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Re: Logging a Documentary/Storage - 18 years agoTony: It sounds like you're planning on logging and capturing practically everything that was shot. If that's true, then there's a workflow thing to discuss before talking about hard drives, right? Isn't there a way in which you could visualize the material and reduce the footage you are going to bring? With a shooting ratio of 10:1 to 20:1, one has to think that you shouldn't have to capture morby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: uncompressed SD hardware req... - 18 years agoThen, an uncompressed MONITORING workflow is your main objective I really favor Decklink cards over the AJA IO, but both should be fine. You bring your footage as always, through Firewire DV. Then, both have the ability to monitor DV projects through their SDI/component outputs, which won't raise quality a bit, but it's handy. When you're done with the project you just switch from DV compressioby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: uncompressed SD hardware req... - 18 years agoAbsolutely not. Your DSR-20 is a DV/DVCAM deck and as such it it can only work within the realm of the DV25 codec. Even if it had an SDI connection, it would still be a DV-only deck. Now, you don't necesarilly need a deck with SDi for uncompressed - you could bring it through analog component. That's how a lot of people work with Beta SP, for example. But, IMHO, online SD quality is associatedby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: uncompressed SD hardware req... - 18 years agoHey, Wanye. The good news is that most 8 bit uncompressed solutions are also 10 bit There are several alternatives to consider, since a DigiBeta deck (what stands for Online SD quality) can cost over $40,000. You need a device like a Decklink card or AJA IO. This is the cheap part. It costs from $600 to u$2000, depending on the model. You also need a disk system that can handle the data ratesby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Sharing firewires drives with PC - 18 years agoYou could format the drives as HFS+ (Mac) and use the MacDrive utility, which allows Windows PCs to read... Mac drivesby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: the ANIMATION codec - 18 years agoAnimation at 100 per cent is visually lossless, because it uses a technique called "solids compression". It simplfies the way solid color areas (including transparency) are expressed as data. Too bad Apple didn't develop a 16 bit version of Animation. As far as I know, PhotoJPEG at 100 per cent looks absolutely great (it has 4:4:4 sampling when over 75 per cent), but I believe it's noby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: NATTRESS vs Media Cleaner Pro For PAL to NTSC conversion - 18 years agoLoren: Cleaner 6.5 for Mac was announced today, casually It's not even disappointing, because we hardly expect much from Cleaner anymore. It basically adds support for formats that are easy to support: Flash Video, H.264. 3GPP, etc. Nothing about standards conversion or almost anything else, from what I read.by Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: How can I convert an MP3 file to AIFF file to use it in FCP? - 18 years agoDerek: Of course if you have workflow reasons that you have thought about them and came to the conclusion iTunes is the most practical way for you, it's great. But I am surprised when I read in books the iTunes method recommended in an "automatic thought" fashion, as if it was a sacred religious truth It's that what I don't like. In fact, we are so full of supposed "truths"by Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: How can I convert an MP3 file to AIFF file to use it in FCP? - 18 years agoI just tried automating SoundTrack Pro with Automator. It took me 30 seconds to build the workflow, and 30 seconds to convert the audio files and Quit Soundtrack (not needed but fancy, right?) It's the easiest thing in the world. Still, if anybody wants it, I could provide the Automator workflow. It runs really fast. Automator is probably the most amazing feature in Tiger, and yet we take so littby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: black and white - 18 years agoYou won't get the same exact thing, but you could get someting quite interesting with an application that allows you to both re-sample time AND use frame blending. This application can be After Effects: You use the Posterize Time effect at 18 fps or even lower and then enable frame blending. It's far from being what you saw, but can be a bit of that. Bear in mind that if you don't enable frame blby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: How can I convert an MP3 file to AIFF file to use it in FCP? - 18 years agoI prefer Quicktime Pro too. It's the only one that allows you to set the quality of the conversion. As for batch processing, Tiger has this thing called Automator It's fantastic. Soundtrack Pro is also compatible with Automator, so you could re-sample and process in other ways a lot of files too. Compressor is a batch processing tool itself. I never understood how the iTunes method became theby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: NATTRESS vs Media Cleaner Pro For PAL to NTSC conversion - 18 years agoThere isn't any comparison available, simply because Cleaner doesn't have this feature. It doesn't do standards conversion at all. Except for the crappy conversion any other video program will do. Even as a compression tool, Cleaner (which used to be the best) is pretty much a dead end. It hasn't really been updated in years and it was surpassed by Sorenson Squeeze, Compressor and Procoder. Asby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: LiveType / Motion Alpha channels--etc... - 18 years agoI believe he means why Motion or Livetype projects (and AE movies with alpha) needs to be rendered when