Cory Petkovsek
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An example of a retainer is:
Perhaps my normal rate is $50/hr. You pay me $800 per month for 20 hours of work, and $40/hr beyond that. If you don’t have any work for me I have a guarantee of $800/mo. You get the benefit of my lower rate. Payment is often after the work is done, the retainer may be at the end of the month.An example of time blocks is:
Given a $50/hr rate. You pay me up front for 20 hours at $800. You can use them whenever you want, even 6 months from now. I get the benefit of cash on hand. You get the benefit of my lower rate.They are similar, but when you’re paid and when they collect are very different. IT companies often use time blocks. Lawyers often use retainers. If you stick with time-based billing, a retainer gives more peace of mind; time blocks give quick cash. Still I recommend you shy away from time-based billing and move to project based flat rates (50% up front); which is how your customers think.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com -
See implementation of my suggestion. They are just keyframes you add. I’m sure Adam’s suggestion is more experienced.
https://f1.creativecow.net/file/1126/1126_fastslowcam.c4d.zip
Cory
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Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com -
If you bill a flat rate per episode, plus an hourly charge, you defeat the purpose of using that method. See my other response for their perspective. Flat rate means flat rate! 😉
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com -
Hmm, I suggest that what they are looking for is a price point they can budget for final cost (to see if it’s worth it). They also don’t want to pay 100 times your day rate if they use you for 100 days (bulk pricing).
You of course want to be paid fairly, but I presume would be happy to give a bulk rate for a guarantee of a large amount of work.
Mike’s great suggestion of a retainer gives you both that. A commitment from them for work, and a commitment from you for a reduced rate. It’s on them to determine how much work they want in the episodes, thus coming up with their budget. But they may not have figured that out yet and are hoping you’ll say, “You guys are cool, I’ll give you half my day rate”.
So I’d suggest telling them, “Here’s my day rate. I can certainly be flexible on that for a large amount of work.”
Then look at which options might work for you:
– We can work this on a monthly retainer, a minimum guaranteed amount, plus reduced hourly (or daily) over that.
– Or we could go with blocks of time; buy 10 days for 80% of my day rate.
– Or we could go with a fixed price per episode; Regardless of the work, I’ll make sure it looks good.From a business perspective, that last option is very appealing, as they can plan for that amount. It is also great for you; it will incentivise you the right way. Figure out a price point for a typical episode for you, add a contingency buffer and offer it. You’ll win some, you’ll lose some, but you’ll win more as you gain more efficiency, or farm out the work. Finally ensure the scope of what you will do, and when payments are made are in the contract.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com -
Although this is an old thread, for posterity who finds it here are some items I found on other forums that solved my problem:
– Don’t point the video layer of menus to a static image. Instead copy the image in as a layer (edit the menu in photoshop). This solved my problem. I couldn’t preview or build.
– Remove chapter markers at the end of timelines
– Transcode any untranscoded footage
– Build the DVD (rather than preview).Finally, look at the countless threads on google and adobe forums.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com -
Keyframe your start and stop position for the animation. Then keyframe your slowdown and speed up points. Then go into the timeline and smooth out the curves til the animation feels right.
Key points:
– The curve should always be moving up (or down), never up then down or your camera will move back and forth.
– Make sure the keyframe points are always smooth interpolation or your camera will stop and jerk.
– Make the slowdown time have a small slope.
– Tighten the curves around the slowdown time.Cory
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Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com -
You didn’t give much detail. Do you have a specific question? It sounds like you are having trouble with animation in general, so help can only be general.
Maybe some of this will help.
Regarding the focus pull, how about rendering DOF as a separate depth pass and using it as a depth matte in after effects? I’ve had challenges getting C4D’s DOF to work the way I wanted it to as well (usually its given me only a one sided focus plane that blurs one side then extends to infinity, rather than having a small DOF with both front and back blurry).
Mograph dynamics cache will allow you to precalculate the dynamics (physics), or possibly other mograph animations (I’ve only used it for physics). Probably not what you want for keyframed animation, unless you specifically are using mograph for these objects (cloner, mograph dynamics, etc).
