[Patrick Hearn]

One technique I found works quite well is to simpy draw the stick man with the pen tool and then apply stroke on the layer. You have to then manually keep an eye on the lengths on limbs etc, but for certain jobs it’s a really quick way of working.

To get walking I’d suggest getting a walk cycle like these:
https://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&hs=p2D&resnum=0&q=walk%20cycle&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
just put it on a layer behind and animate to that.

Alternatively, video someone doing the actions and use that.

The advantage with using stroke is that all your lines will always be the same width.

[Patrick Hearn]

Shift + click should do it

[Patrick Hearn]

What I’d do is duplicate the layer. On one do the green key, on the other the blue. Now alpha matte the green by the blue. Hopefully that should do it.

You might possibly have some specks left over. Do junk mattes before keying and perhaps blur the blue layer a little after the key.

[Patrick Hearn]

Not at a machine with After Effects to have a play with this but off the top of my head:

If it’s a CRT TV then perhaps warping or bulging the image just a tiny bit would help.

Reflections for sure. Hopefully the screen was black when you filmed. Duplicate the background layer and mask off the screen then have a play with blending modes to get the original reflections back onto the TV.

Contrast and levels also might help. Make sure that the black on the screen aren’t darker than the blacks in the rest of the shot.

Depending on your scene (ie. how light the rest of the room is) you might want to play with using the footage on the screen to light up the room a little. Try playing around with scaling it, masking it, blending modes etc. Really depends on how long you’ve got to play with it

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/936496#936496 <- a slightly more subtle version of the effect discussed in that thread might be of help too.

[Patrick Hearn]

I’m working in the UK so rates may be wuite different. However, I charge daily rates at £150-250 (~$300-$500) depending. For a 3 day job I’d say quote them $1500.

If you want to charge hourly then a friend has suggested this system to me:
Surcharge per day: £90 (basically because even if you only do a couple of hours work for someone in a day it limits any other work you can get for that day so you have the surcharge to make it worth your while)
Hourly rate 8-6pm: £20
That gets you £250 for an 8 hour day
Overtime rates: I’m not sure, probably £40

This seems a little complicated to me, but it does mean that you do get compensated if you’re working at places that require anything other than 9-5. Also, the surcharge

I’m only just starting out freelancing myself, but these are the sort of rates I’ve been seeing.

In the uk the site itjobswatch.co.uk is useful for getting a ballpark figure, I expect there’s some kind of equivalant in the US.

I’d also be interested to see what people’s thoughts are on this, in the US and UK.

[Patrick Hearn]

As I understand it you want to apply the loopOut expression to Time Remapping on the nested comp.

[Patrick Hearn]

The problem with any technological purchase is that whatever you’re looking at will always be cheaper in a couple of months or the new version will be released or that bug will be fixed. It’s never going to be perfect. I haven’t looked into this subject in particular and perhaps you might be better off waiting, but in general just buy it when you need it and can afford it and ignore the future.

[Patrick Hearn]

Ahh, that’s intersesting. So when it runs on multiple cores it’s allowed 3GB per process. So if you’ve got a quad core you could be using 12GB RAM for after effects if you had it? Hmm, now I’M tempted by a Mac.

[Patrick Hearn]

Thanks for the replies.
I think I would be leaning more towards what you suggested there, Mylenium. My idea to incorporate it into a project was to create a video piece which required a certain tool which currently doesn’t exist in AE, which I would then create. I don’t think I’d be ambitious enough to venture into 3d territory. It’s really only a concept at the moment and I haven’t given a lot of thought as to what the video piece or the tool could be.
Anyway, if I carry on with this idea I’d certainly be interested in any suitable ideas you or anyone else may have.

[Patrick Hearn]

oh…..
that’s burst my bubble.
thanks though, I’ll look into it