Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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Randall,
I always wondered about this. Does one get increased hits through image/video-based ads because people see a pretty picture and just want to click it, or do these types of ads genuinely attract more people who are ready to buy?
More to the point, who cares about the click-through ratio of the ad itself, what about the conversion ratios once that visitor is on your site? I’d rather get 3 clicks a day (much cheaper) that all convert than 3,000 clicks that do nothing. Any stats or even ball-park stats you can throw out along these lines?
Thanks!
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Go for the baseline 2.8Ghz Mac quad. Most apps won’t even use 8 cores yet, in fact most apps won’t even use 4 so unless you do a ton of extremely render intensivec After Effects work, you won’t get much for your money with an 8-core. Now that 8-cores are standard for the Mac Pro, the quads have been reduced in price and have better specs than before. It’s a killer deal.
You will want to add RAM to bring it up to at least 8GB (the quads now come with 2GB). You can purchase this separately from Other World Computing – they sell Apple certified RAM for a fraction of the price that Apple charges directly.
As for the video card, it doesn’t matter at all. The Radeon HD 2600 XT that comes standard will do just fine. If you want to do a lot of gaming on this rig, maybe step up to the Nvidia 8800GT that is offered, but other than that the Adobe apps don’t make good use of expensive graphics cards.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
This is a classic argument that there isn’t much of a firm solution for. Artists ALWAYS think they are worth more (more importantly, they are always telling other artists to charge more), and people who hire these artists see their budgets getting smaller every year and thus have less to offer artists. Who is right in this situation? Neither and both.
For both the artist and the hiring production company, you charge what you can and still get work. You will just have to take the chance that your “new” rate won’t price you out of the market.
Bear in mind that the economy is sagging, not the best environment to raise rates, but that’s a call everyone has to make on their own.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Exactly. The reason it’s not clearly defined is simple – no one uses the same contract (if they even USE a contract), deals are all structured differently etc. My contract clearly and specifically states who owns what. We will break this rule as we see fit, such as the poster’s situation (I’d give them for free, why not).
In my experience, nothing is really “standard” in this industry.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
The most user-friendly and cost-efficient render farm setup (in my experience and research, anyway) would be Smedge render management software, however the Mac version is not out yet. Since you’re bound to using macs, you probably have no choice but to use the watch folder method for now.
I should add that render management software (like Smedge) is ideal in your type of situation, where a wide variety of machine configurations, speeds etc. will be thrown into the mix. Most other methods tend to run into problems with such a diverse set of gear handling your renders.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Blackmagic Design has several cards that will give you everything you need, including HD monitoring. If you have a broadcast monitor with SDI, you can use their $295 Decklink card. If your monitor only has component or composite inputs, you need to get their $595 Decklink Pro or above, since the breakout cable accommodates more input types.
These cards are rock-solid, reliable industry standard gear so buy with confidence – I have two Decklink Pros and a Decklink Extreme, all working flawlessly. We even capture voice over with the Extreme model.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I hate to ask, but might this be a cracked copy of After Effects? I’m sure cracked programs are totally unreliable, and I’ve never heard of the problem you describe happening outside of compromised software.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
There is a very easy answer for this. Don’t play the “for you my friend…” method of pricing. Figure out an hourly rate for each aspect of your service offering, basing it on real-world things like:
– What is your annual salary requirement? How many hours can you realistically be working per year? Do the math to get the hourly rate for your personal time
– Equipment fees – how much did your gear cost, and how long can it be used? Figure out how many useful hours you’ll get out of it and again, do the math to figure out your recouping costs
– How much will you spend on expendables, rent etc.?Good pricing should be based on a formula that represents real-world costs and needs. This way, you always know your pricing is fair, repeatable and competitive. In this regard, I disagree with some of the other posters here who say “charge high, you’re worth it!” Until you do the math, you won’t KNOW how much you’re worth.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Hey Dave,
Have you had any issues with Compressor incorrectly reporting the estimated size of the final MPEG-2 file? I agree with you that I like Compressor better generally, but lately when we use Compressor it seems to give arbitrary, downright false file size estimates. Several times the file ended up being too large for the DVD and we lost all that render time because it gives false numbers. That’s what I was referring to in my post, but maybe it isn’t a widespread problem…
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
? If I drop a 723×483 image into a 720×480 comp, the excess 3 pixels are cropped off on all edges, and I am left with a perfectly centered, edge-to-edge file. Sure, if you want to scale the file to fit EXACTLY this wouldn’t be the best way, but you wouldn’t need to scale it down since you are only adding a few pixels – the extra pixels are just hanging outside of the viewer.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com