stagetools vs avid pan and zoom

[Michael Hancock]

I’ve used Avid Pan and Zoom a couple of times, and it takes some getting used to. It also used to be kind of buggy, if I remember right. Then again, I used it over a year ago so maybe it’s rock solid now.

Stage Tools, however, is a breeze to use, renders relatively fast, and has always given me great results. The picture quality is excellent and the moves are smooth. The other day I had to make a move on a web address so I just Alt+Print screened the web page, loaded the picture into StageTools and zoomed in on it. Even when zoomed right up close to the web address it was nice and clear.

So, my opinion is that stage tools is worth the investment, especially if you’re going to be zooming on a lot of pictures. Take my advice with a grain of salt however, because I haven’t used Avid’s Pan and Zoom in a long time. No need to with StageTools. 🙂 Others in this forum should be able to give you a more balanced view.

Michael.

[Joe Womble]

You should try 4 or 5 clips in pan and zoom before you give up. Remember, it’s included.

Also, do you have Avid FX (otherwise known as Boris RED)? How about Boris FX? All of these do terrific pan and zoom effects. In fact, I will sit down with the Boris RED engine on a laptop when I don’t have the Avid around and create a bunch of p&z moves and save them out to .mov files. Then I import them into Avid and edit away.

HTH,

Cre8tive

[Jhones]

i used the p&z alot lately and i found out it is nice tool on express pro hd
and a suck tool to use with adrenaline.
also in the express u got to learn working with it because other wise the system is crushing when the memory is full. so alot of restarts is needed,
and a lot of bugs appears. lots of rendering time in the best quality.
i dont know the stage tool so i cant compare them both.
but as i wrote if u know how to deal the p&z u can get nice resolts.
eather way u loos some of the stability of the system.
good luck

[Scott Dennis]

The Avid Pand and Zoom can load down your system. I just finished a documentary with a bunch of PZ stills in it. I had to break my film into 10 minute sequences and only have one open at a time. This was on a powerbook. I am sure that workstations would handle it better. nevertheless, it is a memory sucking effect and takes a long time to render at the highest quality. Be sure to work in Real Time and render at a higher quality. You can’t do any tilts with Avid’s PZ. Despite its shortcomings, it renders out some really good mooth effects.

My advice is to work with the Avid effect and put your money toward a program like After Effects or Boris Red for more advanced work.

[Freddie Rodriguez pr]

Pan and Zoom is great

[Mike G.]

I edit for a major network in NYC, and we swear by StageTools “Moving Picture”. I used to use ‘pan & zoom’ extensively before recently discovering ST, and I’m never going back.

It will only import uncompressed images (like tiff ot bitmap), and for the best results, use only the highest-rez images you can get your hands on. Image merchants like Corbis offer HUGE images, which are cool because you can zoom waaaay in, with very little distortion.

“Moving Picture” is a very simple application to learn (took me about 20 minutes), and it produces beautiful results.

The only issue I’ve had is with Avid dissolves, which becomes a non-issue after this thread:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=45&postid=855968

[Tony]

Another inexpensive software option to consider besides stagetools is a program called Still Life.

It is available for download and purchase at https://www.grantedsw.com

I used it for a program recently and had it mastered in under five minutes.

Great fluid moves etc.

You can’t beat it for the $25 purchase price.

Tony Salgado

Tony Salgado

[Bruce Rawlings]

For it’s Stagetools everytime. This is because it is a no brainer. It is so easy to work and gives superb results. A client I had last week could not believe the ease with which we turned is mediocre stills sequences into an ace rostrum job.

[John Pale]

StageTools gets the nod for me too.

No rotation in the Avid Pan and Zoom, which is key for me…