Serif Press Release

Serif (Europe) Ltd, the UK’s leading independent desktop publishing, design and graphics software developer, is delighted to announce the release of MoviePlus 5. MoviePlus 5 (List Price £59.99; upgrade prices available*) is Serif’s impressive movie-editing package that enables everyone to make the most of their video footage, audio clips and digital images, regardless of their experience. Already extremely powerful and responsive with unlimited multi-track timeline and real-time previewing, this latest version introduces DVD Authoring, HDV support and QuickTime Import & Export, making it easier than ever and more enjoyable to create video masterpieces and dynamic photo slideshows.

MoviePlus 5’s built-in DVD Authoring is wizard-driven, making it incredibly easy to create video projects in this massively popular format. Chapter Points can be easily added directly on the Timeline and named within the Properties dialogue for added flexibility. The DVD Menu Designer offers a large range of pre-designed templates, as well as a choice of layouts, background images & music, titling and buttons, so it’s easy to share movie creations in style as professional-looking DVDs.

For accurate output every time, users can preview their movie projects on television via their DV Camera and check colour definition, interlacing and apply TV-safe border alignments to ensure that movies appear on television exactly as intended. Adding QuickTime Import & Export and High Definition Video support, MoviePlus 5 now handles the most popular current formats and offers compatibility for future technologies.

Scene changes can be given a new dimension with 3D Transitions, including 3D Blinds, 3D Roll and 3D Tumble, and apply these to multiple selected sources for speed. MoviePlus 5’s advanced Keyframe technology has now been made even more accessible through a comprehensive new range of preset Envelopes – these can be simply dragged and dropped onto video and audio tracks and will perform previously complex video editing techniques, such as Opacity, Transform and Crop, with ease. Of course, Envelopes are fully customisable and users can create their own from scratch as their experience grows. Dedicated Cropping functionality now provides precise control over the creation of ‘Picture-in-Picture’ and ‘Ken Burns’ effects, enabling users to inject an authentic cinematic feel to their still images for attention-grabbing slideshows.

Media sources can be given a new lease of life with Effects including Curves, Channel Mixer and Emboss and much-requested Filter Effects such as Glow, 3D Bump Map, 3D Lighting and Bevel. New text presets make it simple to create stunning titles and credits quickly and it’s also easy to customise text presets or create new text styles from scratch. Serif’s popular QuickShapes provide additional movie content or offer interesting masking effects and the new preset animated QuickShapes will add impact to projects too! New background presets offer animated Gradient Fills and other flexible background options help add a professional touch to projects. Combine MoviePlus 5’s fantastic new range of Text, Quickshape and Background Sources with the stunning new Effects and the creative possibilities really are endless.

The Media Pane keeps project files to hand and these can be re-ordered and trimmed – to select the exact video content required – before committing them to the Timeline, making media clips much easier to manage in MoviePlus 5. Navigable, labelled markers can now be added at any point on the Timeline to provide a helpful reference to project sections, and their snapping properties make them extremely useful for aligning video and audio sources too! It’s easier than ever to synchronize audio and visual events with Waveforms now visible on the Audio Tracks and a new Levels Pane provides a quick way to monitor and adjust volume. New drop-down Keyframe Timelines allow users to view and edit Envelope attributes directly under the video and audio tracks they apply to, making them more easily adjustable in relation to each other. MoviePlus 5’s improved workflow makes movie-editing more satisfying and instantly rewarding than ever before.

Whether users are looking for exciting ways to present family photos, a quick and easy tool for editing holiday footage and sharing as DVDs, or the power and flexibility to produce hard-hitting, professional-looking video diaries and documentaries, MoviePlus 5 caters for everyone’s video creation needs.

“MoviePlus 5 takes a previously complex area of computing and makes it accessible to everyone wanting to get the most from their digital media files,” said Gary Bates, Serif’s Managing Director. “And with enough power to cater for advanced users as well, MoviePlus 5 represents great value for anyone wanting to develop their knowledge and experience of video-editing.”

* Existing users of other Serif software packages should contact Serif on 0800 376 7070 for upgrade prices.