Esotropiart

I continue do my part to promote my currently favorite video editing application: Serif MoviePlus. By "favorite", I of course don't believe it to be the best for every purpose, but it is certainly one of the best if not top in its field. In my humble opinion, it even competes the with big name software in several key areas.

Yesterday Serif (Europe) Ltd released version 5 of its acclaimed video editing software, MoviePlus. I could have reported about it on the spot, since I'm on their mailing list, but I'm not that dedicated of a reporter! It's funny though, I did a search on Google and couldn't find any review or even mentioning of the release other than on Serif's site. Don't be deceived by Serif's lack of publicity - it doesn' translate into bad or weak products. I often compare Serif with Corel in the early years (good ole days), before Corel became the almost heartless giant they are today. I am an honest user with many detailed requirements and good taste derived from years of experience, trial and error. I conclude that most late version Serif products are extremely robust for the price. There are certainly quirks and shortcomings, but even the most expensive applications have quirks.

I haven't bought the upgrade to MoviePlus 5 yet. I'm hoping Serif will notice that I'm a big fan and possibly the only one in the world regularly mentioning their software and give me free stuff ;) Ha! In my dreams! Besides, no one can buy my loyalty. If their products are junk, I won't buy them or recommend them (ie. IE).

I wouldn't call the MoviePlus 5 upgrade the most significant enhancement in graphics software history, but it's significant enough to be worth buying. If I had extra, allocated cash, I would certainly purchase it immediately. Some of the improvements are adding convenience rather than new functionality, but every experienced designer knows that sometimes such changes are practically heavensent. For example, MoviePlus 4 ships with external 3rd party DVD writing software. In 5, DVD writing is built in... not bad.

Text, or titling is a new feature to MoviePlus 5. I think most users expect to be able to add titles to their flicks, so this is an important addition. I'm pretty excited about this enhancement, but it is not 100% necessary. MovieSerif supports infinite, yeah that's infinite video and sound layers! Because of this it is possible to create any type of complicated text layer(s) in a graphics program of choice and import it into a video layer. If the text object is placed on a common colored background, it can be isolated in MoviePlus by using a Chroma-key filter to rid yourself of the monotone background. Voila, instant fancy title layers! MoviePlus' keyframing functionality allows moving, stretching, distorting, bluring, and fading of these text layers (or any other layer). Oh, and of course each text image must be very high resolution to avoid pixelization when scaling them to large proportions. For a simple example of this technique see my Good Friday 2006 Project. All the text was created using this method - not perfect or a great demonstration of the infinite possibilities, but an example nonetheless. Having the text built in and editable will be extremely awesome and a definite time saver. It can be a nuisance to keep a folder of many high resolution text images and place them in the composition. I would still create image text layers when exacting text effects are needed (like this example which cannot be achieved using simple effects inside MoviePlus).

Other additions include Curves and Channel Mixer Effects (cool); Emboss (yawn); Glow, 3D Bump Map, 3D Lighting and Bevel Effects (all cool); Gradient Fills (not bad); and Quick Shapes (sweet!). New preset keyframing envelopes are a nice time saver as well.

Several more scene transitions have been added, most notably of the 3D persuasion. To tell the truth, I rarely make use of any more than 2 or 3 different transitions - ever. I think they are mostly cheesy/busy. Simple crossfades are usually the most attractive and not distracting. If a video's content is so boring that there needs to be 100 different transitions throughout to make it interesting, why bother editing the video? Most real video artists (I don't put myself in that category yet) would also find the new HD support exciting. Since I don't have HD source to work from (the cameras are too expensive still), I don't care much right now. The new Quicktime import and export will be nice for my web purposes.

I guess I'd say the text and quick shapes are among the greatest additions. Before, I'd have to make shapes, text and other "objects" in a graphics program. Having real vector, keyframed objects inside a video editing program is extremely significant!

I don't want to blah blah too much about this new release because I don't actually have it in hand. I can't say whether these new features mean anything or not, whether the new release is stable, and how it all comes together as a whole. If and when I get it, I'll reassess what I have said and add any new observations.