[Chris Poisson]

Xavier,

A couple of thoughts:

There was a tutorial on the Cow a while back for growing a tree in After Effects, but I can’t seem to find it. I’m pretty sure it was from Mark Simpson.

A quick Google search revealed at least one 3D app that seems to be able to do this.

I have done a couple of “growing” animations using masks in AE, one of an Agave plant and one of a client’s logo which is a very stylized “tree,” with 4 leaves. The original files are from Illustrator, and I separated the elements into layers as isolating them made it easier to mask. Plus it allows more control on how the thing grows.

You can see the Agave sample on my Web site, it’s at the end of the Desert Botanical Gardens spot. http://www.fisheyeedit.com under “spots.”

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

Bob,

I’m with Tom on the Kona, I’m using the LH and just love it. It has SDI ins and outs, plus analog component i/o, and the HD capability allows forusing that in the future. A couple of weeks ago we did a job shot on the big Sony HD camera, we did a downconvert to SD via SDI and it was just superb. Above all, support for AJA products is just the best, and you don’t have to wait for an answer from Australia. I had a Decklink SP for a couple of years, also a very good product. (But, as stated, support was kinda slow)

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

Kevin,

Why not?

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

Ashley,

As was said, 5 minutes is a lot for an e-mail, depending on the max size file a person can recieve.

Short of buying Squeeze or Compression Master though, this may be some help. Following these guidelines, you may be able to get it small enough.

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/qt_movies_from_fcp.html

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

Christopher,

It’s is in the display menu, it would help if you had a monitor hooked up to the camera. Then you can capture even material that has no visible timecode and it will be there, provided you capture from the camera in VTR mode. I do this all the time when dubbing to VHS for clients who want to pick selects.

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

Thought I’d add a comment about Schwab’s stuff, I’ve seen at least a half dozen of them, seems the quality of realism in them is all over the place, it either has to be the original footage or they are getting several different operators to work on them. The one of the black guy eating steak is just awful, and the one of the lady in the ski lift is superb. Gimmick tho they are (as opposed to an idea) they show that execution CAN make a good spot, something hopeful to those of us who may be otherwise creatively challenged.

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

Don,

The Rotoshop app, if available, is probably expensive, here’s a pretty good poor man’s way to do this:

https://www.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/cartoon_look/index.html

Also, I was looking at Boris Blue yesterday, it looks like it can do this too, plus ou can look at Studio artist from synthetik.com.

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

Never mind, in the new drivers there’s a timecode adjustment tab, which I wasn’t familiar with, so now it’s off.

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

Hey Bob,

I took my generator to the shop on Monday and it checked out fine. I got the system working again, traced the problem to of all things, incorrect settings when blacking my tape! Doh! Thank the lord for dumb mistakes, a whole lot better when they’re solved than having to do something major like losing the deck for a week to repair.

But hey, thanks a bunch for your help as usual.

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

My workflow for this is similar, only I keep the PS docks as psd files, and import as sequences into FCP. Then I open those, and option/drag each layer I want to the right of the stack and then onto the same layer in my final sequence I want to paste it into. Command x, then back to my main sequence, command p and it’s done. Transparency preserved, original PS layers still preserved, done.

I staretd doing this a few months back when I noticed that 32 bit targas out of PS CS2 were not preserving transparency. Dunno if I was misreading something in CS2, but the above method has been so far painless, and I’ve used it on some pretty complex projects.

Have a wonderful day.