[David Johnson]

The approach that works best varies with the details of the footage you’re working with (i.e., whether there is much red in other areas, the variation in the reds, etc.).

I often confuse the two when not looking at them, but either “Change To Color” or “Change Color” in the color correction menu work reasonably well for relatively simple color changes. Don’t expect either to do the job with the default settings though … once you select the shade of reds you want to affect, you’ll need to tweak other settings and maybe even precompose and re-apply a second instance. Sometimes it also helps to first adjust the footage slightly to make the color you’re trying to adjust more distinct … maybe contrast, HSL and/or levels. For more complicated or extreme color changes I tend to use third-party AE plugins or even Photoshop.

[David Johnson]

As Dave said, you assign sections to various animators as separate projects. I’d also strongly recommend a team lead responsible for coordinating everything and bringing together the master project.

The coordination part is very important in two main ways:

[1] To make sure things like fonts, colors, resolutions, codecs, etc., etc. are consistent with everyone who touches the project. One approach to that is to create one master project and, to the degree possible, import all external media and make presets for common text & effects, comp templates, a naming convention and a folder structure. Then, save out copies to pass to the various animators.

[2] If it is necessary and practical in your situation to work with the same media via network storage, it would be the team lead’s resposnsibilty to find ways to prevent various animators from altering source media and affecting other animators work (i.e., if someone takes an image into Photoshop, etc.). The standard approach to that is to threaten lives … or, at least, jobs. ;~)

Good luck!

[David Johnson]

I’m not able to write a detailed response right now but some things to consider …

A combination of native AE tools like fractal noise and the ability to lower video resolution can achieve this effect easily.

There are several third-party plugins that do this effect … not sure I recall specifics, but you might look at DigiEffects.

A search of past COW posts will provide plenty of details on those two options and probably others.

[David Johnson]

Glad to help, Josh. I’m sure you’d realize this, but I forgot to mention that method is more render intensive than most effects-based shadows so whether it’s useful in a particular situation also depends very much on comp size, length, machine horsepower, etc.

[David Johnson]

Maybe there’s a better way, but I’m not at my FCP machine now so the first thing that comes to mind is I’d use any method that doesn’t require a thumbnail view inside FCP … use list view in FCP and a thumbnail view in a Finder window to locate your images … or even Adobe Bridge, if you have it.

If you must use thumbnails in FCP, perhaps separate out your various bins to their own windows and minimize them when not needed.

[David Johnson]

Since Vegas is video editing software and video is generally no bigger than 720×480 (DV) or 720×486 (unless you’re working in HD), you will get better quality by reducing the frame size of the images to something closer to that instead of adding more compression to the images. I would reduce the images to something like 800×600 (widthxheight) by going to “image size” from one of the PS menus, which should cut the file sizes in half right off the bat. Then, only lower the JPG compression below 10 if necessary to get the files sizes even smaller.

[David Johnson]

I agree with what the other guys said so I’ll just add a little of my own personal experience to balance the pros with the cons of being too generous, which it sounds like you’re already somewhat aware of.

A few years back we hired a PA and I later found he had lied about everything to get the job (work he presented as his own wasn’t, didn’t know any of the software or gear, etc.). I could’ve easily gone to our boss and told him this kid can’t even white balance a camera or make a new layer in Photoshop so we really should cut him loose. Instead, I held the kid’s hand for the next 2 years teaching him literally everything he needed to know to do his job (which he apparently confused with me teaching him everything I know). I introduced him to all the right people and resources he’d need to learn more and even spent nearly half of my budgets to get him set up with the right tools (i.e., buying two relatively cheap computers instead of one better one for myself, two Adobe suites instead of one and the new monitor I needed, etc.). Since it was the way all the PAs I had worked with reacted, I figured he’d be glad someone gave him a shot even though he hadn’t earned it, build on what I’d taught him and do a bang up job for us for at least a few years to come. But, of course not … he chose to sit and do nothing … as I had to do the double workload that was expected since we had more people. What’s worse is he had learned just enough to be dangerous … enough lingo to make it sound like he knew what he was talking about (at least to those who can’t tell the difference). So, he tried to convince everyone that, after only 2 years in the biz, he was somehow magically qualified to replace someone 20 years his senior … me! When he realized that there was a significant portion of both our jobs that he knew nothing about and couldn’t even fake without me around, he ended up quitting for fear he’d be found out once I stopped letting him use me.

My point is giving back is definitely worthwhile since we all had to start somewhere, but be selective and careful. As you suggested yourself, you had to earn your way so there’s no reason others shouldn’t have to. I finally had to ask myself, is it really wise to help someone take food off my family’s table? I consider the COW a little different since so few of the people are in my same market.

[David Johnson]

Yes. I don’t have AE open so I may be a little off, but its fairly obvious so I’ll be close enough to find it.

Select the main project window where all your footage and comps are and go to Find from the File menu. When the window comes up, check the “missing footage” box and replace whatever it finds in the comp window. Then, keep hitting “find next” and replace everything that is missing.

Since it sounds like AE is telling your the comp itself is missing, you should also re-add the comp to the render queue and delete the first instance of it since AE will sometimes give you errors if you have the same comp in the render queue twice, if there was an issue with the comp when your first put it in the queue or something similar.

[David Johnson]

The way Dave & Adolfo explained are definitely the best ways … I’ll just add another option that’s useful with tons of layers and/or versions. It’s much harder to explain than to do so it’s actually very easy with good use of Windows Explorer or Mac Finder and cheap or free batch rename software (i.e., BetterFileRename).

Create a folder structure on your hard drive for version copies of a master AE project in folders with all the images for each version.

Name copies of all the first images for each version using the same file names (i.e., 001.psd) and continue with the second, third, etc.

Put the version folders inside inside ZIP files with distinguishable names, which is really only a single right click away on either platform so its not so bad even if you have tons of versions.

Take each version (and its images) out of their ZIPs one at a time so that AE only finds the images for that version and has everything in place without replacing any media. Then, render and move on to the next version. It’s also helpful to to embed a copy of each version’s project file in its MOV, if that’s what you’re rendering to.

I hope the way I tried to explain that makes sense.

[David Johnson]

You do realize you’re dating yourself by admitting that? lol

To your original question, whether it be via the native AE glow or a third-party plugin you can rely on being around for a while (i.e. Radium Glow, which I have and like), I’d suggest spending some time generating glows that meet your general needs/preferences and saving them as presets.