[Adam Taylor]

I think so – i did it months ago (nearly a year) and nothing has changed. Same deck, same configuration and its worked perfectly up until today.

But as i said – the inpoint was bang on the correct frame (colour bars appear at 09.58.00.00 exactly as they should).

What i didn’t make clear is that i layed down the entire timeline in one single pass….so if the in point is correct, why are the two commercials a frame on tape late when they are perfect on the FCP timeline?

I am going to try a different timeline and see what happens…..

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Adam Taylor]

I forgot to add – i’m using a FCS2, G5 Quad, 4gb ram, Xserve raid, Kona 3 – 10 bit uncompressed sd pal.

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Adam Taylor]

only watched example 2 – looks really simple actually. Have you ever stood in the shower and watched your feet whilst the water races past your head – same principle in play here.

I would create a 3d project and using a camera positioned to point straight down, i would locate a particle generator (probably Particular – thats what was used on the shot you liked) directly abve the camera. Then create a rain effect or find a rain preset, make sure there is no wind turbulence switched in – you don’t want the particles swaying sideways. Let gravity creat ethe motion for you.

Sometimes if you step back and try understand what natural effect is being replicated, it can help make it easier to figure out how to re-create it.

adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Adam Taylor]

having looked at your image again, there are a couple of obvious problems. Aside from the obviously different focal lengths used, the photo was taken with the camera positioned above/looking slightly down at the couple, and your comp has the camera looking from upwards from below.

Unless you put the comp camera in roughly the same position as the practical camera, you will not get a convincing image, as nothing will be on the same plane.

You mentioned you could not get the perspectives right….well perspective tends to be created by a combination of the camera’s focal length AND the angle of the subject relative to the camera. Get those right and you will be on your way to getting the shot thats in your mind.

adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Adam Taylor]

i haven’t tried this…but i do dabble in photography…and the thing that strikes me is that you should try to ensure the focal length of your virtual camera is the same as the one used to take the photo. So if you had a 28mm lens on the camera,ause a 28mm virtual lens.

adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Adam Taylor]

you could try Yorkshire TV (Kirkstall Road, Leeds) or Granada TV (Quay Street, Manchester)

adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Adam Taylor]

thanks Rafalaos,

that looks a very useful app – unfortunately it didn’t work on this occasion!

I have managed to contact someone at the studio and they are going to go in tomorrow and sort out the dodgy files.

regards
Adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Adam Taylor]

I am having exactly the same problem, and it has only started since i upgraded to FCS2.

My system comprises G5 Quad, 4gb ram, Xserve raid (both fibre channels connected to my G5), Kona 3, 10 bit uncompressed Pal.

As i’m working on commercials, its not as if i have hours of footage on a timeline either.
Render files are all stored on same Xserve raid as all the other footage, and i’m the only user connected to the raid

Prior to FCS2 – it was a very stable system…now i am having quite a few very flaky problems with lots of different areas of the software! Cetainly not Apples most helpful upgrade.

Adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Adam Taylor]

one further addition –

happened again yesterday. Different project , different material etc. In fact the only thing that was the same as the previous time was that i was using a Motion 3 project file as a graphic (albeit a new graphic, so not exactly the same as before), rather than an animation file with alpha.

Once i had realised the possible cause I rendered a movie and used that instead – lo and behold No more coloured overlays!

The moral of this tale – Motion 3 project files are not necessarily the way to go for overlaid animations!

adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Adam Taylor]

certainly not loose cables !! Its a render problem.

In the end i got around the problem by compositing the entire shot in Shake. I reckon there was probably a corrupted file causing the problem.

Time was against me so no way to take the time to experiment.

adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK