[Dave Johnson]

I’m not sure I fully understand your question, and I also don’t have AE open right now so my wording is probably a little off, but have you tried using the 3D layer controls to turn off “accept shadows” on the white layer or turn off “cast shadows” on the blue light layer?

[Dave Johnson]

Since one of the greatest things about AE is that there are a zillion ways to do everything, the only person who can tell you precisely how that promo was made is the person who made it.

With that said, the things you mentioned that you tried seem to be pretty much it, with the main exception of the text being 3D so you would need something like Zaxwerks or BorisFX within AE for that part. It’s hard to say exactly where you might need to rework what you’ve done since you didn’t describe or show what is different with your results, but my guess is that you’re on the right track and you’re results don’t look the same because of specific settings of of the effects you used, the speed at which the action a takes place and/or the other things about the example promo yours might be missing (environment & other effects the text interacts with).

A couple general things that might help …
That effect can absolutely be done with the right settings for Radial Blur and scaling combined, but it can also be done with well-tweaked motion blur settings and camera movement or with a third-party plugin (don’t recall specifics, but Scale Wipe comes to mind as a possibility).

The speed of the text effects and other things going on in the environment the text is in are significant factors in making the promo look as good as it does. Try different things with all your settings … sometimes adjusting settings to extremes beyond what you would normally consider is precisely what you need to get the desired look.

I hope this is helpful to some degree.

[Dave Johnson]

If Illustrator has that functionality, I’ve never heard of it.

However, I do what it sounds like you want to do all the time. I use Outlook email so that’s the only detailed description I can offer, but you can accomplish the same with most any email program and the steps will be very similar.

With Outlook, you start a new email and select “Insert > Picture > From File”. This adds your image to the body of the email (instead of as an attachment). Right click on the image and select “Format Picture” to scale it and whatever other layout functions you may need. Then, select the image, go to “Insert > Hyperlink”, type in the URL (or email address) and you’re done.

[Dave Johnson]

I now use FCP for editing and it’s been many years now since I worked on Avid systems so I can’t comment on the Avid Unity.

[guys new here and is very very old school … solutions that he is familiar with and not what is the best for the company]

Just to clarify, I didn’t mean to imply the Engineer offered solutions based solely one his familiarity regardless of the company’s needs … rather, that as staff Engineer, his job is to keep all equipment functional so, for reasons you may be unaware of, he may have determined that tape backup is the better solution for that facility. For example, if the Engineering staff can fully support a tape system, but there are no staff computer techs to fully support multiple shared RAID systems, all things considered, tape may very well be the better solution.

And, my opinion is that a smart video editor considers an Engineer among his favorite people on the planet since no professional video facility can survive without them. I myself am also very, very “old school”, but was also “new school” once so my advice would be to never forget that, without the old school people and practices that built our industry, neither of us would have a job today. Cheers!

[Dave Johnson]

Steve makes very good points about Blurs and Levels … I’d just mention that I’ve found dissolves and the like less convincing than animating an oval-shaped mask or vignette since an actual eye blink doesn’t really involve the view gradually turning black … rather, the view is entirely obscured from the top and bottom simultaneously. Again, as each of us has mentioned in our own way, one of the key factors is appropriate speed.

I also agree with Steve that keen real-world observation is typically the best guide so simply “slowly closing your eyes and see what it looks like” is a great way to get a feel for the blinking part … for the regaining consciousness part, perhaps you should get drunk, pass out, and observe yourself regaining consciousness!? ;~)

[Dave Johnson]

[add an LTO tape drive … spend six grand on this … doesn’t solve any back up solutions for anyone else]

And, I’ll weigh in on this part.

Different editors obviously have different subjective preferences for storage and backups, but most editors I know would advise you to step away from the tape drive solution. My experience has been that they’re a hassle to work with and I can’t think of a reason to go that route nowadays since hard drives are so cheap. I have several good friends who are Video Engineers so this is no disrespect to Engineers, but I think it’s important to note that an Engineer’s perspective and priorities are very different. Their job is to set up equipment that they are familiar with and can, therefore, support and keep working reliably … that is an important and understandable priority, but it doesn’t always equate to the best workflow and functionality for the people who actually have to use the equipment. Video Engineers are not always computer technicians too so they may not think of or, in some cases, shy away from entirely computer-based solutions.

