[Ra-ey Saleh]

Alan,
These are really great. My fave is Smoke Column 01, which reminds me of a classic Sinbad/Harryhausen effect. Expected to see some evil eyes peering through…
I was thinking maybe this forum should have a Sticky Post, where people could add Wish List effects that they’d love to have. Maybe to provide you and others with some inspiration? Just a thought.

[Ra-ey Saleh]

That was it!
Thanks Alan.

[Ra-ey Saleh]

Like I said, first try just adjusting the Threshold/Brightness.
Then, if that isn’t quite right, do everything I suggest – minus any Tracking.
I know its looks a little indepth, but you can do it all in about 2 minutes flat – honest!

[Ra-ey Saleh]

This is actually a little tricky to answer, as it completely depends on the shot.
If you want to apply the Glint to the brightest element of the shot, i.e. a street light, you should just be able to increase the Threshold and decrease the Brightness. However, other elements in the shot are often of the same intensity and this can be problematic.
Here’s what I do most of the time with Glints/Glares
(you’ll need Sapphire v2 for this):
– Open up your Title Tool and draw a rough white circle around the part of the image you want the Glint to affect. Don’t worry if the image is moving, for the time being just draw the shape on the first frame and save the Title.
– Cut your Title onto V2. Now, if the shot is moving, Motion Track the Circle to follow what you want to Glint (simply upgrade your Title to 3D to get the Tracking options).
– Switch V1 and V2 around: Title on V1; Shot on V2.
– Apply your Glint effect to V2.
– Increase the Threshold and decrease the Brightness.
– In the Mask drop-down menu, select ‘1 track Below’.

That’s it. Now you have a Glint that only affects where you want.

Hope that all makes sense, looks worse then it is!
Also, not sure about a DVD but there is a great short book written by the guys at Sapphire specifically for the Avid called:
Training Guide: Sapphire Plug-ins 2 for Avid
https://www.genarts.com/training-guide-avid.html
Well worth the money!

Ra-ey

[Ra-ey Saleh]

Very very true,
That’s why I use Heroglyph. It’s really an amazing plug-in and costs about $100. Has about a thousand animated templates and you still get to stay in the Avid environment for quick amendments.
I use it everyday, And no, I don’t work for them.
Try the fully functional demo:

https://www.prodad.de/gb/heroglyph_std_details.html

Ra-ey

[Ra-ey Saleh]

Marquee has a preset (or Script) that easily allows this – and although it is a plugin normally ships with MCs free these days.
Although, it might seems a little daunting at first.
Other option is a German program called Heroglyph from proDAD.
Exceptionally good Titler, very cheap, user-friendly and realtime – something Marquee is far from. Big Fan.

Ra-ey

[Ra-ey Saleh]

Mark,

No worries. 5 years ago the Avid was pretty much a great Editor. Now with a number of plug-ins (some really cheap) and some other great native features the Avid really can do some great compositing – certainly with a Nitris.
Thanks for your post, makes it all worth while…
Might do another!

Ra-ey

[Ra-ey Saleh]

Thanks Grin,
I really think there’s a lack of tutorials aimed at the more intermediate/advanced Avid user, so I thought I’d try making one.
Learned a few lessons (like next time I’ll de-interlace and letterbox the Final Movie for the web!), but all good.

Ra-ey

Ra-ey

[Ra-ey Saleh]

Good news and bad news for ya…
Good news:
To apply the same effect to multiple clips simply ALT+lasso left to right over the clips you want to select (this is a quick way to select the clips in Segment mode) then
ALT+double-click the effect to want to apply directly from the Effects Palette.
Bad news:
You can’t apply Timewarp effects to multiple clips (unlike on the DS). Timewarps have to be applied to individual clips only (and on the bottom layer on any effects stack).

Ra-ey

[Ra-ey Saleh]

EDL Manager has been ‘quirky’ for a while, esp when MXF is involved.
The only way we’ve been able tpo create EDL is to bypass the ‘Get Current Sequence’ path – which is the standard – and to go the File > Open route. Just navigate to the bin in which the sequence you want is in, select the sequence and that should work for ya.