Is Avid appropriate for graphic-intensive shows?

[Todd Beabout]

Adrenaline should handle that… at least better than Xpress Pro, but even Adrenaline will probably choke with that many layers (especially with transparency). You might need to rethink your workflow though. 16-20 layers seems like a bit much to ask any NLE; sure they will do it, but it will slow it down to a c r a w l. You might want to think more “old school” like in the linear bay days if you have any experience there and be creative in a technical sense in how you get more than one thing to happen on a single track. But, this type of thing should probably be done in a program like After Effects or Combustion then added to your base video track in Avid. You’ll find things like lighting effects and motion blur that can really add to your GFX and not tax your NLE too much.

Just my $.02, hope it helps.

-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios

[Chuck Reti]

I realize you’re talking “pilot” presentation, but, is the concept for the actual show to do all of this as time and render-intensive post-production layering? If the show is of time-sensitive content, wouldn’t you/they want to add in as much of this material as possible in the production phase, with a multi-ME switcher? You wouldn’t need to include everything, leaving option for last minute additions, but it seems like the less you have to do in post, the quicker you could turn the finished show around.

—
Chuck Reti
VIdeo Editor
Detroit MI

[Tom John]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. (And the show mimics the look of a news show, but is not so quick-turnaround). I think I will advise the Producers to look more closely at a linear control room set-up.

Cheerio!

Tom

[Judita]

The Avid DS Nitris will do those layers soooo easy. But if the budget doesn’t allow for one then I recommend that you do your compositing in After Effects.

[Oakmozart]

I second Judy. DS Nitris is where it’s at in the Avid world. However, if you don’t have the moola for DS, but can swing upwards of $90K, look at the new Symphony Nitris system coming out this year. Adrenaline interface, Nitris-powered, with Symphony’s toolset. Should work wonders for this project of yours.

BTW, are you running Mojo on your Xpress Pro system? If you aren’t you should be…especially for the intense work you’re doing. I’m not saying Mojo will fix your problem, as you’re running an astronomical amount of layers for an NLE to handle, but Mojo will definitely help. If you’re not, guess you’ll either have to wait for the render times, upgrade to a higher-end Avid, or switch to a compositing program (like I think I’d do).

[Bill Stephan]

All those graphics-intensive news & weather shows are created using a system called Visrt. You create a template having the overall graphic design one time. Once you have the template, you can plug-in the text information very quickly.

Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City

[Chris Magid]

We find that Adrenaline is a great fit for taking motion graphics we created in After Effects with alpha channels and simply stacking them up.

Keep in mind that if even if need to render…Adrenaline will at least let you preview your 16 to 20 layers at a lower frame rate and draft resolution. Not pretty to look at, but it does help you adjust timing and placement before rendering.

Older Avid products and XpressPro will only show black when attempting to play back additional unrendered 1:1 layers. You get 2 in Meridien systems and 1 in XPO. Then lights out.

chris magid
chris@gortvf.com