I recently saw a magazine ad for Ultra from Serious Magic - so I went to the website and watched the demo movies and was totally freakin' amazed...unfortunately for the purposes of this product, I use a Mac and by indications on the website, there is no expected Mac version of this application due to its core base on DirectX - which is one of the many reasons I don't do media work on a PC.

Does anyone know if there is any similar product (application) that is available for the Mac platform? I realize that a Windows emulator is always an option, but I don't think I want to bother with that route as I think it would task my powerbook way too much at that point?

If you don't know what I'm talkin' about, check out the Serious Magic website for the Ultra appliction. It's really quite impressive, especially for someone like myself who really doesn't know how to creat such neat looking animation clips on my own.
-J.

yeah, we've had this discussion before, and no, it won't work on Virtual PC.

Write to Apple Support and ask them to make a Mac version of a program like this or add these feature to FCP.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html

You'd be surprised by how seriously this feedback is taken by Apple. You know the multi-cam support they added to FCP5? It came directly from user feedback.

I just emailed Apple and told them to make a similar app for the Mac. Hopefully, they will listen!

Right on Murph!
Now if everybody would do it (write Apple) we'd get something done! I've actually talked to a couple of developers about it myself but with DV on the way out and HD on the way in, it confuses things a bit more. I'm certain we'll have a good product for ourselves pretty soon since it only makes sense and it wouldn't be "that" difficult to create for OSX. There are already several applications around that use many of these technologies so it just needs somebody to wrap it into one program and sell the snot out of it.

It would be even better if some open source pros would make it and give it away for free! (Which has been discussed as well)

Write to Apple Support and ask them to make a Mac version of a program like this or add these feature to FCP.Or ask them to buy the company, port the app, and then drop Windows development </controversial>

It seems kind of mean, but I would rather see someone create it, take over the market share and leave the competition behind. If Apple just buys it, then the other company gets rewarded for ignoring the Mac platform and that's not cool. I've yet to be on a set where there wasn't a Powerbook very near and this could be a cool tool to have.

My post was not altogether serious. It was a reflection on what Apple did when they bought Emagic (I think it was) to create Logic. I think that in its original incarnation Shake also had a Windows version.

You are correct on both counts and FCP was originally designed by some folks over at Macromedia.
Apple actually has done a lot of this sort of thing, sometimes it's for the better, sometimes not. I just know the technology is already there for this, I'm just not talented enough to pull it off by myself or I would do it.

Well, I can tell you that if Apple pulled a DV Rack type of app out of its hat....I'd just about lose my mind. Their suite of apps for video people is cool right now, but with a DV Rack thing it would put them over the top.

I recently saw a magazine ad for Ultra from Serious Magic - so I went to the website and watched the demo movies and was totally freakin' amazed...unfortunately for the purposes of this product, I use a Mac and by indications on the website, there is no expected Mac version of this application due to its core base on DirectX - which is one of the many reasons I don't do media work on a PC.

Does anyone know if there is any similar product (application) that is available for the Mac platform? -J.

Ever hear of Combustion?
http://www4.discreet.com/combustion/
If you thought Ultra was nice, prepare to be totally blown away!


By the way for anyone who's in the know, when did Discreet become Autodesk?

By the way for anyone who's in the know, when did Discreet become Autodesk?

A long time ago, like more than 7 years or so.

Wow! The days of 3d Studio seem like just yesterday. I guess it has been 10 years now.