Brian Charles
Forum Replies Created
-
I’m very happy with the previous MacPro 8 Core (2008). I have 16GB of RAM and the standard 8800GT 512MB video card. From experience I can tell you that the video card makes little difference for AE renders. OpenGL is poorly implemented in AE and nearly useless. The more expensive cards really only make a difference for gamers, not in a production setting.
The newer MacPros use DDR3 RAM, they work best in matched sets of 3 DIMMS. The 8 core has 8 slots so you’re best bet is to fill the first 6 with matched pairs. The tests I’ve seen at Bare Feats and elsewhere (https://mac.blorge.com/2009/03/18/nehalem-mac-pro-performance-it-goes-to-11/) clearly show where the sweet spot lies. They benefit from faster throughput despite the lower processor speed vs the 08 model.
I’d advise against a laptop for performance, only 2 cores and you’re limited on RAM. That said, the laptops are much faster than the production desktops of a few years ago, so if you need the portability and are willing to spend more time rendering and waiting for previews – go for it.
-
But could a processor be the single source of this vast amount of crashes?
Absolutely. Having listened to an IT guy myself when I built my last PC – I had AMD processors and problems with previous builds of AFX and when I switched back to Intel (on my Windows box) they disappeared.
Now I’m primarily on a Mac but when I did Windows, the AMD processor was flaky.
-
You should have it if you have FCP, QT Pro is part of the standard FCP install.
-
Hmmm. Mac or PC? What OS? If the directory path contains illegal characters or too many characters that can be an issue.
Have you tries resetting preferences to default? Hold down Ctrl + Shift + Alt or Cmd + Shift + Option when the application launches.
-
BG Render is great but NucleoPro is better.
However it doesn’t yet work with CS4. GridIron says that they will release a fix this summer.
It seems their programmers have been too busy with their new product GridIron Flow.
-
I’ve seen this problem with HVX footage. I had to key out a several dogs that had very wiry fur and some fast motion. Neither Aaron’s not Mark’s techniques were much help.
The solution in my case was to remove as much noise as I could from the footage (using Remove Grain) before preparing a garbage matte and keying with keylight. The resulting key had a softer edge than I would have liked but after hours of experiments it produced the best result.
There was some loss of pixel density that I resolved by compositing several layers of the keyed footage.
-
Expect to find a strong After Effects bias on this list. That said, I’ve worked in both and use Motion periodically. What frustrates me about Motion is its obvious power and crappy UI. Its very difficult to achieve complex results using behaviors, keyframe controls and the HUD.
After Effects will take you a while to learn, so be prepared to invest some time on the basics. There are many worthwhile tutorials at VideoCopilot, AETUTS and here that will get you started.
Workflow between AE and FCP isn’t as simple as that between Motion and FCP. There are work arounds, (scripts that import FCP timelines) and 3rd party tools (Automatic Duck) that help. Color shifts are common, but you can color manage the workflow — look for the extensive thread on color management in this forum.
Given the choice, I’d choose After Effects over the current version of Motion 10 times out of 10.
I agree with Todd, download the trial version and take it out for a spin.
-
It’s difficult to know whether this is rotoscoped footage or original animation. Though it looks as though it may be roto work.
The outlines on the figures don’t appear to be particles to me.
-
If you make a normal key, in other words key out the green, then use that as an inverse alpha matte that should achieve what you want.