NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
StageTools Announces Macintosh MovingPicture Plug-Ins for Avid & Adobe NLE's
Software for Zooms and Pans on High Resolution Still Images
(Middleburg, VA – November 2, 2000) -- StageTools announced that it has released Apple Macintosh versions of its highly acclaimed MovingPicture pan and zoom application as an AVX™ Plug-In Avid’s Media Composer®, and XPress® nonlinear editing systems, and Adobe’s Premiere® and After Effects®, programs.
MovingPicture is a new tool for documentary and industrial filmmakers to pan and zoom on high-resolution images. Rather than using expensive and bulky motion-control rigs to create pans and zooms on photographic stills, MovingPicture uses digital images on a desktop PC.
MovingPicture uses an animation-stand metaphor, where a virtual camera viewfinder is positioned over the digital image in real time. A series of "key frames" can be set, each one specifying what the camera will see at some point in time.
The moves can be previewed in real time, and finally rendered in high without ever leaving the editor’s timeline. Motion is field-rendered at sub-pixel accuracy, so motion is very smooth, and in full 32-bit color.
Four-time Academy award-winning documentary film maker Charles Guggenheim said "MovingPicture promises to be one of the most valuable tools created in recent years for the documentary film maker." It is being widely used by production companies, such as MS-NBC, Jim Henson Productions, and Henninger Video.
StageTools is headed by Bill Ferster, the founder of West End Film and Editing Machines Corporation. EMC developed the first digital nonlinear editing system, and received an EMMY Award for pioneering a technology that has revolutionized the way films and videos are edited. "We are very excited about the new Macintosh versions of the plug-in" said Ferster, "and look forward to a whole series of cross-platform high-productivity tools for creative professionals in the future."
MovingPicture is also available for Windows-based systems for Premiere, dpsVelocity, RexEdit, SpeedRazor and After Effects. The company will release versions for Media 100 and Discreet Logic’s edit* system at the end of the year.
A fully functional evaluation copy can be downloaded from the website: www.stagetools.com. The MovingPicture Plug-In is priced at $199.
A screen shot is available at: www.stagetools.com/macplugin.jpg
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For More Information:
Bill Ferster
StageTools
(540) 592-7001
bferster@stagetools.com
www.stagetools.com
