[Tom J]

Very nice, the only thing I would try and do would be to add some sort of subtle frame to the video to hide the duplicates as the camera makes its pass.

Pretty cool and easy too.

Tom

[Tom J]

Very nice, the only thing I would try and do would be to add some sort of subtle frame to the video to hide the duplicates as the camera makes its pass.

Pretty cool and easy too.

Tom

[Tom J]

Hi there,

Above was just an example, that’s why I ended it with “whatever”, sorry I should have mentioned that I tried to render out .tga’s as well and then take those to my offline, but that didn’t work either.

Besides for what I need these renders are the finals from my .tga’s that I have already in my AE comps. So movies would be just fine, especially for my particular workload here. As I’ve said this has ALWAYS worked until recently for SOME bizarre reason. It’s got be completely baffled.

I hope you got some other ideas, thanks for taking the time, appreciate it.

Tom

[Tom J]

For something simple and effective, why not use AE’s own Caustics and Waveworld? You can combine the techniques from Jim Tierney’s Tutorial on Caustics with the use of Rick Gerard’s popular quick tip “wet paint” or was it “Dripping Paint” for a good effect? It may take some work, but I think you can easily do it in AE.

However, a 3D proggy is probably the best bet… :>)

Check out Jim’s Tut by clicking on the AE banner at the top of this forum.

Then a quick search in the forum for wet paint gave me this link:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=280591&archive=T

Hope that helps,
Tom

[Tom J]

As for AE work, any decent system now-a-days would have alot of ram (1.5gig or more) with 10/100/1000 (gigabit network support) and Open GL supported graphics as well as SATA drives. However ATA 7200rpm 133 drives are just fine in AE and 3D. For good systems pre-built I highly recommend Alienware and Boxx Technologies. There are some good HP systems, but from what I have noticed in the past ATI is their graphics card of choice.

Which is just fine for most programs, however you mentioned using Avid. So from my own personal experience I can only recommend using Nvidia based chipsets for graphics. I have used ATI before with Avid Xpress DV 3.5, but at times ran into some problems with the interface and overall performance so I have recently just ordered an Alienware MJ-12 7700 laptop (similar specs to what is recommended by Avid themselves) to use with Avid Xpress Pro HD.

https://www.alienware.com – excellent deals right now for the holiday weekend.

https://www.boxxtech.com – Very powerful systems and widely used.

HTH, good luck…
Tom

[Tom J]

Hi there,
A search for Nvidia or ATI should bring about a good amount of results for you regarding XDV and various setups.

Just a quick note, for some time I was running XDV 3 and 3.5 on a compaq laptop with the following config:
PIII 1.2 ghz
1 gb (pc 133) ram
60g (7200) rpm HDD
ATI Mobility Radeon 32mb graphics card

However unfortunately that laptop died pretty miserably so… For now I am using XDV 3.5 on a Dual Athlon Tyan Tiger 2466 with 2gig of ram, 320gig (2×160 hdd striped media drive), 120gig source hdd, and an Nvidia Quadro FX 1100 with no troubles at all. I am quite pleased with it. I may just keep it on this system, we’ll see.

At times I used to run into some operational conflicts with my laptop. Some audio errors that were resolved by a dongle update from Avid. Most of the time I would blame it on the 32mb graphics card. Not necessarily the ATI chipset but the amount of memory. Some folks would argue that the ATI chipset can be at fault and that you should run Nvidia. After some research for the new versions I would agree. Use Nvidia if you can. But then again your PCI Express ATI may run quite nicely, I don’t know.

I have since upgraded to Xpress Pro HD and I have ordered an Alienware MJ-12 with similar configurations to Avid’s recommendations. I can’t wait to try it out on the new laptop to compare to my Dual Athlon setup.

Good luck, HTH

Tom

[Tom J]

Hi there,
No worries mate.

Are you using the Intel High Def card or Creative Labs High Def card?

On my laptop with XDV 3.5 I have been using the SoundMax driver set. Unfortunately though my laptop is dead otherwise I could tell you what I had installed. I am ordering a new one, probably the Alienware MJ-12 because I am upgrading to Xpress Pro HD 5.X. Anyway I can’t recall the sound card in particular (ACI-97 with SoundMax comes to mind, but don’t count on it).

Since my laptop died, I have Xpress DV 3.5 running at the moment on a dual Athlon 2.4ghz Tyan Tiger MPX 2466N-NM and have been using Creative’s Sound Blaster Audigy with no problems. But that doesn’t mean it will work on your end. My configuration is obviously different than yours.

The dongle update that I got from Avid did the trick on my laptop and hasn’t affected my workstation setup.

Check out Avid’s system configuration requirements here:
https://www.avid.com/products/xpressprohd/specs.asp

It’s been a while since I really looked there, but if there isn’t much to go on. Their forums have quite a bit of info. You can also look here at the customer feedback page regarding setups. Most XDV and XDV pro setups are compatible from what I have experienced.

https://www.avid.com/products/xpressdv/specs/hwdev_addnew.asp

HTH,
Tom

[Tom J]

Hey there,
Sorry for sounding ignorant but which Avid are you referring to?

I had pretty much the same problem e-ons ago with my Avid Xpress DV 3 and 3.5 on my laptop. And then I loaded DV onto another system with similar audio troubles. Although I can not recall what the audio error was, but changing the audio card did help.

As for my laptop when I brought it back to that system, Avid sent me a dongle update that solved the problem believe it or not.

It may not be much, but hopefully it helps ya.

Tom

[Tom J]

Ok that was bugging me, I had to find it.

I wasn’t too far off (“TME”) :>)

It’s actually MPE, and here is their website:

https://www.mpe.net/

You may also find quite a bit if not way too much at the moment info from these two great sites:

https://www.newyork411.com/

https://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/index/index.shtml – lots of info here under Resources / then the sub categories

Good luck,
Tom

[Tom J]

Just something quick to add to Shane’s comment here about listings of prod. houses around the area. One of my most favorite stores of all time is still in business there in NYC.

https://www.dramabookshop.com

When it comes to the business, they have a huge selection of books and directories. Anything from theatre to full feature production. For the directories, check out their reference section online and then you guessed it “directories”.

If it is still in print, (I hope it is) there is an awesome directory that covers just about every aspect from administrative to carpentry and lighting, to DP’s to stunt performers. It is for the tri-state area and is published with production and post-production in mind from a company in Tarrytown.

But for the life of me at the moment, the name escapes me (something with the abbreviation “TME” comes to mind). Maybe someone here can chime in if they know of it. I would love to order a new one if it’s still around. It is or was a while back printed in a long thin yellow binding with red or black lettering on the cover (about 10 in tall x 4 in wide).

Hope that helps, if nothing else perhaps you will find a great new bookstore like I did YEARS AGO.

Tom