

                A Video Studio in your PC for less than $300?


Last year about this time I was introduced to a video editing system called 
the Video Machine from a German company called Fast. This equipment was a 
time line editor that enabled you to define your video clips from your video 
sources, and then drag and drop them on a time line.  At the time this system 
was over $4,000 and was painfully out of reach. Not only was the cost of the 
peripheral device  way out of reach for me, the combined price of the source 
and destination decks was well over $10,000! I resigned myself to the fact 
that I would have to wait. My usage of this equipment would have been for 
animation of course, so I could record, mix and add sound effects, and dump 
to video tape. 
 At the same time I had discussed a while back a market need for an editor 
for flicks , especially one that you could do compositing and titling and 
transitional effects. To add sound as well, would be just that much  better.
Enter "Splice" the complete editing studio for .Fli, .Flc, .Wav and .Avi 
files. Splice is from a company out of Pennsylvania, called strangely 
enough, Splice Inc.  The product is a really awesome piece of work. It has 
an appearance very similar to the interface of the video machine. In the 
upper left corner , you have a box where you load the media clips that you 
wish to work with. You open the menu and open a media clip it appears in 
this box. To the right of this box you have 2 media players. This is where 
you define your media clips. To open a clip drag it to a media player box. If 
it is a sound file or an .Avi file it will begin playing and play through 
once, then stop. .Fli or Flc files do not play here however you can move 
through them by using a slide bar to find the mark in/out points. 
 When you have defined your clips you simply drag and drop them where you 
want them on the timeline. At this point all frames can be seen to assure 
total accuracy in the editing process. When you have placed at least 2 files 
on the line, a transition appears . it could be any of many different types 
of wipes, and if it is not suitable simply select another. The cool thing 
about this is there are small animated icons that show you what a selected 
transition does. When you have dropped your animation or Fli files you can 
then add the sound to frame by frame accurately.
   Whoa, there will not be enough space to go into complete detail, so I will 
   give you some briefs:
1. Comes with a CD-Rom of sample clip media.
2.You can work with 2 video and 2 audio tracks.
3.Digital audio mixing, cross-fading, volume control and sequencing.
4. Mix and edit Avi, Fli, Flc, and Wav files.     Stop!
You can literally mix the Avi, and Fli and Flc files all together, providing 
the resolution is the same! Then save as FLI, FLC or AVI!!!!!!!!!!
5.Over 30 dynamic special effects.
6.Alpha channels!
7.Chroma Keying!
8.Compositing!
9.Traveling Mattes!
10.Titling module(uses True Type fonts!)
11.Smartedit drivers.
12.Video capture tools! You won't need Video for Windows, this does all that 
and does it better! Compression and pallette adjustment.
13.Works with TGA images and BMP for cool still fraqme transitions and slide 
shows with sound saved as Avi!
14.Slow motion and fast motion effects.
15.Professional video composition tools.

Can you tell that I am impressed? I have a buddy at work who I showed this to 
and he raves "most cool!" We have stopped promoting VFW for capture tools at 
work and are going with "Splice" ! For more info, call them at 717-286-6068. 
You need this one.
System Requirements:
Windows 3.1
386 20mhz or better PC
256 color VGA card (works best in 800x600 mode)
Windows compatible sound board and speakers
Bare minimum of 4meg of RAM

  Mr. X says "If you work with MM and Flix and Avi files and you don't get 
this software you might as well sell your PC at the farmers auction and 
move to a subtropical climate, where you can shave your head and study the 
behavior of the green coconut squirmworm! UP CLOSE!" Tell em C.A.N. sent ya!

