[Brian Lynn]

Now Zaxwerks is rendering every third frame properly, the two frames in between are completely blank!

WTF! Someone please help this is driving me absolutely insane!
Brian

[Brian Lynn]

#1 Is it a true dual CPU system? Or a dual-core style system?
#2 How much RAM does Windows report?
#3 Are you on a 32 or 64 bit Windows?
#4 What kind of interface do your individual raid drives have?
#5 Do you use an onboard or slot card controller?
#6 How fast is your RAM?

My old machine had 2gb of high quality low latency RAM… I upgraded to 8gb but the RAM was slower, its latency not as good… this had a significant NEGATIVE impact on my machine. I even returned the RAM thinking it was faulty, and the replacements perfomed just as poor. So I bit the bullet and ordered 8gb of nice RAM, installed it, and it did wonders to speed the machine up.

4gb of RAM can also slow your machine down if you are not using a 64bit OS. 32bit OS can’t address enough memory space to utilize much more than 3.5gb. (Macs 32 bit OS used an “exteded” address system allowing them to access more in a faked way). To get the full benefit of massive amounts of RAM your CPU needs to be able to address it, and 32 bits is just not enough. In contrast a 64bit OS is theoretically capable of approximately 17.2 billion gigabytes of RAM!

But the RAM amount issue all depends on how your motherboard handles its ram. If you have 2gb dedicated per CPU then you should be ok.

[Brian Lynn]

Not just CS3… CS3 Extended! HAS to be Extended or it won’t do it!

CS3 Extended can handle TONS of stuff including 3d imports like OBJ, 3DS, U3D, KMZ and COLLADA. It can also handle some medical formats like DICOM, and stuff most of us will never need, like MATLAB interactivity.

For video, if you have CS3 Extended, you should be able to simply add a new layer and use the import to place the video on it.

You have several options while importing as well, including a “stacked” import which will place each frame on a separate layer (limited to 500 frames) or you can import to a single layer.

You can then made all kinds of changes, add elements like text, adjust, and you get tools like “Duplicate Frame” which helps in speeding up the process of painting something in by hand frame by frame by frame. Duplicate the frame, and then just change what needs to be changed!

Hope this helps!
Brian

[Brian Lynn]

Other effects already in place? Such as?

I agree, don’t tear up the street in front of your house… can’t advocate or support tearing up any public street… But you might be able to find a patch of bad street someplace that has the crack pattern in it you need. Try abandon building parking lots, old gas stations… I know a dead end near my house with no houses on it that would work well, and has a good sized depression/collapsed section where a heavy truck parked too long and damaged the road. Since you can’t control the shot as much as I could without building some serious sets, you might get away with some close ups… Just an idea…

Is your scene already shot and now you need to add the collapse in? Or are you planning the shot, fishing for an idea before you start?

You could try the Shatter effect… It can do a fairly good job of making walls and the like crack apart, completely blow holes in them if you like. You might be able to tweak the effect subtle enough to create the cracks and collapse you are looking for, but if your subject is already in the scene I don’t think that will work.

So many scenes in movies are closeups of one thing, a CGI shot of the landing, or sets and live action like I did, all mixed together and cut in ways that you don’t realize that you’ve gone from fake to real and back again. In a full studio production this would likely be a CGI patch of asphalt stiched into the scene, the collapse and the cracks all drawn. Talent would be filmed on a green screen patch on the floor, camera motion tracked, and the screen replaced with the CGI footage. Done right it can be fairly easy, though time consuming, and expensive.

Brian

[Brian Lynn]

The only thing I can say is: don’t use simple round points of light. Watch the video… if the flash is straight across from you then a round patch or a star patch would work, but as the angle to the flash increases, the shape of the light changes… goes from a single point of too-bright light, to a cone of light in which you can actually see people. And it all tracks with the motion of the camera for the most realism.
Brian

[Brian Lynn]

I’ve faked something like this, but not with effects really. Mostly phsical sets, two shots, one with no damage, one with. Shoot everything twice with both sets, as accurate to eachother as you can. Then I used masks to reveal the damage areas in a spreading pattern from the middle.

We filmed a fake fight where two “super heros” are throwing each other around in an alley. One smashes the other into a wall. We built the wall out of cinder blocks and painted it. Then we filmed our action sequence against the wall, one guy slamming the other with no damage. Then we took a sledge hammer, and some hammer/chisel combos and created a human outline of damage. Then we re-filmed the action sequence, timing it as close as we could to the original shooting. For the dust “poofs” we taped open sandwich bags full of baby powder to the inside of the wall, and had a couple straws filled. Subject hits the wall, the (gentle) force causes the baby powder to poof out of the bags creating dust around the victim, and the straws were used to create some more intense dust flying out from the wall in specific places. Comedy moment when one friend tried to blow powder for us, and inhaled with the straw in his mouth!

Using some creative masking I was able to reveal the damage as our subject hit the wall, appearing as if his impact had caused the damage. The fast cut nature of the action scene made it easy to piece together something fairly believeable. It might not pass broadcast standards, but then again, I had $0 for budget, the blocks were salvage from a building project, the paint was left over from when my mother had her house repainted, and it was just friends and I for the crew. And baby powder is cheap =)

It worked pretty well, went together fast, and I think it was a lot easier than trying to use digital effects or create a collapsable section of ground that damages as you like when your subject hits it. We tried “real time” damage, and after being tossed into a wall built to collapse, and almost knocking myself out in the process, we decided on a much more controlled method for our actors. I could care less if I get hurt, but talent is a whole different story!

Sorry for the long reply…
Brian

[Brian Lynn]

the blue grid is on the camera layer or is it a grid that the camera can see?? There is a huge difference between “on the camera layer” which I don’ think it can do, and “what the camera sees”…

can you render a single frame and post a screen shot?
Brian

[Brian Lynn]

Particles maybe.

The built in generators are great, and if you can get away with those so much the better.

There is a plugin by Trapcode called Form. I was planning to try it out this weekend, but I am having so many problems with Zaxwerks I just won’t have time. But from the website it looks and sounds powerful, and I think it can do what you need it to.

Brian

[Brian Lynn]

For those who don’t know what a “cross-grade” is:

A cross-grade can be several things, but mostly its the ability to move one piece of software from one operating system to another.

For example (this is not real):
You own PicturePerfect PRO v.1
Its on a Mac.
Your Mac died, and now you own a PC.
Instead of having to pay for a full liscence again a lot of companies will “cross-grade” you, allowing you to move your software from one Operating System to another, for a reduced price. Many will do it for free!

Another type of cross-grade is when you own a piece of software, but you want to switch to another software…

For example (again, not real that I know of):
You own Combustion.
You now like After Effects better.
Adobe gives you a “cross-grade” discount on an After Effects liscence to bing you into their house of tools, and away from AutoDesk.

Or:
You own Cinema4D.
You now need the power of Maya.
Autodesk offers you, as a user of Cinema4D, a discount for Maya to get you into their house of tools.

Cross-Grade. I hope that helped someone!

[Brian Lynn]

I would delete this if I could… I’ve figured out 99% of my own issues at this point. I guess I just need a LOT more time with this plugin =)
Brian