Multimedia Authoring - Quicktime Dead?

GregSmith brucegregory at earthlink.net
Thu Oct 19 16:47:10 EDT 2006


Dan:

I own MovieWorks, and, as far as developing anything purely QuickTime in
nature, this is the best value with the best functionality I've found
anywhere.  I can't use it for the most insignificant reason:  I cannot
control the drop shadow on the text I create internally.  I need it to be
very dark, and MovieWorks defaults, with no options, to a medium gray.  For
the training I'm currently working on, I've got to have a darker shadow, or
the text is not readable on the already, unchangeable medium gray
background.  The only other drawback that I can see is the need to include
their freely distributable, cross-platform player with every interactive
movie you create.  One more thing for the user to have trepidation about. 
The really good news is that the MovieWorks developers are working on a
"Pro" version for release in the spring that includes an e-commerce,
in-application, purchasing solution.  I'll bite when that comes along.

Flash offers stuff that no other environment offers:  players already
installed on 98% of newer machines, complete control over vector graphic
animations, unparalleled bitmap animation support . . . and here's the big
one for me . . . "assisted scripting".  This is the greatest programming
educational tool I've found because it literally lets you see, line by line,
what each line of code does by visually demonstrating the results,
graphically.  It makes sure that you enter your code in the proper syntax,
as well.  For anyone, this kind of coding assistance is invaluable.  The
other benefit that helped me decide was a very large pool of tutorial
information for specific application examples.  But, all these positive
things said, it's still way too expensive for what it does.  I'm totally
surprised that, as of this late date, no Mac killer multimedia application
has been invented to pose a serious threat to this monopoly.

Greg Smith



Dan Shafer-2 wrote:
> 
> Greg,
> 
> What specific kinds of improvements or changes were you looking for in QT
> that you didn't find but managed to locate in Flash? I'm curious because
> I'm
> going to go through this same process soon and want to be sure to pick the
> right tool as well.
> 
> More and more video content on the Web seems to be defaulting to Windows
> Movie format which is problematic at best and useless at worst on my Mac.
> But places like YouTube have video that plays just fine in all of the
> browsers I ever try to run on Mac or that other platform.
> 
> Did you look at MovieWorks? That used to be a very powerful QT authoring
> tool/environment but I don't know how/if they've kept up either. But it's
> only $80 and seems to do a lot of what the multimedia authors I know want
> to
> do. No scripting, though. :-(
> 
> Ironic that as we move toward more ubiquitous demand for video, QT starts
> to
> fade, if indeed it is.
> 
> Dan
> 
> 
> On 10/19/06, GregSmith <brucegregory at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>> In my quest for finding the ultimate multimedia authoring tool, I've come
>> to
>> the tentative conclusion that QuickTime, (as far as an authoring platform
>> is
>> concerned), is falling so far behind that it could soon be considered
>> "dead".  Apple, the very folks who should be promoting solutions for
>> interactive QuickTime haven't done anything, themselves, for years.  The
>> two
>> applications that I find to be the most advanced QuickTime authoring
>> solutions, (LiveStage and VideoClix), haven't done anything to make their
>> packages attractive to new authors, not in years, either.  Visiting the
>> LiveStage website reveals that they are now focusing on being content
>> providers, themselves, rather than offering an authoring solution for
>> others.  When emailing the VideoClix people for some technical answers, I
>> get no response at all.
>>
>> So, it looks to me like Flash authoring, for the present, is the only
>> viable, practical and timely solution for the kind of interactive
>> authoring
>> I need to perform.  Also, for the Mac, there is only one thorough
>> solution.
>> And, though I hate supporting these corporate monsters, I went ahead and
>> purchased the Macromedia Authoring Studio, for the total lack of finding
>> anything comparable elsewhere, at any price.  Very sad.
>>
>> Greg Smith
>> --
>>
>> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Dan Shafer, Information Product Consultant and Author
> http://www.shafermedia.com
> Get my book, "Revolution: Software at the Speed of Thought"
>>From http://www.shafermediastore.com/tech_main.html
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