In an announcement that has filmmakers around the world screaming "thank you", Adobe has released news that the Adobe Production Studio, the only comparative competitor to Final Cut Pro, is heading back to the Mac platform.

The suite, which Adobe describes as an "integrated video and audio post-production tool set", is comprised of eight different application (pro bundle):

• Adobe After Effects - special effects compositing
• Adobe Premiere - general non-linear editing
• Adobe Photoshop - still graphic manipulation
• Adobe Audition - sound editing
• Adobe Encore DVD - DVD production and design
• Adobe Illustrator - vector graphic manipulation
• Adobe Dynamic Link - preventing re-renders
• Adobe Bridge - "navigational control center"

Adobe notes that Soundbooth, the program that Adobe is currently offering as a free beta, will be replacing Audition in the Mac version of the Production Studio.  It is unclear as to Audition's future, however they do say it will continue to be developed for Windows users (strangely!).

The best news?  They claim it will be ready by mid-2007.  If this is true… Apple, you had best watch out. 

JahShaka, the free/open source compositing program, released version 2.0 on Wednesday.

The release, which also came with news of version 0.1.0 of the JahPlayer, is advertised as “the most rock-solid version” of the program yet, and features critical bug fixes as well as some updates.

The exciting announcement (for me, more later) is that the version 3.0 of JahShaka will be based on an entirely new codebase, specifically the codebase of the JahPlayer. I’m a fan of JahShaka, I’m a fan of all Open Source (especially in film, we have so little) but honestly I could never get much done in JahShaka. Hopefully this code overhaul will make it easier!