In today's world of electronic technology where both hardware and software are obsolete before you even learn how to fully operate it are common occurrences, The NewTek Video Toaster remains an enigma. Firstly - the chosen platform, Amiga, has been through Hell and back with intellectual properties changing hands enough times that one needs a scorecard to keep up. And secondly, the Toaster came out of the starting chute very stable and required very few improvement upgrades to the OS. There has been a lot of potshots taken at it from both within the Amiga community of Toaster Users and from its detractors, usually in the form of weak competition. Let's take a look at the Video Toaster 4.2 and what it's weak and strong points are.

I am not a particularly technically minded "geek". I DO have thick glasses but no pocket pen protector, so I guess I'm kind of a "middle-of-the-road" user. I am a professional videographer whose main expertise is in video production in the everyday world of corporate/industrial and broadcast television production. I shoot an occasional wedding, do an occasional music video, and make my living on real estate videos, promotional and sales videos, training and safety videos, and legal and medical video production work. In short, I do whatever I am called upon to produce and it's a pretty wide and varied working arena. I first purchased my Video Toaster 4000 in 1992 and have used it every day since that time. Whenever NewTek announced an upgrade I was always the first in line to subscribe. I went from 3.5 to 4.0 and finally to the current 4.2 upgrade. Most of the "fixes" were minor by most software update scenarios, but they did enhance the performance or operating capabilities in some fashion. But the bottom line is that the Toaster did exactly "AS ADVERTISED" right out of the box. And the price was certainly right!

At that time (1992) I was using a �"-based editing system, the good old Sony 5800/5850 PAC editor with RM-440 controller. I had a VP-5000 I was using for a "B" roll deck and mixing all my video sources through an inexpensive NuMark Digital Video Mixer (the VAM-2000). The mixer (I hesitate calling it a "switcher") was a three-input video source with two busses. Synchronized mixing/switching between sources was possible through the NuMark's "B" buss, which had an internal TBC. My Character Generator was an old TexScan usually used by cable companies. That was it. It was crude and took a long time to produce manual A/B rolls but it was all I could afford at the time. Enter the Video Toaster 4000���..

I only needed a 15-minute demo to tell me that this was what I needed to bring my entire production system into the 20th Century! The screen interface was so intuitive and easy to grasp. It looked ready-made for me. AND, it had LightWave 3D ("whatever THAT was"), a paint program called ToasterPaint (how original), and a CG! Well, right away I skipped entirely past the 3D and paint program and went straight to the CG program because that was absolutely the weakest link in my current production chain and anybody could tell at a glance at my TV spots that that was the case. I think that even though I really wanted the Toaster, it was, initially, the CG that made my mind up for me. Broadcast quality, antialiased (no "stairstepping"), and LOTS and LOTS of fonts. You can build KEY pages, which is great for adding those official looking titles under the talking head shots. Scroll and crawl pages are so helpful in wedding credits and closing credits on corporate videos. And the colored background page makes such a quality looking title page. Not to mention the ability to load framestores as background pages with titling overlayed. Five "depths" to the drop-shadow feature adds to the professional look of the font. You can change the direction of the shadow by moving the "sun" around, and even add 3 levels of outline to your font. Text can be multi-colored. Shadows and outlines can be multiple-colored as well. Plus, you can use any degree of transparency for even more options. This CG is very powerful and looks as good as anything I've ever seen on television. You can save each CG page and/or save the entire CG book so you don't have to recreate every nuance of your CG. NewTek even included some great sample pages of text and graphics to give examples of what parameters create what effect. Add all these features to the abilities of importing brushes and text and you're all set!

Now let's examine the ToasterPaint. I think this is about the most maligned tool in the Toaster arsenal. Paint programs are plentiful and none of them look or feel or operate the same way, so there is plenty of room for dissing ToasterPaint as being a "disappointment" or missing some key feature that one person desires over another. On the Amiga, there is AplhaPaint for a paint program and ADPro or ImageFX for an image manipulation program that gets compared to TP. This is not entirely fair to TP, as no advancements to speak of have been made to TP since first bundled with the Toaster.

I have found, however, that TP does what I need for it to do in about 90% of the cases for basic painting, retouching, sizing, coloring, and implementation of graphics. Since I have been using ToasterPaint for as long as I've had my system I must confess a certain familiarity with the operation as compared to the other software which I have but haven't given myself the opportunity to spend as much time learning them. By using TP in conjunction with ADPro I can create and manipulate just about any type of graphics design I need for most of my video work. I read a lot of comments about how "clunky" the interface is, but for me it seems to do the job. It is no PhotoShop or Aura, but it was not designed to be. Those programs are enhanced versions of software based on sequences of images and 2D graphics animation for website work and more advanced graphic manipulation. ToasterPaint was included to give Toaster users the BASIC tools needed to work with images and graphics and for that in my humble opinion I think it does a fine job. All the basic tools are there to assist the videographer in creating and enhancing images and graphics for video production. Even with all the above mentioned graphics packages in my current setup I find myself going to "good old" TP 70% of the time, probably because I am used to using it more than the newer software.

And now an examination of LightWave would seem in order. Initially, I could not see much application for 3D modeling in my video business, but I was way off the mark as it turned out. For anyone new to 3D modeling and animations, the screen interface and operating system can seem very intimidating. And in some areas, it is, because it takes a LOT of different technologies and criteria to create a "virtual set" or model. The learning curve IS pretty steep (especially for a beginner like I was) and you have to stick with it or it is easy to forget what you have learned. For me, it was like "Well, I HAVE this supposedly great software, but I don't know anything about it, so I'd better learn it!" I worked at it for several hours each evening when it was quiet and I could really apply myself to learning. I concentrated on the Layout screen for the most part, just loading the supplied LightWave scenes and seeing what they did. After a year I started tackling the Modeler and learning more about creating my own objects. In no time at all I was completely hooked! This was the BEST "video game" I had ever played! Like most beginning animators, my first crude animations were usually space battle scenes, but I actually found an application in creating "Flying Logos". I learned how easy it was to create a client's name using the text feature, then flying in (or out) the logo in various scenes I had created. I would then save the animations and use them in a client's video, instantly transforming their production into a very professional looking and high-impact presentation. Clients were so impressed that I began including some kind of animation in their video productions. Rather than actually charge them for the work I chalked it up to my learning curve and added the Anims to my growing demo reel. LightWave is the only bundled application to the Toaster which has had several version updates, the current available update to the Amiga version being 5.0.

The last bundled software to the trusty Toaster is ChromaFX, which is probably the least understood and least used application. In short, ChromaFX enables the videographer to add "treatments" to footage in real time. Effects such as "line art", "posturization", "sepia tone", and literally dozens of filter sets can be applied to either a live video feed or tape source being routed through the Toaster. About the only application I have found that works well with ChromaFX is in producing a music video for a band. I am sure my only limitations here have been my imagination, because there are SO many different ways to utilize ChromaFX.

With the possible exception of LightWave, none of these bundled applications to the Video Toaster were meant to be the Final Solution. They were conceived to enhance the overall production palette at one's disposal with the Toaster. To that end, I believe the designers at NewTek have achieved just that! Which brings me back full circle to my original starting point. Even 7 years after it's initial release, the Video Toaster has proven to this videographer that it can not only stand up to the test of time, but still holds its own against "more advanced" systems being produced today. And all at just a fraction of the cost of today's advanced marvels. The venerable Amiga seems to be raising its head once again and people in the know are starting to pay attention. After all, it was the original Amiga that started the "Video Revolution" buzzword phrase we hear so much about today.

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