You didn’t mention the amount of storage you have/need so it’s hard to be precise, but you did mention that you have multiple workstations. For about the same money you’d spend on a tape backup system and constantly buying tapes (and the mandatory headache medicine), you could set up a good external RAID for shared storage and/or backup. You could also buy fast external TB drives for backup purposes … Maxx Entertainment Digital (which has its own forum here on the COW now) sells triple interface (FW400, FW800 & e-SATA) TB drives pretty cheaply and its a great company to deal with.

Perhaps the best way to make my point is to describe our setup …
With the help of Bob Zelin who is a master at this subject and can be found here on the COW, we recently replaced a dead (and severely overpriced) Apple X-Serve RAID with a Dulce RAID as our primary storage. As our storage needs grow and/or for backups, we can add a second RAID (third, fourth, etc.) by using a PCI-e port expander. For budget purposes right now, we use internal drives striped to a RAID and a set of the triple-interface Maxx drives I mentioned, along with Tri-Backup software, for a second and third level of backups and, if need be, storage overflow. The end result is:
[1] all the storage I could possibly need and expandability
[2] the data protection the primary RAID alone provides
[3] a second level of data protection via the internal RAID’s dual-purpose or interchangeable-purposes of backup and/or storage overflow
[4] a third level of data protection via the external triple-interface drives’ dual-purpose or interchangeable-purposes of backup and/or storage overflow
[5] the mobility of the external triple-interface Maxx drives
[6] the users don’t have to do a thing to accomplish any of it … no keeping track of or loading tapes, etc.

Zero worries about data loss or lack of adequate storage … what a great way for an editor to focus on the craft instead of the technical mumbo jumbo! I hope my two cents is helpful.

[Dave Johnson]

David’s advice is spot on so I’m not countering it in any way and would only add to his “don’t perceive their eyelids moving” comment in that the “blinking” effects that I’ve seen that looked “bad” were most often because they were too slow. As David said, there are a lot more visual cues that convey regaining consciousness than simple blinking so, for it to be convincing, you’d have to add the types of effects David mentioned and, as far as the blinking part, you might also try making the blinks progress from sporadic to evenly paced and make sure they are at appropriate speeds at each point in the progression.

[Dave Johnson]

Thanks, Tom.

The keyboard shortcut is much faster and simpler, but I guess the match cut method will have to do since no one seem to know the keyboard shortcut … I’ve even tried the Apple forum and have gotten zero replies!

[Dave Johnson]

[a solution (which I’m guessing doesn’t exist) that allows AE to become more NLE-like]
That will never happen since After Effects was never intended to be an NLE and Adobe already makes an NLE … either of those facts alone would prevent it from ever happening so it seems that both combined guarantee it. Personally, I’m not sure what the point of that would be anyway for the very same reasons.

[I have both programs open … updating as I work with it]
That is exactly how the workflow between After Effects and Premiere Pro works, but it seems highly unlikely that Adobe or Sony would ever invest the time/money in making their software integrate that tightly with a competitor’s software.

So, it seem your options are to: get use to your current workflow, switch to Premiere, or do everything in Vegas (which can’t do most of what AE can … as is the case with Premiere too since they’re both NLEs and, therefore, serve completely different purposes than AE).

[Dave Johnson]

A self-contained MOV is exactly what its name implies … a file that contains all of the data within it and is not dependent on anything else, which is the reason for the much larger file size. You can take that file alone to another computer and it will play just fine.

A reference MOV is also exactly what its name implies … a file that does not itself contain all of the data and only “references” other files on your computer and is, therefore, totally dependent on those other files (render files, etc.). It is basically a shortcut, which is the reason for the very small file size. If you take that file alone to another computer, it will not play at all.

Which method is best for you depends entirely on your circumstances and workflow. If you are one of many editors who work on different systems that do not share storage, but you need to work with each others files, reference MOVs won’t work for you. However, if everything is done on one system, using reference MOVs can definitely speed up your workflow … it’s just important to understand that they don;t contain any content so you can’t depend on them as anything other than temporary work-in progress files.