[David Bogie]

Adobe errors are, for the mast part, entertainingly random text. They can mean something to an Adobe geek but they are not much help when trying to debug.

You can search this and other AE forums for the term, maybe you will find a helpful suggestions.

A drawing error often indicates you have run out of RAM, you have a division by zero specified somewhere (anywhere), your layer source is corrupt or the path to it is damaged, or the filter you have applied just can’t be resolved.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[David Bogie]

It’s my experience with welding effects that you need several particle filters to do different things; random sprays of super-heated material or solder, directional sprays of sparks, torch flames, smoke, a following trace of cooling metal, you get the idea. CC Particle World has an orientable floor that will bounce or skitter sparks.

You can use CC Particle LE or Classic (sorry, not at my AE machine right now to get the correct names). You can use the text shapes as the emitter for a sparkling effect, filling the letters with particles, and they can spill or spit out. This will give you a precomped layer (or a prerendered movie) you can selectively reveal.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[David Bogie]

ONce you have the hand more or less isolated, you can use several filters. Try CC Time Blend. It requires two copies of the effect, one to copy the area being filtered and one to paste the pixels back into the layer. It is reiterative and difficult to figure out. Does the Copy version of the filter go first or does the Paste version go first? The documentation for the CC effects is not very helpful so you might want to drop by Cycore’s site to see specific examples of theCC Time effects.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[David Bogie]

> I tried using force motion blur and it has no effect. I would appreciate any advice.
< You would need to read up on CC Force MB, see the doc on the AE disk. You haven't explained how you animated the blades. If they're moving objects, regular ol' motion blur should do the job. I would build a movie of the props and replace all of the animated objects with the movie. bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[David Bogie]

[Adam Howden] “but I must export the program to be encoded as a self contained quicktime. << This could mean: A) You must export the program as self-contained before you can use Compressor (which is easily done) or B) You must use Compressor to export a self-contained movie (which is not true). > What happens is when I go file, export, compressor FCP tells me that the file name is already in use, Compressor then boots up but the preview in compressor is disabled and its all starts behaving pretty badly.”
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[David Bogie]

> I’m putting together a budget FCP system: 20″ iMac, LaCie FW drives, with a cheepy MiniDV cam as a deck. SD only, no need for HD or HDV.< This is just not a good idea. The iMac is a fun and cool machine but the inability to change graphics or add internal drives makes it a bad choice for an editing platform. Study your requirements for your video production needs and then try to find a machine that you can afford. I'd shop around for a used G5 desktop. They're flooding the market in some cities as the new Intels get into the hands of filmmakers. The older Canon DV units used a weird version of the codec that often led to audio sync issues with clips that were longer than about 20 minutes. Any DV camera on Firewire will exhibit the issues you've described on a single FW bus Macintosh. bogiesan bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[David Bogie]

Your director is a total nut case.
We see similar posts from documentary producers all the time, “We’ve got to capture every second of our precious footage so we can always know we are going to make the most supremely creative decisions.”

This is total nonsense and bizarrely ego-centric. First, every second of your footage is not usable and, second, even if every second was perfectly exposed and crucial-to-the-film, you’re not releasing a 200-hour film and, third, even if you were funding the release of a 200-hour epic, no one would watch it for five weeks, and, fourth, do you people think you invented documentary production? How do you think doc producers have been editing beautiful work for the last 100 years?

They do it by finding their story first. Dub your stuff to VHS with window burns, do a decent paper edit, capture what you need, go back and fill in the holes as they come up.

I’d bail on this loser before he/she takes you to the booby hatch with him/her.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[David Bogie]

> but it looks quite fake. < Yikes has an excellent suggestion but I will add that simulations of smoke and steam always look fake. Unless you're really good at it. "Realism" is elusive and relative. Far simpler to shoot some backlit steam against black and use your compositing skills. bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[David Bogie]

> I’ve heard this phrase used recently when speaking with a friend about his techniques. He says that first he “Crushes the blacks.” What does this mean exactly? < Crushing blacks is an term from the ancient and venerable art of black and white television. It was a compromise, highly undesirable. One reduced the amount of black detail by rolling back the iris or turning down the pedestal. On a waveform monitor, these actions brought gray and midtones down to the pedestal level, crushing everything else into a flat line at pedestal level, 7.5%. Pulling down the iris to prevent blooming had the same relative effect of compressing the tonal range. > Is this a method used often for removing grain? < It certainly can. But you should be using grain removal filters or, far better, you should be doing everything you can to avoid grain; much easier not to have any than to remove. > Is this a first step in a process? Crush blacks, color correct, adjust levels. < Just my opinion, regular ol' video is quite complex. Trying to go off and crush blacks, correct color and adjust levels without knowing more of the fundamentals is dangerous. Time to get some serious training materials and do some heavy research. bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[David Bogie]

If she’s got FCP, she’s got DVDSP, too.

Regarding the first post’s mention of a one-button menu. Look up FIRST PLAY in the manual for DVDSP. If you set First Play propelry, as soon as you insert the DVD your track will play. Don’t need no stinkin’ menu.

We use a couple of Panasonic hard drive and DVD recorders in our shop. Friend of mine has a rack of the inexpensive LiteOns, purchased at Costco. I don’t think he paid more than $120 each.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”