Automatic Duck: the software we love but shouldn't need
Automatic Duck is a system of NLE and DAW plugins that facilitate seamless exchange of projects between different software platforms. The humble EDL served for some time in this capacity but its rudimentary structure is simply inadequate for much more complex contemporary software tools. OMF and AAF likewise promise much in the way of inter application exchange but have thus far failed to fully deliver.
Take up of AAF by major software developers is sporadic and inconsistent. Apple have taken a brave step away from the Avid derived AAF system by moving to XML, a completely open standard that is (at least in theory) universal. XML may well be the future for open exchange but at the moment whilst XML itself is open the manner by which different apps write XML varies enormously.
So we arrive at Automatic Duck whose sole purpose is to form a bridge between applications and platforms. Final Cut Pro, Avid, Qantel, After Effects, ProTools and so on.
Automatic Duck is efficient effective and very bloody useful. It's also a tragedy that Automatic Duck as a product exists. It's a sad indictment of dysfunctional corporate proprietary interests that there is a market for Automatic Duck at all. Automatic Duck is a system whose reason for being is to make up for the shortcomings and lack of vision on the part of the worlds NLE and DAW system developers.
That being so, so many creative producers owe their workflow functionality and mental sanity to Automatic Duck and the gap that it fills. And a great many worthy product solutions have come out of the plugging of gaps left open by the short sightedness of others.
Posted at 12:00AM Nov 19, 2008
by Mike Jones in technology |
