Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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This is all well and good, and I agree with you. Just remember that many of our comments in this thread were born from the somewhat overblown sticky thread here that says:
“please be aware that the new Apple OS 10.5, Leopard, does NOT work with most of the pro applications in CS3.”
This is a FAR cry from “some specific workflows that you’ll never encounter may have mild compatibility issues” wouldn’t you say? Granted, everyone should go to Adobe’s site and read up before jumping all over them when things come up, but when it’s a sticky on the Cow many people take it seriously and will assume whoever wrote that did the research or it would have never elevated to “Sticky” status.
At least that’s my excuse! -
Having 4GB of RAM is not worthless, just that AE will only use 2 of your CPU cores with that much RAM. It will certainly be a big performance improvement over AE 7.0, but just not taking full advantage of having a quad-core machine.
A slight workaround is to lower AE’s RAM cache settings (the default is 60%) to free up RAM until it uses more cores. You can check this by toggling back and forth between the RAM Settings and Multiprocessor window in Preferences, lowering the Cache setting in increments until it announces more cores will be used.
Only problem is, since you will have to lower it to use only like 30-40% of your RAM, general interactivity in AE will suffer, and while the renders will use more cores each will have less RAM to work with and the benefits are probably not amazing.
ALSO, as I mentioned in my first post, you must have a 64-bit OS to really get the benefits of AE CS3 since Windows 32-bit only recognizes a maximum of 3GB RAM, and even then only by tweaking your ini file to recognize that much (the default is 2GB).
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As was mentioned, when making media for DVDs you must use 720×480, because this is the only frame size the DVD spec will allow. If the media is widescreen, you would still use 720×480, but with a widescreen pixel aspect ratio (there is a template setting for widescreen DV in After Effects’ comp settings).
There are several possible reasons your video looks so bad, one of which is that the DVD is spitting out a 720×480 image and it is being blown up to nearly twice its size on your big LCD TV. To minimize the ill effects of this, you will need to maintain top quality throughout your entire production process. Rendering to Animation codec out of AE is a great start, but you should look at your DVD compression settings. Regardless of the application used to encode your file for DVD (MPEG-2), here’s the best settings to use where possible:
2-pass VBR (variable bit rate)
6500kbps minimum bitrate
7000kbps maximum bitrateMost apps, when set to VBR, will ask for minimum and maximum bitrate settings so that’s what the settings above are all about. If your app doesn’t offer VBR, set the bitrate to 7000kbps. In either case, DO NOT set the max bitrate above 7000, as most DVD players will choke and skip on the DVD.
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After Effects doesn’t really lean on your GFX card unless you have one that fully supports OpenGL, such as the Quadro line of cards. The gForce cards are all consumer grade and, while great cards, don’t support the features of the “pro” models. SLI won’t impact much if anything since the cards themselves lack the feature support to be useful.
If you want to put some money into render/preview speed increases, get as much RAM as you can and a 64-bit OS. The new multiprocessing features of AE rely on your machine having 2GB (or more) of RAM per cpu core. In fact, it won’t even LET you enable multiprocessor previews unless your system meets certain RAM requirements. If you have a quad processor machine, you could have 8GB RAM and AE will use all four cores to render/preview. Without that, your Quad core machine is not really being utilized by AE at all.
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As I posted in the Leopard warning thread, AE CS3 (and other apps) seem to be working fine for me. When a software company says they can’t guarantee “full compatibility” it could mean anything. So far, I haven’t found any problems.
That said, Adobe really, really needs to get their act together when it comes to staying fully compatible with Macs. This BS of patches and updates 6 months after major OS releases makes me wonder if they even remotely take their Mac user base seriously.
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I really should have posted my last comment first, because it sums up my sentiments quite well. It is NOT enough to “have a system” if users won’t use it or if it is difficult to navigate, etc. and this is why building your own system is risky. I shouldn’t have phrased my complaints about our system so universally, because many of the problems I’ve encountered are very likely due to the system we built and its specific shortcomings.
I’m sure Media Batch is an excellent resource, that’s why I posted what I did about it in the thread below. In fact, I will very likely be putting my money where my mouth is…
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Not to quibble, but the release says the update is required for “full compatibility,” which is a lot different than “doesn’t work with…”
I have Leopard, and After Effects CS3 seems to be running quite smoothly. There may be certain features that aren’t fully compatible, but I haven’t encountered any problems yet.
Aside from that, you have to love this little dance between Adobe and Apple where they can’t seem to coordinate their activities at all, even though their two products are used together by a very large section of their user bases. Pretty bizarre…
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“Well, yes… but I have to see an idea finished on screen before I have any idea what it’s going to look like.”
Translation:
I have no creativity or vision, yet somehow I am in charge of driving the creativity and vision of my company. I only survive by spending gobs of money to patch the holes left by my incompetence.
Sorry, but I’ve heard this one WAY too often, and it’s always said by people working for the largest companies out there. If they didn’t have a bottomless purse to work with, they would be back to working at McDonald’s.
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Following up on my own post below, I built my studio’s client review system using .asp, Flash, chewing gum and WD-40. I am comfortable with web design and basic asp scripting, but it took a lot of planning and testing to figure out how to stick it all together (hence the chewing gum) and best serve our client’s needs.
Since that system went live, I have observed the following:
1. Clients are rarely willing to sign off on a file via an online system, much less leave notes. In my experience, people are so used to email and phone communication that they were hesitant to use these tools. This may be partially due to the fact that they are spending large sums of money and really want that personal level of customer care, rather than using automated web forms for everything.
2. When doing work for outside producers, online systems like this make it more difficult for them to share the file with their client.
3. Many clients are tucked behind a corporate firewall with strict access rules. This makes online review systems even more tricky because it MUST conform to the client’s needs. Using Flash is great for many things, but it will immediately render your review system useless to about 10% of your clients.
4. We built our system to simplify the review process. Clients merely type in a user name and password and they are taken to a secure page that lists current files up for review. They click a file and the video plays, with a box for notes and a checkbox to approve that version of the video. Very simple. Even still, some clients are so computer-challenged that even this system has required explanation and hand-holding.
After all the work of building and maintaining this system, we have found that simply uploading the file via ftp to our server, emailing the client a link and discussing by email or phone is the easiest and least complex method for reviewing with clients.
That said, the Media Batch system DOES include certain features that I believe are much better than our system, that clients would be more willing to use them and that it is a worthwhile investment.
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I saw the Media Batch site a few weeks ago, and was definitely impressed. I have some .asp and flash experience, and built my studio’s client preview system from the ground up a year ago (while also running the shop, doing the books, taking out the trash etc.). It took a lot of time and is truly NOT something a novice can pull off easily. It has some of the functionality of Media Batch, but doesn’t even come close in terms of ease of use, clean interface, breadth of features etc. After looking over the Media Batch site, I can honestly say it is easily worth 3 times what is being charged.
My point here is that, for anyone thinking “hey, we can just have our web guy do something similar…” FORGET ABOUT IT. Been there done that, it’s not worth the headache and potential for downtime/problems etc. This package is worth every penny.
Now if only I could convince my partners that the system I built is hopeless and we should invest in Media Batch instead. I guess that’s an error in judgement I will have to live with! Hey Marco, do you guys offer a “repentant do-it-your-selfer” discount?