[Jason Griffith]

I’ve checked out Maya, C4d, Poser and Blender. Out of them all, C4d seemed to have the best balance. Maya is the best but also expensive. Blender is free, but if your looking for more of a professional program to get into- I don’t see it there yet. Poser is great for human animation, which can be used in composites. But for a new program to learn and at a competitive price. I’d go with C4d. Lynda.com released some tut’s on it recently as well, which would help with the basics. It’s pretty powerful. As a previous post pointed out, it can be exported into AE with a plug-in (I think it’s free). If you want, check out their demo reel here —> https://www.maxon.net/pages/movies/reel_2007qt7.html . I would suggest getting bodypaint with it. I think BP is bundled with the premium bundle.
Hope that helps,

Jason Griffith
Broadcast Editor
The Active Word

“An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” – Socrates

[Jason Griffith]

I second that. If you are new at using a mouse with widescreens, it may be a bit different. But you will quickly adapt. It is quite funny watching people that aren’t use to my mouse grab it for the first time though. :o)

Jason Griffith
Broadcast Editor
The Active Word

“An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” – Socrates

[Jason Griffith]

Durisdeer,

Sorry, I didn’t catch that in your post. From my experience, I have had no success for a frame accurate insert edit. I’ve been utilizing DVC Pro 50 on a Panasonic deck and can’t seem to get it to be frame accurate. The only option I’ve been able to do is find a black segment somewhere in the timeline. You’ll probably need about 15 frames of black or so to make the insert edit. I end up having to re-dub the footage from that point on. The insert feature seems to be quite sloppy in FCP.
Wish there was a better option, but that’s all that I’ve found.

Jason Griffith
Broadcast Editor
The Active Word

“An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” – Socrates

[Jason Griffith]

I have dual 20.1 widescreen Dell Ultrasharps at home, and dual 23 apples cinema’s that I work on at my office. I would have to say that I love the Dell’s crisp quality and brighter screens. The apples seem dim, but may have improved with the newer product line but are significantly more expensive. However I would recommend getting at least the 23’s. The 20’s seem a little cramped when I do video work at home. But the 23’s let me feel like I can breath and seem ideal for video work. If you want to throw away money and want to be the envy. Get the 30’s. But I don’t see the need.

Jason Griffith
Broadcast Editor
The Active Word

“An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” – Socrates

[Jason Griffith]

2 things-

1. Make sure that your decks’ control settings are set to “remote” or in some cases “external”. I’m not sure about your particular deck, but the decks that I’ve used have an option to switch between local or external control.

2. Make sure in Final Cut that your device control is set to the appropriate device under the “Device settings” tab in the “edit to tape” control window.

Hope that helps,

Jason Griffith
Broadcast Editor
The Active Word

“An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” – Socrates

[Jason Griffith]

Well I checked all the shy layers just in case an no change. If I turn off the starburst layer’s visibility the “shadow” vanishes. So that leads me to believe the problem is lying in the starburst comp.

“An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” – Socrates

[Jason Griffith]

Yeah, I tried that to.

You can see my light settings here.
https://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t180/spamsaver/Nolightshadows.png

You’ll even notice that the light intensity is turned all the way down.
This one has got me baffled. If anyone can think of a work around, I’d be interested in trying it.

Thanks again for any help,

Jason Griffith
Broadcast Editor
The Active Word

“An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” – Socrates

[Jason Griffith]

Yeah, I tried that also.

You can see my material settings here.
https://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t180/spamsaver/Materialsettings.png

The Starburst triangles comp settings are here.
https://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t180/spamsaver/Picture4.png

Thanks again for any help.

Jason Griffith
Broadcast Editor
The Active Word

“An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” – Socrates

[Jason Griffith]

Thanks!

“An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living” – Socrates

[Jason Griffith]

Thanks Guys,
I had thought about dubbing to an sp format but wasn’t sure if that would be a fix before I attempted. Now that I know that someone has done it with success, I will proceed in that direction. Thanks so much for the input.

Jason