[Mike Smith]

This sounds a little dubious … what’s your purpose here?

[Mike Smith]

Does you camera accept IEEE 1394 in, and does it have a setting to select input IEEE 1394 or composite ..?

[Mike Smith]

Hi Stuart.

I’d guess that it depends a lot on the client, and the kind of project. From your post, I’m guessing you may have been asked to submit a competitive tender in the UK, for a video / not for broadcast project. And you have reason to believe that you are one of many bidders.

Your response could depend a lot on how much you want the work, and what you know / believe about the client. UK broadcasters and ad agencies may be more inclined to pick you, or not, based on what they know of you, your reel and background, as well as your on ideas / proposals submitted, and then negotiate hard on costs. So they’ll want to see your costings, and will have their own ideas about what resources are needed and what they are willing to pay for them.

Corporate buyers asking for quotes from several companies: how to approach?

If you think cost detail will help you sell, then go for it. For the buyer, though, the bottom line may incorporate good-enough quality at the best total price.

Have they offered you a script to budget, or are you developing a treatment + costings pitch? Your post suggests the latter: in which case, you’ll need to decide whether / how much effort to put into a pitch.

If they’re inviting multiple bids, then your chances are correspondingly small.

Have they asked to see showreel, or do you have other reason to think they know about the quality of your work?

If they seen your reel / met you and are inviting you as one of a small group, then it could be well worth the time to develop a really strong creative idea, and cost it.

If they haven’t asked for showreel and you don’t know them, then it may be fair to guess cost is a big criterion for them. In this situation, I’d guess that often it’s the all-in cost that counts. To protect yourself, you might want to specify exactly what you think is needed, and provide an all-in cost for that as a total, with a proviso that varying the spec and requirement varies the cost.

I guess your aim here could be to get into a negotiation: once they’re discussing a total cost with you, and what they get for it, you may be close to contract.

As an aside, a buyer once volunteered me the gem that he could have had his project done better and cheaper, but why should he pass on the trip to the Caribbean that was on offer, when he had the budget? I guess buyers are varied …!

All best !

[Mike Smith]

I guess if (channel one is dodgy, and) channel 2 is OK, you might have decided just to create a mono submix and feed it using a track-level audio filter (or maybe even just use the channel pan control?) to take only (mostly) channel 2 ..?

[Mike Smith]

Use what you like. If it works for you, do it.

You are checking your results on a good video NTSC/ PAL monitor, right?

Most people find they get better results compressing to mpeg2 from uncompressed footage, or if they have to use a compressed source e.g. because they have a long-form program, then from the best quality compressed source they can manage.

[Mike Smith]

If you output to 32bit targa sequence, and select output rgb+alpha then your targa sequence will have alpha channel included, with the non-picture parts of your frames transparent. Pretty well any Chyron (or other character generator) + video mixer /switcher combo should allow that to be keyed over background footage.

[Mike Smith]

One way might be to set the house shot in 3d for an end view. If the footage allows, lay out the 3d bricks shot as a perspective / floor layer, so that the two shots work together, masking or distorting as needed to get it to work. That’s your end shot. Then rotate the floor lay up, so that it’s face to camera and filling your frame. That’s the start frame …. hmm. Might work!

[Mike Smith]

One way might be to set the house shot in 3d for an end view. If the footage allows, lay out the 3d bricks shot as a perspective / floor layer, so that the two shots work together, masking or distorting as needed to get it to work. That’s your end shot. Then rotate the floor lay up, so that it’s face to camera and filling your frame. That’s the start frame …. hmm. Might work!

[Mike Smith]

I guess it would help to know who wants to receive your output, what format they need it in for their equipment?

At the least, it sounds a little strange: if you don’t carry out the 3D movement on the display footage then someone will have to do that later – and how will they match your movement …? Just having an alpha channel and no rendered DVEd footage doesn’t sound like it will produce interesting results.

Are you sure you have a proper brief from the technical end user …?

Or maybe I’ve just missed what you’r asking …

[Mike Smith]

1 – how can a circle be “same size” as a square ..?

2 – what happens if you make your solid (square) bigger than the target composition (or target pre-comp if it’s a small part of the frame)

The create a circle mask

Then use scale to animate, at minimal render time … ?