[Steve Drew]

Hi Andrew

We have similar backgrounds. I started editing in 1997 on Avid, changed to FCP around 2001 and stuck with it until I stopped editing in 2010. Throughout that time I was using After Effects to do compositing, title design, motion graphics etc, and before Apple’s Color came out, for grading as well.

I made the switch to Nuke, and the decision to pursue visual effects in 2010 with the sole purpose of getting out of the tvc / broadcast industry and into feature films. It paid off, and I’m now a compositor on several ‘hollywood’ films a year.

As others have said, the choice of software is really down to your choice of career. If you want to stay in TVC / Broadcast, there is absolutely nothing wrong with After Effects. In fact, it’s probably the gold standard for graphic work. If you want to move into really high-end TVC finishing then yes, Flame / Smoke or Nuke are all very sensible options. The benefits of the Autodesk stuff is usually speed. There are clients in the room, paying £1,000+/hr and they want to get things done yesterday. After Effects can get there, but it takes time to. Nothing to do with operator speed – the fastest AE artist VS the fastest Flame artist: Flame will win.

Nuke can be quick to work in when you have to, and know how to, but it really shines in it’s ability to really perfect a shot – and that can take forever. That’s why it is getting to be the only compositing software used in the feature film industry, because as important as speed is, it really is the quality of the work that is the focus 9 times out of 10.

I left the TVC / Broadcast world because of how fed up I was becoming with the expectations of half of the people that were hiring me. Jobs like cutting a 5 min TV promo from 13hrs of footage, and they’d book me for one day. Of course, there were no camera sheets or anything… that kind of stuff depressed the hell out of me. The focus was on bashing things together in as little time as possible, with no refinement time really even cared about, let alone given.

I just decided one day to learn Nuke, off my own back, through fxPhD etc, and try to get a job in VFX – where I would take an ego hit, in not being one of the head creatives on a job, but could at least be proud of the work I was contributing to.

My point with all this waffle, is that it’s really up to you and where you want to go.

I still take motion graphics work from time to time, and I still use After Effects for it. Any compositing I do in Nuke.
Sure, you can composite in AE and do motion graphics in Nuke, there are no rules. But being very experienced in both, my advice is to work with their strengths, not against their weaknesses.

Don’t worry too much about the software. Choose your destiny, everything else will fall in line with it.

Steve Drew
Film Editor & Visual Effects Artist, Melbourne

[Steve Drew]

Pleeeeeease add 720 support, Blackmagic, pleeeeaaase…..

—

“Don’t Believe the Hype” – Flava Flav

[Steve Drew]

ditto

most of our HD work is 720p… i’m using after effects to do the conversion… nice and productive… NOT!

—

“Don’t Believe the Hype” – Flava Flav

[Steve Drew]

What about the intel (pardon the pun) that Apple were stopping Shake development to develop a more robust (um, Shake anyone?) and integrated compositing solution for FCP Studio? Also it’s acquisition of Final Touch was quite a recent investment for them.

I think we’re all very safe.

We just have to deal with their hit & miss development team. Their update descriptions are like gypsies trying to sell you what’s under their coat without first showing you what it is.

I don’t even know what that means.

—

“Don’t Believe the Hype” – Flava Flav

[Steve Drew]

I second (third?) that. I believe we should implore Apple with ‘feedback’ stating that we, their loyal subjects, require at the very least a READ ME.txt file included with any update stating specifically what the update does, any known issues etc.

It’s 2008, for frack sake.

—

“Don’t Believe the Hype” – Flava Flav

[Steve Drew]

Can anyone else back this up?

—

“Don’t Believe the Hype” – Flava Flav

[Steve Drew]

Thanks so much for your input.

For now I’ve just placed the SD comp in the centre of the HD comp and turned on collapse transforms and the 3D checkbox. I’ve then added the camera from the SD comp into the HD one, and cranked up the SD nest’s ‘z’ anchor point to fill frame. A similar result to what you suggested above, and the depth of field is off, but the moves are essentially the same as I wanted them. Next stop is to experiment with different levels of zoom & distance on the camera to see if I can improve it….

I just wish I did this in HD to start with – downscaling works a tad better than upscaling! 😛

—

“Don’t Believe the Hype”
– Flava Flav

[Steve Drew]

I concur with bogiesan.

I began my editing career on AVID 10 years ago, deciding to jump ship for FCP a little over 6 years ago. I’ve been waiting for Apple to pay some much needed attention to their Media Manager ever since it was introduced way back in version 2.

Incredibly, it seems to be moving backwards as every major release of FCP brings with it WORSE performance from the Media Manager.

Aside from the vastly inferior way of handling media consolidation (when compared to AVID) which is simply a design fault, it is riddled with bugs which makes it’s use entirely questionable for anyone involved with serious and time-critical offline -> online FCP workflows.

One major flaw is its inability to accurately handle time effected material (i.e. remapped, freeze framed, slowed, or sped-up footage). Often times your resulting motion effected clip will be a combination of one, to all of the following:
Clip duration is reduced to one frame; Incorrect speed adjustment applied; unwanted motion parameters applied, such as scale; or the clip may be deleted entirely from your destination sequence/project. Not so much a ‘Media Manager’ as a ‘Media Mangler’. Exporting and importing XML files has seen a bit more stability in my workflow, but is still not ideal.

A lot of people, otherwise very much pro-FCP, are understandably embarrassed by its Media Management tool.

Media consolidation is the ONLY thing I miss about the AVID platform, and I literally am preying for the day it works reliably in FCP. Click sequence, remove unused media, the end.

“Don’t believe the hype”
-Flava Flav 😉

[Steve Drew]

Hey thanks Lloyd! I knew there’d have to be at least somewhat of an answer! Cheers, Steve

[Steve Drew]

Check the Multimedia 101 podcast on title safe: https://cowcast.creativecow.net/multimedia_101/episodes/CC_101_Safe_AreasiPod_Lo.mp4