When a musical group heads into the studio to record a CD, they don’t just play their instruments, lay down their tracks, and then mix the final cut and call it a day. There’s a great deal that goes into getting all those recorded tracks ready for the final mix, such as adding effects, tweaking the frequencies, and making every single track sound polished before they are put together in the final mix.
Recording a television show or other film project is similar in many ways to recording an album, except you are using video instead of audio (okay, you are using both) and before you put the whole package together, before you sit down to mix everything and make it shine, you want to polish your video shots, your scenes, the best they can possibly be. That’s where the top 5 television graphic programs come into play.
Graphics can add luster and dimension to your scenes
We live in a three-dimensional world. While the latest technological craze is 3D movies and even television sets, most films are going to continue to be filmed in two dimensions. Any opportunity that you have to add spice to your visual entrée should be taken. That isn’t to say that you should coat every single frame of every single scene with graphic tones, which would dilute the effect it might have and cause your film to feel ingenuous in the end.
You should use these programs when you want to enhance shots, create the illusion of three dimensions, or to add text, splice in extra cartoon characters or scenes, or more. The top 5 television graphic programs are: Maxon Cinema 4D, Adobe Fireworks, CorelDraw X4, Abode Illustrator CS4, and Adobe Photoshop. For the sake of argument, let’s add Lightwave and Maya to the mix. So you have seven in all.
As you can see from this list, Adobe has three of the top four programs on the market for creating and enhancing video shots. While there is no need to have all three of these Adobe products, as each has some cross-over features, when used in conjunction with each other, you can create some incredible scenes for your video shots.
Maxon Cinema 4D, however, is one of the best graphic programs that you will find on the market for all of your film editing and enhancing needs. You can create absolutely stunning 3D scenes, create enhanced shots, and incorporate green screen images with fluid ease by using this program.
Lightwave allows you to seamlessly add effects to film while maintaining the continuity that you desire. How do you know that you have done a great job with your film editing and adding effects? When no one notices that you have actually added anything to the final product, that’s how. Lightwave by NewTek is one of those products that creates seamless visual images.
Maya by Autodesk will give you great 3D visual effects at the tip of your fingers, and the price is right for the average budget. Of course, whatever program you choose to use for your graphics editing, it will be up to you, the filmmaker, to decide what and how much effect to use for each scene. With today’s technology, there are abundant choices available for any filmmaker and almost any budget. While these programs all have great options and tangible results, if you overdo them, your film is going to suffer as a result.