Kevin Monahan
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Yeah. Don’t you remember the Simpsons episode where they go to Japan and Bart freaks out when he watches “Battling Seizure Robots”?
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>> “Battling Seizure Robots!”Cole Reiger offers: Here’s an explanation for the whole seizure scene … In
part, it’s true. If you broadcast a TV signal that flashes between red and
blue at a certain frequency you can cause the viewers to have convulsions
and seizures. This was discovered by a Japanese TV show called Pokemon.
I’m not sure if the show the Simpsons were watching was it, in fact I’m
certain it’s wasn’t.Fred Briere: It doesn’t need to be specific colors; flashing any two
contrasting colors in the spectrum (like black and white) in a rapid
succession is enough to provoke a seizure for some people.[It] certainly wasn’t Pokemon. 🙂 If you look at the screen, it was aptly
named “Seizure”.Michael Inez Orikasa: That whole “Fighting Seizure Robots” scene, with all of
OFF spasming, was obviously inspired by the events in Japan after the
showing of a Pocket Monsters (a.k.a. Pokemon) episode known as “Computer
Warrior Porygon.” Somewhere in that infamous episode was a part where
Pikachu emitted a four second flash of various colors … a four second
flash that caused some 700 people to go into seizures.I doubt that any of OFF would really have been affected by the flashes in
either case, owing to the normal TV watching conditions in America (bigger
rooms, lots of flashing effects on MTV and the like, etc.) It’s not likely
this scenario will be repeated here, since all the flashes on the US
airings of Pokemon have been dimmed and limited to two frames … and the
infamous episode has no plans of being aired or sold on video.Ryan Mead: More seizures were inflicted when a Japanese news station had a
story on the seizures — and stupidly showed the controversial clip.Dale G. Abersold adds: The episode that caused the convulsions (entitled
“Electric Soldier Porygon”) has never been officially aired in the U.S.,
along with a few others that were held back because of content that is more
adult than one usually sees in American children’s programming. So your
only chance to see the big, scary, convulsion-inducing program is to find a
bootleg …Syndey Assbasket notes the phenomenon is not unique to “Pokemon”: It has been
known before the Pokemon craze in America that a few kids had seizures
because of the bright flashing lights in Japanimation.On a related note, Jeff Cross explains: In one of his “Official Handbooks of
Practical Jokes,” Peter van der Linden says that a strobe light set above
25 flashes a second will cause seizures in people; apparently the nerves
shut down instead of trying to keep up. Why a cartoon will have a flashing
strobe at that frequency is beyond me.Sarah Culp gives us more about “Pokemon”: Awhile ago, a Japanese cartoon
show, “Pocket Monsters” caused a nationwide epidemic of seizures during a
flashing-light sequence. Several months later, “Pocket Monsters” entered
America as “Pokemon”, and became an extreme fad among the elementary and
middle school set as a television show, a video game, and a trading card
line. The show is about a young boy and his two friends, who set out to
become the world’s greatest Pokemon trainers, “Pokemon” being cute little
animals who fight using electricity, fire, and other elements. The show
bears zero resemblance to the superhero-robot monstrosity shown in OFF.So there ya have it….;-)
Kevin Monahan
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It’s easy to reverse a matte. Just add a Channel > Invert filter to the matte, set the dropdown menu in the filter to RGB and all will be well.
Travel Matte Alpha and Travel Matte Luma effects are built the same way.
V3 Graphic Fill (what you want to play in the matte)
V2 Matte itself
V1 BackgroundSelect the V3 clip and apply the Composite Mode > Travel Matte Luma
Any standard clip will work for a matte, but it’s helpful if it’s black and white.
If the matte contains an alpha channel (which you can embed in Photoshop, After Effects and with certain FCP operations), you can and should use the Travel Matte Alpha mode instead. Why? It generates a cleaner matte with smoother edges.
Walter’s movies will also help you.
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
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Good lord, regular FireWire drives aren’t even sanctioned. Apple is very cautionary about their use. They basically say, “Your mileage may vary”…..
These folks know. They built that stuff you know.
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
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At least get that FW800 drives on a separate PCI card. Avoid daisy chaining or attaching drives and deck to the same bus.
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
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A PowerBook is superior to an iMac because you can add a PCMCIA card. These not only give you more ports, but a whole separate bus to separate HD and deck. Daisy chaining them can be a big problem. Dropped frames is the usual ill.
I don’t like the idea of an iMac (or iBook), as there’s no way to add a PCI card or PCMCIA card.
Good luck though, if the FireWire drive is not working, you’ll have to capture to the internal drive and then transfer it to the external later.
Kevin Monahan
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One way: open the Browser, sort the Tape Name column by clicking on it.
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
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OK, I Guess you’ve never added a PCI card to your computer? Maybe you should get a knowledgeable friend to show you the first time. You have to put the PCI card in a PCI slot that is, yes, part of the motherboard. It’s simple, very simple – but everyone needs to be shown the ropes at least once. I suggest a mac troubleshooting course so you can do this stuff on your own with no fear. I did the Avid Troubleshooting course back in the day. Set me well on my way….
Kevin Monahan
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Can you try this on a PICT or PSD File? TIFFs are wacked sometimes. Also, are you seeing this on your video monitor? You have to check this on a video monitor to be sure.
Kevin Monahan
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Whatever machine you have, and if you must use unsupported FireWire drives (Apple doesn’t sanction the use of FireWire drives at all with FCP so YMMV), I suggest you get a PCI card-if you have a tower or a PCMCIA card-if you have a PowerBook to add more FireWire ports to a completely separate bus. You’ll be able to capture to these devices in a more stable way, no doubt.
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
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Audio synch problems are due 90% of the time to slow or usupported drives. Note: Apple has never recommended the use of external FireWire drives, although many people use them successfully (some don’t too).
Using unsupported hardware, you’ll have to beef up what you have to make things work more reliably.
Since you are using a PowerBook, I suggest you get a PCMCIA card with FireWire 800 ports and put a FireWire 800 drive on that FireWire bus. Put your cam on the other FireWire port. You will capture more easily this way with minimal problems with synch.
I can guarantee that.
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Seminar!
fcpworld.com