[Adam Taylor]

Must haves for me would be a AJA video card – not sure what the latest ones are, I have used the Kona 3 for the past 5 years and swear by it. I also have a Matrox MX02LE which is really good and is portable too.

A graphics card that is compatible with Color. The ATI cards seem better suited to this, but if you use Adobe Premiere a lot, then you may want an Nvidia card as these are better with adobes Mercury engine.

Also – if you are cutting with FCP you might want to wait one month more, to see just what Apple are intending to do with the software. So far they have had one preview and nothing else. More questions remain than were answered, so you might find the forthcoming release will either grab you or put you off. Until its released you cant know for sure which system will be best for you. You don’t want to spend a load on kit then find you need something else to allow you to go for Avid, for example. Its due sometime in the next 6 weeks, so i’d hang on a bit longer if i were in your shoes.

Storage – definitely a Raid system (multiple drives are better than two) and using raid 5 for good protection and performance. Many suggest connecting via eSata. Mine are connected with Fibre channel which is also fast.

I would also suggest you look into getting a robust tape library backup system. Hard drives are not very reliable for long term storage and for backing up a multi terrabyte system, there is no more cost effective option. I use a Quantum Scalar i40 library with LTO5 tapes – this keeps daily backups of everything. Having twice had raid systems suffer catastrophic failure, i swear by having a full backup. It might seem expensive at first, but if you lose ALL your data then you will really wish you had spent it!

On a cheaper level, I would invest in a wacom drawing tablet (intuos widescreen versions are great). Takes hardly no time to get used to it, and your overall productivity will rocket once you stop scratching around with a “soap on a rope”.

And get the best chair you can afford – cheap office chairs are dreadful and can lead to back pain.

happy shopping!

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

what you need to do is duplicate your existing film roll effect onto a new layer. Then reset the start and endpoints of its associated path, as well as the start and end sizes so it goes from small to large.
Then offset the start of the layer so the effect begins only when the first film strip passes under the X.

Its often easier to break an effect down into smaller manageable pieces than to try accomplish the entire effect in one.

Then you can use any number of methods to colour the new layer.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

you will need to create your subclips first, then within the folder containing the subclips you hold shift whilst selecting all you want to export. Then select Send To …Compressor.

This will ask if you want to send as individual clips or combine them into one – choose individual.

When Compressor opens you can select all the clips and drag a setting onto one, which will place the same setting on each clip.

You will need to create your own wmv setting as Compressor doesnt have one as standard. Search the cow for instruction on this (its how i learnt it). Then submit the job and your batch will happen. You may want to look into using QMaster to speed things up – the instructions are within its help files, and should be already installed with your FCP.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

indeed i am, warren!

still doesn’t fill me with confidence yet though.

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

I had major issues a few weeks back after the prokit update.

FCP kept freezing, crashing, and generally behaving weird. Tried allsorts but ended up reinstalling a clean system drive and only installing software up to os10.6.5 and not updating the prokit!

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

or perhaps you could make subclips for each section, then highlight all the subclips in the bin and batch export those?

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

just a thought to bear in mind – as you are importing as DV, you should be aware that DV requires your first field to be on the Lower (even) lines, whereas pretty much every other video format uses the upper (odd) line first except the progressive ones).
So you might be encountering problems of fields being reversed, if you start working with mixed formats.

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

No – i got the bog standard version! Max adds the option of faster H264 conversions (i think), but is not something i have much call for.

I got the laptop version which which comes with an Expresscard34 adapter, but i also bought the pci card so i can connect to both my Mac Pro and Macbook Pro. The card was another £49 so didnt break the bank.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

you could take a look at the Matrox MX02 range. I just bought myself the LE version and it works really well across a range input/output formats.
with a glyph portagig62 mini raid drive and the Matrox, my laptop is now capable of digitizing and editing HD whilst on location.
Just ensure you get the 17″ macbook to be sure you get the expresscard34 slot. Even with Thunderpants on the scene there are still many connection options that these cards will give you.

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

if you have any musical ability, or even just an ear for a tune, try making your own using something like Garageband. Just cut together some of the thousands of samples and beats that come with the software, till you get something you like.

Its free to use, because you are classed as the composer, and if you register yourself with one of the royalty collection agencies (in the UK its T”he Performing Rights Society”). Then whenever your ad is broadcast, the tv stations also have to pay royalties, which will be collected by the agency (it helps if you register the music title as well as the ad clock numbers) and you will get a little payback every few months!

I have done this on a few of our ads this past year, and so far its earned close to four figures! Not bad for a non musician.

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk