Steve Green's free and fascinating video effect utility CamTwist has been updated to version 1.7, including fixes for several bugs, adding AppleScript support and Flickr slideshows, as well as an entirely new tool called CamTwist Studio for live mixing. If you've got any curiosity about video effects on the Mac, you are in for a real treat with CamTwist.

The new piece of the puzzle, CamTwist Studio, lets you take preset effects, overlays, slide shows/canned video and camera mixes and do on-the-fly, multicamera previewing and switching, with only a couple of clicks -- a "television studio in a box." CamTwist leverages Quartz compositions to do its graphic magic, so it does require 10.4 or better and a reasonably speedy Quartz Extreme-capable machine (not to mention a video source like a webcam or iSight). While it isn't directly compatible with iChat, it works with almost every other live video service, including Skype, uStream and Yahoo! Live.

CamTwist can be a little bit sparse on first glance, but if you want to ramp up quickly to getting RSS feeds, lower thirds or fancy effects on your video with professional aplomb, check out Ben's excellent training clip on the documentation page. Our buddy Chris Pirillo did a walkthrough of CamTwist's functionality in his production setup ("I tried all the [video effect] software for Windows, and they all suck -- there's nothing close to CamTwist on Windows"), and Metacafe has a thorough rundown.

If you're having fun exploring CamTwist, you might also be interested in Stone Design's Videator ($49), Varasoft's Wirecast 3 ($450, cross-platform) or CamCamX from blackop ($59 for a one-year subscription). All three have a following for VJ and live mixing use, and are commercially supported. Still, for sheer mix-it-up fun you can't beat CamTwist.

[via Download Squad/MacUpdate]