Avid Salutes the 80th annual Academy Award® nominees & winners

Year after year, the people who make the world's most acclaimed and innovative films rely on solutions from Avid, Digidesign, Sibelius, and Softimage: trusted partners in creative achievement.

Avid is proud to be able to say that every single one of the nominated and award-winning films in the Best Motion Picture, Directing, Film Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, Documentary Feature and Original Score categories at this year's Academy Awards were created using at least one Avid, Digidesign, Sibelius or Softimage product. And nearly two-thirds of these nominees employed workflows consisting of multiple Avid systems.

Avid congratulates all the winners, nominees, and professionals of the 80th annual Academy Awards whose work inspires us all.

Quick Tips and Tricks

Become an Avid Certified User (ACU)

Knowledge is power and "power users" of Avid editing software know how to best utilize the many strengths of their systems. The Avid Certified User (ACU) program establishes a professional standard for Avid editing system proficiency in the post-production industry. Certification is achieved by mastering a comprehensive set of skills on the Avid editing system and passing a rigorous multiple-choice exam.

Avid Third-Party Textbooks

Look for these quality textbooks and self-paced materials online, or at a bookseller near you.

Learn More

Avid On-Line Tutorials

Whether you are new to editing or a seasoned professional, Avid's on-line training and tutorials are designed to help you explore the endless opportunities of editing. From working with specific media types, to using specific product features to adding effects and titling capabilities and more, these tutorials provide a step-by-step guide to enhance your editing skills.

Note: All tutorials require the latest flash plug-in. If you do not have the latest plug-in, you may download it for free from the Macromedia download center. Additionally, this page uses popup windows. If you have a popup blocker be sure to disable when using this site.

Featured Tutorials

Avid 3D Tutorials

Modeling
Avid 3D includes hundreds of professional models. Add custom animation and drag-and-drop hundreds of customizable textures, materials, lights, cameras, and shaders onto the models to make them your own. You'll complete your scene almost as quickly as you can imagine it.

Text Animation
Most 3D titles look just the same as they have for the past 30 years – big blocks of monolithic metal. Avid 3D can do that if that's what you need, but there's so much more. Use industry-leading dynamic warping technology from Softimage, combined with automatic animation tools, to create compelling, unique animations like nothing you've ever seen before, in just a few clicks.

Integration
The most difficult part of working with video and 3D together is that they're not at all together. They're two very different ways of working, and offer two very different ways of handling media, making it especially difficult to get back and forth. The integration between Avid 3D and your Avid editing system makes this painless, using industry-standard AAF interchange to share MXF media.

Troubleshooting

What Operating System, QuickTime version, and Nvidia driver should I have installed for my version of Avid Xpress Pro?

The following list provides a graphical representation of what version of QuickTime and Nvidia driver are needed with each specific version of Avid Xpress Pro PC.

Place your mouse on top of your version of Avid Xpress Pro for a clearer view, or click the version of Avid Xpress Pro to launch the ReadMe documentation.

Exception: ADVAudioDev: unable to prepare DV device for Audio output

Solution: In this particular case, uninstalling the Nvidia drivers, rebooting the cpu, and then installing the 91.85 Nvidia driver solved the problem. After installing the driver, the Nvidia Performance and Quality settings/Hardware Acceleration were set to Multi Display Compatibility mode.

Error: HPDomain Init File or HP Domain Bad Magic

Solutions: Make sure there is sufficient space on the internal hard drive. If this is not the problem try trashing the pmr and mdb files for this editor on the Unity/ISIS workspaces or local drives this editor is connected to.
Also look on the C drive of this editor for either Avid Mediafiles or OMFI Mediafiles and if found rename these folders (if not used) with an "X" in front, then relaunch the editor.

Why is QuickTime 7.4 NOT SUPPORTED on Avid editor products?

Recently, Apple released the 7.4 update to their popular media player, QuickTime. Preliminary reports from Avid Tech Support indicate that some users who have already downloaded the update are experiencing problems with their Avid editing systems.

It is advised that for now, all customers do not upgrade to QuickTime 7.4.

Once we have been able to test the 7.4 release, and code any required patches for it, another Tech Alert will be posted. As always, we advise turning off "Automatic Updates" for QuickTime to prevent unexpected / undesired updates from happening.

QuickTime 7.3 is supported with the latest editor releases -- Xpress Pro 5.8, Media Composer 2.8, NewsCutter 6.8, and Symphony Nitris 1.8

Can I download the Latest Updates and Hotfixes for Microsoft Windows on my Avid system?

Click the link below for Avid's latest supported Microsoft Service Packs and Hotfixes.

Microsoft Service Pack and Security Bulletin Support Addendum

Current Avid Software Releases

Below is a list of Avid software downloads currently available with their release dates:

Please note that software downloads are typically available for customers with an active Avid Assurance contract or customers who have purchased an upgrade. There are some free upgrade downloads available for certain Avid products (Click link below). Customers on Unity products should check release notes for all storage and attached client systems before upgrading any software.

Access the Avid Download Center