[Walter Soyka]

[Jeff Markgraf] “I’m more concerned about accurate, repeatable playout. Or so I need actual (read: expensive) show control software and/or hardware?”

Check out DT Videolabs Playback Pro. It’s a playlist-based software DDR for Mac OS X with program and preview busses. I’m not sure where your definition of “expensive” begins, but this is a far lower-cost alternative than a traditional DDR.

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]

Thomas, this sounds great. Thanks for posting back with the details!

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]

[Kate Koyama] “Here’s what he’s been told “Depending what the source was, they may have developed it in square pixel aspect ratio. Video is typically non-square so there may be conversion issues. The video will need to be non-square to burn to blu-ray. “”

That’s inaccurate advice. Blu-ray uses square pixels for 1920×1080. It’s possible to author an anamorphic Blu-ray disc at 1440×1080 with non-square pixels, but you’d be needlessly sacrificing horizontal resolution. You can work in square pixels throughout your workflow.

Blu-ray does 59.94i, so you could work at 29.97 without fields.

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]

As the other posters have mentioned, the playback device will determine what the best output format is. If you are using a computer, then the available software will also factor in.

I don’t generally encourage people to use computer playback for live events unless they have specifically set up their system for video playback. Power management, virus scanners, wireless network notifications, etc. all have tendencies to pop up at the worst possible moment. If you are giving your client a file for them to use on their laptop, it gets even scarier. There are still a lot of laptops in the field that would struggle with smooth playback of 1920×1080 h.264-encoded HD.

If you must go this route, let me add to Alan’s advice: test the final media file on the show machine with a second monitor (matching the projector’s resolution) attached. If the media will be played from within a Powerpoint presentation, use WMV and test it from within PPT and make sure that the video driver doesn’t try to “help” by switching resolutions for video playback.

Also, it’s standard practice in the events industry to always run live backup with a switcher for any media playback. We’ll run the same video roll on two Beta decks, two DDRs, two computers, etc. This prevents a simple hardware or media failure from ruining your event and client relationship.

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]

[Ofir Kaner] “Any recommended tool for the mac to convert the MKV into Uncompressed AVI or Quicktime Animation? “

Check out Perian: “a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats.” It should allow you to open MKV files in Quicktime and Quicktime-based apps.

I don’t have any direct experience with MKV files, so please post back and let us know if this works, or when you find a solution.

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]

[Andrej Spilevoj] “I work on C4D but I have never heard of matching the music on that soft. Is that possible? The rest is pretty obvious as long as one can make the needle move by the bit in C4D.”

Beat matching is done manually more often than you might think, and unless you can get stems from the mixer, you’re going to have a hard time isolating the sounds you want the needle to respond to.

C4D’s non-linear animation might be helpful here for building the animation loops you’d want to drive the needles.

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]

[Walter Soyka] “The linked video uses static shots and stop motion of actual chalk on an actual blackboard.”

I didn’t intend for this to come across sounding so short — my point was that this effect is very easy to do practically, and very difficult to do digitally.

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]

[Matthew Wheeler] “I’m quite surprised there isn’t a plug in for auto global exposure adjustment layer effect based on a given source layer. “

There are effects that do the opposite — like Color Stabilizer, which samples a reference frame and tries to make all other frames match it.

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]

The linked video uses static shots and stop motion of actual chalk on an actual blackboard. The elements were isolated and artfully animated and composited.

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]

Check out the thread immediately below yours — or Aharon Rabinowitz’s tutorial on boomerang keyframes — you may have the same issue.

Also, many AE users prefer to parent the camera to a 3D null, apply the “Separate XYZ” animation preset, and then control the camera rig rather than the camera itself. This makes some camera moves dramatically easier to animate with simple keyframing.

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