What about basic divide and conquer troubleshooting techniques? Duplicate your file, delete non relevant pieces of the scene and test the animation. If it works, test the items you deleted. If not, keep removing pieces until you strip it down to the same level as your test that did work, or you get it working. Seek to divide in half each time (delete half, keep half) which allows you to be very efficient in your troubleshooting and time as you narrow down what object, then which setting is causing the problem.
Finally if these are keyframed animations (compass, camera) look in your timeline to see and adjust everything that is animating during the problem frames.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com -
Hey bud, just keep at it. I’m learning C4D from a lot of different versions of tutorials. Forget the specific details that get you stuck, that’s not how you’ll learn anyway. You need to learn concepts, because those will then be applicable to any other 3D app you pick up. Eventually you’ll learn how to perform those concepts in the app you are using.
So in this case it says “Press G to group objects”. Grouping objects into a container is the concept, Pressing G is the step. I have older video tutorials from version 9 and 10, but am studying version 11.5. So in my case I get the concept – group objects. Now I hunt through the interface or google how to fulfill the concept if the instruction is wrong. In this case Alt+G is the correct command (maybe option G on a mac?) Or as stated by another, its in the menu of the object manager.
Using the command manager (I think it’s Shift F12 or look in the menu) will also help with finding keyboard shortcuts or conceptual commands, if you can’t find them in the menu.
Where to learn?
The quickstart is a good document. I like video tutorials better. You get to see someone’s workflow as they do it, you’ll learn much faster. Here are some good ones (Not basic necessarily, but easy to follow along and learn quickly):Grey Scale Gorilla (start at the oldest, though he’s on a different version back then, but given the above you should be able to figure most things out):
https://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/category/cinema4dTuts+
https://cg.tutsplus.com/?s=cinema+4dhttps://pariahstudios.co.uk/cinema4d/
https://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2009/06/five-best-cinema-4d-training-sites/
https://planetpixelemporium.com/tutorials.phpCory
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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com -
Well if we’re looking forward 5 years, let’s look back 5 years. Here are my subjective analyses:
2005
Desktop monitors: 19″ pretty big and affordable
Home TVs: 27-32″ common, small amount of HD users
Business projectors: 640×480 – 1024×768
Phones: No widespread video
Website: Crappy video, maybe some HD for download
Movies: Red One had been announced but not really available
Movie theatres: IMAX was cool2010
Desktop monitors: 22-24″ pretty descent and affordable
Home TVs: ~32-40″ common, many HD users, many flat panels
Business projectors: 800×600 – 1920×1200
Phones: Video becoming more common, iphone already plays HD
Website: Video looking pretty good, lots of streaming HD available
Movies: Red One recently upgraded w/ new sensor; Epic almost ready (5k standard);
Movie theatres: 2K, 4K and 6K movie projectors being installed2015
Desktop monitors: 26-30″ pretty affordable
Home TVs: 40″+ hd flat panel std
Business projectors: 1280×720-2k
Phones: Video widespread (same as web video)
Website: HD Video widespread
Movies: Red One retired, Epic widely used w/ 65mm sensors probably
Movie theatres: 4K standard, some 6-8k+What will specifically affect you is that computer screens are getting larger (because they are affordable and result in less eye strain). This automatically makes everything higher resolution and therefor smaller.
Your SD videos will now be a little window on the screen instead of a large video. As monitors become sharper, artifacts will be come more noticeable. Also better looking video is continually coming out. Thus your video will begin to look poorer compared to modern stuff.
However, whether or not people care is subjective and is your real business decision. And it sounds like you’ve already made that decision. Being a video production company, I of course am betting my business that at least some people will care.
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com -
Every bulb: CFL, tungsten or non-compact fluorescent will have a wattage draw on it. “Equivalent to 1000w” is marketing for a similar light output of a 1000w tungsten bulb. You need to look at the actual wattage.
Wattage is a unit of power, not light. Lumens are units of light.
A 100w tungsten bulb and a 100w CFL bulb draw the same amount of power. The CFL bulb will output 4 times the light, thus may be marketed as a 400w equivalent bulb.
Power or lumens can be summed linearly. That is, 3 100w bulbs will draw 300watts. 5 3000 lumen bulbs will output about 15000 lumens. (Resistance for instance is not added linearly).
@Scott, thanks for the info on the breakers. I didn’t know that!
Cory
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Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com