Joseph W. bourke
Forum Replies Created
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Here’s a link to a DV Magazine article – hope it clarifies some things (it didn’t to me, but I haven’t stuck my toe in the HDV waters…yet):
https://www.dv.com/print_me.php?articleId=26800213
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
Alpha –
Here’s a script that will knock your socks off:https://www.aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?t=544
I have tried it, and our entire facility is now using it (we’re a broadcast facility that relies on AE for all our motion graphics – opens, bumps, etc.). It allows you to have a render going and to continue working in AE. The directions for putting it in AE are on the link above. There’s one setting you have to change in AE in Preferences, having something to do with allowing network access to the script. Other than that, you’ll see a DOS-like window open up, and whatever is in your render queue will start processing, while you work happily away in After Effects! It worked for us…very well.
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
Frank –
The only document I could come up with is with regard to political advertising. It’s on the third page here:The key words appear to be “equal to or greater than four percent of the vertical picture height” and of course “at least four seconds long”. It then gets into color contrast issues as well, leaning toward black text on a white background, but then laying out some other possibilities. This is by the Federal Election Commission, in a document issued in 2002.
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
Hi Sam –
Here’s where you can find some pricing on Duratrans (bear in mind that the maximum width you can get on a true Duratrans is about six feet). This means you have to build a seam break into your design if you want it really big. The alternative that most set companies use (and then tell you it’s a Duratrans – this seems to have become a generic term) is inkjet printout. It’s cheaper than a Duratrans, but it doesn’t have the color range and depth you can get with a Duratrans. Also bear in mind that you have to do a matte laminate pass on the graphic, which will add a fair amount to your cost – otherwise you’ll have lots of glare to deal with. We re-did our News and Weather sets recently with huge inkjet prints (which were done by a set company who told us they were Duratrans) and, while they look good on camera, they don’t come close to the color saturation I was able to get on a political set I recently designed and used a Duratrans lightbox for. Mixing backlit elements with lightboxes works quite well, too. Duratrans link:
https://www.dpi-sf.com/duratrans.htm
As far as the image goes, you can mock up a pretty good looking stadium in Photoshop or a 3D package using lens flares as the lights. Since you want to throw the focus out a little for the final output (I call it “fake depth of field”), no one will be the wiser. You could also rent a good digital still camera (if you’re a good shooter – we own a Nikon D70, and I regularly shoot photography for big lightboxes with it), and shoot your own local stadium at dusk, and then touch it up in Photoshop. That way you would own the image and not have to pay a licensing fee. This would also give you control of the composition, and allow you to create exactly what you want. Good luck!
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
Hi Ray –
I concur with Mark’s assessment for your 3D future. I have been using 3DSMax (now on Ver. 8) for 6 or 7 years. I’m an art director at a broadcast station and use Max to create elements for opens, bumps, special projects, etc.. My workflow involves Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, 3DSMax, and After Effects (often in that very order), and I have found that, if you’re literate in one graphics software package, you can usual pick up another pretty quickly.Max tends to be the exception, since it involves x, y, and z axes, and treats them a bit different than you might see in After Effects, which is really a 2D 3D package. Max also has a feature set that’s as deep as the Grand Canyon. You can spend years on mastering one facet of it, such as character animation.
For training yourself as a compositor (which I did myself, and make a good living at it) I would suggest learning Lighting, Texture Mapping, and Animation (both object and camera) first. Learning to model, which is easy with simpler inorganic objects, can be avoided, unless you really enjoy it. There are tons of good, cheap, models out there to be had. If you’re going to be doing mostly flying graphics for opens and such, it’s really easy to type your text, extrude or bevel it, texture it, light it, and animate it.
There is enough tutorial information out there for free that you don’t need to buy the expensive training at this point. I would say download the demo copy of Max. If you have After Effects, you should also check out 3D Invigorator, which will let you do some really nice flying titles without the expense or time you have to invest in Max. You should also get your heads around lighting, and a great place to start is with Neil Blevins:
https://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/cg_education.htm
This guy is a master animator, and somehow finds the time to offer his teaching skills for free. Read all of his stuff you can get your hands on, and you’ll have a good grounding in lighting, modeling, and mapping realistic looking things. For other free sources, just do a search on +Max +Tutorials in Google. You’ll find enough valuable information to keep you occupied for the next three years! Good luck with your quest to become motion graphics artists!
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
No…No…No!
You’re thinking of your brain as half empty…think of it as half full! If you can pick up even a quarter of the shortcuts that are in the Meyer PDF, you’ll be working twice as fast in AE!
Have fun!!!!!Joe Bourke
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If you view Road Warrior (on a DVD – where you can frame by frame through car explosions) you’ll find that they seem to use a cut just before an explosion, and a clean background plate (with the shot locked off), then they composite the explosion (or just blow up a pile of debris in the same shot location). Given the state of the technology today, it would be pretty easy to composite a Reel Explosions clip (Artbeats), or use Particle Illusion to create your own (wondertouch.com).
I think you’ll achieve much greater control (if you want to learn Particle Illusion, that is) by creating your own explosions. You can customize the look you want (car explosions tend toward a quick combustion when the fuel tank blows up, followed by a dirty, oily flameball as the tires and plastic parts burn – unless of course there’s a bomb planted in it) and even create the debris based on a still of your actual car cut up in Photoshop and put into Illusion. Look at the Illusion website and you’ll find it’s been used in a number of feature films – for the price, it’s the secret weapon of the FX Artist.
I believe I read an account of the filming of Road Warrior that said they had only a few cars available, and were constantly working on the machines, since they got beat during the filming, so they didn’t have the option of actually blowing any cars up. If you view the film explosions, you’ll find them quite convincing. Good luck.
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
The only one I need and use is:
findsounds.com
You can find most anything there.
Joe Bourke
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In addition to the After Effects shortcuts help file, you’ll find this PDF a wealth of information (although it’s targeted at version 5.5 of AE, it’s still very valid):
https://www.cybmotion.com/sharing/AE5_5_HiddenGems_3.pdf
If you poke around the site, you’ll also find a number of articles written by Chris and Trish Meyer, and you’ll notice that they’ve written numerous books on AE, which stand out as the best of the lot (IMHO). The above-linked article has tons of shortcut combinations, many of which don’t seem to show up in the AE file, but which also are explained in very clear detail. Have fun!
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
We have had very good luck in the past using Microsoft Outlook as our scheduling tool. While it won’t generate billing, it neatly handled booking rooms, studios, personnel assignments, locations, etc.. Unfortunately the company that bought us went to Lotus Notes, in which it is barely possible to get email on a timely basis.
They’ve realized their error and we’re going back to Outlook after 4 years of booking turmoil.
Joe Bourke
WMUR-TV