[Andrew Donaldson]

Perfect answers to my questions, thanks alot.
AMA sounds pretty good too, I’ll go check that out.

Normally, I would ask some editor friends these silly questions, but they all cut on FCP or Ppro!.

Thanks again, I appreciate it.

Andrew.

[Andrew Donaldson]

Thanks for your reply Shane.

I have cut on both FCP and Premiere for years now, but need to learn Avid.
Im just trying to get my head around the workflow.

I am used to converting everything to Prores and cutting from that.
Do you transcode all your media to MXF, or just let Avid do it on import?

Cheers,
Andrew.

[Andrew Donaldson]

FWIW I found the answer:

Apply a Display tag to the object and keyframe the visibility from 0 to 100% when you want to mark the in-point, or make the object ‘appear’.

🙂

[Andrew Donaldson]

Hey, thanks for your replies.

I think it might have been a bug, because a renamed the project and moved a few things around and its been fine since.

If it happens again I’ll post back and will look into your suggestions.

Thanks again.
Andrew.

[Andrew Donaldson]

Great points about pre-2013 Smoke Walter, I wasn’t sure how significantly they had changed things. When you start saying things like having a client in the room, that’s when things start becoming a little scary with new tools!

My background is as an FCP editor who now uses AE 75% of my day for Compositing and Motion Graphics. but don’t call myself a compositor or a motion graphics designer!
The wierd thing is im not sure about calling myself a “designer”, call it stupid of crazy, i dunno…

Since i can use C4D, AE and FCP i get alot of broad-spectrum work. And the point of the thread was because AE is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades tools. And to learn Nuke would be a more specialised tool, hence less competition and more money?

Scared of repeating myself here, I’ll let others chip in their 2c/p…

[Andrew Donaldson]

Darby, that’s exactly what im talking about.

As i don’t have any clients of my own and am fairly new in town, i would have to find work in a post house and there’s defo a divide in compositing / finishing systems.

Nuke is getting more votes than Smoke at this stage tho!

Oh, and one more thing, I don’t want to drop AE (because im sure i will always ‘think’ in AE) just look into learning something new to open up more possibilities…

[Andrew Donaldson]

Hi Todd,

Since you work for Adobe, i don’t want to give the wrong impression here!

I have used AE since version 5/6 or something, and absolutely love it. But regardless of the truth of the matter, Nuke or Smoke is regarded in the industry as a more ‘professional’ tool – for specific tasks.

I really wanted to know if any other After Effects user has experienced the desire to move to one of the ‘higher end’ applications. As it could lead to better, more fulfilling work. Not to mention more money..!?

Im not really comparing the two, because I know 100% the tool is only as good as the guy using it.
I just think that (however unfounded) Nuke or Smoke are considered ‘high end’ whereas After Effects is unfortunately not.

Finding work and getting people to see your reel is a battle against everyone else, and that battle field is significantly smaller with Nuke or Smoke.

[Andrew Donaldson]

Thanks for your reply, Ted.

I guess I’m keen to grab the best opportunities I can.

Money aside, we all want to work on the best projects available, ie working with beautifully shot RED footage rather that miniDV tapes from a Z1!
I feel that more often than not i am asked to key sketchy green screen footage and im never completely happy with the results – because its usually a ‘save the shot’ shot. If I was a Smoke/Nuke compositor then the chances of getting better work would be higher.

And like you, If i was a one man band I wouldn’t pay the premium for a ‘big name’ product, but im not really in a position to do that right now.

I just feel there’s a sea of people who say they are After Effects artists (that usually turn out to be nothing of the kind). And clients don’t tend to take AE too seriously alot of the time.

Thanks for your reply!

[Andrew Donaldson]

Thanks for your suggestions, i’ll give them go…

I guess what i don’t like is that the ball goes from a subtly deeper orange to a full blown out mess. I can’t really describe it better than that.

The client’s brand’s main colour is red, so it needs to be pretty spot on.
If it doesn’t work, its not that big of a deal, it’s just a nice-to-have.

Thanks again, I’ll report back with results…

[Andrew Donaldson]

Hi Dave,

That was a real nice tit bit of information that im gonna keep for sure.
But unfortunately this time it hasn’t worked for me.

I mean, ive must have rendered hundereds of different methods and none of them has worked.
Im using a provided logo (both psd and Tiff formats), and have also tried to replicate it with text and color solids, but no better.

Can i presume that any black text on a red background just cannot look good when compressed to H264, or mp4? Is it impossible?
My Animation renders look fine, but even with a massive 25Mbps bitrate the black text looks soft on the red BG when compressed to H264/Mp4.