MovingPicture specifications

New features include the ability to use the alpha channel in images for high-quality floating logos and special effects, the ability to rotate the camera in 3 dimensions to achieve "skewed" effects, support of MacOS 1.2 (Jaguar), and a host of productivity enhancements.
* Auto-Adding of KeyFrames
Whenever you move the camera, the position will automatically be saved to the timeline, without the need for hitting the Add Key button as before. If there is a key at the time you are parked at, it will be updated. If there isn't one there, a new one will be added. You can go back to the old way of working by un-checking the "Auto-Add Keys" item in the "Options" menu. Remember you can always undo the action with the undo key (Ctrl-Z). This should be a tremendous time saver!
* Image Quality Enhanced
The rendering of images has been enhanced to provide a smoother overall quality and clarity. The results are quite dramatic on some images and the new rendering does not increase rendering time.
* 3D Camera Moves
You can now rotate the camera in 3 dimensions, rather than just spinning. Dragging the circle in the upper left hand corner of the yellow camera box left/right with the CONTROL key pressed, will allow you skew the image horizontally. (Command key on Macintosh) Dragging the circle left/right with the CONTROL and SHIFT keys pressed will allow you skew the image vertically. The numeric values are displayed in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
* Auto-Launch of Producer Show Files
Double-clicking on a MovingPicture Show file (.mpx) will cause Producer to start running with that show loaded. In Windows, you will have to associate Producer to the file the first time, but it will always remember from that point on if you set the check box to do so.
* New View Menu
A new menu has been added to the menu bar to control the size of the Timeline and the Stage image. The timeline can now be scaled from 5 frame to 64 seconds per gray block shown. The "Center Picture" and "TV Safe" options have been moved here for consistency.
* Alpha Channel Support
We now process the alpha (transparency) channel of images. This makes it easy to have portions of a MovingPicture generated image float over another image on your editor's timeline. The two image formats that can hold an alpha channel are Targa (.tga) and Native Photoshop (.psd). This is available on all editors (and Producer) with the exception of Canopus, which does not support alpha in its transition plug-ins.
You can turn ignore the alpha channel by selecting the "Ignore Alpha Channel" item in the "Image Prep" dialog box. If you are not using alpha, this will speed up rendering by 30% and insure that you will not have your image intentionally altered by whatever the contents of the alpha channel happens to be.
Since Avid does not support alpha in plug-ins directly, the alpha information is used to merge the contents of the clip MovingPicture is attached to (the "dummy clip") with the MovingPicture image on top of it.
* Exit Plug-in Keyboard Shortcut
Hitting the Control-Q key (Cmd-Q key on Macintosh) will save the current moves, exit MovingPicture and return to you editor. This is the same as clicking on the "OK" button.
* Miscellaneous
1. PSD Files Support Transparency -- There was a problem when using Native Photoshop files that contain transparency that has been corrected.
2. Final Cut Pro Timing -- The problem of the moves appearing only half as long as they are specified for when rendered has been corrected.
3. Motion Blur in Producer -- The double image effect sometimes seen when using motion-blur with multiple pictures has been corrected.
4. Windows Taskbar -- The screen will automatically scale itself to accommodate the presence of the task bar if active on Windows-based systems.
5. Viewer Window -- The Viewer window will not have cover over any system or file save/load dialogs or message boxes.
6. DPS Native Driver -- If the driver is not installed, or the height and width are not what DPS need (i.e. 720 by 486 or 720 by 576) an error message will appear.
7. MacOS 10.2 Registration -- The registration process in MacOS 10.2 (Jaguar) would yield a computer ID of zero (0), and not allow registration, which has been corrected.
8. Producer versions Merged -- The Classic and OSX versions have been merged together, so the same version will run on any computer running OS 8 or higher (or able to run "Carbonized" applications).
* Supported Systems
We currently have Plug-Ins for After Effects (Win/Mac), Avid (Win/Mac), Discreet edit, dpsVelocity, FASTStudio, Final Cut Pro, Incite, Media 100, Premiere (Win/Mac), Canopus, SpeedRazor, and United Media.