Ron Lindeboom
2
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
-
I forgot to mention that just as I always tell people, any possible gains in speed you may or may not make while switching systems, has to be considered against the kind of time and effort you must and will spend to learn any new system — regardless if it’s a PC or a Mac or Linux.
For example, I have been on Apple computers since 1982 or so. I have also been using PCs for about five or six years now. I know my way around Macs far, far better than I do Windows or Linux PCs. So I tend to still favor my Macs as at the end of the day, I can get more done on them.
But *any* of my computers is faster than me, I always tend to be the slowest cog in the machine and the machines — if I could realistically measure their real usage, etc. — probably spend most of their time waiting for me. (I wonder how many CPU cycles are spent just idling waiting for “the attached human” to do something. Good thing that these machines have no life or brains as I am sure we’d all be boring our machines to death and driving them nuts, no matter which label was on the box.)
The point I am making is that there should be major considerations taken when really considering any change of platform, no matter what platform you use or are thinking of jumping to. That old adage “The grass is always greener…” springs to mind and Dear Ole Dad always reminded me that it really ended: “The grass *is* always greener — over the septic tank.”
Any major move is going to be made with the added expense of downtime and re-education. Hardly anyone ever factors those real but often hidden costs into the equation.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
-
[B.J. Ahlen] “I just configured a 7400 system with Double Dual-core Opterons, a mid-range nVidia Quadro workstation card, a couple of hard drives, etc., and landed at $3,163”
Hi BJ,
I have looked into Boxx a few times and have never even got close to a price like that. No matter what I do to configure a system there, it ends up being $5,000 or more. (And I already own software, so I am not going to them for that.)
So, when I need my PCs, I always end up going to Bold Data — https://www.bolddata.com — who build most of the boxxes (pun intended) for SpectSoft’s RaveHD and a bunch of others I know. In fact, I just ordered another dual Opteron from them just last week which should be rolling out pretty soon. It was way less money than for the comparable system from Boxx.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net -
I suspect that you are quite right that she is a “master lighter” but it strikes me, Jim, that she also used some blend mode tricks and probably some of the kind of techniques that Andrew Kramer’s video tutorial on “Blemish Removal” explored. At least some of that beautiful lighting could be added after the fact by combining some mode tricks and the techniques seen in Andrew’s tutorial at:
https://www.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/blemish_removal/index.html
Even though the article is for After Effects users, the principles and techniques used are totally adaptable and usable by Photoshop artists.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
-
[eric rosner] “Are you nuts?”
No, just irritated that someone would use so little supporting evidence, cast aspersions, do it without clarifying who you were talking about and then feigning chagrin that people are offended by your remarks. Own your own words, Eric, and spare me the self-righteous chagrin.
[eric rosner] “When I said some people were getting paid by Adobe… I, in no way meant the CC forum leaders..if they took it that way then that is their issue (talk about egos) …”
The only ones getting paid by Adobe around here, is the site itself and we didn’t write any of the reviews, Eric. We aren’t producing the content but go to real working artists, not paid journalists, to get it. Neither we nor Adobe tell our leaders what to write about. Personally, if we did it that way, the content would be far too restrictive for my tastes.
So, if you were not insulting the forum leaders, that leaves only the Cow itself. (After all, you were speaking here — and if you wish to say you weren’t referring to the Cow, then why not post wherever these questionable comments were made?) We do not have an official policy that we force onto our leaders and writers regarding reviews, etc., so we have little control. To be honest, we prefer it that way — this, as we get far more input and fresh ideas than repeating our opinions.
Like you, I am free to my opinion just as you are to yours. What you are NOT free to do here in the Cow is act like a high school kid whose ego is unrestrained and unfettered by any semblance of respect for others — so much so, that your first words seem to be things like “Are you nuts” and the like…
If you cannot listen to nor respect the ideas or input of others, and wish to have your say in a manner wherein you disparage the character of others and insult them like a teenager with a bad attitude, then perhaps you really do need to remove the Cow from your list of places to visit. This site is about community and free speech has never been given a near-religious mantle here — at least not when it’s used as little more than an excuse for flaming people and questioning their character and painting them as juvenile ego maniacs (this, when it’s pretty clear who is being juvenile here).
Bye, Eric. We will remove you from our various files, etc.
Ron Lindeboom
-
Eric,
First off: I just got back into the office this morning after being gone for a day to spend some time with my father. If I had seen this when it first went up yesterday, I’d have given you about 30 seconds to apologize to the leaders and others you have insulted or you could just get out of the Cow and stay gone… Capeesh?
