[Michael Szalapski]

It’s a reality that, for some of us, working from home just simply isn’t an option.

I do 3d animation and motion graphics. I do a bit of that on the side which I’ve always done from home, but my full time gig involves work that is, in some cases, literally classified. As the COVID-19 issue heats up and becomes unavoidable, we’ve been having meetings and discussions on what things we might be able to do from home and the answer is “not much”. Even if a project isn’t sensitive at all, there are rules against moving assets off of the secure server to a different system and it makes things very complicated for any attempt to work elsewhere.

We can be a bit flexible in taking some “training time” to go through some of those tutorial series we’ve been putting off. (Like Division 05’s excellent master classes and full courses.) But we only get allotted a certain amount of time for that.

Otherwise, I guess we can try to offset our schedules a bit so we overlap as little as possible. Otherwise, there’s not much else we can do.

This is an unprecedented situation.

But we’ve faced unprecedented situations before. When 9-11 came, our whole country shut down for a little while. Planes were grounded, events were canceled, etc., but most of us survived it. As it faded into the past, we adapted to a new normal and that is what will happen again. What sort of long-term changes to our daily lives are brought about by this pandemic is currently unknown. Maybe, once this is all over, we’ll avoid handshakes and just opt for bowing like they do in Japan – who knows?

The best advice I can offer is to stay calm, take all necessary precautions, and then live your life as best you can. Or, to borrow from Frozen II, don’t obsess about the difficulty of planning too far into the future, just do the next right thing.

– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

Well, NAB is officially canceled. So, NONE of us are going.

– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

Pretty sure the pixel bender kit that was built on is long gone from AE.

– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say CC 2015 was more stable than anything… I’ve found every version since its release to be an improvement. The latest version (after the latest update) has been especially good.

Sorry that I don’t have anything more useful to suggest. If you’re going to update your OS, you have to be prepared that updating your software might have to happen too.

– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

You can try AE’s Rotobrush tool. It, combined with the Refine Edge effect can sometimes be useful.

However, you may have to resort to traditional rotoscoping. (Keep in mind all the tips about using several masks for each person [two or three masks per limb, etc.], using tracking data from Mocha AE, etc.)

– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

[greg janza] “Companies that put out statements about how they’ll be there no matter what are completely clueless as to how negatively that attitude reflects on the company itself.”

Agreed. If the whole thing cancels, why go? It’s just…bravado for no reason? Maybe they just love Vegas?

Also, Boris FX just emailed that they’re pulling out. https://twitter.com/post_magazine/status/1237765971823165440?s=20

– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

#NABShow: @borisfx is the latest to pull out of #LasVegas show due to #coronavirus concerns#postproduction #graphics #VFX #travel #NAB2020 pic.twitter.com/hzA0sa4EQx

— Post Magazine (@post_magazine) March 11, 2020

[Michael Szalapski]

You can have layer panels and composition panels open simultaneously next to each other. Heck, you can have multiple composition panels open next to each other. The only limitation is screen real estate.

– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

I haven’t decided if I’m going or not. Much of what I enjoyed about the show was talking with engineers, QC folks, etc. from Adobe about the future of After Effects, Premiere Pro, Character Animator, etc. and with the Adobe team not there, a big reason for my attendance is gone.

Maxon and Red Giant are still (currently) planning to attend. So that means a bunch of folks I like to chat with will still be there.

At the very least, the Mograph.net folks have said that (unless all air travel is grounded) they’re going to be in Las Vegas even if NAB itself is canceled.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

And there’s always Video Copilot’s famous Earth Zoom tutorial too.

– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Szalapski]

Looks like the answer to use RBG mode instead of CMYK mode in Illustrator solved it for you?

– The Great Szalam
(The \’Great\’ stands for \’Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble\’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.