[Jerry Witt]

Hi, I guess I should have been clearer. I was just clicking around at random points in the timeline. I am not adding or subtracting any elements in this section where the light plays.

I have gone in and manually animated what I wanted. However, I can see the power of expressions and am still interested to solve this if it is possible, even if it is just an academic exercise at this point.

[Jerry Witt]

Thanks for the reply Darby. Those were all great ideas. It made me realize that I was also sampling off the edge of the image. (Maybe that makes a difference?) So I implemented the changes you recommended and came up with this:

multiplier = 800;
driverLayer = thisComp.layer("HDsource.mov 2");
samplePoint = [500,900];
sampleSize = [400,400];
lightnessSample = driverLayer.sampleImage(samplePoint,sampleSize);
driverLightness = rgbToHsl(lightnessSample)[2];
driverLightness * multiplier;

When I went to bake the expression it processed for about 20 seconds and threw the same error. I then lowered this:
sampleSize = [200,200];

I moved to a few frames and saw that it was giving me something close to the results I wanted. When I jumped to the 5th frame I got the same error: “Timeout while waiting for the engine. Expression disabled”

There is nothing tricky about this comp. No time remaping, obviously no looping. After Effects has 1.8 gigabytes and I’m ordering more ram, but I doubt it’s a memory issue.

Is there a way to trace the expression output in real time?

[Jerry Witt]

I would do it like this:
Set the NHL logo to 3D (The little cube icon)
Duplicate it
Rotate this duplicated version 180 degrees on the Y-axis
Push it back on the Z-axis so it is behind the first logo
Pull down the duplicated logo’s parenting menu and set the first logo as the parent.
Spin at will

I seem to remember the NHL logo is on a shield and is symmetrical. If it’s not you could put a solid between them.

[Jerry Witt]

This is a really nice resource for inspiration. Be sure to either check out the “Favorites” link or just step through the “Next Video” link. Very col. Thanks!

[Jerry Witt]

Hey Gary,

Thanks for posting this. I have been trying to solve this issue on my Mac for a week or two. Removing the Ajs IO uncompressed Quicktime component from my library worked like magic.

Aja should put out an e-mail to all there users.

[Jerry Witt]

Yes, or you could just stop using the null and then animate the camera itself. You can also use a chain of multiple nulls. Any of these ideas is easier than trying to do it mathematically, IMHO.

[Jerry Witt]

What if you didn’t delete the lines, but replaced them with a carriage return?

[Jerry Witt]

You are looking for a “firewire patchbay”

If you do a search you will find several of these. B&H sells them (kind of expensive though.) If you e-mail me I’ll send you a link to a company that sells them for under $150 (Don’t have the link handy.)

[Jerry Witt]

Yeah I looked at AJA’s site and their FAQ states the following:

Q: If I use other FireWire devices at the same time as Io, will I encounter problems?
A: With Io and a G4/G5 computer, you cannot have two FireWire video devices (we’re not talking about storage devices) connected at the same time. Doing so causes driver conflicts. Unfortunately, even installing a PC FireWire interface card will not help with this; the only solution is using an external FireWire A/B switch to select a single device at a time.

I don’t really know if a switch box will help me. I just KNOW I would get too carried away and PUSH THE BUTTON before exiting FCP. My configuration now requires me to crawl under the desk to switch. That routine tends to remind me to exit FCP first.

I wonder if James Sullivan has found the patch bay to be more reliable. Have those of you who have chosen a FW patch bay found FCP 5 to handle changing the FW devices more gracefully?

[Jerry Witt]

Funny, I was coming to the Cow to ask a very similar question. I have two different DV decks, a DVD burner that takes firewire in, several FW drives AND an IO/LA. I am trying to sort out the best solution. If I get an internal firewire card will I be able to keep the IO on a separate bus and keep (some of) the other devices connected? What is the best FW card and will it interfere with my SATA card or my Kona 2 card?