David Johnson
Forum Replies Created
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Although I’ve visited the UK, I’ve never worked there so I can’t answer the UK-specific parts of your questions, but since no one else has, I’ll try to help some.
[Mio Tanaka] “Do I need to be proficient at After Effects expressions? Or Is it okay if I can just copy and paste simple scripts from somewhere or use the same simple basic ones?”
Expressions are a way to do things in AE faster than they can be done without expressions, but using expressions is only faster once a person has made the initial time investment to learn expressions thoroughly. So, it’s not as though you will not be able to do the work without using expressions. Being proficient with expressions would always be helpful, but it is rarely a prerequisite and, generally, no one cares whether you write scripts, expressions, etc, yourself or use pre-made ones.
[Mio Tanaka] “What tools are mainly used for motion graphics in the UK? Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects… any other must-learn tools?”
Again, I can’t answer the UK-specific part, but I think this is pretty much the same worldwide … for motion graphics, thorough proficiency with Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects are typically mandatory at any shop. Some shops may have other additional preferences or requirements such as Autodesk Smoke, Boris FX, etc., which also leads to your next question.
[Mio Tanaka] “What are the main 3D tools? And how proficient do you generally need to be for motion graphics? (I don’t think people have to be as good as video game modelers in this field. Depends on the project, though, of course)”
MoGraph designers typically have to know at least some 3D nowadays and that always gives you an advantage, but how proficient you need to be depends a lot on the particular types of work you’ll be doing and the particular shops you’re targeting (some still have MoGraph designers and 3D designers as separate roles). Which tools are used also tends to vary among shops, but 3D Studio Max and Cinema 4D are common.
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As usual, Todd gave the best answer to your question … AE does an very wide range of things and the very, very many various plugins for AE focus on specific tasks within that wide range. So, it’s impossible to answer to what the “most useful” plugins are without knowing what they’ll be used for. In other words, it simply wouldn’t make any sense to tell someone that Color Finesse is “more useful” than 3D Invigorator unless the person has specified that they do a lot of color grading and no 3D work.
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Like Ted and Greg said, this is pretty easy to do. The real thing does look best and all it takes is a 50 cent piece of poster board that’s close enough to chroma green and a dollars worth of white paint (so you can colorize however you like in post). Or, if you don’t want to shoot it yourself, there’s plenty of cheap stock footage available of running paint and they often already have alpha channels.
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I have the most current versions of Compressor, Episode and Squeeze and my experience is pretty much consistent with what others have said. I regularly use both Squeeze and Episode for two primary reasons:
1] I could never find much that I liked about Compressor other than that it was packaged with FCP and didn’t require a separate purchase.
2] Squeeze is powerful and simple so its great for web and device encodes. However, when I needed to start delivering broadcast-ready stuff as files in additon to tape (DG FastChannel & ExtremeReach specs), Squeeze was not capable of the required specs, but Episode was. If I recall correctly, even the current version of Squeeze still can’t do either DG FastChannel & ExtremeReach spec files, but I don’t recall specifically which specs its lacks (can’t encode H264 with LPCM Integer audio, can’t encode H264 with MPG1/L2 audio at high enough bitrates, or both?).
Bottom line … my opinion is go with either Episode or Squeeze depending on your needs, preferences, budget, etc. Try the trial versions and see which one you like.
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In a former life as an AP for a relatively small-time PBS series, I was often tasked with submitting similar requests to various networks, etc. The standard operating procedure is to spend months on phonecalls and letters to every company involved with the production, then on the outside chance you successfully finagled permission from all of them, send in every dime you have ever earned in your life … along with a contract stating that you will send in every dime you ever earn in the future. In other words, even if the History Channel would sell you their footage or animations (personally, I trust Shane’s advice that is a dead end), don’t expect it to cost anywhere near the relatively nominal costs of buying “stock” footage/animations or even having your own footage shot and animations built. You have to understand that having their content show up in your production detracts from the value of their production so it takes boat loads of cash to make that worthwhile for entities that just aren’t in the business of selling their source footage or animations.
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Jaime, I hope I didn’t seem to criticize your advice or imply that it was rigid … that was not at all my intent as I think your process description was excellent. It just seemed the points I offered might be helpful for Ivan to consider as he begins to develop his process.
And, you make another great point about the need to ensure that things like script changes happen at the appropriate stages of a project. Unfortunately, many clients refuse to understand that far more goes into generating a piece than what they see and hear in the final.
Perhaps at the heart of that part of the topic is the idea that a good process is flexible enough to adapt for different projects or clients and, equally important, structured enough to keep budgets and deadlines on track (in the interest of both the client and the team).
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Ron is totally right as usual. In case you need more options, a few companies are listed below … I don’t have personal experience with any of these companies so I can’t recommend any, but each of the ones below was recommended to me by IT folks so they are the ones I would look at in a situation like yours. Best of luck.
https://www.datarecoverylabs.com/
https://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/
https://www.datarecovery.com/
https://www.salvagedata.com/ -
You’re probably right, Rick … I don’t know Vegas’ full history and also don’t have the best memory in the world so I guess my theory was based on when I first became aware of and tried Vegas, rather than when it first became available.
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Rick, I think you’re right that the answer lies partially with Apple’s marketing savvy versus Sony’s clumsy marketing, but I also think the answer lies partially with timing … as with Premiere and most other NLE software, by the time most matured enough to be comparable to or even better than FCP, FCP had already locked down a huge portion of the available market share so the combined disruption and expense of switching was often a deal breaker … even when the switch would’ve been to a better product.
[Rick Wise] “It’s similar to the triumph of VHS over beta. Betas was way better but lost the market to VHS.”
In my opinion, similar, but also different … personally, I saw VHS winning the consumer market to be more about costs than marketing savvy or product quality. By the standards of that time, VHS was good enough for the consumer market, but not good enough for the pro market so, for the consumer market, VHS offered a better balance between the cost and quality trade off. In other words, I ask myself whether movie rentals or the proliferation of home camcorders and VCRs (and, thus, the format used for each) would have taken off the way they did if consumers were expected to pay $20 instead of $5 for each movie rental at Blockbuster, $2000 instead of $500 for a camcorder and $1000 instead of $250 for a VCR? Probably not.
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I too think all of the people who replied gave excellent advice and that Jaime Montaño did an excellent job of laying out a full explanation of the process.
I would just add that it may sometimes be helpful or even necessary to at least start a little earlier on what Jaime identifies as step 5 since both the assets and info available from the client can often drive or limit the design to a significant degree.
[Jaime Montaño] “5. Get the necessary assets. Ask your client for pictures, reference material, logos, etc. Also, gather materials you think are going to need.”
That is often a critical step for me so I often do it either right after (or sometimes even before) what Jaime identifies as step 1.
I guess the main point I’m trying to make is that, similar to what Michael said in his first reply, it’s definitely good to have a workflow, but it should be flexible enough to adapt to the needs of each project and/or client. So, it can sometimes be counterproductive to try to adhere to a preconceived process too rigidly.