[Jeff Brown]

Mitch,
If you don’t know, there is a Stereoscopy forum here on the COW… I’m sure stereo questions are welcome here, but it’s another resource.

-Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

NTSC SD is typically lower-field first (486 high).

-Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

From my testing with AE, the fastest in/out format is uncompressed TIFF or DPX file sequences. Very close is compressed TIFF. PNG is considerably slower in and out. QTime is probably the slowest (depending on codec).

-Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

One “extension” of that workflow is to first do a rough cut in your editing app to identify which scenes & shots you actually want to use. Then over to AE for the FX/graphics, etc., then back to the editing program to put it all together.
In doing it this way, one usually adds one to five seconds of heads & tails on each “edited” clip on the AE side, so you have room to slip things around in the final edit.
Also, if doing things like lower-thirds or other types of overlay graphics, it is common to do that in AE without video & render with an alpha channel. Then add the lower third as a separate layer in the final edit. This allows for more flexibility (and less re-rendering) in the editing process.

And, it is also common for this to be more “iterative” than you expect: i.e., you may go through the back and forth process a few times as you refine the edit.

-Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

Also, make sure your Composition is not set to 10 FPS by mistake!

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

A common way to do 24 <–> 25 FPS conversion is to just reinterpret the footage as the frame rate you want. I.e., tell AE that your footage is 24FPS. Then: use audio software to make the soundtrack match without any pitch-shifting.
One caveat:
IF you are doing this for video-based playback (like BluRay), you may actually need 23.976 FPS and a corresponding audio file.

IF you are doing this for digital cinema, they may be happy with 25 FPS. Do you have specs from the venue?

-Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

Often overlooked:
QuickTime using PNG compression. Or PNG file sequences. A little slow to work with (compared to say, uncompressed TIFF image sequences), but robust and lossless.

-Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

That’s always difficult. How good a client are they? Maybe not that good if they think cheaper is better. Or that you are essentially training your own replacement.
I have some clients that ask for source materials up-front (it’s usually called work-for-hire here in the U.S.), and they have kept me busy enough that it’s OK.
A 30% premium is probably not unreasonable. Unless it’s the kind of work that is so unique that it’s “all you.” In which case, politely decline, or work out a license thing so you don’t give up the rights to use it yourself.

Just my opinion,
Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

Hi Bret–
I do animation work, so for the occassions I’m incorporating (someone else’s) video, I get it on a drive or more frequently, just download it. I’m usually dealing with clips of less than 1 minute.

-Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

I’m at a loss: I have not had to capture since I was doing SD: I use my Kona for editing and output monitoring. Sounds like it’s time to call AJA, or drop them an email. Their tech support has always been good to me.

-jeff