                     OooooO   On the Job Hunt  OooooO
                            Fiction from Mr. X
   
   I read recently in a magazine, that at Siggraph if you were an animator 
you could be hired right off the floor. Ok so I didn't make it there. I 
stayed in Atlanta and kept on working. I missed the demonstrations of the
latest offering from the Silicon Graphics folks...........*(Lets step back 
and take a look at the author here, possibly unstable, obviously delirious.  
Make him tell you about the last few days, remember he can't hear us and it 
will mean more, in your words, go ahead ask him.)*......Shaking his long 
knotted and gnarled hair and smiling he arose from the edge of the large 
porch and began to speak "You know I got up early that morning to send out
and hand deliver those resumes, They were after all neatly typed" 
   He sat on a step and two terribly rusted nails fell from the top step"I had 
one last stop to make a last ditch"...*"he scratched his head and dust flew 
did you see that?"*..."attempt at achieving employment. I had read once that 
limo drivers  sometimes made good money, what with tips and all"...a large 
fat brown beetle crawled out from under the bottom step and prepared for it's 
ascent up the steps. "I thought I had written down the address to the office, 
and when I pulled up there were Limos parked everywhere. I figured" He broke 
off a large piece of tobacco from a chunk in his pocket and shoved it into 
his mouth"I had  the right address so when the door was closed as I arrived I" 
chews twice and swallows tobacco and all. I can feel lunch coming back "walked 
right in." 
  "The hall turned slightly to the left and as I entered the doorway, I heard 
the shots....The tall guy had him by one arm and the heavy guy had the other, 
and as he crumpled to the floor like a pleated skirt I could see the red stain 
spreading on his white shirt. As I began to turn, all three guys looked me 
right in the eyes.
  Like the legs in Al's flick, "Error" mine started moving carrying me out of 
there top" He coughed and spat a large chunk of mucous onto the back of the 
large brown beetle which was nearly to the top of the stairs, knocking it to 
the ground, "speed. Man they were right on my heels, and I couldn't get in my 
car so I ran for the train station.As I turned the corner and ran down the 
stairs, I could see them reaching for their guns. The train was beginning to 
pull out of the station and the next one would be 10 minutes, I had to think 
fast, swinging my leg up over the chrome rail, I was falling face first onto 
the roof of the train.
   I had to lie flat as it raced through the tunnel, and I held onto a rusted 
piece of wire"....*(Now I don't know about you but this sounds a little 
unreal to me, so did the guy really swallow the tobacco? Or what)*...."and 
it cut my hand as I slid toward the edge of the roof. The train emerged from 
the tunnel and pulled into the next station above ground.I slid off to the 
ground. 
   A little old lady kicked me in the face exclaiming "PIG" And I realized"He 
held his finger up to his nose and sniffed the knuckle" that I had dropped my 
folder full of resumes when I had run. I may as well have given them my 
drivers license. Everyone knows where I live, even the Triads"He held his 
stomach as if in pain and bent over coughing "So I couldn't go home, nothin 
there anyway, there was this all volunteer crew leaving that afternoon for 
some scientific camp in the Pacific Northwest, all expenses paid and they 
still needed a videographer so" Held the stomach again*(I keep seeing 
something moving under his shirt, is he hiding a small animal in there?)*
"we took off about 5 o'clock. About 500 miles into the trip I noticed the 
tops of the trees  were awful close, "Dave, hey man are we supposed to be 
this close to the ground and man I saw him waking up just as this big branch 
crashed through the cockpit and ripped off his arm and part of his chest, 
the plane jerked sharply, spun, groaned and came to rest upside down 
on the ground. 
    I was still buckled in my seat...." He stopped talking. *(Sure
he did, ran out of lies to tell, those eyes have never seen the inside of a 
plane)* ..I woke up covered with blood and vomit and urine. Everyone was gone.
I felt, kinda like hands, unclipped my safety belt and I felt a stinging in my
neck, they lifted me down and laid me on the ground, so gently. I had a warm
sensation in my stomach" his head jerked back I could see the pain in his eyes
"I passed out" *(sure you did cause you drink too much!)*..."and when I awoke
the grass around the crash site was smoking and the others were lying around 
on the ground" "It started as a red spot" "they must have needed..., like 
incubators or something" he took another bite from the tobacco"keeps em from 
eatin too much" two bites and he swallowed it...*(What is this? Sci-Fi?)*..he 
pulled up his shirt and revealed a large white slug like creature protruding
from his stomach "kinda like a parasite, the ones that tried to kill it, died
with it. I figure, maybe when it hatches It will let me go! " He smiled .
I was stunned. He pulled the shirt up over his head and threw it to the ground
then he turned to walk away.
   I grabbed the axe leaning against the side of the house.............

        Next Month......"Don't count your Triads before they Hatch!"

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