[Shawn Miller]

I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying here – not trying to start a fight, but I’ve never seen a remarkable difference in performance between AE for Windows and AE for OSX.x. Then again, I work 100% on PCs these days, so if there’s been a complete jump in performance on the Mac side (for AE), I may have completely missed it. 🙂

Thanks,

Shawn

[Shawn Miller]

It depends on what you want to do. AE is pretty good for many visual effects tasks and really good for motion graphics. If you’re after visual effects, you’ll want to look at Nuke, Fusion, Shake, Houdini, Combustion, Inferno, Flame, Avid Nitris DS and a 3D animation package like Maya, 3D Studio Max, Lightwave or Cinema 4D. If you want to do motion graphics, you might want to consider (along with your NLE of choice) Motion, Particle Illusions, Boris Blue (or Red) and a 3D application (I recommend Cinema 4D with the MoGraph module) or Zaxwerks Invigorator.

BTW, what kind of work are you looking to do?

Thanks,

Shawn

[Shawn Miller]

“What if they don’t use FCP? Then the files you gave them would be useless.”

Amen to this. I just recieved files from a shooter in Asia. I explicitly told him that we were’nt a FCP OR HDV shop and that we needed QT files on a hard drive. What did he send back? HDV tapes and Quicktime files that use the Apple Intermediate CODEC… (he assumed we also used Macs) 🙁 We will NEVER hire that shooter again. Don’t let this happen to you… listen to Shane. 🙂

Shawn

[Shawn Miller]

This is a very interesting thread with a good spread of opinions.

Truthfully, it sounds like the biggest issue here is communication.

It isn’t true that an employer completely owns you when you’re working for them, clearly there are limts to what you can be asked to do when in someone else’s employ. What those limits are however, are defined A. by the civil and criminal code of your city, county, state, etc. and B. any formal agreements you have in place as a condition of your employment. I used to work for a state institution in which the “boss” expected everyone to be at work 10 minute before their paid shift started and ten minutes after their paid shift ended… he was of the opinion that he had the full right to do that because we was “the boss”. I pointed out that he couldn’t compel us to work without pay, so he fired me that day. I went to the finance dept and asked if they knew that my (now) former manager was trying to get twenty minutes of free labor per employee, per shift… to make a long story short, finance didn’t know he was doing that, he got demoted (no more employees) and I was offered my job back (I didn’t go back).

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that you can’t be asked to work “off the clock” if you’re an hourly employee… if you’re a salaried employee, then the conditions of your employment have to be clearly spelled out. I know it’s not fun, but if you don’t have some sort of agreement in place (or even a job description), then the scope of your responsibilities can become flexible enough to encompass such duties as shooting events, editing video/audio, pet care, light house work and “all tasks assigned”. 🙂

The bottom line is that you need to talk to your employers, come to an agreement and get it in writing.
Thanks,

Shawn

[Shawn Miller]

Hmmm… seems strange. I don’t see anywhere in the spec where this makes sense… then again, I just assumed that Matrox used a standard DVI connection. I guess it’s like Viewcast’s IEEE1394 implimentation… not quite standard.

Thanks Shane,

Shawn

[Shawn Miller]

Really, which Matrox product are you alking about? I’m not trying to start a fight, I just want to make sure that we’re not confusing anyone.

Thanks,

Shawn

[Shawn Miller]

Sorry – DVI doesn’t carry audio.

https://www.ddwg.org/lib/dvi_10.pdf

Thanks,

Shawn

[Shawn Miller]

“It’s like if you wanna get serious with 3D, better learn Maya.”

I think it’s because Maya is a lot more popular in video and film production. Not that you can’t do great work in C4D… you obviously can. But if you want to work for a post-production facility, you’ll probably need to know Maya, XSI, Lightwave or 3DS Max (depending on what you do and who you want to work for).

Shawn

[Shawn Miller]

I think it’s easier to decide which application is best for you by downloading them all and trying them all. That said, C4D sounds like it will probably fit your needs. You might also want to think about exacxtly what you want to do in 3D, every aspect of 3D production can be a career on it’s own (modelling, texturing/painting, rigging, animating, lighting, rendering, effects, simulations, etc.).

Anyway, I really think it’s best to try before you buy in any case. 🙂

BTW, Sam…. Maya does indeed do multipass rendering. 🙂

Thanks,

Shawn

[Shawn Miller]

I have yet to find a better systems integrator/builder than Bold Data Systems (https://www.boldata.com/catalog.cfm/page/workstations).

Their support is top notch and their prices are VERY competitive.

I’m forced to use Dell workstations at work (with C4D, AE CS3, RealFlow, etc)… but I choose to use Bold Data PCs at home. I think you’ll probably find a few satisfied Cow members and leaders who have also had positive experiences with Bold Data.

Thanks,

Shawn