the 4 square effect….

[Tony Silanskas]

Digital Heaven Boxes might be a good place to start:

https://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/dh_box

tony

[Scott Sheriff]

Brian,
“I’ll be using final cut pro, and i know i can re size each file and fit them,, but i’m looking for a more accurate approach to this.”

Once you get the footage in a rough scale and positioned, you can enter Scale and Centering X/Y coordinates under the Motion tab to position them with pixel accuracy.

Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

I have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed…

[Mark Suszko]

Next old effect to be revived will the the A54 Abekas 8-box spinning video cube of doom!:-)

You know, I never found a single instance where that effect was really any use to a program, but you weren’t considered a REAL editor until you could build one, spin it and explode it.

[Brian Shanahan]

Hi guys, thanks a million for the replies!

70’s style indeed!

the band are a very folky/roots act, but still quite pop orientated.

thanks for the tip on using motion and after effects, i’m new to both programs, and have had only limited time to use them? are you aware of any tutorial of how to treat it in Motion? is there a way i should approach this?

again any help is appreciated, and thanks again!

Brian

[Tom Matthies]

Three channels of ADO and a concentrator. That’s all it took. Oh, and a lot of time…and machines…and money…and a large switcher.
The boxes were all the rage for a while there. I have to sheepishly admit that I just did a spinning box a few weeks ago using Boris Continuum for a client who-how do I say this tactfully-has been in the biz for a long time now but is kind of stuck in the 80’s yet.
You weren’t a real editor until you’s mastered the spinning cube.
Yea,It brought back some memories…bad ones at that.

Tom

E=MC2+/-2db

[Scott Sheriff]

Mark,
“Next old effect to be revived will the the A54 Abekas 8-box spinning video cube of doom!:-)”

At my first real online editor job, we had a 1 channel first generation ADO, when that was the state of the art. Of course we built a cube with it! It was a contest between all the editors to see who’s looked the best.
By the time you did all the passes, the first couple of gens started showing a lot of loss even on 1″. I still have my 5″ floppy disc with the positions.

If you like old school multi-image FX. I replicated the first minute of Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix (from the exhaust pipe pull out) shot for shot, using racing karts for an instructional I’m working on.
I’m probably the only one that is amused by this, since the youngsters think it’s some kind of ’24’ knock-off and don’t get it.
I think the CU shot of the spinning T-handle speed wrench is the craziest. it goes from 1 shot, then 4, then 16, and then 64. It looks pretty cool on video, but I’m sure the original was a real eye-popper in the theater in Super-Panavision.

Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

I have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed…

[Brian Shanahan]

Not too tough at all Dave!

Thanks for the advice!

[Scott Sheriff]

Dave,
“In ’02 or ’03 for an in-house video, I replicated the program open of Miami Vice. For example, I replaced that recurring low-level aerial shot over the waves with one over a corn field. Hey, I’m in Iowa: not much ocean, lots o’ corn. The majority of people — those under 30 — just stared, but those few folks 40 and older got the visual jokes, so it got some yuks.”

Yep, I hear ya. The 20 and 30 somethings on the crew just don’t get it.
Me and my production clique that are a little older love all things 80’s, and that would include Vice.
Oh I can see it now. Football, instead of jia alai, a down the line dolly shot of tractors instead of Rolls Royce, silos instead of skyscrapers.
The real question is what about the two bikini girls?

Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

I have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed…

[Scott Sheriff]

Dave,
“Two old ladies in hats walking into the senior center for a little bingo. Shot from behind, of course.

You got those other shots right, too! The name of the goof open: “Iowa Nice”

Two old ladies in hats! Genius!

Iowa Nice. LOL so hard coffee came out my nose!

This is what Production is about. Who needs plugins?

If I was judging this for the Emmy’s, it would have got all 10’s!

VO: We now return this thread to its regular content

Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

I have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed…

[Mark Suszko]

“Oooohhhh! You had FANCY toys in your edit suite!”
-Dave LaRonde

No, I WISH, Dave… there was a freeware util of some sort a friend lent me, that let you practice making the multi-cube offline. I noodled with that briefly and was pretty relieved that I never had to make one for real. Assuming I ever got access to an Abekas in the first place. Best I ever got to play with was a 3-day test of the ElectroHome Jazz, (I doubt many here ever heard of it) then we later got the Pinnacle Alladins, rocking Windows 95, at which I became highly skilled for a time. Used it TODAY for a statewide live shot, still ticking. Man, for a single-channel DVE with paintbox, switcher, and CG and TOPAS 3D animation bundled, that was a one-step upgrade to our analog one-inch suite that let us compete with the high-end shops in town for years. Truly a classic product, and abandoned ahead of it’s time….the last thing from Pinnacle I ever liked, actually…

But the top editing guys in Chicago driving the Big Iron in those heady 80’s days were always showing off rotating cubes and multiwindow globes full of PIP boxes, all painstakingly make on the Abekas / ADO. They were a demonstration of prowess. Like I said, while these effects never failed to impress, I never saw them used in anything where they really “meant” anything that couldn’t have been done/said better some other way. They were cool, splashy and high-tech looking effects, perhaps best used for a title page, and some cheesy 80’s music videos used them. Their grandkids, created in AfterEffects, are way more subtle these days… or at least can be.

Now, I have like 20 of those cubes and other shapes one click away in my FCP effects bin, and I still can’t imagine an instance where I’d want to actually USE it. I do 98 percent of my work with cuts and dissolves. TOPAS lives on in truncated form in a PC app called Crystal 3D Impact Pro, which still makes really nice 3-d extruded type and other shapes, cheaply. I think of it as the windows paint of 3-d apps. I don’t know if it survived the jump to Vista O.S., guessing not.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get the onion on my belt exchanged….