You are quite entitled to your opinion but the only one getting paid around here is the Cow itself — to run banners. We do NOT tell our leaders or members what to say and as Mylenium points out in his reply to you, there are a number of points in his review that address what he doesn’t like in AE7. Still, all-in-all he gave the package high marks — as have pretty much all the people we know who have had a chance to work with it for some time.
We didn’t write the review, he did. We didn’t tell him what to think nor did Adobe. To be quite honest about it, the ONLY area of the review where Adobe asked Mylenium to reconsider his point of view was in the animations pre-sets — something which Mylenium sees little value in but many other users will see value in. His other criticisms, they merely took notes on and I am sure added to the list of things to consider for future revisions.
We don’t have paid writers, per se, on staff in the Cow. We prefer to have articles and reviews that are written by actual working artists and content creators who write from a real-world perspective of using these tools in the trenches — not have professional journalists who crank out articles about tools they never use in the real world.
Many of our leaders get to participate in the beta programs and so by the time these tools are released, they have quite an understanding of them and where the real strengths lay. Because they understand things at a level that you may have missed with a cursory glance, does not make them morons. And just because people do not agree with your point of view does not make them corporate shills trying to con you into upgrading so they can make a few bucks — which is EXACTLY what you have implied and which if I do not get an apology out of you today WILL be the reason that you are banned irrevocably from the Cow.
My personal opinion is that the new interface and integration is adding a LOT of power to the Adobe apps that place it to where it rivals much of the functionality found in high-end suites like those from Discreet — that’s an opinion that I share with Scott Billups, a man whose film credits include work with Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg. I get advertising from Adobe, Scott doesn’t. You can accuse me all you like that my opinion is up for sale, I can live with that — I’ve been doing this for 11 years and learned long ago that people will think whatsoever they will. My friends and the people I care about know who and what I am and I am content with that. You do not know me nor do I care much about your opinion from what I have seen of your behavior.
You have a few hours, Eric, and then I am going to hit the “jettison this jerk” button if you haven’t apologized to those whose character you have maligned and whom you have insulted.
The clock’s running…
Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net -
If your screen name that you were trying to change to contained less than eight characters, it would have failed. We are trying to keep this site from repeating the “Bob” and “Bill” naming schemes that happened at the Cow because we set no limit in the early days.
I get all email addressed to either the Ron link or the Cowdog link on the contact us page. I just now went through the rather copious barrage of email I get everyday and which tends to pile up between my spurts of enterprise to get it caught up — and there is nothing here for either me or Cowdog from you.
We have two people, me and my wife, who moderate these forums and are highly active and responsive to those who write us. Many times, we respond in minutes and on the rare occasion, may take a day or two to respond. But we have always taken our community and our commitment to it quite seriously. We do not shine people on and I have no idea who you were trying to connect to but it surely wasn’t me and the Dog — and we are two of the four listed on that contacts page.
I straighten out many account problems all the time. I was up at 5am this morning and have done a bunch of things and in among those things were three accounts that wanted updating, etc., and they are done. I suspect that your email server may be one of those who may be blacklisted with Charter.net (where we get our email from in the final leg of the relay to us from our server) and so we may not have even received it. So you may wish to consider that the Net is far from a perfect universe the next time you think about making blanket dismissals regarding the commitment of those who run this site and the Cow.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
creativecowe.net -
We have noticed this for years. Even in movie titles like Final Destination which used the George Polevoy flowing text tutorial. We’ve seen many TV shows and movies use it over the years and many (actually, most) haven’t even bothered to change the presets but simply use it straight out of the box.
But we kind of see it as a testament to the level of work that gets kicked around here in the Cow.
At NAB 2004, I walked around the floor for an hour or so with the owner of one of LA’s largest studios who told me that they have many artists that log in here and post questions when they are stuck and provide feedback, as well — but never under their own name as they don’t want people to know this is where some of those solutions are hammered out.
So take it as a compliment that the level of user here in the Cow is pretty high, all in all. Yes, there are the ones that take what is being talked about and use it without any creativity but there is also a lot here that is quite creative and that is more important in the long run…
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net -
The guys from Curious Maps hang out in the Curious gFx forum here at the Cow and they pop in and answer questions related to their products. You may wish to post this question there.
Thanks,
Ron Lindeboom
-
From the users I have spoken to, Magic Bullet seems to be the only plug-in that doesn’t work yet. I could be wrong but that is how I have thought it’s going. There was a guy in the news forum responding to the Boris press release who was asking why he needed to upgrade when his BCC is working just fine in AE7…
Best,
Ron Lindeboom
-
[Steve Roberts] “Search the COW for “FEC””
And if FEC was not used in the thread, then searching on the word “Final” will definitely retuyrn the thread. It was about two months ago if I recall correctly.
Best,
Ron Lindeboom