[Marc Bauwens]

Hey Marcelo,

My pleasure.
Yup, the client always gets his wishes even if we don’t like it. But do not always grant them everything, try to ad value in trying differnt things and have them give you feedback

Spicemaster Pro is worth every buck, especially for photo montages.
We use it to add an ‘organic’ feel to the transitions, soft and irregular.
The clients are stunned every time they see it !

Keep up the good work.

[Marc Bauwens]

Hi,

I watched your photomontage and was pleased to see the results.
We do a lot of this stuff for Advertising agencies here in Europe and use the same techniques and tools for their portfolios and showreels they use to communicate with prospecrs.

The overall story and narrative is excellent although I would slow down the pace a tiny bit as some pictures seem to rush by and the animation isn’t quite finished before the next flies in.

Also I would use simpler transition effects. A simple cross disolve or sometime a wipe does the work quite well. Don’t use a different transition for every section as this is distracting and might look ‘unpro’ to some customers. Let the images tell the story, transitions and FX are tools made to enhance the value of your work and not to show how many tools you have in your toolbox. If you can afford it buy Spicemaster Pro from Pixelan. This plugin will greatly enhance the choice and flexibility you have with transitions (no I’m not an employee or endorsed by Pixelan ;)).

Anyway, I’m not responding to critisize your work. It is quite excellent, but in this business sometimes ‘less is more’. Try to create a signature that will distinguish your work from competitors and keep experimenting!

Cheers!

[Marc Bauwens]

Yup, edit the audio in an audio app such as Wavelab or Sound Forge and import it back into Premiere

[Marc Bauwens]

Indeed. As far as capture and editing goes this all went flawlessly.
But the export part is where HDV stumbles right now. No real HD media for end users and boggy software from some manufacturers. Good thing I tried the demo before actually purchasing it!

Procoder suits me fine for most of my conversion jobs and I think I’m going to stick with it for a VERY long time untill someone comes up with a rock solid export solution like the one Mainconcept is prposing but which doesn”t work.

This issue shortened my life expectancy with another year or two (again!) so I think it is time some developpers got their act together and some manufacturers of hardware should stop telling fairytales, because customers want it and we end up sorting the mess out !

[Marc Bauwens]

You don’t give much specifics on your project.
How long is it ? what format? on which type of machine are you working?
Do you have software running in the background? Which OS? Which version of Premiere?

With more detail, there might be some issues that can be solved.

Export to DVD is pretty fast on my machine, but keep in mind that transcode times vary greatly with the complexity and length of the project

[Marc Bauwens]

Hi Mike,

Actually I think that I expressed myself incorrectly. I needed to finish a HDV project to an SD 16:9 PAL Widescreen DVD. I tried to look what the result would be with the Mainconcept MPEG PRO demo. Well.. Whatever I tried it looked AWFULL. Jumpy frames and stuttering video, plus soft looking footage and this whatever the settings… Has Mainconcept missed something here? One thing is that I will NOT fork out 250 Euros for this piece of software as it doesn’t live up to the promise made. Finally after thinking about the worst case scenario (Hi dear Client, we’re not going to be able to meet your deadline …) I gave it a final shot by running it thru Canopus Procoder. And guess what? Pristine looking 16:9 anamorphic video ready to be burned to DVD! Although I have to admit that the render times for the final file where looooooong (5 hours for 7 minutes of footage), in the end it came together, but I have to admit with you that HDV isn’t ready yet for fast turnaround times. Makes me think of the early days of DV…

Thanks for replying to my posting anyway, I appreciate it greatly.

[Marc Bauwens]

Steve,

Yeah, I figured so already..

Now I’m going to have to render all that stuff out and then going back…

But thanks for confirming what I was suspecting.