Bill: I apologize...It now occurs to me from reading your latest post that you don't know what digital post-production is (as opposed to analog post-production). Nor do you have a grasp of the difference between graphics, animation and editing. Had I known you didn't understand these things I would not have been so harsh in my response. Forgive my reaction, you sounded like you thought you knew what you were talking about.
BTW, to my kowledge there has NEVER had an analog editing system based on the Apple platform. The non-linear editing systems all deal with digital media. The only analog NLE was the montage that was manufactured in the early 80's which used a series of Betamax (yes Betamax not Betacam) VCRs but they are no lnger used. Non-Linear (random access) is by definition a digital system.
Analog post-production (non-digital Betacam, One Inch, 3/4" etc) are still in use but less so as time passes.
There is also Digital post-production that is tape based. The formats are D1, D2. D3, Digital Betacam, DVC etc. The signal is digital, but because it is tape based it can not be random access or non-linear. The tape machines are usually controlled by Sony, Grass Valley or CMX based controllers, but there is also an increasing number of PC (yes Wintel) based controllers.
The future, however, is in the random access systems because of their speed and flexibility. The random access market is currently dominated by Mac based systems.
The SGI systems such as the Flame etc. are mostly compositing systems and graphics systems, not generally non-linear editing systems. There are some very high-end NLEs made by Quantel and Editdroid.
BTW, I don't think I would be suprised as you say. Some of the lower cost systems can turn out some good stuff.....IF the editor has the massive amount of time required for rendering. They are not designed to, nor are they capable of, efficiently working in a Broadcast environment on a day to day basis. They are currently very slow and lack many of the features needed to be effective for daily use.
What did you mean the "art" eludes the digital onslaught? Last I heard, the vast majority of feature films, documentaries and Broadcsat venue shows were being edited (at least in the creative off-line stage) on NLE systems. Your friend should be able to confrim that. It's in every trade magazine every month. |
