Tumble, coil & fumble

Here are the lesser known apps that saved my ass on occasion this year. In no particular order (unranked). Well the first batch actually are a list of my writing process. I’m not being paid for this, which doesn’t mean I’d object (hint hint, nudge nudge!) ;)

Writing

• TaskPaper — no styling, no tweaking, take notes for real.
• WriteRoom — the single best full-screen writing app with the worst press shot on the site. Seriously who uses this with green on black?
• Scrivener — It’s really between Scrivener and Storyist depending on your writing focus. For me it’s Scrivener because it’s non focused on anything but writing in general.
• FinalDraft 8 — Yes it’s expensive. $100 over the line I think. But it gets out of your way and version 8’s recent update brought 1-click PDF without printer setting bugs back too! I tried the two other screenwriting apps, even the ‘opensores’ one. All I ended up doing was wasting time with Fisher Price interfaces and clunky app behavior.

Now I should add InDesign or InCopy for publishing other writing. But I don’t want to. Suck a sock, Adobe! Why on Earth is a writing app like InCopy almost 1GB? Failjuice in the water cooler? Poured the talent out with the bathwater?

Post Production

• RV — I actually kind of prefer this one over FrameCycler. There, I said it! :) While it doesn’t support the features FrameCycler does, especially not the grading previews. Honestly it’s not one OR the other, it’s what is the best suited for what you need for a specific task.
• FrameCycler — Here it is :) Nuke comes with it anyways so you can flipbook preview your comp using the temp grade from your colorist.
• Nuke — Well… If you don’t know what this is, you probably don’t need it :) If you want to get into compositing, get their free learning edition and some hard liquor (so you can glaze over the pixel mess of the PLE).

Web

• Coda — My environment for creating web sites (their CSS editor blows though)
• Espresso — Now that it’s finally out I started using it for iTunes LP / Extras work mainly.  Really download one of the non-default themes though, white background all day, not good for your eyes!
• CSS Edit — Seriously, if you do web stuff and don’t have it already, something’s wrong with your productivity!
• ForkLift FTP — Unlike Transmit it doesn’t go idle in the middle of large file uploads.

Misc

• Balsamiq Mockups — Ass saver grandeur! Quickly visualize web, application or general layout concepts. I often do it while on a call with a client and sometimes even send it over DURING the call! It’s an Adobe AIR app so don’t leave it open ALL day!
• Things — I wasted 2 entire days on OmniFocus before finding this. An organization app should fit in my life not force me to restructure my life.
• Projector — OK this is an island solution with no ship in sight. You can’t export anything useful from it other than PDF and JPG. That said I actually found this useful and easy to use. If you ever need to chart out a complex project and get the clear-cost estimate and budget tracking, get a Mac mini and a large screen for this. The interface has a lot of kinks that have to be fixed, but it’s half the price of OmniPlan and way less complicated to use.
• FontLab Studio — If you’re doing fonts professionally… uhh nevermind, just look in your apps folder.
• Click To Flash — regain control over your system resources, less browser crashes because the Flash plug-in once again ran into an endless loop.

One thing I’m really excited for in 2010 is Smoke on the Mac. Need to see how it fares with stereo pipelines as that’ll be one major field again for me in 2010. I’m not really seeing it as a finishing solution only. More like an idea exploitation unit. The near-real-time lets you play with edits and composition in a way that usually fell under (screw this, I’m not waiting for THAT to render). Here’s an excellent article on the app if you’ve never heard about it.