var ?’s re: new system

[Arnie Schlissel]

Gee, Kent, you sure do have a lot of questions! Is there a good VAR in your area? How about some FCP training resources? Also, you can search this forum (and other COW forums) for some information, as well.

Your monitor setup is largely a matter of personal taste. I like 2 big monitors. Some people like 1 really gihugic monitor. Those that can afford them may like 2 gihugic monitors.

For color grading, you should look at getting a Kona card and a broadcast monitor. Read through posts on the Color forum for some general information.

If you’re going to be doing any real amount of greenscreen, or other, compositing, buy “The Encyclopedia of Visual Effects” by Damian Allen & Brian Connor. it’s part of the Apple Pro Training Series from Peachpit Press. While you’re at it, take a look through the rest of the APTS catalog. There are a couple of books on Motion and Shake, as well as motion graphics & effects that might be of help to you.

I prefer to do most of my compositing, especially keying in Shake. I’ve also worked with Motion and After Effects. Some prefer Combustion, some like AE. Again it’s a matter of personal taste, and maybe using the right tools for a particular job. I’ve often had to create elements in one program that went into another to create a final composite.

And don’t forget Photoshop. I don’t know how we made movies before Photoshop.

A faster Mac will render faster. It may last you longer down the road as well, since software in the future will want a faster CPU to run it on.

Get as much memory as you can afford. I buy my memory from Other World Computing. Some other people swear by Crucial for their memory.

If you want to run Color, get the ATI x1900 card. And get a Kona card for your monitor out.

Alas, Your DSR-11 will not play HDV. Exactly which deck you need to play your clients tapes will depend on which of the 3 or more formats of HDV they decide to shoot. Sony & JVC’s formats are not compatible with each other. I don’t know if Cannon’s format is compatible with anyone else’s.

Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog

[Kent Beeson]

Thanks very much for the time you took in helping with my var(ious) questions. Sounds like I’ll have to have a bit more $ if I want to edit this HD/HDV stuff. I did think though that maybe I could use FCP’s chroma key filter and that would work well on green screens, any thoughts?

KB

[Arnie Schlissel]

FCP’s keying filters are only good for doing temporary or “scratch” keys to show placement & play with composition, backgrounds, etc.

For keying inside of FCP & Motion, I like Conduit, from dvgarage.com. It’s a bit complicated to use, though, because it’s actually a little nodal compositing environment that you can open up inside FCP or Motion. Very powerful, but complicated in how it works, and it does a lot more that keying. There are tutorial movies on the samples page.

dvgarage has more conventional keyers, as well. The version of Primatte that’s bundled with Motion isn’t bad. And Shake comes with both Primatte & Keylight, which are 2 of the leading keyers. In Shake, I usually try Keylight, and then Primatte. It often requires combining 2 or 3 (or more!) separate keys into one matte to pull a really good key.

Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog

[Arnie Schlissel]

There’s a lot of keying tutorials here on the COW. Click on the Library tab above & do a search on “keying”. Andrew Shanks’ series was very good, and Barend Onneweer’s is as well.

Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog

[Kent Beeson]

Great, thanks again

KB