Robert Martens

I hadn't heard this news before your post, Douglas, thanks for the heads up! Bad news for my bank account, that's for sure. I took the time to watch all of your videos (even the new one, apparently uploaded while I was finishing up number ten), but I was sold on Media Composer in the first demonstration, when I saw you use the keypad to jump through that clip. +2 to advance two seconds? I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. MC also makes media management look almost ... fun, if I may be so bold.

To address John Mitchell's post (not to be confrontational, just to state for the record): regarding the interface, those not happy with the new, more colorful look of Liquid 7 can go back to the neutral gray setup. This "classic" UI, as they call it, is accessible via a shortcut in the Avid Liquid program group on the start menu, and while not laid out the same way as MC (the buttons are larger, and may look a little goofy to some, I suppose), I don't think it's terribly unprofessional.

As for the effects, Liquid 7 rolled up the old Commotion effects into the software, and features keying, color correction, matte management and noise control effects--among others--from that program in addition to the Liquid set. I never got a chance to use Commotion Pro when it was current, but I understand the effects were considered respectable. My cursory experiments with the set of keyers bears this out; they may not compete with Ultimatte products (though to be fair I wouldn't know) but I get great results. With DV, no less, however they manage that. I still prefer combustion for compositing tasks, but you could do worse than what's in Liquid.

It's worth noting, however, that outside of the Commotion color effects you still have the standard issue color correction editor, which was significantly upgraded at some point (I can't remember when it happened. Version 5 or 5.5, I believe). You have your typical basic adjustment of red, green, and blue in the highlights, midtones, and shadows, but then you have "six vector" and "selective" corrections, along with 601 legalization if you want it, and a 75% color option. All adjustments can be monitored by the histogram, vector scope and waveform monitor available within the color correction editor.

Finally, both linear and dynamic timewarps can be achieved with their respective editors in Liquid, though take that with a grain of salt as I don't have much use for them, and lack experience with the results.

Back to Douglas, I'd like to touch on a couple of things, first that it is entirely possible, and quite easy, to operate Liquid using the keyboard, which itself can be completely customized. Remap whatever you like in the Keyboard Properties window in the Control Panel if you need to, and off you go, JKL trimming 'til the cows come home. I'm sure it's fair to say that MC and other products in that line are more focused on keyboard operation than Liquid, and have many more commands that can be mapped to keys, but the ability is in Liquid to quite an extent, and some of us have already gotten used to it. Activating the trim tool with T, trimming back and forth with the M, comma, period and backslash keys? I can't remember the last time I dragged the clip handles on the timeline.

To close, I'll quickly touch on a pair of things I noticed in your videos: first, you can customize your Liquid toolbar to display the Film Style and Overwrite Insert buttons above the timeline simultaneously (right click the toolbar immediately above the timeline, click Customize, and you'll find them in the Edit tab to drag wherever you like). This is if you prefer to click; you can always just tap the tick/tilde key to switch between the insert modes and then B to insert the current clip. Second, right clicking the name of a track in the timeline and selecting View->Detect Recurrent Use will allow you to see reused material, indicated with a bright red dashed line added to the top of said clips. Liquid isn't exactly designed to work with film footage for later conform, but if one wants to avoid dupes, there you have it.

Those minor points aside, thank you for doing this! Someone who made the jump actually talking us through the switch is an invaluable resource, especially to see you demonstrating solutions to problems you've encountered. May I ask, though, do you know how strictly Media Composer adheres to the "dedicated machine" requirement? I know you're supposed to do it when you can, and I appreciate the reasons for following that advice, but even Liquid, infamously temperamental diva that she is, behaves very well if you treat her correctly. If you install it as the first application on a clean Windows system, you can then go on to add whatever you like. Upon hearing that for the first time, I was skeptical. I decided to try it anyway, expecting no end of problems, but here I am over a year later, solid as a rock. I've added compositing applications, 3D modeling programs, sound and music editing software, computer games, all sorts of garbage, the thing keeps right on chugging. Could one expect MC to work the same way, or is it less forgiving?

Not like I could afford any of this, of course. Just nice to see the upgrade option is being offered, and it's fun to read up on it, even if I'll never get the chance to follow through. I've bookmarked your page, Douglas, and I eagerly await the next installment!