Joseph W. bourke
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Matthew –
This has been a pretty sleepy forum for a while now. Sorry not to get back to you sooner…I was in Boston the past few days for some down time.I may have to do this in pieces, because I’m working on just the type of stuff you’re looking to do, and under deadlines for sweeps, so I’ll start with the first on your list:
The background (in the upper and lower bars) appears to be
fractal noise (a plugin in AE), with the scale setting fairly large. When I make these, I generally create them in greyscale, then colorize them as needed using the Tint or Boris Tritone plugins. It gives me the option to shift the colors as needed.The geometric looking overlays are most likely done in either Illustrator or Photoshop (I find Illustrator gives me more control when doing geometric stuff, since it’s vector based). Even if I do these in Illustrator, I would import them into Photoshop, and make a multilayered file from them; then I can import the layers into AE as a comp, giving me complete control over the animation and overlay modes of these layers.
The gleams are most likely either Lens Flare Pro (a third-party plugin) or the default AE lens flare, which is pretty limited in scope.
The bar with text on it is probably Photoshop, with the middle bar ramped color, and the outside thin bars solid white. It would then be brought into AE and placed in the comp in either Additive or Overlay mode, which brightens the pixels that underlie the new layer.
The text is either from Photoshop or native AE, with a white drop shadow, and then a horizontally blurred copy of the text layer in white behind the dark red text layer. The additional white mottled bar behind the main text bar is again fractal noise, either masked or scaled to size in AE. The copy of the white text at the bottom of the bar would be just white text with a gaussian blur on it, and reduced in opacity, in Overlay mode.
The slanted bars that somewhat obscure the video were probably done in Illustrator, black, with a white outline, then imported into AE and put in the comp with opacity reduced, and possibly in Darken mode. The red and white “digital gibberish” was produced wither in Illustrator or Photoshop, then slightly blurred and put in the comp at probably 50 or 60% opacity. When the News department asks me what these pieces “mean”. I always call them “meaningless design elements”. They increase the depth and complexity of the design, but are totally unnecessary to it.
The trick to any of these “looks” is to create very identifiable base elements (especially if these are part of a News package), then layer other bits and pieces which can be interchanged, then used with other projects (News opens, rejoins, bumps, etc.) so that there is a continuity to the News on-air look. Good luck. I’ll try to weigh in on another one, but right now I have to create my own.
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
Grinner –
I do believe the chili dog option on the AVID Hot Dog has been EOL’d. The AVID Hot Dog Nitris (no nitrates added) is now available for 180,000 dollars. It has the Chili, Buffalo Red Hot, and Pig in a Blanket options included, but the chopped onion option requires an upgrade to the Nitris Weener V1.034 boardset. Mustard and Sauerkraut are part of the Boris Condiments plugin.You know…I’m kinda getting hungry myself.
Joe Bourke
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There was nothing about the hot dogs in that annoucement. By the way…hot dogs are much better than pastrami in a workgroup situation, in that a chain of hot dog links can have a hot dog user working on hot dog one in the chain, while hot dog user two is working on hot dog three in the chain. As long as the roll (AVID calls it a bun) is checked in, the workgroup will work as expected. If the roll isn’t checked in, you may get “hot dog missing” messages, or “HXF (hot dog exchange format) missing”.
Joe Bourke
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And of course, the mustard and sauerkraut will not be compatible with non-AVID hot dogs; in fact, they will cause non-AVID hot dogs to catch fire. But for 1500 dollars and a training session for 2500 dollars, AVID will sell you a board that goes in the hot dog roll which allows the AVID mustard and sauerkraut to work with non-AVID hot dogs.
The only caveat is that the AVID mustard has to go on the outside of the roll, because it’s always been done that way in the film industry.
