Quick Look: Sony Screenblast Movie Studio 3.0
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The Text and Backdrops tab houses the preset text treatments that you can add to your project. these include color gradients, Credit Rolls, Solid Colors, and plain text. Credit Rolls are particularly cool because all you need to add to it is your credit information and choose from one of the presets, which include, plain scrolling on black, Scrolling on Transparent, Timed, Fade on Black, Timed, Zoom in/Out on Blue, Scrolling, left side on Semi-Black; Timed, Scroll Right on Frosty White; Timed, Wipe in/Out on Black; Backward Scrolling, Primary Colors.[an error occurred while processing this directive]The Explorer enables you to preview files that you might want to add to your project. These files can be placed directly on the Timeline in the place of your choosing with two clicks of the mouse button. When you do, it also places the file in the Media Pool. You can preview all media via the Explorer that you might want to place in your project.
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| The main interface |
The Timeline is the canvas upon which you place the media you want in your project. The media can include a range of items, such as text, video, audio, music, voice, video overlay, and still image files. Sony calls each of these individual media clips on the Timeline an Event. The Timeline is where you tweak the duration you wish these events to appear in your project. When you first place a video event on the Timeline, anywhere there is a break in the video, Screenblast places an FX marker on the Timeline. These markers are where Screenblast is suggesting you place an effect. While you don't have to place an effect, the software is telling you that is a safe place to insert one. When first placed on the Timeline, the FX marker is white, denoting that no effect has been placed in that spot. When you place an effect in the spot, the FX marker turns green. Clicking on the green FX marker will open a new window, giving you the name of the effect that you placed on the Timeline. here you can also tweak that effect.
Show Me How
The Show Me How section of the application's help section is by far the most user friendly, interactive help system I have seen in any application. For example, say you wish to learn how to add text to your project and you are deep into the project and don't want to crack open the manual.
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| Show Me How |
You can access the Show Me How section right in the application, and click on the how to add text hyperlink in the help files, and the help system comes to life while you are STILL IN the application. It will show you the way, you click on what it tells you to click and it adds the text in your current project, because you never leave the project. I wish all applications had a help system like it.
Make Movie
After you have arranged your events on the Timeline and are satisfied with how the project is looking, you can then make a movie. Screen Blast Movie Studio enables you to save the movie to your hard drive, Burn it to DVD via Sonic Foundry MyDVD, burn in to Video CD or CD-ROM, Publish it to Sony's Screenblast.com service, Save it to Sony Memory Stick Media or Sony Giga Vault, email it (the software will compress it), or Create an HTML page with the movie built into the page.
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| Make movie render settings |
When you choose to save your movie to your hard drive, you can save the movie in QuickTime, RealMedia 9, Video for Windows, Wildform Flash Video (1-Pass VBR), and Windows Media Video (v9). If you go the Advance Render route, your choices expand to include MainConcept MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, OggVorbis, Sonic Foundry Audio, and Sonic Foundry PerfectClarity Audio. When you save back out to tape, you can save in either NTSC or PAL DV in both 4:3 or widescreen formats. If you choose to email the video, the compression choices you have include 56kbps, 100kbps, 256kbps, or 512kbps video. You can also select between 14.4, 28.8, 56k, ISDN, DSL, or Cable as your playback medium of choice.
First Impressions
Screenblast Movie Studio 3.0 performed very well on a 3GHz Dell Precision 360 with 1GB RAM and a 120GB Serial ATA 7200 rpm hard drive. One thing nice about today's entry level video editing applications is most, if not all of them sport real time preview of effects and transitions. This feature coupled with the myriad output capabilities makes Screenblast Movie Studio a tool that you should consider when shopping for an entry level NLE. I would like to see a more intuitive way to change a text event in case you make typos, because for the life of me, I couldn't figure it out and just deleted the event from the Timeline and started over. Chalk it up to Newbie status with the application. Screenblast Movie Studio 3.0 performs quite well, has enough effects and transitions to get you into artistic trouble, and provides for a variety of output options. It is priced very reasonably at $99.95, and offers an upgrade path to a more powerful NLE if you wish. For more information, visit http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/Products/ShowProduct.asp?PID=856
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