Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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It sounds like you need a CDROM, not a DVD. If that’s the case, you can output your video to a WMV file using Windows Media 8 as the codec, which should work on both older and newer PCs. If the video must play on both Macs and PCs, MPEG-4 is universal to Windows Media Player and Quicktime.
The autorun.ini method for automatically opening your video on disc insertion is fairly straight forward. You create a text document (in notepad, NOT MS Word) with the text below, save it as a .txt document, then rename it autorun.ini and include it at the root level of the CD along with your video file. The text in the file is usually something like this:
[Autorun]
open=myvideo.wmv
It should open your video with whatever program the user has set as their default app for WMVs/MPG files, but ONLY if the user hasn’t changed the default behavior of their CD drive (it can be changed to never auto open on insertion). You should test this thoroughly, as Vista may have changed how it responds to autorun files – I haven’t done them since XP. In addition, Macs don’t read autorun documents so playback of this disc on a Mac will require the user to manually open the disc and click the video file. Most mac users are accustomed to this so it shouldn’t be a problem, but you should warn your client.
It should also be mentioned that you will need to experiment with the quality settings of your video to get smooth playback without stuttering. Even with today’s faster CD drives they still tend to choke on high quality video so test, test, test before releasing it to your client for use.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
First of all, don’t ever do “make movie.” In After Effects you should pretty much always render files using the render queue (Composition>Add To Rendere Queue). It offers way more control and way more options, including h.264. Once you add the composition to the render queue, you will need to set options in several different places, but focus on the “output module” section – this defines the type of file you want to output. If you set it to Quicktime format, you will be presented with all the codec choices available on your machine, including h.264.
That said, After Effects really isn’t so hot at rendering out compressed files, never has been. It will work, but the files are almost always larger and of lower quality than you will get with Quicktime Pro or any other third party application. Quicktime Pro is great for outputting any Quicktime-based formats, and worth every penny. There are free compression programs available though, such as Super C, that will get the job done quite well. You just have to poke around on their site a bit to find the download link, they move it around to keep people from hotlinking directly to the file. It’s a good little app that I’ve used quite a bit so I can vouch for it.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I suppose the question is, what exactly are you trying to accomplish?
If you have greenscreen footage that you keyed out in After Effects, you should be rendering that footage out (using the Render Queue, NOT exporting) to an Animation Codec Quicktime file, using the millions+ setting which preserves the alpha channel. This file becomes your master for all other stages of your work until final output to a delivery medium.
If you need to pull the footage back into AE, use the Quicktime master as it will have 100% full perfect quality. Typically you would just work with your original key rather than rendering it out and pulling it back in, but if there some compelling reason for you to render it out first use Animation Codec with millions+. FLV is a highly compressed distribution format, NOT a working format. As such, pulling that FLV back into AE is a bad, bad idea and I can’t think of any use for doing so.
You should use FLVs for final distribution, such as posting directly on the web or pulling into Flash for integrating into Flash animations. You shouldn’t be using distribution formats for working in After Effects. That is why I said in my earlier post that MP3s, MPEGs, Divx etc. are bad to use – they are all compressed distribution codecs, NOT “working” codecs.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Don’t use FLV (or MPEGs, DivX, MP3 or any other funky compressed file) within editing programs or After Effects. They just don’t play nice together. You need to convert your FLV files to Uncompressed (or Animation codec) Quicktime files before working with them in these progs. Quicktime Pro is probably the cheapest and easiest way to convert them, although Adobe Media Encoder could probably do it as well.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I don’t think anyone is saying sheep = losers, but I do feel that there is very little room for the sheep mentality in this industry.
You could argue that if you need some paperwork or other basic things done that personality type works out okay, but good luck filling a Type-B person’s day with micro-tasks and still getting anything done yourself. You have to look at the dramatically higher time demands these types of people place on your more costly (and busy) management folks when they behave like robots in need of constant programming. The lower output, higher resource consumption and negative impact on company culture make this personality type a pretty shaky bet for ANY role in my opinion.
I am primarily concerned about this attitude within the ranks of artists, creatives, producers and other production-oriented roles because it seems to be more and more prevalent these days. Even junior artists need to be disciplined, committed and somewhat self-directed. Unfortunately, the current younger generation coming into the industry seems to be 95% composed of this type – “the entitlement generation.”
