Pinnacle Systems has shipped Commotion Pro 4, the company's integrated paint, composite and special effects software. Commotion Pro 4 offers speed gains of 30% in compositing and 200% in painting. New grouping and browsing controls provide a comprehensive solution for managing composites and working with multiple layers. Users can add mattes, color corrections or other filters and motion controls to multiple layers at once. A new timeline browser gives users an overview of the entire composite with controls for selecting, moving and deleting groups and layers. Pinnacle's CineWave feature adds real-time playback of standard definition clips. In addition, users can import Adobe Photoshop files into a composite while preserving the individual layer information including transfer modes, transparencies, masks and names. "With Commotion Pro 4, we continue our focus on providing a rich application for creating visual effects," said Sean Safreed, senior product manager for the Professional Division at Pinnacle Systems, Inc. "Our engineers have worked tirelessly to perfect this new version, bringing greater speed and improved tools to our many users." Commotion Pro 4.0 sells for US$995.