Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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After Effects is absolutely HD capable, dating back to After Effects 5.0. It really comes down to the machine, not the software.
Here’s a few things to try:
– If you only RAM preview the last portion of the comp with the spinning text, does it still fail? If so, this isn’t a RAM issue.
– Is it possible that the text is spinning so fast that it is intersecting with itself, causing AE to tweak out? When I say self-intersecting, I mean that the motion blur trails may intersect with the object itself (like a dog catching up with its own tail) and this can cause glitches just as any 3d layer intersections in AE can. To test, you could slow the spinning down just slightly to see if this helps.
– When actually rendering this sequence (not RAM previews) does it fail? If so, what error message does it give upon failure?
– Try clearing the cache before renders, both RAM and output. It could be that, when scrubbing through the spinning portion of your comp, AE has stored one or two frames of the spin and isn’t clearing those out, so when it pieces it all together the jumbling of these frames gives errors. To clear the cache, go to edit>purge>all.
Aside from those tests, it should be mentioned that the Dell 4600 is a single processor, Pentium4 machine. While that’s not horrible per se, it IS a 5 year old machine and single-core processors are all but extinct in the post production world. To make the point, the Dell 4600 sells for a whopping $99 on Craigslist/Ebay right now. Not exactly the makings of a post-production workhorse!
You should consider upgrading if you want to handle HD work, whether your current issue is related to the machine or not. You will find it difficult and painfully slow to deal with anything but the most basic of projects in HD with your current setup.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Personally, I just use a combination of Levels, Hue/Saturation and Exposure. Used properly, this combination can do anything you might ever need to do, and offer far greater control than the color wheels of FCP. This technique is used on feature films, commercials etc. so rest assured these tools offer a professional level of quality and control. You just need to know how to use them properly.
That said, After Effects 6.5 and up comes bundled with a third-party program called Color Finesse, which offers all the color correction tools you’d find in FCP and more. When you apply it as an effect to a clip, it launches the app in a separate window which can take some getting used to, but it works great. Here’s Adobe’s description:
Color Finesse™ from Synthetic Aperture, a professional color processing system that uses a 32-bit floating-point color space for precise adjustments. With Color Finesse you can fine-tune color corrections in HSL, RGB, CMYK, and Y’CbCr color spaces and take advantage of automatic color matching and custom correction curves. You can monitor all color levels using the built-in waveform monitor, vectorscope, histogram, and correction-curve displays in Color Finesse.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
When set correctly, FLV files can look stunning. Usually a datarate around 1400Kbps works nicely and file sizes are still manageable.
A good technique is to roughly halve the frame rate of your source for the FLV. If your After Effects animation is 29.97fps, set your output module to make the FLV 15fps. This will cut the file size in half, and in most cases you can’t even tell the frame rate is reduced AS LONG as you don’t go below 10-15fps.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
If you really need a standard codec so that the files can be passed off to anyone out there, your best bet is the Quicktime animation codec.
It’s one of a few Quicktime codecs that will support an embedded alpha channel, and it’s lossless meaning it operates like ZIP files – it will compress any information it can without causing visual damage.
The files will still be large, but anything less than a lossless codec and you are tossing valuable data, not exactly smart archiving. You’re much better off just spending the measly $80 it costs to buy a 500GB hard drive so you have adequate space to properly archive your files.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
This is my method as well – 50/50 deposit schedule and a rock-solid contract clearly stating that nothing will be released to the client until final payment is made.
This will not ensure you don’t get burned, however, unless you stick to this rule firmly, even when it seems like it might damage your relationship with the client. Many times clients will beg and plead, telling you they desperately need the materials on Monday, but accounting only cuts checks on Wednesday, and promise up and down that you’ll get your check. In my experience, accounting is the firewall many companies use to avoid paying on time. They can simply blame delays on some faceless accountant and throw their hands in the air. We’ve gone along with this many times to preserve the relationship, only to have our payment delayed up to 8 weeks. It’s ridiculous.
The best way to avoid payment problems is to HAVE A CONTRACT that is clear about the terms, DISCUSS the terms with the client in person so they can’t pretend they didn’t know, and finally, CALL them a week or two before the project is scheduled to wrap to remind them the payment will be due so they can get the invoice into accounting in time. Unfortunately, client relations often feels like running a kindergarten classroom…
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I agree with Walter. If you want to do this, working from home isn’t the problem – your rig is. A decent mac pro with Final Cut Studio 2 will run you about $3500 total if you set up a business account with Apple. If you add 3 additional 500GB drives (another $400) in RAID-0, you could handle anything up to 2K.
I would also add that, under your model, clients will more than likely want to sit in on sessions. You will want to have a room in your house that is your dedicated edit suite, and deck it out to be comfortable for clients and feel reasonably professional.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Here’s one answer – don’t do it. 😉
Not to get snarky, but this is the single most overused effect of all time. You might want to develop a new and interesting take on this effect rather than learning how to exactly mimic someone else’s work.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Sorenson is a dog and you’ll be that much further along to just abandon it now. End of story.
Your best option might be MPEG-4 with a bitrate around 1800Kbps since it is compatible with WMV (you mentioned this in your closer – is WMV a required delivery container?) If you don’t have to deliver in WMV format, h.264 is a good choice, as is Flash video (FLV).
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
First of all, your clips don’t play in Firefox, which is a big problem.
Secondly, they play in Internet Explorer but skip and stutter horribly, as though you have the bitrate or other settings way too high. I am on a 6Mbps connection, and an extreme top-end machine so it’s nothing on my end.
From what I could see of the clips (even though they stutter) it looks like decent work but many of them seemed to be the same concept and execution style, just with minor variation. Also, it’s pretty clear that they are just little “test” clips. The biggest hurdle anyone must overcome getting work in this industry is the appearance of having no experience. When your clips are all just “tests” hiring managers will know you don’t have much real-world experience and will pass you by.
To remedy this, I would suggest doing at least one or two real-world promos to replace some of the stuff you currently have. Maybe one could be a 10-15 second show-opener or network ID, and the other a 30 second commercial for a product you like. The whole idea is simply to show that you know how to work on a real project, not just a simple effects test that only you had to approve or work on.
Good luck!
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
What’s your budget? Alien Brain might be a good option depending on how large your facility is.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com