[Kevin Reiner]

Thanks for your incredibly quick response.

kevinATclarkcreativegroupDOTcom

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[Kevin Reiner]

Hello,

Found this thread doing a searrch. I am about to start a similar project. I have a project shot 80% in HDV 1080p24 with the rest in anamorphic DV. Final project will end up as a widescreen SD DVD.

Paul, you said:

“If you’ve gone HDV up to this point, I would say keep color correcting and working in HDV.”

Is there a better way to do it from the start? Just curious as to what people think is the best workflow to keep optimal quality.

Just curious.

Thanks,
Kevin

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[Kevin Reiner]

Thanks Don,

What you speak of is the typical graphical watermark that I am familiar with, but I guess there is some newfangled thing called a digital watermark. Leave it to the video industry to give the same name to 2 different things 😉

I found someone who can do it for us. It is pretty much a signal embedded into the digital file that allows for tracking a spot and measuring it’s impact. I have 1 spot that is going to 40 different markets. I guess this helps them track its performance in different cities and demographics.

Does anyone know if FCP can embed a digital watermark? Or some other product? This is a new big client and if it is something that is worth the cost, I wouldn’t mind bringing it in-house.

Thanks,
Kevin

System Setup (for a more detailed list, see my profile)

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Digital Anarchy Anarchist Suite
ParticleIllusion 3.0
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[Kevin Reiner]

I got sidetracked by asking Walter’s advise on Media Batch.

I also wanted to say that I use Filemaker Pro to keep track of all my media and digital assets. It was actually pretty easy to learn the basics, and it saves me a ton of time in searching for files. I wasn’t sure it was an app that I wanted to spend time learning, but I have found that I turn to it quite often in both my professional and private life. The only thing I really haven’t learned is how to post it online, so I would probably outsource that.

just my 2 cents.

PS a really good feature I came up with is a script that reads the content of an inserted disc and inserting it into a “contents” field. So if I reload an old project and a message comes up saying a file is missing, I can do a quick search that leads me to the right disc. Neato.

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[Kevin Reiner]

Hey Walter,

First of all, I just want to say I’m a big fan of Good Eats. Both because of the host and because of the editor.

Anyway, I was looking into Media Batch myself, and was happy to read that you liked the program. I know you’re a busy man, but can you expand on what features you liked the most?

I am an in-house video editor for an advertising agency, and I would love to streamline the client approval process.

Thanks in advance,
Kevin

System Setup (for a more detailed list, see my profile)

HARDWARE
Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
9GB Memory
Two 16x SuperDrives
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Apple Cinema HD Display (23″ flat panel)
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AJA Kona LHe SD/HD capture card
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Illustrator CS3
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
Roxio Toast
Digital Anarchy Anarchist Suite
ParticleIllusion 3.0
Trapcode
Zaxwerks

[Kevin Reiner]

Don’t worry, as of this writing, style and rhythm still aren’t sold in boxes.
😉

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Digital Anarchy Anarchist Suite
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[Kevin Reiner]

Why is it that rude answers always take up 3-times more space than nice answers? 😉

Thanks for the info bob. I didn’t mean for my post to sound like a typical newbie request for “teach me everything I need to know by tomorrow please!”. I’ve been working in video for 11 years now, and definitely understand the testing and trouble-shooting and the wife wondering if I’m still alive stuff. However, in the market I’m in, it’s all been in SD. I keep up with industry news, but I don’t learn anything thoroughly until I deal with it in real life. So I’m plunging rather quickly into HD. I have been testing and researching for the last 2 weeks and I came to the conclusions that I posted. It being my first venture into HD, I wanted to check my findings with my friends here at the cow. The only conclusion that I can totally be sure of right now is that HD is a headache.

Lets all take a deep breath now.

Reins

[Kevin Reiner]

I guess the part that I am questioning is that I am simply using slides that are cut to audio. It seems that compressing to a wmv file would be over kill. Is there a way to cue cuts in PowerPoint to exact parts of an audio clip? Or should I play it safe and make a wmv?

System Setup (for a more detailed list, see my profile)

HARDWARE
Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
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AJA Kona LSe SD/HD capture card
Apple Xserve Raid 5.6TB

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Final Cut Pro Studio
After Effects CS3
Photoshop CS3
Illustrator CS3
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
Roxio Toast
Digital Anarchy Anarchist Suite
ParticleIllusion 3.0
Trapcode
Zaxwerks

[Kevin Reiner]

Hey Serge,

I got my project to a pretty good rough stage. Take a look:

https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/w0g3b8

The things I am now having trouble with are the lights and shadows. As you advised, I used the zaxwerks camera to animate most of the movement of the present. However, since I wanted the present to rotate, the lights and shadows rotated with the present’s spinning and did not look real. I thought switching to “use AE lights” would stop this, but it did not. How do I animate the zaxwerks camera, yet keeping the lights appearing as if they are steady.

-Reins

PS Love the DVD. The trick with the pivot spheres is great.

[Kevin Reiner]

Hello Serge and Jon and all,

I have that present working perfectly – almost. The present will be opening up. Actually it will be flying apart. So I made the cube out of 6 planes. I want to control the whole present by having a Master Controller that is the parent to 6 other layers. My thinking was that the Master Controller would move the entire object, and then its children 3D solids would control the sides flying apart. To make it even more complex, I need the tag and ring that are hanging off the side to flip on their x axes. I thought I had it all set up correctly, but when I start moving the controller 3D layers, everything starts shifting incorrectly.

Basically I am trying to achieve 3 things:
1. A 3D present that can fly around in 3D space.
2. An attached ring and tag that rotates on their x axes.
3. The ability to make all 6 sides fly away from each other. (with the ribbon, ring, and tag being part of the top set.)

I’ve uploaded my project since I am having difficulty explaining myself.

https://www.sendspace.com/pro/nqudbk

On another note, I ordered your book the other day, but I don’t think it will get here in time to help me with this problem. I look forward to using it.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me,
Reins

System Setup (for a more detailed list, see my profile)

HARDWARE
Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
9GB Memory
Two 16x SuperDrives
Dual-channel 2Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Apple Cinema HD Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon X1900 XT Graphics Card
AJA Kona LSe SD/HD capture card
Apple Xserve Raid 5.6TB

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Final Cut Pro Studio
After Effects CS3
Photoshop CS3
Illustrator CS3
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
Roxio Toast
Digital Anarchy Anarchist Suite
ParticleIllusion 3.0
Trapcode
Zaxwerks