14 DAY TRIAL // Christmas is so close, and all the news I have on my schedule seem to have something related to it. I can't say that this is good or bad, it was just a thought, but the reason that made this pop into my mind is the Pre-Christmas preview version of a new product from Pomfort that I am going to tell you about right now.
Three days ago, Pomfort released SilverStack for Mac OS X, and the best part of the deal is that you can download it as a free beta version until the future release gets out. This future release is planned to see the light of day in January 2007, and will be available in two configurations, priced around 400 and 150 Euros. Good, but... what's so special about this program, after all?
Before anything else, I have to tell you that Pomfort SilverStack is an application built in close collaboration with professional users from the movie industry, and its purpose it to help you view, manage and export image sequences. Obviously, such a program couldn't miss the advantages offered by the powerful graphic capabilities offered by Mac OS X, and the best part is that you can take full advantage of all the processing power of your computer, no matter if you're using a PowerPC or Intel-based Mac, because SilverStack comes as a Universal Binary application.
The image viewing capabilities allow you to open and view image sequences such as scanned 35mm film or rendered sequences, SilverStack being able to handle movie-typical file types such as Cineon, DPX or TIF in any resolution (HD, PAL, 2k, 4k or 6k), zoom and pan to see every single pixel, even when working with smaller screens, apply Gamma- or LUT-based color linearization with custom presets and, of course, preview the playback of image sequences using the built-in QuickTime player.
The Movie Export module of the program is fully featured, allowing you to choose frame rate, resolution, codec and quality of your movie, append sound tracks, zoom/crop your images, add a center cross or action safe- and title safe borders, apply primary grades and linearization filter to your movie and more.
These being said, all that's left for me is to invite you to download the free preview version and hope you'll enjoy it, of course. Good luck!