[Walter Soyka]

Do you get any error messages?

If you have multiprocessing turned on, you should turn it off. 6 GB is not enough RAM. You want to aim for 2-4 GB per core, plus a couple GBs for the operating system, before you enable multiprocessing.

Consider rendering to image sequences instead of movies. When rendering to an image sequence, you can easily pick up a failed render where it left off. You can stitch the final renders into movies with AE or Quicktime Player Pro.

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]

Hi Steve — long time, no see. I hope all is well.

Dave’s suggestion to use time re-mapping is good if your project is nearly finished, but I think it would complicate a work-in-progress.

You can set a work area, and then use Edit > Extract Work Area to remove frames. I can’t think of a similar way to add them.

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]

[Tom Masters] “For accurate and affordable color monitoring, go with a Sony PVM series monitor if you can still get your hands on one.”

If you want to do color-accurate work, it’s probably a good idea to have an engineer calibrate a second-hand monitor.

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]

[Arvin Bautista] “What else is there to do that doesn’t involve one by one reinstalling my 1200 fonts!?”

Are you using a font manager? It might help.

Have you seen this technote on font-related crashes with Photoshop CS5?

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]

[melissa kern] ” when I said it was all black- I meant except for the white lettering.”

That sounds like it’s working, then. Your alpha output should be a grayscale sequence, just like an After Effects track matte. Aharon Rabinowitz’s What Is An Alpha Channel might be useful for you, too.

Your client will use the alpha (or “key”) sequence to knock out the transparent areas from the RGB (or “fill”) sequence when they composite it over the film.

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]

Just to be clear on what you will output, you’ll have a sequence with RGB color data, and a grayscale sequence showing the alpha channel. Black areas are fully transparent, white areas are fully opaque, and gray areas are partially transparent.

[melissa kern] “I made first the RGB sequence.. and then imported back into AE. from that sequence I attempted to make theAlpha sequence.”

You have to make the alpha render pass from the same comp that you used for the RGB render. In the render queue, just duplicate the RGB render and change it to alpha.

The RGB sequence that you re-imported has no transparency (because it’s RGB, no A), so when you tried to render alpha from it, you got all white (fully opaque).

[melissa kern] “I went back to the original comp(with all the multiple layers)…and made another DPX Sequence with only Alpha selected. this- when it was done- had the right amount of frames but then the screen was completely black=”

Is it black all the way through the entire sequence? If your comp starts as fully transparent, the alpha sequence will start as completely black, but once the action begins, you should see some grays and whites in the alpha sequence.

[melissa kern] “I’m not even sure if premultiplied is the right setting????”

See this quick explanation on straight and premultiplied alpha:

https://podcasts.creativecow.net/multimedia-101-podcast/what-is-a-straight-render

In my work, I usually render with straight color unless I am asked to do otherwise.

[melissa kern] “anyway, thanks so much for your help. its really amazing that you do this. I really appreciate it.”

You’re welcome! I hope this is helpful.

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]

[melissa kern] “the Alpha Channel Sequence is shorter than the RGB. though the render que says its done.. and when I check the output module- it says the correct length. about 30 sec shorter.”

Sorry, but I don’t quite understand what you’re saying here. Does the alpha sequence contains fewer frames on disk than the RGB sequence?

[melissa kern] “and finally, when I import the DPX Sequence with Alpha channel- the screen in completely white?”

It sounds like your sequence isn’t actually transparent — perhaps you have a fully opaque solid or a piece of footage in your comp that fills the frame. If you click the Toggle Transparency Grid button under your comp viewer, do you see a checkerboard pattern?

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]

You might be able to use Mocha, a planar tracker included with AE CS4, instead of roto by hand.

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]

Another vote for Zaxwerks — but it’s not 64-bit ready for CS5 yet. Boris FX 3D Objects is CS5-ready.

I’m keeping my eyes peeled for Mettle’s Shapeshifter; I love Freeform, and I’m looking forward to see what they come up with.

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]

To add to Ted’s point, try to minimize the number of generations through your workflow, especially if you’re using 8-bit video files, as they can accumulate rounding errors. For example, if you need to change a color grade, go back to the original grade and adjust it. Don’t start a new grade with an already-graded clip as the source.

A smart workflow and lossless intermediates will keep your quality high.

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