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I don’t think you can do ANYTHING to convert underachievers into motivated, hard working people. You either have it or you don’t. My business partner pointed out the other day that maybe 10% of the population falls within that “upper tier” if that’s an appropriate way of putting it. The rest are hopelessly mired in the joe-job mentality with no desire to be an actual craftsman/woman who takes pride in delivering quality.
Unfortunately this economy will swallow the under-performers, and many will move on to menial labor or service industry jobs. The hard working folks that really pay attention will stick around to propel the industry forward. That’s life.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Employees are definitely a worthwhile part of this discussion, many companies deal with recessions by laying people off. Sure, some do it to take advantage of the situation, others do it to preserve the CEO’s million dollar bonuses, but many do it to get rid of those dispassionate employees who eat up more management time than the productivity they contribute is worth. In a recession, everyone is under evaluation.
I have this same “employee problem” discussion every week with my business partner. Our industry is attracting a LOT of new blood who think working in film/video would be “cool” but they are wholly unprepared to deal with the real-world expectations and responsibility that come with the territory. Expectations that include keeping up on the latest trends and tech, being passionate about your work etc.. This is NOT A JOE JOB, yet most people, especially this new generation, can’t really think beyond the 9-5 punch-in punch-out mentality.
When it comes to how everyone is faring in this economy, employee discussions are not only relevant, they get right to the heart of the matter. When dollars are tight, those dollars will eventually start going exclusively to the people who are passionate and dedicated enough to earn them. Lazy, ineffective and dispassionate people will get cut – end of story. If you have more than 1-2 employees, you’re probably looking at everything they do right now wondering if it’s worth what you’re paying, and wondering how long it will be until you have to start making cuts. Relevant to the current economic crisis? Definitely.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
While I can’t speak to all of their business practices, I do know that they were extremely good at cost control and budgeting, they had a fairly stable list of top-notch clients and were tripling in size year over year. A few years ago Stu made it clear that Hollywood was killing its vendors through dramatic cost cutting and every-increasing expectations. We all experience that, but he laid out a pretty clear case that this was different, and bound to end in disaster. I would also guess that they tried to be too many things at once by developing out a commercials division and animation studio.
It goes without saying that when a business fails it is because of a failure in the business plan, but not many people successfully predicted that the economy would shed 50% of its value in less than one year. That’s a little tough to plan for.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Management software is useless unless it fits your workflow (provided you HAVE a workflow), rather than force you to use a one-size-fits-all pattern with features that you would never need. Does your studio really operate the same way that CNBC does? Or the way a feature film crew does? I doubt it. Unfortunately most commercial “studio management” apps seem to assume everyone does work the same and will need/use the same set of tools in the same way.
I would also consider this fact of life – as counter-intuitive as it may seem, you will have a tough time getting everyone (yourself included) to actively use the software even if it fits your needs beautifully. Picking one that doesn’t fit might result in it never getting used, simply because it’s seen as an obstacle.
To this end, we built our own management application using Filemaker Pro. For the same price as one of the commercial apps you could probably pay a FM developer to build out something similar, only custom-tailored to exactly what YOU need. What’s more, if you ever need a new feature you can build it (or pay to have it built) very easily.
I like that flexibility, but others may prefer a prefab option. Just make sure whatever tool you buy fits your workflow and needs very well or you may just throw a ton of cash away needlessly.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
“we will work on anything that comes our way as long as there is a fair price”
We’re actually heading the opposite direction, narrowing our focus much more in terms of specific industry and our services. But strategy totally depends on where you’re located and a whole host of other factors. Locally, most of our competition is very scatter-shot and will “work on anything that comes their way” meaning they are all competing for the same jobs, and none of them offer any real expertise in a particular industry. For us, it makes sense to narrow in and specialize, for someone in a region with less local competition not so much.
In terms of the economy, I just posted a thread about the closing of a major player here in the Bay Area. Every “insider” I know reports major slowdown at both large agencies and smaller studios. In fact, a lot of people I’ve spoken with report having no work AT ALL since 2008. Many, many studios are NOT going to survive this, many more will limp out the other side barely alive, and some will thrive. If you look at the factors driving which category a particular studio will fall in, it comes down to the basics like overhead, profit margin, differentiation and sales/marketing strategy.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com