Aharon Rabinowitz
Forum Replies Created
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I don’t think any analogy is really applicable, frankly. And Analogies are nice for comparrison, but they don’t solve the problem.
If there’s not contract, and you’re working from home, don’t turn in the After Effects files and see how that goes. If you are on their machines, and you erase the files – you could get sued for desctruction of property. They could always claim thay would have called you in again.
But let me state this as I did in another post:
You have to also keep something in mind – if it was your business, and you had hired someone to work on a project for you, if you had any brains at all, you would make sure that they had to turn in their AE projects as a part of the deal. You can’t run a business on the availability of freelancers because if that person has another job, is on vacation, or just decides they just don’t want to work for you anymore, then you’d be totally screwed if your client needed something changed. and that ALWYAS happens.
As far as their using it for other projects – while I understand that you feel cheeted, once you’ve already given them your work, you have to accept that they can use it any way they want – IF YOU DON’T HAVE A CONTRACT.
On the other hand, I’ve worked with animators who took the same work they did at one place, and modified it for other projects they worked on elsewhere so that, while they could do it again over a few hours, they could turn in work faster this way. It’s on the same moral ground as your situation – I’m not sure I have a problem with it, so long as they don’t undermine the original project/client or are not violating a contract that says they can’t (though most do say this).
I may take heat for saying this, but how many people here haven’t used even one preset or trick they created on one job for another job? Many contracts I’ve seen stipulate that any idea you come up woth on a job, even if you don’t use it, or if it has nothing to do with the gig you’re on, belongs to them. At Sesame Street they told us that the very interactions we had with eachother was due to our working for the company, so even an Idea discussed over dinner at my apartment was thier idea – of course we all just didn’t sign the contract, and they never said anything about it, after that.
But my point is that, wrong or right taking anything (including knowledge) you created on one gig, and using it elsewhere can be considered no different then taking your work and using it elsewhere. You give it in, and unless it’s in a contract, you should expect that they will take what you have done and build off it. Frankly, if the contract stipulates that you have to give a pint of blood the redcross every month to get paid, you have to do it…
Again, this is a 2-way street. For now, without a contract, you’re also free to take anything you’ve done for them and use it elsewhere, so long as you don’t undermine their client (and possibly even if you do). You may be able to use this as leverage the next time you negotiate with them.
Just a thought.
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Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
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Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
I just want to say RoRK, that while my statements were fairly strong, I do recognize that a lot fo what you said is true, and that it would be great if we could do it in a way that led to more work and better opportunities.
What i did not agree with is your attitude about how easy you think it is for After Effects people to get work, and how we need to grow up. I don’t know where that’s coming from.
If I offended, I apologize, but I think of you take a look at your statements, you will see that some of them are pretty inflamatory and insulting.
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Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
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Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
[RoRK] “This is an issue that has bothered for a very long time. The SYMPTOM of this problem is that AE guys and those alike do not understand what it takes to earn a living in this business.”
I’m not sure if I should be offended by this – I’m going to assume you don’t actually have experience trying to get work in animation when you
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Well spoken Steve. Virtually anything you could do to make it harder for them to use your stuff without upfront telling them they can’t will just piss people off – and that means less work. Like you said you go into the studio and see the work their doing, so they must still be hiring you for other gigs, right?
If you work on their machines, and leave the files there, you are basically telling them it’s OK to use your stuff. Even if it’s morally shaky for them to use it (which I really don’t think it is), they still have a lot of legal ground to stand on. The client is theirs, and the client didn’t pay you for the work they paid the studio which hired you to design for them.
But I’m going to tell you this – if you deliver stuff and cash a check, then they can easily argue that the understanding is that they paid you for what you gave them and you accepted the terms when you accepted the money.
Always… ALWAYS get a contract and read the fine print. And chop it up and re-write it if you are unhappy with it. i do that all the time – make small changes tell them. Look they are asking you to agree to their terms, no reason, if you’re really bringing something to the table, that you can’t do that to.
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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 -
As of late nothing I’d consider noteworthy but a few cool things on the rise – Although the Creative Cow AE Podcast has me pretty busy.
One thing Noteworthy – I got a full night of sleep on friday night. Not something that happens too often. Sweet!
Thumbslinger – can you contact me via email? I may have an opportunity for you, but I’m not sure how to contact you. The sooner the better.
Thanks.
Aharon
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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 may want to post in the business forum but here are my thoughts:
f you worked for them and didn’t agree up front that all work is yours (and you’ll never get work if you do), and you cashed your check, it’s theirs not yours. Generally when you work for a company and deliver files, you are being paid not just for the final product but anything that went into it.
My personal feeling is that there’s nothing wrong with that. Does you current contractor pay a percentage to the original construction company that built your house, just because they’re building off their original work? Tons of my stuff has been reused for for porjects I wasn’t called in on. It’s the nature of the business. Otherwise a network would only be able to hire the same freelance people over and over, and what if one of them weren’t avaiable or decided to say I want $10,000 and hour or you can’t use my stuff? You do a job, and deliver files, and move on.
Sorry. I know it sucks, but that’s how it goes.
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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 -
Sounds great. I use Fractal noise very often, becasue it can do so much. Your tutorial on the science of it was excellent. Thanks.
Aharon
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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 worked with a team of traditional animators – the guys who do the saturday night live cartoons – wachtenheim Marrianetti Animation, LLC. They did the drawings, and I keyed out the footage, motion tracked different part sof their bodies, did some stuff by hand. Also we had Dark green marking points on the green screen (looked like Plus signs), whioch we used to mark camera moves and zoomes, which After Effects’s motion tracker can calculate for. So when the camera zooms up the BG moves with it, also to the left and right.
By the way -thanks for asking about this project. 2 weeks ago, when I was having dinner with my wife, I saw someone that looked really familiar, but couldn’t place him. I knew he was an actor, and I knew I’d worked on a project he was in, but for the life of me, I just couldn’t figure it out. This morning, I looked back at the drew carey stuff, and it was one of the guys from that. It’s been driving me crazy. Now I can get some sleep.
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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 -
Sure – I used Fractal noise to create the blocks (Noise type). I played with different properties, such as the Fractla noise’s transform to make it long lines.
Also, I lowered the complexity as low as it would go, so it would just be simple squares or rectangles)
I also animated the evolution.
Finally I used a different transfer mode for the effect, other then normal – it might have been screen or overlay.
The fractal noise effect is possibly the most robust effect in AE, so you should definately play around with it – especially in conjunction with other effects such as colorama, for example.
Hope this helps.
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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 -
Sever things contribute to that, near as I can tell:
1) Poor and inconsistant lighting. Video cameras get a lot of noise in porr lighting, and as a result, Illustrator will pick up on those stary pixels, altering the color.
If the lighting changes over time (like the sun moving behind a cloud) it will definately cause the colors to change
2) Make sure you have created a color palette, as it explains in part 2. Without that color palatte limiting the color choices, color will flicker no matter how good your lighting.
3) Lower the frame rate – it helps.
4) If you can film in front of a green screen, and use a statick bacground image it helps – a LOT. I’ve since tested that, and if you limit the palette to one green and then use keylight to remove the green BG… and then using a cartoonified BG still image, it really helps.
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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