Darby Edelen
Forum Replies Created
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You can also set it to skip every other frame, which will double your RAM Preview time again. I usually have the default numpad 0 set to do a full res preview skipping no frames, and shift-numpad 0 set to do a half res preview skipping every other frame. I use shift-RAM Preview to get a feel for the whole and then go back and RAM Preview specific parts that I want to check details on.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
[shogun3001] “ive heard that certain programs only utilize 4 gigs… is this true?”
This doesn’t have to do with the program, it has to do with operating in a 32-bit environment. It’s just a limitation of the amount of RAM that can be addressed by a single process. If you have multiple cores/processors then CS3 can run a process on each of these, and each one should be able to address 3GB of RAM (I believe there is an extra GB set aside for OS stuff).
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
[NutsyUK] “With the ability to set the apature at each end and focal shift.”
I was going to suggest you look at Distort>Corner Pin, but if you’re getting this involved with it you might want to just bite the bullet and make it 3D with DOF.
If you can’t find any 3rd party plugs to do this the alternative would be setting up one hell of a complicated Animation Preset using Nulls, Corner Pin and Lens Blur… at which point you’ll probably hate yourself for not just doing it in 3D to begin with.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
Does a Quadro really help very much for an application that barely uses OpenGL? Even if you’re going to be doing OpenGL previews (which always look wrong on my setup, even though I run 2.0) will a Quadro really be that much of a benefit?
Maybe I’m old school, but I still think RAM is more important than the video card. If you’re doing other things on your computer such as CAD or other 3D design/modeling then I see some reason for it, but in AE I don’t think you should fork over extra thousands of dollars that could be better spent on RAM or more HD space.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
More RAM is about the only way to get more out of RAM Preview, and even then you’re limited by how much RAM AE can use (2GB or 3GB depending on your setup). CS3 may allow you to preview more if you have Multi-processing enabled for previews, I haven’t received my copy yet so I can’t tell you =(
I like to set my RAM Previews to start from the playhead, which doesn’t require moving the Workspace along the timeline, just the playhead.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
[todd] “DOF works, although the blur isn’t as nice as a gaussian or fast blur would be”
Or a Box Blur for that matter (;
I’d stay away from Gaussian Blurs, they’re not that pretty and they take a lot more time to render.
A Box Blur with iterations at 3 or 4 is almost exactly the same as a Fast Blur, but it gives you the ability to fine tune the blur for your needs (fewer iterations = faster render, more boxy blur, more iterations = longer render, less boxy blur)!
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
Do you want a clear reflection of the fire or do you want a diffuse glow from the fire? The latter can be accomplished pretty well with a 3D light with a fairly fast but subtle wiggle on the light intensity if you’re working in 3D. wiggle(2, 10) might work well.
Otherwise you’ll probably need to pre-compose your fire layer and bring in 2 copies of it into your final composition, parent the ‘reflection’ layer to the ‘wall’ layer then position it properly. You can add any effects you want for the reflection at this stage. You’ll probably want to add a very subtle blur (Box Blur, radius: 1, iterations: 3 maybe?), set the blending mode to ‘Add’ and lower the opacity some. If you increase the blur a lot this can also be used to simulate glow on the wall from the fire.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
AE has a few options for easing values in expressions, you can find them in the Interpolation section of the expressions drop down:
ease(i, low, high, x, y);
easeIn(i, low, high, x, y);
easeOut(i, low, high, x, y);All of these take a first value ‘i’ and vary the return value from ‘x’ to ‘y’ based on the value of ‘i’ relative to ‘low’ and ‘high.’
Here’s an example:
ease(time, 0, 1, 100, 200);
This will return 100 when time is equal to 0, and 200 when time is equal to 1 (one second). The interpolation will not be linear (there is a linear() function for that) but instead will ease in and ease out.
I don’t believe there are any preset functions for more customizable easing of values, however you can create your own functions within AE’s expressions. However, the function has to exist in every expression you want to use it in.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
You can disable the point of interest, which would probably be the way to go if you’re ignoring it already =) Just right click on your Camera layer and go to Transform > Auto-Orient and set it to ‘Off’ (these controls are also accessible in the Layer menu).
Just another note: I like to use the camera tools to make my moves, you can cycle through these with the ‘c’ key. See how you feel about them.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
[kuaishou] “i just switched it to none and its all good now”
If your footage was shot interlaced and you want to key it (or move it, or scale it, or anything else that will change the position of the fields) then you definitely don’t want to use ‘none.’ You should use the setting that matches the source footage. If your source is progressive then you are correct in choosing ‘none.’
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA