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Avid’s DVDs worth it?
So I edit on a media composer adrenaline, but I usually do most of my effects work in after effects simply because I hate working with Avid’s convoluted way of working with effects (well to me anyway).
I think things would go much faster if I could do almost everything from within avid (at least things I know it’s capable of) without having to go to another program.
I understand how Avid’s effects work with having to step in and autonesting and stuff like that, it just seems so stupid to me and I can’t quite wrap my head around everything. For example, if I put an effect on a clip on V2 to rotate and scale it, the clip underneath it on V1 is not effected. However, if i already have an effect on that clip on V2 and then autonest to also add on the effect that scales and rotates, it ends up also effecting the clip on V1. There’s only certain effects that do it an in only certain situations (like I just said, with 2 effects on it, it does it; without the autonesting, it doesn’t).
Things just seem buggy and backwards the way avid works with effects (and why wouldn’t it, being as it hasn’t changed in the past 20 years), and being able to just pile on and see your effects like you do in after effects, final cut, and premiere, seems so much easier and makes much more sense.
Anyway, after that long rant which probably wasn’t necessary, I wanted to know if the effect training DVDs that are put out by avid are worth the $200 they go for. I mean, if I’m not completely new to effects in Avid, will I really learn that much? I have avid books that explain effects and stuff, but nothing beyond basics and maybe intermediate stuff. I need something that will really make me fly with avid’s effects, and there just simply isn’t much out there on the subject. Anybody seen those DVDs and have an opinion on them, or will I learn probably no more than those books and things out there teach?
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6 Replies
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I think they are very helpful in that you can apply (or watch them apply) the applications to real world situations and video examples. If you put the DVDs on a player and monitor and place that beside your Avid monitor, you can play along with your own footage and get the hang of it. Have you been to the Avid site and tried out Alex?
https://www.avid.com/training/alex.asp
Regards,
Joe Womble
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Hey Joe,
Thanks for the reply. I’m checking out Alex right now.
As far as the DVDs go, do you know which is the most up to date ones? I’ve found ones with the purple gel X on it for xpress pro, then there’s one with screen shots on the front, and there’s some that come in bundle packs but I’m not sure if the ones that come in bundles like “effects and color correction” give you two separate DVDs, or if they combine them into one and will just give me a stripped down version of effects overview as opposed to me just buying the effects dvd by itself.
Sorry if this is a lot of questions, it’s just that two hundred bucks or three hundred or whatever they run for is kind of a lot of money for me and I just want to be sure about it before I purchase. Have you personally watched any of them, and if so, which ones exactly?
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I haven’t seen the ones you are talking about. I watched all the ones for Studio Complete that went in depth on FX, Avid DVD and Avid PT LE. They were dry but very informative.
I’ve seen some of the training DVDs available on eBay and other outlets from time to time.
Regards,
Joe Womble
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The examples I’m talking about used to be on the avid website, but it doesn’t look like Avid carries it anymore. You can still see what I’m talking about at student discount stores. Here’s some examples.
https://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketdisp.html?PartNo=717748&qk_srch=avid
https://www.campustech.com/c/campust/94021.html?id=oGcoySwU&mv_pc=937
And then they also carry bundles, but again, I’m not sure if they are different than the ones you’d get if you bought the DVDs separately.
The Alex training looks alright, but I guess I’m really looking for more advanced stuff. They just have courses like Introduction to Effects and such. It just seems so hard to find any training, books, DVDs, anything, that teaches advanced avid effects (and we don’t have the studio kit here at work with AvidFX and Avid3D and all that stuff).
Thanks for helping me out. I really appreciate it.
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Hmm, looks interesting. We don’t have Boris Red at my work, but we do have Boris Continuum Complete. I wonder if the knowledge learned in that course could carry over?
That page you linked me to was pretty interesting though. The “Advanced Media Composer Effects” class caught my eye, but unfortunately they don’t have an Alex class for it, it’s an in-person class only, and Avid’s training locations are severely lacking. I live in Michigan and unfortunately there’s nothing close by.
Not sure what to do yet. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy those DVDs I mentioned. If anyone else has any suggestions, feel free to let me know.
Thanks again Joe for looking this stuff up for me!
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