Jim Kanter
Forum Replies Created
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Every digital content creation tool makes it easier to learn the next. The first few are always the hardest, but once you understand pixels and layers and channels it primarily becomes a matter of learning a new interface.
Alpha channels can be confusing at first. If you think of the red channel as how much red is in a pixel, the green channel as how much green, the blue channel as how much blue, then consider the alpha channel as how opaque a pixel is when you superimpose (composite) it over another.
Example: you superimpose a title over a talking head video clip. You want the title to fade in, be fully visible for three seconds, and fade out. The RGB channels control what color the pixels are, but the alpha channel controls the amount of “fade.” Think of the alpha channel as a spotlight that shows the pixel. If the alpha channel is blak then you don’t see the pixels at all; if the alpha channel is white then the title’s pixels will totally block the background pixels. The alpha channel increases when you fade up and decreases as you fade out.
Hope this helps.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
Not sure what “twitchy” means, but have you experimented with time effects? (strobe, echo, etc.)
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
Are the images all the same original size?
Are they all treated with the exact same settings?
Have your tried changing the stacking order of the elements?
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
Library folder path is set in the application Preferences.
Make sure everything is in there and then point Motion at the main folder. The default is under USERS > SHARED > MOTION > LIBRARY on the main system drive.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
Have pauses built into the animation to disguise the jump.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
Coming from other apps with keyframes, the Motion KF editor is a little different as x and y values are separated. They often sit one on top of the other in the editor, so when you click on a KF icon it only selects the top one of the two in that location. To select all KFs there, marquee drag a box around the KF location.
You can also turn the individual KF displays on and off, but it’s painstaking to do it that way.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
Scale, rotation, shear and opacity have linear keyframes, position and anchor point have bezier keyframes by default.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
I upgraded from a 9800 Pro to an x800 and saw a significant improvement in performance, especially with the Replicator and Particle frame rates.
Am looking at upgrading all the 9800s in my Mac classroom for teaching Motion.
The speed increase will be more apparent with certain operations than with others.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
16-bit float space for HD work is preferred to 8-bit. You can work in 8-bit preview and then switch before rendering for output.
Greater frame rates can create smoother motion, especially with fast changes, but motion blurring might create a more desirable effect on playback.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
The Quadro line of cards are great for scientific visualization and 3D animation. It’s a workstation-class card and on my PC the Quadro card I have blows the lesser Radeon cards out of the water in terms of performance in content creation apps. If you just plan on using it for Motion and not 3D, the 7800 would be a more cost effective solution.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com