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Pushing The Desktop Envelope In Paint And Effects
For many years now Discreet Logic has been a dominating force in the field of high-end visual effects. Riding on the strength of Silicon Graphics' powerful IRIX-based computers, Discreet's products have made possible many of the incredible visuals seen in today's TV shows and commercials.
Now that power is becoming available to a wider range of users: advances in technology have seen the creation of desktop Macand Intel-based computers that can hold their own against systems costing many times as much. Discreet saw the writing on the wall two years ago and purchased fledgling company Denim Software's Paint and Composition packages for Macintosh and Windows operating systems. Now streamlined and updated, Discreet moves into the rapidly expanding world of Mac and Windows compositing and effects tools with the introduction of paint and effect 2.0.
Into The Desktop Arena
Paint and effect stand alone as powerful specialty tools, or they can be used in tandem as a sophisticated effects production suite on the desktop. Both programs closely resemble Discreet's high-end products in form, feel, and function. And, though designed for different tasks, both applica tions share many common interface elements and are even capable of achieving similar effects.
This is not to say that they are the same software-uite the contrary. In fact, paint is designed as a rotoscoping and animation tool, while effect handles compositing and special effects tasks.
As in the original version, both packages are resolution-independent and capable of working with most standard Adobe After Effects plug-ins. I did encounter a few peculiarities in this area in terms of available features and the functionality of particular plug-ins when compared to their operation in After Effects. Word from Discreet is that this is being addressed in the next version. In the meantime, I suggest testing favorite plug-ins ahead of time and making sure they function as anticipated.
One of the most useful, if resourceintensive additions to both programs is the new RAM player. This powerful feature lets the user load original footage into RAM and render compositions back out the same way. Rendering to and from RAM rather than slower hard disks allows for greater interaction with the media and fewer breaks in the creative...