[Oakmozart]

It’s the best on the market, but it needs some overhauling. No transfer modes (who wants to use a plugin for those?). You have to nest effects to apply more than one (why not make it like After Effects’ Effect Editor, where you click and drag as many effects as you want to a clip, and the effect parameters stack on top of each other in the Effect Editor?). You have to tap a key/click a mouse to get into segment mode just to be able to click and drag your clips around in the timeline, then tap that key or click that mouse again to get out. (Why not just make it a click-and-drag interface period? Why even keep the segment modes?). Don’t even get me started on having to use different modes to trim, color correct, move clips around the timeline, tweak effects, etc.

I use, love, and will always stick with Avid. But the interface is so 1993…it’s 2005, and time for some updates. Those of you who love the “old-school” approach could easily be appeased if Avid used one of its specialties when it comes to the interface: user settings. The Avid interface is the most tweakable one I’ve ever seen. So, I say update it, but allow a user setting to leave it in the “old” mode for those old-school die-hards who want it left alone, while allowing a “new” mode for those who want to use it the way it is. I’d also love a loopable timeline, one that will allow you to play your sequence endlessly, while being able to tweak all your parameters in real-time, without stopping playback (unless you do so yourself). That’s one of the best features of the Media 100 844x line, may it rest in peace. Neither of these would be that hard to implement…I’ve even had Avid programmers I know tell me it’s a realistic idea. Those same programmers whispered about possible changes coming to the interface, though no specifics were given. I welcome those changes, myself. Don’t believe me? Look at the Advanced Keyframe editor and AVX 2. I’ve heard that’s only the beginning. I have nothing to back that up, so I’m just stating opinion and “whispers” I’ve heard from the folks who make the Avid products.

Avid’s interface hasn’t been changed in over a decade and we’ve become spoiled by that. Many have become opposed to any changes. Undestandably so. Who wants to relearn a revised interface when they’re comfortable the way it is? But take a look at the other companies out there who have changed the interfaces of their products: it usually ends up benefitting the users more (not always, but usually). Adobe and its After Effects application is a classic example of this.

Just my $0.02.

[Oakmozart]

DV Mag reviewed the inital 1.0 release of Adrenaline in 2003. Check https://www.dv.com and dig through the archives to find it. It was written by Frank Capria.

You need to go to your reseller and get a hands-on demo. Start here to find your nearest reseller: https://www.avid.com/forms/locator.asp Then, call them and arrange a demo. Make sure you get some “stick-time” test-driving the system. Before just committing to it, do some more research. Dig around Avid’s website. Browse the Avid User forums on Avid.com. Do a search for “Media Composer” “Adrenaline” “MCA” or “Media Composer Adrenaline” on this forum. There were many pissed-off users when Adrenaline first shipped, as it was riddled with bugs and limitations. At version 2.x, it’s gotten far better. It’s an incredible machine. I used to own one, but had to sell it when I closed up shop and moved. I miss it terribly and am strongly considering buying another one!

Good luck.

[Oakmozart]

1) Have you played around with Avid’s FluidFilm effect? It’s great for turning interlaced footage into progressive. The main problem is the excessive render times…they can get nasty.

2) The technique you seek is known as nesting effects and is one example of Avid’s obsolete interface that needs some overhauling. Try holding the Alt key while dropping another effect on top of a clip that already has an effect applied to it. Other ways to do this: enter one of the 2 “Segment Modes” (which default as the : and ” keys on the keyboard in XPro). While in segment mode, click on the clip you wish to add another effect to once to highlight it. The double click to “Step-Into” the clip to expose another “layer” of the clip that’s not effected by an effect. Drag your new effect to this layer to add it, without losing the previous effect. The last way is to use the “Step-In” button to achieve the same thing as what double-clicking on a clip while selected in segment mode does. Step-In allows you to “step-into” the clip for applying multiple effects. You can continue to step in as many times as you wish to apply as many different effects as you wish. When you’re done adding and tweaking effects, use the “Step-Out” button to go back to the main timeline. Remember, you have to click “Step-Out” as many times as you clicked “Step-In.” If you stepped in 10 times, you must step out 10 times.

One last way to do it is to create a new video track above your layer you wish to effect, select that layer, add edits (default keyboard command “H”) around where you want the effect to go, and drag the desired effect to the space between the edits on the timeline. The effect will create “filler” media and you’re off to the races. Keep in mind that this method affects ALL layers of video below it, so you may be required to make some changes to your timeline layer stacks to achieve what is is you want.

Feel free to email for further clarification if none of that made sense. Also, read through the manual for more info on this, too.

3) I don’t use Photoshop much or know it very well, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you’re referring to what’s known as secondary color-correction. In other words, you wish to correct individual color regions within a clip, without affecting the entire clip, right? (For example, take a clip of a red sports car and turn the sports car blue, without affecting the rest of the image.) If this is what you seek, it is currently not available in any Avid product below Symphony. Hopefully this will change soon. I know FCP, Liquid Edition and Sony Vegas all offer this, as do many other expensive “professional” systems (like discreet smoke, fire, flame, inferno, etc., as well as Quantel and others). You can fake this using After Effects, combustion and other FX applications, too. Heck, you could even export your footage as an image sequence to Photoshop and tweak using PS’s Color Balance effect in there. It’d be TONS of work, but it’s possible.

