Doug Moody
Forum Replies Created
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Avid now owns rights to Commotion. They integrated parts of it into their (previously Pinnacle’s) NLE called Avid Liquid Edition 7. There have been rumors that Matt has ben trying to convince them to put more of Commotion into LE. Are the rumors true Matt?
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Matt,
Oo. That sounds like more trouble than it’s worth. I read an article about how they do this live on TV and it takes about a trailers load worth of comptuers, pan heads that keep track of the camera’s position at all times, a line that compensates for the curvature of the football field, and special color palettes that key out all colors except the line.
I was just hoping for something that would be simple in post. Apparently no luck. I can see your appriach in my mind’s eye, but the idea of roto or keying out the people (and tracking hteir movement) seems like too much. I wanted to do a “highlights of the game” kind of video for some high school football for the players to review. But doing it this way in Commotion would be something I would reserve only for a feature film.
Nevertheless, you are ALWAYS the guy who is willing to help. I know you love Commotion, and your support over the years is much valued. I hope to meet you someday. Thanks, and if you have any other ideas about this, don’t hesitate to write.
An Avid Liquid Edition 7 user who enjoys special effects, but especially likes to do work in Commotion.
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Matt,
Your name was brought up in this conversation too (in a nice way of course). Thanks for the further info.
But what is stopping someone like Scott from getting involved again? What’s he up to nowadays? If the old team got together again, it could be a real killer!!!
An LE 6.1 user
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Well guys, I have to admit now that my eyes have been opened about the reasons Commotion is dead. Today I had a meeting (I can’t tell you where), but the people in the meeting were industry heavyweights. They told me that in private conversations with Avid folks the main reason Commotion is being dropped is an economic one based on a technical issue. It seems the people who wrote the original COmmotion code were poor documenters, and there were also a lot of part-time people who wrote work-arounds, shortcuts, and illogical code just to get Commotion to do the things it does.
But those folks have come and gone, and the legacy product now would take so much money to re-write (because they would have to start from scratch) that it just isn’t economically feasible. So, Avid is taking the things from Commotion that are easy to port out and leaving the rest to history. Honestly, I understand those reasons, though if a very special person within the Avid organization would take this on as a personal project, and maybe contact the original creators, it is possible (though not probable) that it could get resurrected again.
So, in short, don’t hold your breath. It is VERY unlikely we will ever see Commotion again. But that doesn’t mean I won’t use it until technology makes it impossible to use effectively. Let’s just hope someone creates something that uses the same tricks Commotion did, because it still has some tricks that are ahead of the pack.
An LE 6.1 user
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I think its kind of funny (not in a ha ha way but in an odd way) that one of the greatest tools for doing post has been in our midst for so long and the powers that be haven’t been able to see it value. Namely, Commotion. It was and is still king for some things that can’t be done any other way.
So what gives? Are those who make these decisions just clueless when it comes to what the people use and like? I am convinced that is the case. The bean counters just can’t wrap their minds around technical gems like Commotion long enough to figure out how to strategically make it a runaway best seller. And teh engineers who are convinced of how good it is can’t seem to talk to the bean counters in language they can understand. If they REALLY understood what they had, Avid would really make lots of money from an updated Commotion. But alas…I am only hoping in vain….
An LE 6.1 user