Steve Renard
Forum Replies Created
-
Well, if that means right-clicking on the clip in the Browser, selecting, “Logging Info…” and changing the “TC Rate” option from 30 to 24 (which has solved my problem) then yes.
Bigger question though – why does FCP look at this 24fps file and assign it a TC Rate of 30? I checked all my output settings in AE and it all seems to be in order there, but I haven’t done that much work at 24fps so I could be wrong. AE output is more-or-less generic “Best Settings” (at 23.976fps) with output to QT ProRes4444.
Other clips in this same project, which are QT ProRes422(HQ) files converted from Targa sequences using QuickTime Pro, seem to have come in fine (and have no “TC Rate” assigned at all), but anything out of AE has the “TC Rate” set to 30fps.
Thanks for prodding me to look more closely at it!
-
Ah, COBOL… I’m too young to have any real appreciation for it, but I’ve heard stories…
-
My apologies – I missed the joke! And I’m all for expressions in their proper place, of course…
-
That argument could be made in reverse too: why muck about with expressions when a couple simple keyframes will do the trick?
Plus you have more control over when the color comes in if you keyframes your Amount to Tint value. Maybe you want to keep it B&W for the first second or so, and then fade in the color. It would not be impossible to do this with expressions, but it sure is more straightforward to do it with keyframes.
Ten years ago, JJ Gifford published a brief intro to expressions here. Much of what is up there is still valid. In it he had “when to use expressions” and “when not to use expressions” statements. I’ll paraphrase:
When to use expressions: when you need live updating, or to simplify complex task(s).
When not to use expressions: whenever you don’t need to.In this case, it’s clear to me at least that you don’t need to use expressions.
Steve
-
That’s perfect – thanks Dan!
-
If it’s a simple enough mask, and/or there’s not much movement to it, you could put a null object at one of the mask points and then use one of several scripts out there to link the mask point to the null object. Try here or here. Then you could just link the flare center to that null object.
As far as I know, there’s no way to extract the mask point data from the mask, though – I’ve put in a feature request to Adobe for this more times than I can count. I’m not even close to being competent enough writing code to be able to say this with an authority, but it seems to me it would be pretty straightforward for every mask point to have a 2-3 value array to define its position, so that you could get in there and monkey with it or reference it as you’re trying to do.
Good luck,
Steve -
I’m not sure what to call it, but to achieve that effect, I would turn on time-remapping for the layer and use Tint for the B&W effect. Here’s a step-by step:
1. Drag your clip (or comp) from the project panel to the “new comp” button to create a new comp with the same settings, duration, etc. I’ll call this new comp “FX comp”
2. In FX comp, with the timeline panel selected, press Cmd-K(Mac)/Ctrl-K(Win). In the window that opens, extend the lenghth of the comp by however long you want the still frame to be.
3. Drag the clip to the right so it the end of it is right at the end of the comp (hold down shift while you drag and it will snap there).
4. Select the clip and press Cmd-Opt-T/Ctrl-Alt-T to turn on time remapping. The time remapping keyframes will appear – leave them alone.
5. Drag the head of the clip to the beginning of the comp so that it stretches the full length of the comp now.
6. From the Effect drop-down menu, select Color Correction => Tint. Your clip will be B&W now. Keyframe the “Tint amount” value to bring it from B&W to color.Good luck!
Steve
-
I’m not sure if you will be able to get a live update/preview on an output monitor, but you could open up another comp tab for your main comp, lock it, and then edit your sub-comp in another comp tab.
-
For something a little less render-heavy, you could try building a series of precomped fractal noise layers, than use some of the other 3D tools in AE to get the right perspective. The short instructions to do so go something like this: create a new comp that’s big and square (if you’re working in HD, make it 2500×2500, in SD you probably only need about half that). Create a new layer in that comp and add the Fractal Noise effect to it. Tweak the settings to get it to look like a flat, square version of the clouds you’re going for. Create another layer, then click and hold the mask tool and select the elipse mask option. Double-click the mask tool to create a circular mask on your new layer (it will just go to the edges of the layer). Duplicate that mask so that you have Mask 1 and Mask 2 on that layer, then play with the mask expansion and feather settings until you have a nice soft donut. Use that layer as an alpha matte for the noise layer, and keyframe the rotation and evolution of the noise layer to get it to swirl around in the donut. Take the whole comp and drop it into your master comp. Make it 3D, then place it as you wish in relation to your tower shot. You may need to scale and blur it a bit, and you’ll probably need at least 3 or 4 different versions of that “swirly smoke” comp to get it to look good, but it will be a lot less of a render hog than trying to do it with a particle system.
If you need a more detailed step-by-step on how to do this, let me know, but if you’re familiar with AE (and particularly if you’ve done a couple Andrew Kramer/Video Copilot tutorials), hopefully it all makes sense already.
Good luck,
Steve -
A few things strike me as weird about your screen shots:
1. Your preview resolution is set to “Third” – do you still see pixelation if you change it to “Full”? (Sorry to ask the obvious, but I have managed to drive myself crazy with this one once or twice)2. Though your layer is called “Adjustment Layer” the adjustment switch (circle that is half black and half white) is not turned on. In this setup, there is no reason to have it turned on, because if it was, everything would disappear. An adjustment layer affects “only all the layers beneath it in the layer stack”, to paraphrase either the AE manual or Trish and Chris Meyer – can’t recall which. If the switch is not on, theoretically that layer should behave as just a normal layer and is no longer and adjustment layer. At least, that’s been the case in my experience. However, just to be sure, follow the instructions below.
Here’s what I would do to try to work around your problem: first, select your adjustment layer and hit Cmd-Opt-Y(Mac)/Ctrl-Alt-Y(PC) to bring up the layer properties. Note the pixel size of the layer and close this window. Create a new regular layer (not an adjustment) of the same size as the adjustment layer. Copy your mask from the adjustment layer to the regular layer and turn off the adjustment layer. Apply a new stroke effect to the new layer and see what you get.
If you’re still having trouble, I have a few more questions:
1. What are the pixel dimensions of your comp?
2. What are the pixel dimensions of your layer?
3. Why did you use an adjustment layer in the first place? I don’t think it’s necessary here.I have a render running but when it’s done I will post some screenshots of this same process to demonstrate what I’m talking about.
Cheers,
Steve