[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[Aharon Rabinowitz] “I have had months of no work – some very scary times, and for you to imply that it’s been easy is just ridiculous.”

Just to clarify, one more time, ease of entry into the AE market is easy. Surviving it is another thing.

You, yourself have mentioned having to face competition from cheaper, student alternatives. You’ve also mentioned facing a scarcity of work as a result. What you didn’t specify was that the scarcity of work could also be related to you giving away AEPs to your clients.

Kathlyn and Ron know that I’ve faced some slow times myself. So, no. I never meant to imply that earning a living as an AE artist is easy. What I did say was that it is easy to enter into this entry with relatively few AE skills and with only a little invesment. These, coupled with the giving away of AEPs are the major obstacles to making a good and decent living in this industry as an AE guy.

The giving away of AEPs is a major catastrophe for the individual and for the entire AE industry. My suggestion is to follow the model as practiced by audio guys. They have been around longer and they seem to be doing ok.

Again, I suggest that all those interested in this thread, everyone should rightly be, to go do some ‘research’ and ask your audio guys, if, as a matter of practice, whether they provide project files and other music elements to their clients other than the finished piece of music.

Further, it is common practice that the audio guys get paid royalties for their work. And should their music be used for a period longer than that which was initially agreed upon, then extra charges are in order.

I strongly believe that AE artists should follow this business model to ensure their happiness and longevity in the industry.

Cheers
RoRK

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customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[Aharon Rabinowitz] “What i did not agree with is your attitude about how easy you think it is for After Effects people to get work, and how we need to grow up. I don’t know where that’s coming from.”

I believe that you misunderstood what I was trying to say. Or perhaps, I wasn’t sufficiently clear in my writing.

First off, I am an AE guy. Look up at the top of this page and you’ll see my mugshot.

One of the points I brought up was that it is easy to get AE jobs. Ease of entry is a given. Like I said, we’ve all been there – including the low tides and facing cheaper competitors who may still be schooling.

My believe in recent years has been to follow te business models of the audio guys when it comes to providing AEPs and any elements. In short, do not provide your AEPs to your clients unless you are paid extra for it.

RoRK
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[mauricem] “text hasnt been updated much since the 5.5 version”

There have been huge improvements to working with text in AE since version 5.5. Too many to mention. Your best bet is to have a look at the tutorials here at the COW on text in version 6.5 .

You’ll be WOWed! Then goto the Adobe Website and download the 30-day trial version of AE 7.0 Pro. Enjoy!

RoRK
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[mauricem] “text hasnt been updated much since the 5.5 version”

There have been huge improvements to working with text in AE since version 5.5. Too many to mention. Your best bet is to have a look at the tutorials here at the COW on text in version 6.5 .

You’ll be WOWed! Then goto the Adobe Website and download the 30-day trial version of AE 7.0 Pro. Enjoy!

RoRK
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

This sounds really weird. The only recommendation I have is to render/export 182 as a single frame and render the rest as a sequence. Just remember to keep a tab on the image numbers.

HTH
RoRK
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

This is an issue that has bothered for a very long time. The SYMPTOM of this problem is that AE guys and those alike do not understand what it takes to earn a living in this business.

The CAUSE is that it doesn’t cost a lot of money and at times, it doesn’t take a lot of talent, just a lot of time, to create something useable with a tool like AE.

Given this easy entry into the industry, folks have the impression that they can shore up work after work with relatively ease. Soon after, work eases up for everyone. This happens to all of us, even the best amongst us.

I too have had my work pinched over and over again by clients. The first couple of times made me feel good – a sense of arrival, so to speak. Then you see that it happens more frequesntly and you also notice that these same clients call you up for work less frequently.

Then you smarten up and realize that you are no longer going to leave your AEPs with any client. You begin to think of ways to work such that a ‘disaster’ such as this.

Essentially, you don’t want to not get paid for your work. I’ve been there and it seems that those that have responded to this thread have been there.

We’ve touched on a symptom and we touched on a very likely cause. So what’s the solution?

Well, look outisde of the box. Look at an old box. Hmmm, that old ballsy marchall amp is where you should begin.

Way before AE guys and their like came into the production fore, we had our audio cousins doing the rounds. They’ve been there and they’ve been had too. I know a lot of audio people and NOT one of them has ever given their project files and all of their source elements to a client.

If they did, they would be out of business faster than Peter made King Kong.

We’re in this for the long haul. It’s career. Treat your career with respect and you’ll have a decent chance to last as long as your heart is in it.

My gist is that we should do what the audio folks do. WHen was the last time that you went into an audio studio and saw nothing tha fancied you? These guys have been around for as long as there was sound in movies. Okay, alright, give or take a few moons.

Back to the problem: AE guys and their like have an easy entry into the industry. As such, they lack the “‘growing up skills” that audio guys have. AE guys and their like should think of the long-term consequences of providing AEP to their clients.

Steve provided valid points and Aharon provded a number of probable analogies. I’d like to forward just one.

Suppose you went to a restaurant and enjoyed a great meal. You so much want that recipe so that you can enjoy that same meal again, in the comfort of your home, with you as the chef. So pray tell? What are the chances of you getting that recipe from the chef?

Imaginable? Yes! Probable? No!

There are many industries with so many tried and tested practices. We really cannot use an example from another industry to justify most of the things that we do for a living.

We should model our business practices based on similar professions within the same industry, whenever that is possible.

I do not propose that I have the solution.

So, please call your local audio guy that does original music and not those that do studio recordings. Ask them if they commit, as a common practice, their sound elements and their project files to their clients. I suggest that everyone interested in topic do likewise.

So, once we have sufficient answers to this question. We should all come to our own conclusions. And once we do, please enlighten everyone that you know who may be, is or seems to be, an AE kinda of guy.

This, I expect, will be the only one solution with long-term viability.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

“Nasty jagged edge” doesn’t provide a defineable clue as to the problems you are having. It could be due to incorrect field ordering interpretation (comb-like artefacts) or mask chatter.

You will likely receive a better solution if you provide a more descriptive explanation of your artefacts coupled with the render settings in Maya and AE.

RoRK
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Different applications handle the bitrate setting differently. With certain software, this could be an average bitrate and with others, it could be a maximum. And then there’s the case where different CODECs and compression methods (VBR or CBR, single or two-pass) will hinder the options avaialable to you.

I haven’t tested version 7 for compression so I can’t give you any first-hand information.

If you need to do a bit of compression work then look for a solid compression software to do the job for you.

RoRK
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

The Echo plugin is found in the Effects->Time menu.

RoRK
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

I’m not sure if I understand your issue correctly but perhaps the following will help you to sort out the issue.

Before you copy a mask from one layer (Layer A) to another layer (Layer B), that already has a mask, you should have a keyframe for maskshape or Layer B. Then copy the mask from Layer A. Move the Timeline Indicator to a new point in time. Goto the Layer Window for Layer B and select Target->Mask 1 before pasting the mask. This will create a new keyframe for maskshape for Layer B.

HTH
RoRK
broadcastGEMs
customizable animated backdrops with Adobe After Effects project files