MovieToolsｪ provides a powerful suite of utilities designed for use in video production with QuickTimeｪ. It lets you achieve full broadcast quality when recording animations to video, or when performing rotoscoping and other effects on the Macintosh. It also lets you work with alpha channel information for performing advanced superimposition effects and keying, perform specialized functions for such things as creating 3D viewable video, compare compression artifacts and perform special effects and standards conversion.
MovieTools is intended for use with full-size, full-frame rate digital video QuickTime movies that have been captured from video, or animations and digital video movies created on the Macintosh that will be recorded to video. It supports all NTSC and PAL/SECAM frame rates and bit depths from 32 bits (ﾒMillions of Colors+ﾓ) to 8 bits, plus all types of compression. It also supports all standard video resolutions and film resolutions of 2000 x 1000 and beyond, limited only by available memory.
Field Rendering
The Field Rendering function of MovieTools creates smooth motion on movies that will be recorded to video by performing field interlacing. It is intended to be used to process movies ﾑ animations in particular ﾑ that have been rendered at 60 frames per second (50 FPS in PAL). It takes adjacent frame pairs and interlaces them together, creating a final field interlaced movie at 30 FPS (25 in PAL).
Movie Interlacing
The Movie Interlacing function of MovieTools combines two separate movies to create a stereoscopic movie that will be viewed with LCD shuttered glasses.
De-Interlacing
The De-Interlacing function does essentially the opposite task of Field Rendering. This lets you take video that has been captured to a QuickTime movie and split the two fields contained in each original frame into separate frames in a new movie of exactly twice the length of the original. The resulting 60 FPS (50 PAL/SECAM) movie is ready for rotoscoping or other effects processing. It creates new frames with line doubling; the two fields extracted from the original frames are thus the same size and aspect ratio as the original frames.
Field Interpolation
The motion that often occurs between fields in captured video causes ﾒline offsetﾓ or blurring when viewed on the Mac's non-interlaced display. The Field Interpolation function creates smooth-looking QuickTime movies that will be used on the Mac, as opposed to someday returning to video media. Field interpolated movies can be reduced to any size without the blurring caused by motion between fields. Stills taken from field interpolated movies will also work well as print graphics. The Field Interpolation function deletes one of the two fields from each frame of captured video and replaces it with a field interpolated from the remaining field.
Alpha Channel Extraction/Creation
Numerous 3D animation programs allow animations to be created with an alpha channel mask. The alpha channel is stored in the upper 8 bits of a 32-bit image (ﾒMillions of colors+ﾓ), and is intended for use in overlaying elements on a background. Many Mac nonlinear editing systems offer additional functionality when a separate movie is available to be used as the alpha channel mask. The Alpha Channel Extraction function of MovieTools lets you extract the alpha channel from a movie into a separate QuickTime movie for use in compositing, keying and other effects.
The Alpha Channel Creation function creates new alpha channel information from a movie and adds it to a background movie. If youﾕve captured video from two tapes -- one the foreground RGB information and the other with the alpha channel -- this function will let you combine the two movies into a single alpha channel movie.
Alpha Channel/Chromakey Compositing
MovieTools can also composite a foreground movie over a background movie using the alpha channel or chroma information of the foreground movie as a mask. This ability to do compositing off-line can save on-line time during digital editing.
Convert 24 FPS Movie to 30 FPS
MovieTools can now convert 24 FPS QuickTime movies to 30 FPS or 29.97 FPS video frame rates with 3/2 pull-down exactly as done when film is transferred to video. If you're creating film animation and need to transfer QuickTime pencil tests or animation checks to video for preview, this function will let you create video with a correct playback rate.
Movie Comparison
MovieTools lets you compare two movies to see their differences. This can be useful for comparing an uncompressed digital video movie with a compressed version to determine how much quality is lost through compression.
Effects
MovieTools can perform a number of effects manipulations on movies, including: Flip Horizontal, Flip Vertical, Rotate 180 Degrees, Convert to Monochrome and various Film Effects.
Resizing
MovieTools can resize movies to convert between various standards. You can resize NTSC standard 640 x 480 or 648 x 486 movies to 720 x 486 NTSC CCIR 601 digital format and visa-versa. You can also resize from 720 x 540 to 720 x 486, which lets you create animations or other movie files at a 3:4 aspect ratio and then convert to CCIR 601. MovieTools can also resize PAL standard 768 x 576 movies to 720 x 576 PAL CCIR 601 digital format.
System Requirements
MovieTools requires System 7 or later and QuickTime 1.5 or later. It also requires at least 8 MB of available memory.
Purchasing MovieTools
The MovieTools is priced at $195.00. Orders may be placed by phone, fax or e-mail, and we accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and COD orders.
The pertinent information with regard to contacting us is:
McQ Productions/Software Systems
P. O. Box 1676
San Mateo, CA 94401
800.659.4755 (U.S.) (Noon to 6:00 PM Pacific Time)
415.348.1344 " "
415.342.0199 Fax (24 Hours)
E-Mail: Sales@McQPro.com
Web: http://www.McQPro.com
When you purchase MovieTools, weﾕll automatically send you the most recent version and a complete manual in Adobeｪ Acrobat Reader format. Weﾕll also mail you a copy of the sales receipt for your records.
Who Are We?
McQ Productions was founded in 1976 as a video production company. We began developing production-related software in 1980, first for the Apple II, then for the IBM PC, and, since 1987, for the Macintosh. We developed Edit Lister ﾑ by far the best-selling video editing management software since 1984 ﾑ and the software for Edit Master, the high-end linear video editing system with more than 1,000 installations worldwide.
Our MacAnimator-series software was introduced in 1992, and is in use in hundreds of video production facilities around the world.
Weﾕve been providing production-related software solutions for nearly 20 years, and weﾕre far from finished.
The MovieTools is just the latest example of our commitment to high-quality video production on the Macintosh.
