Aharon Rabinowitz
Forum Replies Created
-
CC= cycore effects. Comes with any non-educational version of AE 6? and 6.5. I think it comes will all versions of AE 7. Seperate installer on the CD/DVD.
Try using a glass shape setting for the shatter shape, and then as soon as the shatter starts, use the effects called Roughen edges and/or simple choker (with negative choke values) to soften or make the edges look more organic.
Also, consider looking a t a program like wondertouch particleIllusion or maybe Trapcode Particular if this is a paid job fo improving the look.
—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
You can do this with AE7, either withe time remapping + Frame BNlending, or with the effect called TIme Warp. Maybe not as nice as twixtor (though i wouldn’t necessarily say that) but very good.
—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
You can’t get rid of the BG in Illustrator without going frame by frame. Not a good solution. key it out in AE…
First, using the method I described for creating color palettes, create a color palette for cartoonification. Before saving that palleete, remove all greens except one, so that there is only one green color for the BG that will be keyed out.
Then run through the cartoonification process.
In AE, Use Keylight to remove the Green.
If you don’t have keylight (not on AE Pro?),then try the chroma keyer. With only one green, it should be OK. Then, maybe shrink the edges down 1 pixel with effect > Matte > Simple choker – which should clean the edge.
If you have keylight though (and AE pro comes with it – as a seperate installer on the disk) then tt works great – I’ve tested it.
—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
you got it man. Without a contract you have as little or as much ground to stand on as they do. The question is who growls louder at that point – and who has more to lose.
So as long as you haven’t agreed to give them the AE projects (And be sure you haven’t as in that last example – it isn’t clear) then do what you have to. But be prepaired to lose a client.
—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
Howabout a combo of shatter (for the peel), and CC Mr. Murcury (for the juice)?
—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
I feel like th most important point is being missed here, and that is: without a contract things can only go from OK to bad. No one ever says, hey there’s no contract, so let me give you more money.
Dave your advice is good for one job only and then after that, the animator will never get hired again by those people. If the terms are “Completed After Effects work” – then it’s pretty well clear (at least to me) that they mean the completed AE file. Otherwise it’s just a quicktime movie that could have been done in any program. Why would they care what program the work got done in? And since you have to hand in work before you get paid, don’t expect to get a check too quickly if you don’t come through.
Dave, I see from your profile that you have a position of responsibility. If you hired someone and they used semantics to get more money from you, how fast would you hire them again?
Instead of playing games, get the specifics on everything, and put it in writing. Unless people are beating down your door with jobs, playing games will mean less work for you. You’ll get a reputation for being unreliable and untrustworthy. In NY reputation gets around – I can’t speak for elsewhere.
And I can say this – I freelenced for several years at Viacom – a very reputable company who treated us animators very well – good pay, no overworking us. The contracts said that what we create for them is theirs, and It never entered our minds that when we freelanced there, that the work belonged to us – it’s their product and their network, and we were hired to create materials for them. Not once did I feel taken advantage of because everything was on the table before we even started. And I saw them using my stuff all the time, as things changed and I wasn’t available to update it. No bad feelings about it.
So ask yourself if it’s worth playing games for both your happiness and peace of mind? I don’t think so.
Contracts, baby! Good fences make good neighbors.
—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
I think it’s fairly sound advice.
But again, the point of whether or not you are working at their location is being ignored. If they hire you to come in and work on their machines, this doesn’t hold water – becasue you are then erasing files from their system which could be considered criminal – unless your contract says that they can’t keep those files.
If you work from home or your own office, as you do, parsonsdesign, there’s much more flexibility to conrol your destiny. You just have to take control of it. But once you hand that stuff off, you are accepting that they will use it anyway they see fit.
So like Rhett said, forget about the past, and now do one of the following:
A)don’t work for anyone that forces you to deliver the files, or
B) negotiate a way in which you don’t have to deliver the files. or
C) Negotiate a way that you get paid extra for project delivery.
Did I miss any realistic options?
—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
I should say that since I am the company now, I rarely am in a place to give up my AE projects – since most of my clients (Except a few) wouldn’t know what to do with them anyway. So in that way, I can’t really judge.
You may be absolutely right. But I think that my earlier point (which you might have missed) is that a company can’t rely on a freelancer availability to go forward on a project. they need the AE source files, if the animator becomes unavailable for work – otherwise they’re screwed.
Sorry. I guess I have a lot to say on this. Even if most of it’s not usefull.
—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
[RoRK] “You, yourself have mentioned having to face competition from cheaper, student alternatives. You’ve also mentioned facing a scarcity of work as a result. What you didn’t specify was that the scarcity of work could also be related to you giving away AEPs to your clients.”
Well, fortuantely, I tend to work long term with my clients becasue they like me and I do good work. Any client that I have ever turned in the AE Projects to (and this does not include working in house, which is a whole other story) has usually rehired me for other jobs. I think the reason they like to work with me is A) They can call me for help any time if it’s just a few minute conversation, and B) I don’t leave them in hole by turning in only the final product, and then not being available to help them when I’m too busy.
So, with much respect, I say that for the most part, No – it’s most definately cheap labor that has gotten in the way of my getting work in the most recent times – not my giving up AE projects. But I will also say that I can think of a company or 2 I worked for and delvered the projects to that were just pure evil, and that once thy had my work, tossed me away like garbage. But looking back, working for those people is a losing battle.
—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
Roland – I don’t think you’re not an AE guy – I just wasn’t sure you started as one. If you’re already in the industry doing something else, you could use connections that you have to move into it – which may or may not have been your way of doing it. And I see that from your history (clicked on your mugshot) that you were doing other industry stuff before that – like me. I can just tell you that even so, it was still very diffiuclt for me.
[RoRK] “My belief in recent years has been to follow he business models of the audio guys when it comes to providing AEPs and any elements. In short, do not provide your AEPs to your clients unless you are paid extra for it.”
And I think that’s an excellent way to go – if you work from home on your own, or if it’s your company. But if you are hired in-house, you are in very dangerous waters if you don’t turn in your AE projects, and instead erase them.
Again – I think you are absolutely, 100% right about what’s wrong with the industry and the people in it -except about how easy it is for AE people. But I also recognize that the only way to make it better is to get a contract. All of our moral debates about it is worth nothing, because, ultimately, a contract is a contract, and if you agree to it, then your bound by it. And you should never work in the brodcast industry (and most others) without a contract.
Roland, I also want to point out that you’re selling your product Brodacast Gems – which are basically AE Projects. From my point of view, I think it’s great thay you’ve found a way to bring in more well deserved income from your very (VERY) hard work. And of course the understanding/agreement is that the product be used with no further income to you – right? Just like the chef who writes the book.
And that’s probably the way that most companies view hiring an animator. It’s not wrong or right – It’s all in the contract. Recently a friend of mine who is a VO asked me if I thought her rate was fair. but I told her that I personally felt it was high, but if you can get it, it’s as fair as anything else.
By the way, I just want to say I completely respect your work and enjoy your tutorials, and I have learned a lot from you here in the forum. Please don’t think I have any bad feelings towards you. I just felt that some of your comments were not fully true, at least here in NY where it’s saturated with people trying to get the same jobs.
—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com