[Jeremy Allen]

Hey thanks for the reply Michael..

So just to be clear, each cam would go to a switcher via the HD analog component out? Then the switcher to the computer.

What hardware do we need for the switcher > computer? We currently have a BlackMagic Decklink capture card.

And finally, what about the audio? We will most likely have a lav mic or possibly a boom going into the main camera. Would the audio go through the switcher as well, or straight to the computer?

Thanks again for your help and any other advice you can share..

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

Sounds like you need to set a low bounce number and high friction number for both the logo AND the road. You might also want to play with the mass or density of your logo.

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

I think it takes clever duplication and masking the footage that you want to animate. Use time remapping to slowly bring the stills to “life”.
By duplicating and masking certain parts of the footage, you can start animating different elements of the scene at different times.

Hope this helps..

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

Hey Adam, those are great.. I’m just looking for anything in that area that might spark some ideas. I appreciate your time and the links, thanks!

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

I agree with dave.. 3-5 lines of text is way too much.. Just look at any good commercial or promo and you will understand why they keep the copy to as few words on screen as possible at a time. Maybe you can edit the copy some. You’d be surprised how many extraneous words you can take out and still deliver the same message.

The other part of the challenge is to convince the producer, copywriter or just “boss” in general to use fewer words. For some reason, the “suits” love to be overly wordy. I have the same issue with my boss sometimes, even after 7 years of working together and going through this over and over and over and..

A good argument for fewer words is how it slows down the flow of the piece and could cause the viewer to lose interest. You’ve got a nice, snappy edit and then boom, 5 lines of text on screen for 15 seconds!? Might as well be 2 minutes of text in today’s fast-paced, short attention span society.

And finally, if they just won’t go for less text, could you at least break up the text so you only have one line at a time? This way you get a little more animation in there, which helps to keep the flow going, and its a little more visually interesting for the viewer.. Good luck!

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

The simplest way: Go to the F-curve mode (“curve keyframe line”), select the camera position keyframes. At the top of the timeline, go to Key then select Linear. This should get rid of any wobble between two identical keyframes.

So another way is to go into F-curve mode, select individual keyframes and adjust the handles until there is only a straight line between the two identical keyframes.

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

Well it looks like you were right Jeff, there is a checkbox for that! Sorry for the mis-information, just ignore what I said. I’m still learning C4D and I like to help when I can, but I still have a long way to go before I *really* know what i’m talking about 🙂

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

I think you have 2 options.. Render once with the shadow pass and then render again with no shadows in the scene for your main render. Probably not very efficient unless its a very simple scene that renders quickly.

The other option, and I think the more common technique, is to render enough multi-passes to rebuild the entire scene in After Effects. If you do this, you won’t need to save the main image render at all, only the multi-passes. So you would need to render whatever passes you need to recreate the scene, like ambient, diffuse, reflection, specular, shadow, atmosphere, object buffers, etc. You end up with separate layers in After Effects, combined with different blending modes, to create the entire image. This technique yields much more control over the separate passes and much more flexibility when compositing.

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

In After Effects, you generally want to render, not export. The easy way to do that is command+m. That will add your comp to the render que. Then you go in and change the settings to your desired output. Make sure you clik on the output module and check “audio output” if you want sound. Finally, click the render button.

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jeremy Allen]

I think a simple plain effector with a linear falloff should do the trick. Something like this perhaps..

I set a uniform scale to -.75 for this example.. The arrows start big and decrease insize as they pass through the effector. Of course you could use a different type of falloff if you need a more gradual change in size. Hope this helps.

———————————————
8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

C4D 11.5
AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1