[Graham Proctor]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for this. It’s the movement. How dumb of me. Just before I dropped the spline on to the LN i had been fooling about with the parameters using another spline. Rather than start a fresh I just used the existing LN. There was a movement value of 1 – which was sufficient to create a ‘ghosted seam’ – but not enough to draw my attention to anything obvious in the geometry (i.e a visible edge/break).

Thanks again for this. Maybe I should get out a bit more often…

All the best,

Graham

[Graham Proctor]

Hi,

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but when I want to get that ‘drops in a pool of water’ look on something I do as follows:

Effect>Simulation>CC drizzle

Looks fab. You have to play around a bit with the parameters to nail it just right. A good way to get a feel for it is to just do it on a dark solid.

Anyway…hope that helps.

Best

Graham Proctror

[Graham Proctor]

this is very, very interesting…

Recently I upgraded my main production system from a G5 dual 2.5GHz PPC 6gb RAM to a 2 x3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 4gb (Apple) RAM. I also went from using Tiger v10.4.11 to Leopard v10.5.3 .. and switched over to using an NVIDIA board (8800GT).

Just as soon as I got going I straight away noticed that there were issues with OpenGL in AECS3 (v8.0.2).

I”ve also got a MacBook Pro (2.33 GHz core duo, ATi chip set, Tiger 10.4.11) so I made up test file set to use on both systems. On the laptop everything was OK. Back on the new G5, OpenGL in After Effects is all over the place. Even with a completely empty project, just switching from adaptive to OpenGL in Fast previews will instantly bring up a message which says:

After Effects error: AE_OpenGL: Failed to render fragment. (5605 :: 0)

I don’t know much about OpenGL but what I do know suggests to me that something is happening prior to delivery of the rendered fragment into the ‘per-fragment ops’ part of the procedure – i.e at the rasterization stage in the pipeline.

Apple kindly offered to ship me a replacement 8800GT in case the board was defective – but after installing, everything was exactly the same as before.

Adobe tech support has been ‘distant’ on all this. They’re going through the motions but it doesn’t feel like ‘support’. I have pointed out to them in an e-mail that on many on-line forums, contributors were reporting very similar issues. I also followed through on their reasonably extensive fault finding suggetions in:

https://www.adobe.com/go/kb402244

…but all to no effect.

I have reinstalled the AE CS3 software, installed every available update and so on and so forth. I also ran Apple’s hardware test , Xbench and Realtech’s VR GLview but saw nothing in any of that to raise an eyebrow.

I’m totally exhausted now and still out in the void between Apple and Adobe.

Any ideas?

What would be great would be some test or some procedure that would nail it down – some method where I could demonstrate that either the OS, the card, the software or a combo of these is behind all this.

thanks

best,

Graham Proctor

[Graham Proctor]

Thanks for this Steve,

I’m going to have to have a good long think about all this over the weekend…

Best

g

[Graham Proctor]

Hi Steve,

Thanks a lot for getting back to me. I really appreciate it.

I’m a designer and a graphic artist. What I want to do is create a music short (3 mins) and the best pointer I could give you is that it might well fit into the same category as the sort of stuff you would come across at https://www.onedotzero.com/new/frames.html. I’m pretty clear about using AE to get what I want visually – it’s the tech stuff regarding set up/final output that i don’t want to screw up on (and think I might).

The source material would be graphics created by me in Photoshop and Ai with some quicktime coming from Cinema 4D. It wouldn’t really involve the use of live-action footage but I might want to bring in short footage clips here and there (shot on mini-DV) and use them after doing some heavy graphic treatments.

On completetion I would want to be able to:

Show it on a top-end MacBookPro (as a quicktime movie)
Post it on an FTP
Post it on a Website
Publish it on DVD
Be in a position (if the opportunity arose) to submit it for broadcast.

I’m aware that submitting something for broadcast involves a different set of criteria from say, posting for web use and that there are big issues like NTSC v PAL, transfer to tape and all the rest of it. I’m trying to find the best compromise that will offer some room for manuvere. If I can’t do that then I just want to drop in with best option and take it from there.

If this were an A4 brochure keyart print job for example, and I knew maybe it was going to be used as an ad in several diffrent magazine formats and maybe a billboard, a roller banner and a webgraphic, I might do it as A2 (with plenty of breathing space) at 450dpi in 16bit. That would be my ‘best-shot’ master and everything else would sort of spin off from that. That’s kind of what I’m trying to get to here – the equilvant sort of position. I think my computer could handle a 720p project but don’t know about 1080. (my machine is G5 DUAL PPC 2.5GHZ/8G/1T/OSX10.4.9)

I guess that in terms of its function it would be a showcase piece and that I would be using it to attract interest in my work and as a vehicle to allow me to get new business in an area I getting really excted about. The other thing that this would do is give me a sizable project to get me ‘bedded in’. I find I work/learn/create best if I set myself significant challenges.

My general level of expertise/experience with creative software is very high. I have a good understanding of the core issues and an ability to adapt quicky to new working concepts – but with motion graphics, this set-up thing just has kind of got me a bit stumped. I can see it’s not as simple as ‘choose a size and go’ but as I said I just want to be able to make a decision and know that it isn’t going to park me in a corner later.

Right now I trying to fill in the general sort of picture so as to get to a position where I can start producing artwork for import into AE. I’m becoming aware of issues like ‘broadcast safe colours’ and what happens when a 16:9 project shows up in a 4:3 situation etc. My position is roughly analgous to where I might be if I was a green-ish designer who had a big job going to a commercial printers. Maybe I heard all about stuff like ‘direct-to-plate’ and ‘laser die-cutting’ at college but when the print guy turns up at the studio I don’t feel so sure about how sure I am ( if you see what I mean ! ).

There also seems to be a fairly heated debate going on about 720p v 1080i which, although I undertstand the technical arguements, I frankly find bewildering in the context of what I’ve laid out above.

I hope this helps to clarify…

Thanks again

All the best

Graham