[Ron Lindeboom]

Hi Jan,

I just popped my head up after a long day of pushing hard to get more of the magazine done and to get today’s newsletter out. I logged in to find out what has happened to you and am saddened. You are a great person, Jan, and I am grateful to know you.

Get better, girl, and we’ll see you at NAB.

The best always,

Ron

[Ron Lindeboom]

[editing-Jos] “I just want to get a reaction from someone from adobe’s team.(are there AE programmers on this forum?)”

If you really want a response, then email the Adobe After Effects team at AfterEffectsATadobeDOTcom

That is the best way to contact them. They do get by the Cow AE forum but the best way is directly at the email address I just gave you.

Ron LIndeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

SilhouetteFX Roto was written by an Academy Award-winning team of FX pioneers who wrote Elastic Reality (and sold it to Avid). While there, they wrote Avid Marquee and a few other things. These guys work with film companies all the time and their stuff is well beyond video-level. Trust me, do not waste a moment worrying about the quality — it will be there.

Instead, worry about your sanity as you begin this.

Be afraid, be very afraid…

;o)

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

Welcome to the wonderful world of “roto” or “rotoscoping.”

In short, this is the laboriously tedious process of going frame to frame painting out the background (for simplicity’s sake in describing it).

You could output all the frames as a numbered image sequence from AE to then take it into Photoshop to remove the background — if you are suicidal. If you are not, you soon will be if you try it like that. (Oh, it works and I know some who use Photoshop but I wouldn’t do it that way.)

You can use SilhouetteFX Roto (much recommended if you wish to keep your sanity and you can learn more about it at https://www.silhouettefx.com which is the home of the product).

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net

[Ron Lindeboom]

I have also done this using a desaturate on the color, then using Find Edges to really push the contrast, posterize that, throw a crosshatch pattern on that and add some directional blur — then have same original image before all the effects were added on a layer above the effected one and use a blend mode in Multiply with an opacity that is just enough to add to the effected image layer and voila!, you can get pretty close to that look. (If I am remembering all the steps properly and in the correct order, it’s been quite a while. You may have to change the steps around just a bit.) ;o)

I hope that makes sense, I am trying to do too many things today. ;o)

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Ron Lindeboom] “send them an invoice with the full should-have-been pricing with a discount applied to show the balance. Also note on the invoice the reason for the discount and get them to sign it”

I am not saying that this is a contract or anything of the type. I just have found in my years of doing business that people of honorable intent will initial the clause for you as a recognition of what we have agreed to between ourselves. In almost every case where I have done this, the people honor the agreement even though it is not really a contract. It’s just a way of clarifying things and maintaining a sense of value when a compromise is needed to get something else that you want in another area of your dealings with a client.

Compromise isn’t always bad, unless you are the one doing all the compromises and not extracting any of your own.

Best,

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

[OlavNossum] “I never thought of telling them my real (high) rate but then giving them a discount to make it sound like they get a great deal. Awesome!”

As Mark Suszko says, if you never get ahold of the true cost of doing business, you will likely never succeed at it. Only use discounts when you absolutely have to, not as a quick fix to get some business — which if it’s too discounted, will be the kind of business that gives you work but not any profit. You will be paying for the privilege of doing work for them. When it truly makes sense to discount something as a compromise in which you give up one thing to get them to commit to another, in writing — those are the only commonsense times to do something like that — then, for maximum effect and goodwill, send them an invoice with the full should-have-been pricing with a discount applied to show the balance. Also note on the invoice the reason for the discount and get them to sign it. This helps preserve your true value and doesn’t erode your “perceived value” as quickly as just caving in with quick discounts.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

Hello Jack,

“Why oh why can’t you use the vbulletin system??? You can but not here. There are sites out there which use the vbulletin message board, we don’t and have no intention of ever doing so; this, as we personally don’t like that system.

If you wish a date range sorting where responces are shown by date sort and not by thread, then we recommend using the “blue button” interface (found below the host pictures and next to the drop down menu with the date range sort).

Using the date range sort, things are handled by date rather than by thread. The red picon is a topical sort that some others prefer.

If you insist on the vbulletin system, check out one of the sites that uses it.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Claus-Peter Wolf] “With the new PPro2, Xena HS is supported. do i have to wait for a new driver from aja or is the support integrated in the PPro2 software? (on the web-page of aja there

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Guy] “Window > Four Comp Views — maybe not as elegant as AE7, but it WAS there, don’t say it wasn’t”

Guy,

Comparing what arguably at best can be described as a convaluted workaround to the elegant interface that Barend aludes to, is not the same thing. If you wish to try to call Barend a liar — which while you haven’t said so directly, the implication is clearly more than there — we will deal with it on our end. We do not allow people to take shots at our leaders like this and so I would ask that you either drop this line of thinking or you may find yourself asked to leave the Cow.

We do not ask that people agree with one another but we do insist that people respect one another.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
(who has seen and worked with both and so knows that what you are describing and what Barend is describing are two different animals altogether — sometimes listening and learning something new is a good thing.)