Good luck.

[Oakmozart]

System specs?

[Oakmozart]

Done, thanks!

[Oakmozart]

Hi Serge-

Don’t mean to hijack this thread, but now that I’ve got your attention, I was wondering: what’s the music you used in the final movie of your “creating the golden cow” tutorial? (You know, the one with the Egg in space that opens to show the golden cow, with the beautiful nebula’s, etc.)

Would appreciate knowing what it is…it’s a beautiful theme!

Thanks.

[Oakmozart]

I second Aharon’s suggestion for BOXX. They make killer systems for fair prices.

I’d also like to point you toward HP’s workstations, namely the xw8200 (dual Intel Xeon processors), or xw9300 (with dual AMD Opteron 64-bit chips, and dual graphics cards). You can go overboard on price with these babies (I’ve priced out a $14,000 xw9300 system and an $12,000 xw8200 system), but on average, you can get a killer system for around $5-$7K. https://www.hp.com/sbso/busproducts_PCwkstn.html Select “Workstations” in the top-right of the screen.

The biggest thing to consider is power (the most you can afford), speed (the fastest you can afford), price (the most you can get for the cheapest) and “future-proofing” (get the best you can so it will work for you for 3 years and protect your investment). Before buying anything, research the required computer specifications your software needs to run. I don’t know off-hand, but does AE 6.5 and PS CS2 support AMD processors? I know a few years ago, back in my old Premiere 6 and AE 5, PS 6 and Illustrator 9 days they didn’t. A LOT could have changed since then. Ensure that the money you’re spending on this computer is for the right components. AMD chips are getting better and better, but AMD is still missing a large number of what I consider to be crucial instruction sets that Intel has, and they’ve made no indication that they have any intentions of adding them any time soon.

With that in mind, I recommend:

* the fastest Intel processor you can get, preferrably dual-Xeon’s and NO slower than a P4 3.2 ghz (AMD dual-core’s if supported and you can afford it)

* if going with dual-core 64-bit chips and your software supports it, Windows XP Professional 64-bit Edition

* the most RAM you can afford, NO less than 1 GB, preferrably 2 gigs (more than that 2 and you’ll have to make some tweaks to Windows to see that extra gig, more than 3 gigs and you’re wasting your money because Windows doesn’t utilize it properly — this will be fixed with Windows Vista when released Christmas, 2006). Get the fastest RAM you can, and ensure it’s the RAM your system takes. If your motherboard takes DDR2 RAM, that’s perfect.

* the fastest graphics card you can get. If you can get PCI-E, that’s the best right now. I strongly encourage you to avoid the GeForce-line of cards (like the card you mentioned), as it’s a “gamer card” and not designed for professional applications, like you want. I’d recommend you look into Nvidia’s professional Quadro-series of graphics cards. Depending on how much you have to spend, look into the low-end QuadroFX 540 (around $200-$300), the QuadroFX 1400 (around $600), or the higher-end QuadroFX 3400 (around $1200). You will be glad you spent the money on a pro-card, vs. a gamer card…especially if you stray into 3D animation software, like Maya, 3DS Max, etc., or when doing high-quality, high-layered complex animations (and especially with uncompressed SD or HD(V) footage).

* the fastest and biggest hard drives you can get. Get 2 of them, one for a system drive (such as C: for Windows and software applications), and one for your media. IDE or SATA will work fine for a system drive (and an 80-120 gig drive will be fine for that), but for a second media drive, get the biggest and fastest drive(s) you can get. I would look no lower than SATA for this, or SCSI if you can afford it, though SCSI is SEVERELY over-priced. A 300-400 gig SATA drive will set you back a few hundred at best. If you can swing it, consider getting 2 drives (of the same type and size, say 2 Hitachi 400 gig SATA’s) and RAID them together for twice the speed, enabling you to work with uncompressed video and HDV. Most motherboards now have on-board RAID–even “lower-end” P4 boards, at prices under $200. If for some reason your mobo doesn’t have RAID, you can get a RAID controller card and be set.

* a SIIG or ADS Pyro firewire card. You’ll need a means to get video into and out of your system and this is it. Even if you’ll be getting all your footage predigitized (on DVD or an external hard drive), you’ll still be better off getting a firewire card, since they’re cheap and you’re providing the means to capture if you need. Plus, with discreet adding firewire capture/output support into combustion 3 and 4, I wouldn’t be surprised if Adobe followed suit with the next version of AE…I know it’s a feature users have been begging for for several years now.

