[Declan Smith]

I think what you may need to do is go to the paragraph window, select the text then choose the right justify option. This will ensure that each character stays in its own space and grow right to left only.

Hope this is what you are looking for.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
FCS3 / After Effects CS5 / Combustion / Canon 7D / Canon XL2

[Declan Smith]

I had the same problem and found that for me, it seemed to relate to interlaced footage / rendering out to interlaced. I changed renders to be non interlaced and if seems to have fixed it for me.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
FCS3 / After Effects CS5 / Combustion / Canon 7D / Canon XL2

[Declan Smith]

Have a look at the twitch plugin from videocopilot

https://www.videocopilot.net/products/twitch/

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
FCS3 / After Effects CS5 / Combustion / Canon 7D / Canon XL2

[Declan Smith]

You’re right on a few things and made assumptions on others.

1. People do like change if change is for good reason, this is something you learn with age. Most FCP users wanted FCP to change so that it actually uses all the cores in the Apple hardware and perhaps addresses all the RAM for example. Alot of people were looking forward to change, but it lacking in certain key features means they can’t.

2. HD in an SLR is not a match made in heaven. It has it’s uses and it has it’s limitations, it can look nice, but it’s not exactly the main stay of the video / film industry.

3. Apple have to be one of the worst at releasing featureless updates. FCS2 -3 comes to mind. Another thing that age tells you is to under promise and over deliver, something that Apple appears to have transposed.

4. Who knows how Apple think. Personally, I would have thought that hooking your existing user base would have been an honourable aim. When you lose a customer, you lose them for a long time. I wouldn’t dream of treating a customer with such contempt.

5. You don’t know my age, you don’t know my job. But I am old enough to have respect for people that have made this their living and as far as ‘making the job easier’, I don’t see how any software has made the craft and decision making of editing any easier. Professional editors don’t just press buttons, they edit. I am not a professional editor, but I have seen them at work, and it’s a creative process, one that requires certain mundane things (like instructing the computer what to do) to happen and not get in the way. People will invest the time to ‘learn new tricks’ as you put it, given that there is sufficient justification to do so. Giving us a new car that is painted with shiny iridescent paint, has an awesome sound system, but you can’t change gear and it always turns left might be revolutionary, but is not ready to help us travel to where we want to be until these issues are resolved.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
FCS3 / After Effects CS5 / Combustion / Canon 7D / Canon XL2

[Declan Smith]

Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for. The key thing seems to be that you must have the browser as the focus object before doing the apple f. This also answers the other question I had which was how to find where in the browser a clip is, that is in a sequence.

Thanks all for your help

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
FCS3 / After Effects CS5 / Combustion / Canon 7D / Canon XL2

[Declan Smith]

You are both right!

I understand about writing a new project out that only takes the used the asset. This will give me a cleaner workspace and I am in the process of doing this now.

I still would like to have been able to find where a clip is being used. i.e. if I selected a clip in the media browser, a function to show which sequences the clip was currently being used in, but alas no such function appears to be available. Maybe Final Cut X !

My immediate problem though has been solved, so thanks for the help.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
FCS3 / After Effects CS5 / Combustion / Canon 7D / Canon XL2

[Declan Smith]

I am good with reveal in finder to find the actual assets, my question is, given an asset, can I find out where in the project it is being used ? i.e. which sequences depend on a given asset.

The reason I want to know is so I can safely get rid of offline assets that are no longer being used.

Thanks

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
FCS3 / After Effects CS5 / Combustion / Canon 7D / Canon XL2

[Declan Smith]

I thought I would just post up some initial findings I have done with DNxHD codec. The goal was finding a codec that allows easy interoperation between Mac After Effects and PC Vegas, with more manageable files and faster workflow.

I am not sure exactly how scientific or correct my test is, but here goes.

A 4 second clip of timelapse movie placed on timeline (timelapsed because of high frequency content, fast movemment). On top of that, top left of screen had Color test chart (static) composited over.

1. Render from after effects to create Generation 1 copy.
2. Move file from mac to PC, import into Sony Vegas, then put a small color solid on the screen (bottom left) to ensure that the clip has to render. Rendered out 2nd generation copy
3. Import back into AE, add different sized and different coloured block on top of clip (to force render), creating 3rd Generation copy

etc etc up to 12 generations when I then got bored. In other words 6 generated from AE and 6 from vegas, noting that each was a true generation of the previous one.

Then at the end, put the 1st generation on the timeline, added the 12th generation on the timeline, then used difference as the compositing method. Results – amazing. Almost completely black screen with the exception of the bottom left square which was different anyway.

I say amazing because even with 12 generations (which is way way more than I would expect, in fact for the project we are working on, maximum will be 4, likely to be three, i.e. vegas->ae->vegas->color grade->final but if the grade is done in vegas it will be three), the file sizes are approx 10% of TGA Sequence, Animation and uncompressed. In addition, the DNxHD version of the movie plays back with little overhead on the host system.

Also as part of this, found a very frustrating Gamma issue between FCP and AE which I have also worked around by ensuring that the sequence settings in FCP are set to RGB. Not sure what the full implication of that is!

For Reference, all encoding above was done at DNxHD 120. DNxHD 36 lost too much quality, ok for proxy work. File Size references below:

Clip Length 4 seconds at 25fps

RAW Uncompressed: 830Mb
TGA Image Sequence: 578Mb
ProRes 422: 41 Mb
DNxHD 120: 61Mb

Seems very comparable to ProRes but cross platform.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
FCS3 / After Effects CS5 / Combustion / Canon 7D / Canon XL2

[Declan Smith]

You’re probably right. I have tried doing some comparisons and generational renders but am finding more problems than answers, it’s a mine field. Things like gamma differences between FCP and After effects and between platforms.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
FCS3 / After Effects CS5 / Combustion / Canon 7D / Canon XL2

[Declan Smith]

I am no Vegas expert, but I know it is working with both EX1 files (MP4) and m2t files, native files from the Cameras used.

I have just come across the Avid DNxHD codec. Not sure if this will help us, had no experience with it.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
FCS3 / After Effects CS5 / Combustion / Canon 7D / Canon XL2