[Jimmy Brunger]

Someone give me a shout when CS4 is usable! Same rubbish with CS3….I’ll stick with AE7 until then!

Cheers.

AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
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Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Look on http://www.blackmagic-design.com and see if any of their products offer what you’re after.

Then if that IS the case and you need to reference BROADCAST work then you need to think about getting a reference grade CRT monitor to use with one of the Decklink/Multibridge cards. TV bay is a good place to pick one up secondhand, cos as far as I know you can’t buy them new anymore….but if you need to see NTSC/PAL colours and field jitter correctly there is no other solution…Unless you’ve got several thousand to spend on an LED professional monitor.

AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
———————————
Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

MASSIVELY. If you make sure to get 1-2GB of RAM per core and use AE CS3 or CS4 it will fly. If you’re using AE7 then buy a copy of Gridiron Nucleo so all the extra cores get fired up.

AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
———————————
Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

You shouldn’t need Nucleo to do multiprocessor rendering if you have AE CS3 or above. However Nucleo Pro does provide a few extra features…

AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
———————————
Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

We use one RAID 10 drive as our central media drive through a GigE switch and managed by an XServe. Works pretty well for AE throughput wise on single screen HD stuff…though can be a bit choppy and hangy on multi screen HD comps..but then that is ALOT of data! a 10 GigE or Fiber network would sort this and will probably be a route we go down some point soon. This kind of 1 GigE network is not so great for multiple FCP editors though, as you need realtime all the time, rather than RAM caching in AE…for that you will need Fiber/10 GigE or similar for anything over SD or Pro Res I would say.

Workflow wise – we usually split a sequence up between artists where needed and then just import the pieces into one master project when the time comes and then reduce>collect at the end of a project. Can get hairy if you don’t discipline yourselves, but worth it in the end for speed/flexibility.

Bob Zelin wrote a great blog piece on building your own SAN – worth a scan around for that too…

AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
———————————
Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

I would say generally you need to let them know that they will be getting something extra, or give a good reason why you have to raise your rates. Something like upgraded kit/software or perhaps tell them that the cost of what you do/competition’s rates has increased…if indeed that is the case, or you think you can reliably convince them that is the case.

Or you could just be honest and say that they have been getting a VERY good price upto now and you feel you must charge what is the going rate for someone of your experience and skill?

You can always lower your rates but it’s very hard to go the other way without demonstration a reason why. This is why it’s always important to get it right from the off. Or if you’re learning when you take these jobs then let them know there and then that you’ll be doing the work at a discounted rate as you are finding your feet, or that as new clients they will be getting a special rate for a fixed amount of time.

Good luck and hope you get what you want!

AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
———————————
Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Hmmm…is Open GL checked in your RENDER settings? Make sure ‘render with open GL’ is off and see if that helps…

AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
———————————
Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Why Snow Leopard? Isn’t Leopard 64bit OS already? (even though CS4 still is only 32bit anyway!) You’ve been able to take advantage of extra RAM on Mac since the year dot if you’ve got Nucleo…I hear multiprocessing in CS4 is alot better than CS3..and possibly Nucleo now.

Not had chance to test that out myself yet, but a friend confirms CS4 is a tonne better at dealing with RAM than CS3.

Is CS4 64-bit app now if you’re on a PC? I heard it was supposed to be, but not on Mac cos of Cocoa or something?..

AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
———————————
Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Anyone?

AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
———————————
Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0

[Jimmy Brunger]

Yeah, definitely try EVERYTHING else you can think of first!

We had some really puzzling crashes a few months ago…turns out CC plugins don’t like AE7 on an Intel Machine.

AE7 Pro – Nucleo – Mocha v1.2.3 – PS CS3 – FCP 5.1.4
MacPro Quad 3GHz / ATI 1900XT / 8GB RAM / OSX 10.4.11
30″ ACD / Decklink SP / SONY PVM-20M4E/ Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / XServe / United Digital RAID
———————————
Production Studio CS2 – Combustion 3 – Mocha v1.0.1
Win XP Pro 32 / Intel Core2Quad Q6600 / 2GB RAM / NVidia Quadro570 / DeckLink Pro / Roland DS-5s / Sony BVM-20G1E / 2 x Dell 2007FP / Wacom Intuos 3 A4 / 320GB boot/800GB RAID-0