[Scott Bush]

I hope it is ok that I dug up this old post, but I’m having a similar issue.

Despite the fact that when I drag the first clip to the timeline, and I click YES in the box that comes up and says “your sequence settings do not match the clip, would you like to make them match” I still get a red render bar over my timeline. It only happens with certain types of files, but if the program makes the settings match automatically, why would it be asking me to render? I can’t even play them back with no effects or transitions – it instantly wants me to render.

The files are ProRes 640×480, 29.97, progressive. They are actually made from hi bitrate (50Mb/sec) Mpeg-2 files – I figured this would be a decent way to be able to edit but not lose too much quality. But it always asks me to render. If I use DV it seems to work just fine, but I’d rather stay in square pixels as the original footage is that way. Am I just using “weird” settings or is something else going on?

My system is an 8-core Mac Pro with 16GB Ram and running 10.5.5

[Scott Bush]

Thanks for the suggestions – camera is set up properly, and I tried all settings just in case. I’m a bit wary of trashing my prefs because it took me a while to get this set up just so – but if that’s what I have to do I will try it…

[Scott Bush]

In my experience, most clients are completely clueless about this stuff. I’ve been asked, (and after explaining why it was a bad idea, commanded) to provide prints from even SD, DVCam video.

The best course in my experience has been to try and explain it to them, and when that doesn’t work, just give them what they want. They’ll either see that it can’t be done the way they’d hoped, or they won’t even notice the poor quality (which is very scary).

So generally speaking, voice your concerns, and then just give them what they want. At the end of the day it’s their problem, not yours – all you can do is all you can do.

[Scott Bush]

YESSS!!!

Thanks so much! That is pretty much what I was looking to do.

So why is there no “normal” way to do this? I’m kinda surprised neither AE or PS have a “rectangular” gradient. Are there any plugins that might offer it? I remember once upon a time seeing at least one gradient toolkit plugin (or set).

Anyway thanks again, this will get the job done!

Scott

[Scott Bush]

I’m pretty sure I read somewhere once that (believe it or not) they do South Park in Maya. They have most of the facial animations already set up so they can just apply them quickly…

But here’s a story about this ep:

https://tv.ign.com/articles/928/928073p1.html

Took about a week they said…

[Scott Bush]

Thanks, Bill – I’ll keep trying to figure this out… exporting doesn’t work – I can’t export anything. I get the same “unknown” error. I can’t render, either – same mistake. When I try to reconnect, in the window it says “unspecified path” and that’s why I can’t connect it to anything – even itself. I also tried renaming it, etc, but the reference in the timeline doesn’t have a file path for some reason and there-in lies the problem.

In the meantime what I did was open an older project file, and it was still intact there. So I copied the timeline and pasted it and it worked somehow… still would like to get to the bottom of it in case it comes up again.

Thanks,
Scott

[Scott Bush]

Ok thanks, guys.

At least the “stripe” button will come in very handy!

Scott

[Scott Bush]

Thanks, Chris.

So there’s no way to do this without putting timecode on the tape first?

[Scott Bush]

I haven’t shot a wedding in a while, myself, but I can share what has worked well for me in the past. Keep in mind, however that I usually edit the ceremony a LOT – like down to 5-10 minutes, so that gives me a bit more flexibility to move around. Also, of equal importance to how I marketed myself was the quality of the video AND being discreet!

I almost always shot single camera, although I did from time to time put a stationary camera somewhere for a wide shot – usually in the balcony/choir loft. i would shoot the processional handheld, then go to my tripod which was on the side – whichever side gave me a better shot of the BRIDE during the ceremony. I’d stay on the side for the early part of the ceremony, until the vows, when I would move, tripod and all (a dolly helps this move be more unobtrusive and faster) to the center isle (it is a good idea to get permission from both the priest/rabbi/etc AND photographer before the ceremont starts – or at least give them a heads up that this is what you’re doing – always good to keep a healthy working relationship with the photographer!) where I would stay for the vows and rings. I would then go back to my side location (you can use the other side now for variety now if you wish and it is practical) for the remainder of the ceremony, then go handheld for the kiss/recessional at the end (also something to tell the photog). Note I used a full-size shoulder cam for this – helps a LOT for handheld work, and is much better in low light (had a Sony DSR-300/400).

I never had a single complaint of the quality of the coverage and was able to book many “hi-end” NYC events using this technique. It also helped me in the edit that I didn’t have a ridiculous amount of footage to go through.

For a Jewish ceremony I found there was often more flexibility – for whatever reason rabbis don’t seem to mind as much. I’d often park myself either under or just behind the chuppah (sp – sorry) to get the couple’s face the whole time (they usually have their backs to the audience and face the rabbi for the majority). And would move around if I saw a better angle or something changed. I never went to rehearsals (unless I was hired to shoot it) and never had a problem. The vast majority of wedding ceremonies are VERY similar – especially church weddings.

Good luck – there’s really no right or wrong way, just find something that works for you and, more importantly, your clients.

[Scott Bush]

For AE, I’d say grab yourself a fast, multi-processor machine and nucleo pro (to utilize the extra processors/cores) – the GPU is far less important for AE. Now if any other apps start to come into the picture (including some 3rd party plugins), this answer gets a lot more complicated, but for base After Effects, my 8-core machine with Nucleo is the fastest I’ve ever worked in AE.