Joseph W. bourke
Forum Replies Created
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Lisa –
One last thing that it’s good to know…you may want to output your final comp at the highest possible rez, then render your delivery versions encoded from Adobe Media Encoder. It generally does a better job than straight out of AE. I always render my “master” from AE or Premiere as uncompressed Quicktime at whatever size my footage was created/shot at (usually 1920 x 1080P). Then I use Media Encoder with presets for my various delivery formats. It gives me a master that can then be down-rezzed for whatever my needs are, from the web to DVD projects.
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com -
If the computer crashes, just check in the folder where your sequence is stored, and see what the last numbered still is (example: “image0008.tif” is the last number – you would restart your render at frame “image0009.tif”) and continue incrementally from there. At each crash, start from the next numbered still after the last one that rendered successfully.
Here’s something to check out that may be causing your crashes – there are “secret” settings in AE, which allows you to set the size of the render cache, so that as you get nearer the RAM limit, rather than crash your system, the cache gets purged every “x” frames. From a website which explains it in detail:
“If you are getting rendering errors it might be the codec that is hogging RAM. If you enable “Purge every 20 frames during Make Movie” you will probably get around the problem. You can do this in the Secret preferences by holding down the Shift key and then select Preferences… from the menu. In the Preferences dialog box you can then choose the “Secret” option that will give you hidden features (they are hidden since they will cause AE to render more slowly.)
Don’t enable the other checkboxes, just write “20” in the text field. Also, make sure you enable the “Prevent DLL Address Space Fragmentation” under “Memory & Caches” if your on a Windows system.”Give the above method a try, and you may be able to continue on rendering media files instead of still sequences. I set my secret settings at “purge every 20 frames” and I haven’t had a render crash since. Good luck!
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com -
Lisa –
This is where rendering to a .tif, .tga, or .png sequence will be your friend; if your computer crashes, you’ll still have all the stills prior to the still the crash occurs on, so you will only have to resume at the still following the crash. It may not speed up the process, but it will at least get you to the finish line. Good luck!
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com -
Jason –
There’s a set of AVID codecs which you can download from the AVID site, and then output to from AE, although I don’t think it will help much with DV, as Dave mentioned above (I consider DV quality to be barely broadcast, although I had to work with it for years). Here’s an article that might help you out as well:
https://www.editorsguild.com/v2/magazine/archives/1104/techtips_article01.htm
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com -
Hi Nikos –
Although this may not be the ideal workflow, what I generally do (I work with Max 2010, not Maya) is to create my 3D elements in Max, then export them as RPF files, which, with the right switches turned on at export time (you’ll have to check this in Maya), will allow you to send your camera move to After Effects. Go to Animation > Keyframe Assistant > RPF Camera Import in AE, and you’ll be all set.
I believe there is also a script for AE which will send the camera info to Maya. Here, I found it at:
https://www.aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=991
If you’re more comfortable in AE, I would choose that workflow. Getting up to speed in high-end 3D packages can take years (I know – I’ve worked with Max for almost 10 years, and I’m barely fluent with most of its’ features). There is no one right workflow – use what gets the job done most efficiently for you. Good luck!
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com -
Here you go, Nandita…
Apparently a lengthy process: rotoscoping, then hand painting selected frames. Here’s a blog with a short description of Jeff Scher’s work:
https://www.animationblog.org/2009/12/jeffrey-scher-little-drummer-boy-bob.html
You might be able to get close to it by taking frames into Photoshop CS5 (which supposedly has natural media brushes) and rotoscoping it there. A combination of creative art filters and hand brushing might get you close, but I think it’s the traditional artistic media that makes “Drummer Boy” look great.
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com -
I believe he goes through the particle settings in detail in at least one of the tutorials. I remember doing it, and what I remember is that it was important to set the size of the emitter pretty large on all axes. It also seemed like a good idea to set the speed of the particles very slow (I don’t remember a number setting), so that even when the camera parked, there was a slight drifting movement going on. That’s all I remember, but I do remember that there was a detailed explanation of the particle settings in the tutorial – but as with everything, when you adapt the concept for your own needs, it’s playtime!
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com -
I think Magpie Pro might do the job for you. I don’t know the price, but it’s available for the Mac platform.
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com -
This should get you started:
https://www.engadget.com/2004/10/19/how-to-make-your-own-photo-mosaics/
There have been several dedicated photomosaic software packages over the years that have come and gone. It appears that there are still some around. If the above link isn’t enough help, do a search on Photomosaic Software and you’ll find loads of links.
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com -
The only thing I can suggest is a system which won’t help you out at all right now, but will save the day in the future. AE projects have a “collect files” feature which puts all of your project elements in one folder, which you can then archive, send to another machine, etc..
As I say, it’s no help right now. Good luck!
Joe Bourke
Creative Director / Multimedia Specialist
B&S Exhibits and Multimedia
bs-exhibits.com