[Gino Guarnere]

I think I figured it out.

Let me guess: is 1440 x 1080 a 4:3 PAR?

[Gino Guarnere]

Very nice! I’m just starting with AE, (like, today…) and I’m here looking for help as well as inspiration. I hope I have something as nice in 2 years. Very nicely done!

WB

[Gino Guarnere]

Well, I have a G5 Dual 2.5, 2 gigs of RAM and the Nvidia Ultra 6800 DDL, which is one of the beefier cards for the Mac (and the PC, for that matter). I’m also tied into the AJA Kona LH for the purpose of monitoring my clips on my NTSC monitor, so I am using some of the Konal presets for the “output” of my video.

Comps are set to HDV 1440×1080 in 16:9, but for some reason, if I just drop a clip in and let it play, it’s a bunch of time doing a RAM preview (don’t even try to hit the space bar). I guess I’m just used to Final Cut, where you drag a clip to the timeline, hit the space bar, and get a real time preview of the clip. It’s really a showstopper to drop a clip in and have to wait to watch the clip in its original format before even applying any changes to the clip in AE.

Any other suggestions would be helpful. I should also clarify that I’m not questioning the supremacy of AE, as I realize there are a lot of folks here who use AE as part of their daily bread, but of course I’m responding to the fact that I’m being asked to make a change, which is always difficult.

Thanks again, all. I look forward to getting through this “warmup” period and hopefully contributing something back to everyone in the form of some knowledge along the way.

WB

[Gino Guarnere]

Well, as an AE novice, I gotta say I’m not happy yet. For a start, why the heck can’t I just drop a clip into a Comp and watch it at the proper frame rate? Is this a RAM “thing?” (I have 2 gigs, and FCP plays clips in real time as soon as you drop them on the timeline…)

Is this the world of AE? Someone please tell me how great this program is once again…

Thanks!

[Gino Guarnere]

Hey,

I opened up the AJA Control Panel and under the video output tab it was set to “Macintosh Desktop.” I changed it to “Black” and the problem disappeared…go figure.

So now I’m happily going through your tutorials, Specialcase. Thanks for the insight!

WB

[Gino Guarnere]

Hey Specialcase,

It’s ironic that you answered my question, as I was trying to do some of your tutorials which actually brought out the problem! I was specifically trying to work with the emitters and apply a “sphere” filter that I saw on your .mac homepage.

If I’m understanding you correctly, I do have the ability to view my motion output on my Apple monitor as well as on my NTSC-connected JVC monitor (quite simply, I’m viewing the output on the Motion stage, if that constitutes output). I guess I’m not sure where to toggle this setting. Where do you toggle this setting in the case of the black magic cards? Kona has a control panel for the LH, so perhaps I change the setting there?

Thanks, Specialcase. I’m hoping to solve this so I can use the full range of Motion’s capabilities. I’m also noticing that Motion doesn’t always play nicely with FCP with the Kona…sometime my JVC monitor gets confused and hangs a little…maybe I can kill 2 birds with one stone.

WB

[Gino Guarnere]

that link totally fixed it…THANK YOU

But I’m still unsure why I didn’t have that option from the outset!

[Gino Guarnere]

Wow, I don’t have that at all…I’m using AE 6.5. Could anyone else advise on why I’m missing this menu item?

WB