[Walter Soyka]

Something else is clearly wrong with your system if AE is crashing every time it tries to start FxFactory. Have you tried restoring AE’s default preferences?

In a pinch, you could manually remove the FxFactory plugins, though this may not solve the underlying issue that’s causing your crash. Look in Macintosh HD > Library > Application Support > Adobe > Common > Plug-ins > (pick your version of AE) > MediaCore, and you should find two files for FxFactory: FxFactory.plugin and ImporterFxFactory.bundle.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[William Holden] “So I’m working in FCP with 720p 29.97df footage. The clip I want to work with in AE is 13sec long. When I bring it into AE it is 15sec. A whole 2sec longer. What am I missing here?”

We’ll need a lot more information to try to help. What version of AE are you using? What is the codec of the footage? How did you get the file from FCP to AE? Does it have handles? Is AE interpreting the footage at the same rate as FCP is?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Blake Porter] “I often create time lapses’ in AE 7.0 using still photos.
I’m hoping this can be done smarter than I’ve been doing it.
Typically, I import 200 stills, shorten all lengths to 5 frames and then move them all by hand so they play in succession. This takes along time (duh).”

I’d import the footage as an image sequence, instead of as a series of individual images.

You can then interpret the footage at a different frame rate before dropping it into a comp for render. For example, if you were working in an NTSC comp (at 29.97 fps), you could re-interpret the image sequence at 6 fps to get each still on-screen for 5 frames.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I’d shoot vertical, yes. you are going to have to edit vertical as well. I’d keep it at a 1280×720 timeline, then scale the clips down in that timeline to simulate your final aspect ratio.”

I agree with Jeremy — except that I’d shoot progressive at 1920×1080 to get closer to the target resolution.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Kenny Powerass] “It’s not such a specific thing that I’m worried about what area is action safe. I think as long as the speaker’s face is visible it doesn’t make a big difference. I’ll err on the side of leaving too much on the sides just to avoid him looking like he’s a big dude stuck in a box.”

It might be worth doing a low-res “storyboard” showing some different framings that you can discuss with your clients before your shoot.

[Kenny Powerass] “I actually tried it in Motion last night. It looked OK to me, but I don’t know for sure that it’ll look as good on a screen ten times the size. That’s why I’m looking for tips.”

As long as you work at the native resolution and output without substantial compression, it will be fine.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Kenny Powerass] “This is for a display in a store. It stands inside the front door. What we’re shooting is a person welcoming customers to the store. No more than that. No graphics, no effects, not even a transition.”

There’s got to be some transition — this piece will loop at some point, right?

And hopefully there will be enough change in the image to prevent burn-in?

[Kenny Powerass] “The monitor is about six to eight feet tall and customers will be a few feet away.”

I would make every effort to start with as much resolution as the budget allows.

[Kenny Powerass] “I was thinking the best way is to cut in FCP and then online elsewhere. Does it have to be AE or will Motion do?”

I’m an AE user, so I’m biased, but I think it’d be doable in Motion. If I recall correctly, Motion supports rasters up to 4096×4096.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Jeremy Garchow] “it’s not hard to speculate what’s going on.”

I agree with you that it’s most likely two 1280×720 portrait displays –but it could also be a single blended projection system, or a sliver from a 2560×1600 30″ digital signage monitor, or a high-density LED wall.

If it’s just two displays, is there a bezel that must be accounted for in the image? Or a gap between the two monitors?

What’s more important to the creative? The higher resolution that shooting portrait 1080p/PsF would provide, or the higher temporal resolution that 720p60 would provide?

There are many, many possibilities.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Maik Diederen] “After i install FXfactory 2.1.3 i can uses the plugins in FCP. There a no problems.When i open after effects after 3 seconds it crashes with a lot of threads.
When i uninstall FX Factory, after effects runs perfect. I don’t need FX factory in After effects only in FCP.”

FxFactory 2.1.3 is outdated. The current release is 2.5. Upgrading might solve your problem.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Shoot 1280×720, turn it vertical and double the vertical.”

I think it’s premature to discuss how to shoot it when we don’t know anything about the creative requirements or how the video will actually be displayed.

What is the display device or devices? How far away will the viewers be, and in what conditions? These factors will help determine how much scaling may be acceptable and whether originating footage at 720p will be sufficient.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Kenny Powerass] “Here are the specs I was given : 1. Create content in the following square pixel size 720 Pixels wide and 2560 Pixels High.”

These are the delivery requirements, but what’s the creative? You’ll have to design a workflow that starts with the creative and ends in that deliverable.

[Jason Myres] “Final Cut Pro can’t handle greater than a 2k frame size so you’ll probably have to edit this in an application that can, like After Effects.”

After Effects is a great compositor, but a lousy NLE. When I do non-standard AR projects, I offline in FCP and online in AE.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events