There are other hardware cards I recommend you look into. Matrox Parhelia is a powerful card that offers WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) display and hardware acceleration of AE and (I believe) PS. You can use this card to view your compositions on an external monitor to check for color-balance, flaws, etc. If you’re designing for broadcast, or frankly anything other than home movies, an external monitor and the ability to use it with your software is CRUCIAL. Blackmagic Designs makes the Decklink-series of cards, which double as high-end capture cards and hardware-enhancing cards (kind of like a graphics card, but a little different) that support PS and AE. They’re not cheap, but are excellent cards that will also allow you to monitor your footage externally on a broadcast monitor.

That’s enough to get you started, hopefully without making your head spin. If you have this system built, go through a video vendor who knows what they’re doing (like BOXX, ProMAX, etc.). That way, your system will be specially configured to work properly, will come with a warranty and technical support, and will be easier to troubleshoot in the event you do run into problems. Follow the vendor’s recommendations and you should be set for the next couple of years.

Good luck.

[Oakmozart]

Okay, I was wrong! Thanks for the enlightenment, Fred.

[Oakmozart]

Not that I know of, and I’m somewhat skeptical as to whether you’ll ever see it. Avid is ferociously protective of its hardware and makes its own hardware for its products. Always has and always will. This is why you don’t see support for Blackmagic Decklink cards with XPro. Remember that Avid is primarily a hardware company, that makes software to run on its hardware.

With that said, I’ll say this: there are companies working with Avid, like Ikegami, that are working on building cameras to capture footage directly into the DNxHD format, as opposed to an HDCAM signal, etc. Avid is proud of its new format and it is open-source (you can download the source codec for development on Avid’s website). Avid, I believe, DOES want this to become an industry-standard–for all companies (if I’m not mistaken), so who knows? Maybe I’m wrong and some day your hopes in the above posting will come true. Time will tell. I wouldn’t expect to see 3rd-party companies building hardware compatible with Avid software, though. IF there is any hardware like this in the process, nothing has been mentioned that I know of. I wouldn’t expect to hear much until NAB 2006 at soonest.

It was explained to me by an ACSR that Nitris doesn’t have a firewire port on it because “people who can afford a Nitris-based system likely aren’t capturing from firewire-based sources or using formats that would come from cameras with firewire connections.” In other words, if you can afford $90-$160K for a Symphony Nitris or DS Nitris, then you’re probably not going to be using DVCAM cameras as your primary source, you’re going to be using higher-end cameras/decks, like DigiBETA and HDCAM. AND, in the event that you ARE using a source such as DVCAM, DVCPRO, etc, you’re probably working with uber-expensive professional decks and will be capturing via component, SDI, etc., which offer much higher capture quality with far less loss than firewire. In the event that you DO need to capture firewire and you’re using a Nitris-based system, chances are you’ve got an Adrenaline or a Mojo laying around in your facility that’s there to do just that. 🙂

Must be nice to have money, huh?

[Oakmozart]

What you are referring to is known as “muzzle flash.” This flash generally takes up one frame for each time the trigger is pulled. You can create it by hand in Photoshop.

Easier methods:

Buy Digieffects Delierium plugin set for AE. Included in this 47-filter set is DE_Muzzle Flash for auto-animating muzzle flash. It’s not cheap, but it’s full of cool stuff! https://www.digieffects.com

Buy the “Gun Stock” library from Artbeats. Included is all sorts of great gun footage effects shots, all with blue or black backgrounds for quick color or luma keys to composite on your footage. Not cheap, $500 for about 30 clips, but the quality is incredible and there’s nothing else like it on earth right now…that I know of. Muzzle flashes are included, from various weapons, along with riccochet sparks, bullet hits in metal, glass and wood, among other stuff. https://www.artbeats.com Search under “Effects.”

Remember, muzzle flash isn’t the only element you’ll need to sell the shot. If the camera is up close to the gun as its being fired, it won’t look realistic if the viewers don’t see some blowback action on the slide of the handgun (if using slide-action semi-auto handguns, like a Beretta 93, Glocks, etc.). If you’re using a “wheel gun” (revolver, like Cowboys used to use in westerns), then that’s not such a big deal. Shotguns and automatic weapons need to show the bolt cycling if shooting up close. If from a distance, you can get away without using it. For realistic blowback, look at Airsoft BB guns. They’re not cheap, but the realism is INCREDIBLE!
Remember to have your actor “react” to the gunshot as they pull the trigger. This is called “recoil” and is a byproduct of firing any weapon…even a .22 calibre rifle/pistol, though the recoil is minimal and hardly noticeable. Try it on a 12-gauge shotgun or a 30.06 rifle and it’s a TOTALLY different story!

Remember to add some smoke coming out the end of the barrel and the shell casing being ejected. Ejecting shell cases can be created using a 3D application or even a heavily blurred, square mask. I just saw the masking technique done in book yesterday, titled “Adobe After Effects 6.5 Studio Techniques” by Mark Christiansen.

Also remember to track the muzzle flash/smoke/shell casing elements to your weapon if necessary, especially if your actor’s “recoil” is substantial. It won’t look realistic if your actor’s hand is pulling the pistol up and away from the stationary muzzle flash. Make sense?

Good luck.