Joe Bourke
(waiting for the roll-out) -
Hi Tim –
A rejoin is an element that brings you back into the show from a commercial break. Think of a show that might use a trivia question as the bump, then the answer is presented in the rejoin, forcing you to stick around and hopefully continue watching the show. You use the bump to take you out to the commercial, and the rejoin to bring you back in.I spend a large amount of my time on design; many of my projects start with a logo design and develop from there to the motion graphics. Since my clients are internal, in other words, I work for our News department, Promotions department, and Sales department, I’m not really working for an outside client. I don’t have to quote on my time, I just give them an idea of what my turnaround time will be, based on their request and air deadline. As I mentioned in my last post, many of the people I work with are visually “challenged”, so I end up being the Producer, which gives me a lot of freedom.
When I need another Designer on the project because of tight time constraints, I will pull in one of our other on staff design people, and we’ll share the load.
Now and then I will use stock footage or licensed stills (usually from Corbis). If it’s footage I need, I just buy a collection from Artbeats or some other collection; that way we own the footage for future use on other projects. When I’m doing a set design for a special, I will license a high resolution shot of what I need from Corbis, and we pay the licensing fee. You definitely want to pass the licensing fee on to the client, whether it’s a one-time usage or the cost of a collection on disc.
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
Hi Tim –
The answer to “what is a graphics package?” is a bit similar to the answer to “what does a house cost?”. There are so many variables, and, in general, it is the Producer’s job to delineate the needs for the show. The station I work at is notoriously lax in laying out the needs for the show up front, so most of the time, I’m the producer.Generally speaking though, I will create an open (times vary from four to five seconds to thirty seconds), bump (four to ten seconds long), rejoin (four to ten seconds long), lower third (usually animated-also could be a one line or two line), chip (a shortened lower third occupying either the right or left twenty or thirty percent of the screen), full screen graphic (animated background for text and information overlays), and a few stills incorporating key elements of the design, which can be used in full screens, over the shoulder graphics, etc..
Since I am on salary it would be tough to come up with a price for the full package, because it depends on how long and complex the above elements are, and how quickly I work on any given day. I would suggest coming up with an hourly rate, then figuring out roughly what any one of the above elements you need would take in hours, then tacking on at least a twenty-five percent contingency fee for the changes you know are going to come along with the job (or profit you want to make). In my case, since I am the Producer most of the time, my client (News or Promotions) will come in when I’m almost done and say either “we love it!” or “oh…that’s not what we had in mind…”, having given me no input upfront other than the title of the show. The more you are left to your own devices the more freedom you have with the visual concept, but usually this indicates the client’s lack of previsualiation skills (and this means changes, changes, changes).
You most definitely want to get some “serious” money up front. This will weed out the tire-kickers. Generally a third of total quoted up front, a third at the mid way approval stage, and a third BEFORE final delivery of tape or media.
Good luck!
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
David –
I’ve used Combustion’s tracker with very good success in the past on a single shot flyover that was 30 seconds long, and needed multiple video sources in multiple vintage television sets. The bad news here is that the 30 second shot took days to track – while the first pass looked very good, there was tons of hand key-framing, nudging, and tweaking to do. To look convincing, as you probably know, tracking has to be on the money, not just close.I would recommend Combustion’s tracking capabilities. They are ported from Inferno.
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
Hey –
I’m still wearing my ears over in the Broadcast Design forum (probably the least visited forum on the Cow – some days I feel like the Maytag repairman – well, not dead – but close to room temperature), but is it ok if I change my name to something more filmic….….maybe Hondo Bourke, or Toe Cutter Bourke, or, dare I say it, Mezz Bourke? Maybe “the artist formerly known as Joseph W. Bourke”? This could start a trend, you know…or open me up to a series of highly publicized lawsuits.
Joseph (Joe Double-J Semi-Kool Moe Dee).W Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
Daniel –
I assumed when you said 3D that you were working in a 3D package, such as Max. That may not be the case, but at any rate, I would still break up the project into the 3 scenes, and scale your resolution to the minimum rez at which it looks really good.Joe
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I think you would be best served by breaking up the project in Max into the tight shot, the medium shot, then the wide shot. This will give you the option to adjust the resolution of your models to look best in the scene without wasting bandwidth on models which don’t need high resolution. Then you can stitch the 3 scenes together in After Effects, or whatever compositing software you’re using, and have even more options to do blurred zooms, camera moves, etc.. Good luck with it.
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV