Lars Bunch
Forum Replies Created
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Hi,
You should render with a STRAIGHT alpha out of AE. It will look terrible in quicktime, but it will work properly in the Avid composite. The problem is that Avid always assumes it is getting a straight alpha and so it multiplies the foreground pixel by the alpha pixel. This causes a dark ring around blurred elements.
I hope this helps.
Lars
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Hi,
You can start a render from the command line and this will run in the background and still allow you to work in the UI. You will need to run the Apple Unix terminal program in Applications/Utilities. You could then just create a text file with each command line as a separate line in the script. To run it, just type sh scriptFileName.txt and it will run in the background. the command to run the renderer would be something like this…
/Applications/Adobe CS3 After Effects/aerender blah, blah blah
Obviously you will need to read up on the command line arguments and unix scripting if you want to get into anything complex.
I hope this helps.
Lars
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Hi,
If you are bringing the keyed footage back into AE, it shouldn’t matter if it is straight or premultiplied. AE should deal with it just fine so long as you set the footage interpretation correctly. You may want to make sure that AE is interpreting it right – select the footage and hit Command-F or Crtl-F and then make sure it is set to Pre-multiplied or Straight.
If you rendered the footage with a matte and it’s coming in without one, it is possible that you rendered to a codec that does not support matte channels. I know 10 and 8 Bit Uncompressed codecs will not preserve the matte. Animation will, so you can use that if you need a lossless codec.
I hope this helps,
Lars
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Hi,
If he can handle Flash, he can certainly handle After Effects. The only issue is will his knowledge of Flash create confusion in trying to understand After Effects. I’m a bit older than 14 at this point and maybe that effects my learning abilities, but I have had a heck of a time trying to understand Flash after many years of working with AE. I don’t know… maybe it’s easier going the other direction.
In regard to upgrading, the iMac should be able to handle a lot of things. I use my MacBook for simple AE work at home. It will be painful to do really complicated stuff, but there is no point in upgrading the hardware until you know you need something more powerful. At least to begin with, if you choose to get AE for the iMac, it will work. it may not be the fastest thing around, but if your kid starts making more money than you because he’s mastered After Effects, then he can pop for the new Mac.
Lars
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Hi,
I’m using CS3 and I have exactly the same trouble. I assumed it was due to the fact that I am using a Wacom pen tablet. Adjusting the pen’s sensitivity doesn’t seem to change a thing and there doesn’t seem to be an adjustment in AE’s preferences.
Perhaps it’s just Adobe’s way of saying we are pushing ourselves too fast and the client doesn’t really need that animation today anyway.
Lars
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Hi,
Because the ink flows are closely integrated with the body’s surface and its motion and because they flow neatly over rocks in 3D space, I suspect most of this animation is done in a 3D program using very good fluid dynamics. (Maya Unlimited, for example)
If I were to attempt something like this in AE, I think a lot of planning and storyboarding would be the first order of business. Once the main character was filmed or animated, one might then set up a cloud tank to shoot practical ink drops from specific angles with a clear idea of where each drop was to be placed in the film.
Then when compositing the ink drops, one would expect to do a great deal of masking, using many, many layers to carefully blend it all together.
But as I mentioned above, I don’t think this sort of animation is a job for AE.
Lars
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Hi,
You should not have any problems with the frame sizes and you should have a good range to pan or zoom within the image.
You may already have experience with this, but since it created a problem for me on some early time lapse, I thought I’d mention it… Make sure that all the exposure, color balance, focus and what not are in manual mode when you shoot the time lapse. Even auto white balance can cause ugly flickering from frame to frame. Also if you are shooting in RAW mode, have you made sure you have a good work flow for converting the images to tif for later import to AE?
Lars
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Hi,
I think what you need to do is to animate the Depth control under Force 1 of the shatter effect. Move it in a positive direction and the force will not intersect the shatter plane. Then animate it in a negative direction and it will push through the plane, shattering it.
I hope this helps,
Lars
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Hi,
While cpu speed and the number of cores are a factor, the thing that gives you the biggest bang for the buck is memory. If you have a multi-core machine, try to install at least two gigabytes of memory per core. For example, I have a 8 core MacPro with 16 GB of memory. In AE CS3 or using Gridiron’s Nucleo Pro rendering plugin, you can utilize all the cores and that extra memory will be useful.
Since AE can only access up to 3GB per core on a Mac or Windows XP (I think it can access up to 4 on Vista) There is little point in getting beyond 3GB per core.
A fast RAID helps, but probably won’t give you a significant speed boost. It might help a little if you use it for your temp files, but my guess is the improvement won’t be noticeable.
I hope this helps,
Lars
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HI,
The interpret footage pulldown option is strictly for removing the 3:2 pulldown. To add a pulldown, you need to set it up in your render que.
Bring in your footage at 24fps (or 23.976 if you’re not into the whole brevity thing) When you add your comp to the render que, under “render settings” set field render to Lower Field First and 3:2 pulldown to one of the available settings (I usually use the first setting). Your output frame rate should automatically be set to 29.97fps
I hope this helps,
Lars