Chris Smith
Forum Replies Created
-
Out of curiosity how are you capturing Beta thru FW? What hardware does that? Is it a Beta deck that uses Firewire? Because the hardware sometimes determines what codec is to be used. Most firewire solutions use DV. But there are some that simply use it for communication like the AJA IO. But in both cases the Codec is defined for you. DV in most and the Codec used with the I/O.
If the stream itself maybe compressed already giving you substandard results. Furthermore what hardware are you viewing it out of? If you are using a Decklink for example you would want your material in Black Magic codec. If you really can pick any codec, obviously use an “uncompressed” codec like Black Magic, the internal Quicktime uncompressed codecs like Animation or some of the newer ones. However if you are just going to stick in the AE world from here on out, you might as well use an RGB codec like Animation.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
If you can’t do it with Keylight then the shot wasn’t lit right, the parameters aren’t set right or the key is fine and the comp needs tweaking. Keylight was designed by CFC and used in many Movies and TV commercials. It is one of the best keyers made. It’s up there with Primatte and Ultimatte. I would predict that even if you used Primatte, the end comp would look similar to how it is with Keylight. Do you have a still or QT link to the shot you are working on?
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Keylight is the best, but the stock keyer is the filter called “Color Key”.
All the filters are covered in the manual.
To make a sihlouette, after keying out your greenscreen, add a hue/sat and kill all the color, then add a levels and crush down the levels till the image is almost black. If you want some detail ala the ipod ads then don’t crush down on the levels so hard.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Quick notes to get started:
Go to file|import and import a quicktime or still picture to play with. It will appear in your project window. Drag that image to the comp icon at the bottom of said project window. Now you’ve created a composite with a layer which is your picture and/or movie.
Now you can duplicate that layer. Add masks to it. Spin it, scale it, rotate it, add effects, etc. Keep adding more elements to your project and drag them into that composite window. They will turn into layers. PLay with the stacking order of layers and “Transfer Modes” which determine how one image is shown over another.
That’s AE 101 at it’s very simplest. Now buy “Creating Motion Graphics” by Chris and Trish Mayer. It is the undisputed noob bible to know and love AE from scratch.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
I like that idea of cool/design tutorials. After all as they say you can teach a monkey to turn knobs, but will it look good?
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
I’ve used Maya the last few years. I downloaded the C4D demo 9.1 a few days ago and have made it halfway through the manual so far and am blown away. It makes me not want to touch Maya again. There are so many things that give you the power of Maya but with a much simpler methodology. Far more artist friendly and just all around a better program design. So far I can do everything far quicker and simpler in C4D than the same result in Maya. The only exception being expressions. Xpresso is to be a benefit to those not wanting to learn scripting/Mel, but I know it already and can type a one sentence expression in Maya that will quickly do what I want where as it takes a while to lay out the node structure in Xpresso.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
If you put the flare on a black solid that is set to SCREEN transfer mode it will drop the solid and leave the flare. Then keyframe the brightness of the flare till it washes out the logo.
Also add a levels to the logo and help the flare out by keyframing the white levels clipping the logo as well.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
-
if you are on OSX, use Apple’s “Compressor”. It has a preset already and uses VBR (Variable bit rate) encoding which creates the highest quality DVDs.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
why not do it the old fashioned way and just shoot the footage of a screen? If you don’t want the flicker than shoot an LCD screen or use a sync box.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com