

Final Cut Pro file preferences - These are now respected when opening FCP projects.

Multi-byte character sets - Multi-byte languages such as Greek and Russian now display correctly.

See the Release Notes for more information.

I probably don't need to say this any more but it's always best to - NEVER update in the middle of a project, don't update if you don't need these fixes and always keep a clone for safety.

Pro Applications Update 2008-02 aka FCP 6.0.4

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:48:44 MDT

Yesterday Apple released Pro Applications Update 2008-02 which contains Final Cut Pro 6.0.4 and Compressor 3.0.3. It is important to note that this is not a new version of Compressor. It was included in Pro Applications Update 2008-01 earlier this year but I guess it is compulsory for this update so they included it again.

Not a great deal of fixes:
Enhanced Final Cut Server support - If you have Final Cut Server 1.1, you can now access projects directly without converting them to XML first. It would be interesting to see if other applications can use this as well.

XDCAM 422 preset - Changed to include 24-bit audio as default

Capturing HDV clips - With QuickTime 7.5, HDV clips in Capture Now mode can capture beyond the end of the tape. This update now allows you to press Escape to stop it. I'd advise going to Final Cut Pro > System Settings and setting the Capture Now limit to the length of your tape. This stops your disk space being eaten up with blank data.

Usual warnings apply - NEVER update in the middle of the project, don't update if you don't need any of the features provided in this patch and always have a clone of your drive as a backup.

Release Notes

In a future patch I'd really like to see stability fixes for Compressor, Soundtrack Pro and working with Motion clips in an FCP timeline.