FirstPerson
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Twitch offers a close look at first-person film 'Hardcore Henry'
Hardcore Henry is basically a mix of Jason Bourne, Captain America and Call of Duty. It's an action epic about a man who wakes from near-death in a futuristic laboratory and with no memory of his past. Minutes after regaining consciousness, he embarks on a dangerous mission to save his kidnapped wife from a warlord who plans to create genetically engineered super soldiers. The entire movie is shot in a first-person perspective, directly from Henry's point of view. This perspective twist certainly sounds interesting -- and you can get a closer look at it on Wednesday, February 10th, live on Twitch.
First-Person Final Cut Pro X, Day One: Completely at Sea
Professional film & video editor Matthew Levie is based in San Francisco, produced and edited the documentary Honest Man and writes Blog and Capture. First-Person Final Cut Pro X is the unvarnished story of his week-long introduction to the new Final Cut. [Note that all opinions and assessments of FCP X expressed here are Matt's own, not TUAW's, and that any misconceptions or misunderstandings of FCP X features represent Matt's hands-on first reactions. –Ed.] So I really, really did not believe that FCP X would be "iMovie Pro." But I have to say, my friends, I was far too optimistic. Apple has thrown us squarely under the bus. Somebody at Apple decided that making professional editors happy was just too damn much trouble, and that a much simpler program would allow them to fire 80% of the engineers and lose only 10% of the customers. If you thought no multicam was the problem, you're thinking way too far ahead for this program. How about no split edits? No roll? No subclip? There is, in fact, a way to mark a perfectly good in and out point, contrary to rumor. But what if I told you that you could change the speed of a clip to 50% or 25%, but not anything in between? Heck, I can't even find a way to do an overwrite edit. [As noted by commenters and by ScreenCastsOnline producer Don McAllister, both overwrite edits and intermediate speed adjustments are in fact included in FCP X -- as Matt acknowledges below, citing the challenge of working through FCP X's documentation. Keep in mind that this series is documenting Matt's opinions and reactions over the course of several days, and that first impressions can be incorrect and revised over time. –Ed.] I should confess at this point that I've never used iMovie. I've been editing for twenty years, on linear systems, and then Avid, and then Final Cut. But I'm guessing that if I were a regular iMovie user, I wouldn't feel so awfully lost in this program. It turns out, of course, that all of these basic features are in the program, but the documentation isn't very well written. You'd think that if they were going to radically change the way we edit, they'd throw us a lifeline and walk us through it. In fact, when I looked up split edit, it proposed a really Byzantine five-step process involving a ripple trim. It only takes three with a rolling trim. Of course, in FCP 7 it only took one step. That's not promising. My intention was to take this project I have coming up that has very little deadline pressure, it's only two minutes long, it's not that complicated. I thought I'd do that in FCP X and that way I'd learn where the gotchas were and where this program's limitations were. Now I doubt we're going to get that far. I don't think that I could cut the simplest project I've done in the last ten years on this program. Not because it would take too long, as bad as that would be, but because it is simply not possible. There's definitely going to be a revolution in post-production, dudes. It's the one where the masses pull Apple off the throne and cut its throat. I'll keep reading the docs and playing around. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and realize this was all a really bad dream, and actually it's as brilliant as an iPod. But don't hold your breath! Part II coming up... Learning the Ropes.
Homebuilt UAV hunts down hydrogen balloons, shoots firework missiles (video)
Augmented reality is swell, don't get us wrong, but it's no substitute for the real thing -- especially when that thing is a badass tricopter equipped with a jury-rigged firework cannon to rain down miniature hell. Swedish R/C enthusiasts built this first-person flying contraption to carry out a single mission -- destroy a series of hydrogen-filled balloons -- which will hopefully be hard-coded into future automatons too. After all, balloons could serve as an excellent distraction when they inevitably come for you. Still, there's no need to worry quite yet, so kick back and enjoy the video above while you contemplate humanity's end.
Indie horror adventure Penumbra: Overture available on Linux, coming to Mac
Indie developer Frictional Games announced today the Linux release of the first episode of its 3D horror game Penumbra: Overture. The PC version hit back in March and provides a solid adventure game with more spooky atmosphere than you can shake a blood-covered piece of wood at. The game emphasizes interactive physics and physics-based puzzles, not combat, meaning you'll spend more time playing with the environment than stabbing baddies. Mac gamers can take heart, as Frictional is planning a Mac port of the game some time soon.[Via Adventure Gamers]
Quake II X goes Universal
Thanks to an independent developer, Quake II has perhaps become the oldest game to have been updated as a Universal Binary on Mac OS X. In order to use this software to play Quake II, you will still need a full copy of the game to grab some of the core game files, and I think the full source from id Software themselves (scroll down about two thirds of the way) might do the trick. While the source code there is listed as a PC version, I think the core game files you need to use this UB enabler for Mac OS X will work just fine. If anyone else knows better, feel free to sound off and list a link, if you could be so kind.Either way, it sounds like setting up this software is pretty simple, and in no time you too could be fragging aliens circa 1997!
Quake 4 Universal Binary shipping
Quake 4, a game that could literally destroy my productivity in one swooping install, is now shipping as a Universal Binary for Mac OS X. Getting back to its first-person storyline roots, this latest installment picks up after the events of Quake 2, in which you are part of an elite marine force whose mission is to stop an Earth invasion and blow a ton of stuff up. Check out Aspyr Media's Quake 4 product page for more storyline details and system specs, as a PowerPC G4/G5 at 1.67 is required (which we've mentioned before), but they recommend a G5 or Intel-based Mac.Quake 4 is priced at $49.99 and is available from Amazon.[via Macworld]
