#Titling software?
3 messages in this thread
I just bought a Sharp Videocam and am interested in acquiring hardware/software
to do editing (including titling, wipes, fades, etc.). Any suggestions on the
best?
Should I stick with non-computer hardware or should I go with the computer. I
have a 486 66 with plenty of harddisk space.
Walter,
As I see it there are at least four ways that you can go.
1) Buying "Videonics" like stand-alone switchers, audio-mixers, and
character generators. (I don't think there are any "low-end" paint-boxes.
To add graphics or animation to video, I think you would have to go with
another option.)
2) Buy an "Overlay Genlock" device like the GVP G-Lock, Visionetics VIGA+,
RocGen, etc., that will let you "overlay" whatever titles or graphics that
you can create on your PC, with the appropriate software, to your existing
video and then you can record the combined sources. This will let you do
great graphics, but does not do wipes and dissolves between two video
clips, only between video and a CG or graphic.
2a) A combination of 1 & 2 above might be a pretty hot-dog solution.
3) Buy a "low-end" Digital Video Editing system like the FAST Movie
Machine, the Intel Smart Video Recorder Pro or the Miro Computer Products
miroVIDEO DCI tv (all of which received top ratings in the November issue
of NewMedia magazine where they reviewed windows based video capture
cards). These guys all come with some sort of software to allow you to
add titles, graphics and special effects to digital video clips that you
record to, and play back from, hard drive. The problem with these devices
is that they typically give you a lower quality on your finished recorded
output than any of the other solutions I am proposing. These devices can
be used very effectivly for multi-media presentations.
4) Buy a high end analog or digital editing system. Something like the
NewTek Video Toaster, FAST Video Machine, or Pinnacle Alladin. These
devices offer unbelievable power, allowing you to create virtually
anything that you have ever seen on TV on your desktop, at a "reasonable"
price. By reasonable price I mean about $2500 on up.
The answer my friend depends a lot on how much fun/money you want to have
playing with video and your budget. Let me know If I have helped or can
help some more and welcome to the DeskTop Video Forum, Walter!
-John
Walter,
You said "Titling, wipes, fades, etc."
On the etc. portion of your request, some of the things you will likely want to
do is add special effects to your video; in fact, special effects can make
bettre wipes than "standard" wipes do.
You might want to consider our WinImages software – it provides hundreds of
special effects, file format conversion, the ability to process animations
(video sequences, either in separate files or in formats like AVI & FLC) and
even has a very strong morphing module for warps, transition morphs &
predictive morphs – all available in motion.
You can see images and animations created by WinImages in DL8 of ANVENA.
Take a look – you won't regret it.
Ben Williams
for Black Belt Systems