[Doug Nash]

Thanks, and yes, I fully understand that tape is purely for archival purposes. But that’s just it, my current archival methods are horrendous. I know that the tapes (at least in the past) are very robust. So, they’re good for longer stretches of time than any client’s project will likely ever have value.

I need to look further into this, because I could envision recording tapes, then just putting them in a safe-deposit box, or even at a relatives house. The tapes are so much smaller and lighter, than equivalent 3.5″ hard drives.

[Doug Nash]

Excellent points, Bob. Thanks for bringing that up.
Indeed, I haven’t even fully considered this aspect (that just shows you how removed I am from this subject).

I think my answer on cost threshold will be directly based on just how much of a game-changer the setup ultimately winds up being. So, I need to consider that before commenting on my cost range.

[Doug Nash]

Thank you, again, for the great follow-up information.

Indeed, the centralized collection of very valuable client work is not entirely the best thing. I guess I need to weigh that against the utterly haphazard “system” I employ now, whereby I have large chunks of disparate data scattered between different drives on different computers. Kind of a mess. My wife always asks why I don’t just back things up to the “cloud”…and it’s never worth getting into the fact that it just doesn’t work that way for terabytes worth of ever-expanding data.

I suppose, one way to manage both the data and the risk, would be to scale back on the actual size of the centralized RAID (assuming I use such) so that it only holds immediate, current work. Then just off-load finished pieces onto other media, and store those off-site.

Not to get this WAY off topic, but what are you thoughts on DLT for just that kind of thing? We used to use those back in the 90’s where I worked, but I don’t know if those formats have kept up with the increasing size of data, and HD storage?

[Doug Nash]

Thank you so much for the response. Part of the issue, is that I’m rather uneducated when it comes to such things as RAID or NAS. When I try and research such info, it almost immediately goes right over my head – it seems that such topics are really the domain of network experts / IT folk.

A few immediate follow-up questions:

1) Isn’t part if the entire value of a RAID, the redundancy? Doesn’t that minimize or entirely mitigate the potential critical failure of any one drive in the group?

2) In simple terms, how would I network all three (or four) Mac Pros to the central drive? Would I just use their built-in Ethernet ports, visa-vi a simple Ethernet router with the NAS hooked to that? Or is that way too simple to be true?

3) Besides the brands you already recommended. What about Drobo (or similar) where they seem to really target non-network savvy people like myself. Not that I want this to be a direct product comparison thread, but then again, all options are open for me. Granted, the simplest would seem to be the best for me.

Thanks!

[Doug Nash]

Sure. Thanks. Good points about the parallel camera.
As much as I like using AE, I must admit that Maxon is way ahead on flexibility and user interface.

[Doug Nash]

Thanks. But unfortunately, yes, distort is what I need. I can figure a number of ways to simply follow a path / spline. But the distorted shape is key. I hate to have to step into C4D for this, because the look still needs to stay 2D.

[Doug Nash]

Yes, thanks. This is a fantastic starting point for me to kick myself in the rear and learn more about how these scripts work. Again, I appreciate you going far and beyond to help!

[Doug Nash]

Thanks, Dan!
I copied and pasted your script into the Script Editor inside AE. I’m not entirely sure (to put it lightly) what I do from there. I saved out the .jsx file, but when I tried to open it to run, it re-opened the script editor program, and tried to debug.

I clearly am not doing things correctly.

[Doug Nash]

Thanks so much for the help, Dan. But yes, you’re right about the text formatting. And to be honest, that is actually the main problem. In the (far too rare) times where I just have a plain line of text, using the expression pick-whip from the “text” channel to the children layers works perfectly. It’s when I do something even as simple as kerning one letter space, that the plan goes out the window.

What I don’t get, is why there isn’t a way to access the additional formatting, like letter and line spacing, from the basic expression set for text.

[Doug Nash]

Sounds good to me. But I’d be clueless as to where to begin. And I’m still not sure whether that would circumvent one of the main issues, inherent in using the expression to copy the “text” channel. In that it doesn’t recognize the typesetting, beyond just the actual letters.