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Avid Users Replace ICE with GenArts' Sapphire Plug-ins
Cambridge, MA (March 6, 2002)
Sapphire Plug-ins from GenArts, Inc. has emerged as the obvious choice for Avid customers who have learned that their ICE effects are no longer supported on current versions of Avid systems.
When shopping for third party plug-ins, editors look for a package that substantially enhances the features and functionality of their Avid. They want quality, variety, speed, ease-of-use and responsive support at an affordable price. Avid customers such as MTV, Lifetime Television, Creative Bubble, WBZ Channel 4 and StudioWorks agree that Sapphire Plug-ins exceeds all these requirements and greatly increases their effects arsenal, making Sapphire much more than just a replacement for ICE.
"The feedback from our editors and clients is that there is no comparison between ICE and Sapphire. While we used ICE effects only about 10% of the time, we now use Sapphire on almost every project. It's a great suite of effects," said Pete Sgro, Vice President of Post-Production at Lifetime Television, who upgraded their 4 Avids to Symphony and purchased Sapphire Plug-ins to replace their ICE effects when they heard that "ICE was melting."
When Grinner Hester, digital video artist at StudioWorks in St. Louis, found that ICE would no longer run on his new version of Symphony, he too went searching for a replacement.
"Sapphire Plug-ins run circles around ICE," said Hester. "Most of the effects render quite fast, and I now have many filters not found in ICE effects. I use Sapphire Plug-ins on every project."
Without the need for special hardware, installation is as simple as a download. Moreover, Sapphire Plug-ins integrate seamlessly into the AVX user interface, which minimizes the learning curve and greatly lends to ease-of-use. All the Sapphire effects for Avid AVX are OMF-conformable, so projects started with Sapphire Plug-ins on Media Composer or Avid Xpress can be easily moved to Avid|DS or Symphony for finishing.
Creative Bubble, one of New York City's leading post-production houses, turned to Sapphire Plug-ins after ICE no longer supported the new versions of both Media Composer and Symphony.
Pat Carpenter, Creative Bubble's senior editor/principal, began using Sapphire in early January. "Sapphire Plug-ins look better, render faster, and offer you more control than ICE did," said Carpenter. "When we were first thinking about purchasing Sapphire, I emailed Karl Sims a few questions I had about some of the effects. He responded within the hour. It felt great to be buying a product knowing the support would be there."
Sapphire offers Avid editors a collection of over 193 image processing and synthesis effects that range from everyday tools such as FilmEffect, Glows, Transitions, EdgeRays, LensFlares and Blurs to more exotic effects like Lightning, FlysEye, JpegDamage, Textures, and Kaleidoscope.
MTV On-Air Promos recently added Sapphire Plug-ins to their Symphony and 3 Media Composers. "At MTV we rely on third-party plug-ins to finish spots within the Avid. Sapphire Plug-ins are a welcome addition. All the editors here love having so many great new effects to work with," said Jamie Manalio, Director.
Long time ICE customer Brian Fox, an Avid editor at WBZ Channel 4 in Boston, now runs Sapphire Plug-ins on his Media Composer.
"One of the most enjoyable aspects of Sapphire is the `clean' look of all the effects," said Fox. "Additionally, I have never encountered a rendering error with Sapphire Plug-ins. It's obvious that GenArts actually cares about producing quality effects that are easy to use. Sapphire Plug-ins have allowed me the creative freedom to achieve a truly professional look of multi-layered treated video which was previously unattainable on the Media Composer."
About GenArts, Inc.
GenArts, Inc. is a premier provider of digital visual effects plug-ins for the film and video industry. The company's Sapphire Plug-ins have become an industry standard for high-end visual effects and have been used extensively on feature films such as Final Fantasy, The Matrix, Titanic, StarWars-Episode I, Dinosaur, Planet of the Apes, Armageddon, X-Files, The World is Not Enough, Air Force One, Contact, Star Trek, and Godzilla.Contact:
Nicole Panas
GenArts, Inc.
1-617-492-2888
info@
©2002 GenArts, Inc. All rights reserved. GenArts and Sapphire Plug-ins are trademarks of GenArts, Inc. Avid, Avid Xpress, Media Composer and OMF are registered trademarks, and Symphony is a trademark of Avid Technology, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.