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Rab-Byte Animations are Defective – BEWARE
I recently purchased Rab-Byte wedding animations volumes 50 & 51 seen at https://www.rab-byte.com/p5051.htm
I discovered upon them viewing full size and quality that 6 of the animations are defective where event text is revealed by a sparkling type animation. They look noticeably different from the rest. So much so that you don’t want to use them for wedding clients videos. When I wrote to Rab-Byte asking for replacements I got this response from a Marcia Murphy.
“As for the sparkle effect, there will be no corrections made. This is only an effect to create the elution that the stars are allowing the fonts to appear. This is not real world replication by any means. It is also not cost effective or an easy fix to create for you.” “You will most likely find a flaw or two in each of our 54 Volumes that we have produced over the years.”
She then offered to return my money for the 6 defective animations. I explained that I needed to either be able to use all of them or none of them since the text animations have to match for each event introduction. With 6 of them defective I could not use any of them. I then requested a refund in exchange for returning the animation DVDs. She never responded and I am out $200.
You can check out the six bad animations at the URL above. They are:
The Rings #5017
Reflecting Back #5019
First Dance #5107
Father Daughter Dance #5109
Cutting The Cake #5113
Honeymoon Highlights #5123
You have to look closely because of the low quality. Just compare any of the others to see the difference.
I’m sharing this with my fellow videographers so that you won’t waste your money on defective animations from a company who could care less.
What are your thoughts and experiences? -
3 Replies
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When you say “never responded” how much time are you talking about here? A day or a month?
Some suggestions:
Pick up a phone and call.
Return the DVD along with a demand for refund.
If you put it on a CC, dispute the charges through them.
Never ever use stock animations that everyone else has access to. It’ll make your product look cheesy (I’ve never see an Oscar worthy movie ever use such dreck), or it’ll make your product look like everyone else’s – The first time you have a bride complain that her friend has the same animation will be the embarassing moment of “duh. Why didn’t I think of that before”
If you are going to use stock elements, only use such that you can manipulate and alter sufficiently to hide the fact that it’s stock. I’ve found that Digital Juice is ideally suited for such alteration.
-DJ
David Chandler-Gick
DavidChandler-Gick.com
Event Video COW Moderator
Contributing Editor eventDV magazine -
Thanks for the feedback, David. It’s been 3 months since I requested a refund from Rab-Byte and had no response. We had corresponded up to the point of my asking for the full refund but than there was no response. While there may have been more ways to fight this to get my money back my point here is that Rab-Byte:
1) Admittedly sells defective animations.
2) Is unwilling to correct the defects
3) Is unwilling to give a full refund
Your recommendations about using non stock animations is great advice but doesn’t pertain to the basis of my complaint. I am only passing this information on to other videographers, whatever your skill level, professional or hobbyist, to beware of dealing with this company. As I pointed out above the defects are visible in the sample movies. Most of us don’t expect to have to compare one sample to the other to look for defects before purchasing. -
I agree with David about using stuff that you can modify. I saw a broadcast spot up here in Montreal for a large company…everything that was used was stock eyewire footage. I laughed, because nothing had been altered, and I knew everything that they used.
I use eyewire at work. But, I never use a plain eyewire…never! I will take two, sometimes more, combine them, key them, blur them, glow them, colorize them, use them as track mattes for other footage, bloom them…well you get the idea.
Good luck with the return of your DVD. It really sucks when you ge taken in. In the future, I would suggest dealing with the bigger companies, such as digital juice, artbeats, and Getty (Eyewire)….you will pay a little more, but generally the animations are of higher quality, and you get good customer service…Artbeats has great customer service.
Mark
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