[Chris Brett]

— sorry a bit short on info maybe …

—– ‘additive’ plus a bit of ‘normal’ is a bit vague perhaps as I did not say it requires two layers of the same reflection matte.

Also its sometimes worth having the really bright reflection details on a third layer ( crush the matte to pull these out ) and put these on the top sometimes quite ‘hard’ – it depends on what look you want …

——————–chris —

[Chris Brett]

Hi Declan

—- if it looks stuck on it might be because the reflection is not quite right — having done quite a bit of FX stuff myself I doubt if its the blending mode ….

When in a position like this I usually try and shoot something real- life to make it work so am wondering if you have tried taking the glass out of a clock, putting it on a black background and getting a good quality digital still with an ordinary camera ? … then using this for the comp……

You can also light the glass to match your shot while you are at it and add some movement into it during the comp if you need to.

Assuming you are after a realistic end-result my instinct is to say dont worry so much about the domed glass distortions and concentrate and getting a good real-life still of the right reflection first.

You can distort round the edges if you need to but I suggest theres no point looking at that till the reflection works especially as a good reflection will probably sell the shot anyway.

For comping modes I would try an additive mix plus a bit of normal to add opacity as required.

All the best

Chris

===============

[Chris Brett]

Hi Derek

— also would recommend you look ahead slightly and ask yourself which format you are likely to be editing with and which version of AE you would like to be using.

I have been researching this for a few months now with a computer geek mate of mine but it is a bit early to pass on any definitive results as I dont get delivery for a few weeks yet and havent ‘road-tested’ it directly myself….

However theres a few things as below worth considering…

1 ) The motherboard — some will support an upgraded system and some will not or it will be limited.

2 ) If you want to be editing HD it needs a lot more welly – so even if you are not planning that just now but want to in future it might be wise to look carefully at the motherboard — ( same with # 3 ) .

3 ) 3D and ray-tracing using CS6 needs a lot more welly also – if you are planning to use this suggest again that you look very closely at the motherboard capabilities re. upgrading.

4 ) Might be worth looking at over-clocking a good pro-sumer CPU for cost reasons.

If you are still looking at this in a months time / new year I can probably be a lot more helpful then .

Might publish results also.

——- all the best —– chris —

[Chris Brett]

Hi Walter

—— once again many thanks — its now sorted …..

The answer is to open AE — lower screen resolution via ‘start/desktop’ which enables display of one of the corners which can then be used to re-size as you described – then put screen res back again and close AE which then opens at the right size……

…… not that you will ever need to know ! ! !

————– all the best —–chris —

[Chris Brett]

Hi Walter – thanks for your speedy reply …

… thats pretty much what I thought but am wondering if there is a prefs setting or someting that gets it to match the screen resolution ….

………… the problem I am having ATM is that the app is displaying bigger than the physical screen size so I cant get hold of the bottom corner to change anything —

—— chris —

[Chris Brett]

— many thanks Guys — all very much appreciated

— will check the video card settings — sounds like a likely culprit and would explain both issues

—– and will also checkout the possibility of a ‘locked

mask’…might need it one day anyway ……

— all the best ——–chris —

[Chris Brett]

Hi Joe

— thanks for your reply – much appreciated.

I have a still which is cropped using a mask rather than an applied matte —– still puzzled ……

———- chris —

[Chris Brett]

— Simon is right I think

— also because its an very in-depth platform the sooner you get onto it the better ……..

A friend told me that her school uses Fireworks because it is cheaper…had a quick look at it and would say its not what you are looking for.

All the other platforms I know that do the same job as AE are quite a lot more dosh.

chris

[Chris Brett]

Hi Stewart

My guess is that it is to do with colour correction / bit depth and suggest you work at 16 or 32 and not 8 bpc ( if you are )..

However there are also a few things worth looking at as below ….

There are two main things here which should not be connected / confused

1 ) The Key

Ive never set up a key thats caused grain ( not saying it cant be done ! ) so this should not be an issue — if you think its the key change the settings and it should go away.

However – some formats are hard to work with and just because the lighting guy knows his stuff it does not follow that you can always do miracles….

If it wont go away and you still think its to do with the footage you can try treating the footage for the purposes of pulling the key ( this could be useful here as you dont seem to have detailed edges)

The idea is to treat the footage you use for the key ( not the fill ) to remove problem elements – Ive heard of people softening footage to get rid of nasty edges then shrinking the key afterwards to compensate …. the trick here of course is that you use the treated footage for the key BUT fill it with the untreated version.

2 ) The footage — does the clean footage look ok?

If ‘yes’ check that there is no compression or colour correction that is causing the problem – remember to adjust shot AFTER it is keyed and not before. ( unless using technique as above )– for instance increasing contrast can cause grain on images low on picture information.

If you dont have the footage clean from the tape or disc make sure it hasnt been treated before it lands on your desk — and also that you are getting the footage at the highest possible bpc without any compression

Remember also to look extra carefully at the original ( please excuse the obvious ) – some footage looks ok when its a full frame original but grain and such is sometimes more obvious in the comp as the others elements are ‘clean’.

…….. so if the key is ok and the original footage is ok then its something that is happening to the footage – such as mentioned above ……….

If your original footage is not great you can try a de-grainer spark ….. sometimes this gives good results

– sapphire have one but I expect theres one in the bundle somewhere ( I’m newish to AE myself ) — and if not someone else will probably know whats best for this anyway

– de-grainers are not magic and need setting up carefully but they do help …. they dont however, in my experience, completely get rid of the problem but they can make it so ‘ you dont notice it ‘.

In summarising I would definitely say that if I were you I would have the key and the fill as separate items and treat them completely independently — ie use footage to do whatever you have to to get a clean key then fill it with a duplicate layer of itself.

The purpose of this is to keep adjustments required for the key completely separate from any colour correction you make to the image to make it look right in the comp.

———————- chris brett // U K

[Chris Brett]

Hi Johnedel

—– this should be an easy one

— the way to do this is to re-position the tracking reference to another point as the one you are using goes out of frame.

— not done this in AE myself but I know this can be done because I have seen it in one of Andrew Kramers tutorials on Video Copilot.

— sorry I cant give you the exact details but I can advise you that it is possible.

Chris Brett /// U K