David Johnson
Forum Replies Created
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Sorry I missed the part of the question about filters and also didn’t mean to suggest that AE’s native color plugins do coloring as well and/or as efficiently as Apple Color. I’m not sure if Color Finesse is still bundled with AE, but I agree with the other posters that both it and Magic Bullet are pretty powerful color tools. I also like Tiffen’s DFX Suite a lot for stylistic or fast one-click type needs.
I also agree with the other posters that a good eye (or two … or four) and proper monitoring are just as important to coloring as the tools used.
As far as the original question, I just by default disagree with the idea of anyone other than the mechanic deciding which tool is needed.
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It sounds like you’re well into the project already so Steve hit the two main points for that scenario very well …
- sincerely convey that you are willing, able and intend to deliver
- diplomatically convey that you only work for pay
About avoiding this dilemma in the future, as you’ve found, addressing those two issues mid-project can be very awkward. I’m not an attorney either, but I’ve had some experience with this subject and strongly believe that a signed contract is the best way to start any business relationship since it benefits both parties to set clear terms up front when a project is proposed and accepted.
Any contract should include:
[1] Payment terms … perhaps including an up-front deposit that is enough of the expected total to prevent a financial loss once time/money has already been spent on the job in the event the clients change their minds or something similar.
[2] Deliverable terms stating what will delivered in return for payment and when … perhaps a watermarked or otherwise fully viewable but not usable production, then a final deliverable upon receipt of balance due. -
Sorry I misunderstood your question … although I’ve been using Photoshop many years, I usually only frequent the After Effects forum so I guess I’m too accustomed to questions like “what does this error message that says ‘not enough RAM’ mean?”. ;~)
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[Dustin Ward] “The part that I want to gradually slow down does not have audio, but it is tied in with footage that cannot change in the beginning.”
You can also split a layer and just time remap the part without audio. This probably isn’t necessary if you can get what you want that way, but you can also duplicate a layer and make one copy just the video and the other just the audio … if you do that, just don’t forget you’ve done it and move them independently in the timeline.
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No worries at all, Anthony … I just wanted to clarify because the downside of short answers is that those answers can sometimes be a little misleading. Personally, I’m a big proponent of expanding one’s skill set and After Effects is a great tool … however, it can require a significant time investment depending on how well you want or need to learn it so, in my opinion, whether it’s worth the time boils down to the types of work you do and how much of it you do.
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If your on a Mac, there’s a plugin called CoverFlux … if I recall correctly, its even free.
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There’s a button in the tool bar with a two-sided arrow … it’s right next to the foreground and background color indicators.
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Sounds like mixed frame rates are confusing FCP … are your AE renders at the same frame rate as your FCP sequences and footage?
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Just to clarify, I wasn’t necessarily suggesting that you should do your effects, etc. in After Effects instead of FCP … just stating that’s what I do, but that’s because I’ve been using that workflow long before FCP existed and it fits my particular needs … you should do what works for your situation.
And, I’d certainly recommend trying the free plugin options before investing in expensive third-party plugin sets … again, that depends on each individual editor’s situation.
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Files with .rar extensions are archive files like .zip files, rather than video files … if someone sent you .avi files inside a .rar archive, you may need to use WinRAR to extract them (I don’t recall whether StuffIt or the Mac OS can read them), then convert them to a FCP-friendly codec as already suggested.