brought into FCP. Nayrbnevets: The strange thing about Livetype and Motion projects imported into FCP is not that they have to be rendered, but the amazing fact that they work. Basically, they are not "video" at all but raw, unprocessed projects. Of course FCP has to render them, theby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Anyone onlined DVCPROHD with Firewire? - 18 years agoI absolutely agree with Guy. In fact, there are clear advantages to uncompressed processing, but they are not so clear for uncompressed capture of already compressed footage. I mean, capturing things at 10 times the original data rate.... right? if it's about effects and compositing quality, it's about how you process it, not how you capture it! You could switch sequence settings when you finishby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: External Hard Drive - 18 years agoEmre: My experience is that modern Firewire 800 drives sustain easily about 50 to 55 MB/s (near or just as good the drive's native speed), while Firewire 400 drives rarely go above 35 to 40 Mb/s. It's odd to see people preferring a certain brand like LaCie or Promax, when these devices are basically an ATA disk (made by Hitachi, Maxtor, Western Digital, etc) in a case with a Firewire-ATA bridgeby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: dvc pro 50 and FCP and graphics - 18 years agoYes, DVCPRO50 is a standard definition format (720x480 NTSC, 720x756 PAL). It's basically the DV codec with twice the data rate and a higher color samping resolution (4:2:2 instead of 4:1:1). You would have to choose a DV50 NTSC Easy set-up. What I have no idea is if you need to change some setting in the HD1200A to capture DV50 material.by Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Partical generators and After effects - 18 years agoThanks for your very interseting comments, Kevin. I really enjoy talking (sort of) to you!by Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Hey Alolfo... - 18 years agoHey, Phil. Motion comes with EXCELLENT documentation, but on electronic form unfortunately. You could get a print version, but it's rather expensive. There are two excellent books on Motion, one by my friend and co-moderator Mark Spencer, and one in the Apple Training Series by Damian Allen. In my opinion, it's very healthy to understand that it's not Motion Vs. After Effects, but Motion WITH Aftby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Partical generators and After effects - 18 years agoHey, Kevin. So... you used Particular at Pixar. Particular only runs in After Effects. Pixar... uses After Effects. Combustion and Shake snobs (always downplaying AE as amateur stuff) will love this information Just kidding. Seriously, Particular is so so so amazing. That thing of using AE lights as particle emiiters that you can point in 3D space, or use the colors of an emittingby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Partical generators and After effects - 18 years agoYes, I go there every two or three years. My sister lives in Barnes, a nice but boring neigborhood. I really love Charing Cross Road's bookstores! There are a couple of design & visual arts bookstores around there. Completely amazing. I really recommend starting with Motion. Powerful, fun an easy to use. Specially for particle animation. After Effects is a beautiful thing, but it does have iby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Custom Gradient Banding - Ugly - 18 years agoHey, Kevin. Microcosm is nothing short of amazing in terms of quality and weight reduction, but it's rather on the slow side to decode. I use is more as digital cold storage than anything else, since playing it back in real time is really hard! Sheer has progressed a lot and in fact is even faster to decode than Apple Uncompressed! It can be used today to capture and edit in Final Cut Pro, and tby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Partical generators and After effects - 18 years agoReally? I have family in London. Let's just skip football as a subject Zak is not Trapcode. It's probably Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator, which comes bundled with AE Pro anyway. It's a fantastic tool to "model" 3D volumetrics objects that you can animate in After Effects.by Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Partical generators and After effects - 18 years agoHello, Phil. I guess I can say I am pretty experienced with AE. So if you need any help, let me know. Trapcode is a software brand with several tools on the market. I guess you mean their Particular plug-in. I am familiar with it, so any questions let me know. Both After Effects and Combustion are excellent. Combustion (bitting my tongue, trying to be unbiased) is sometimes prefered by people dby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Special effects - 18 years agoThis is getting fun! Thanks for the replies. I really liked the "poor man" squib. But I wonder if the "poor man" isn't the guy who has to wear it Tom: Yes, Zatoichi is amazing! And the blood there does seem to be "digiital", but it's not representative of Kitano blood, is it? As in Brother, Hana-bi, Violent Cop, etc. If it's about digital blood, two words:by Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: importing stills in FCP - 18 years agoThe method Rui discribed is the best for elements that "float" on transparency, like type, for instance. I find that it's even better if after applying it, you go to Edit > Fade, and fade the effect to about 70 per cent. By mixing the processed image with the previous state, you get to apply the filter in an even more subtle way than the filter's minimum intensity. BUT... There's aby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Special effects - 18 years agoOh, I see. Thanks! Must really hurt.by Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Special effects - 18 years agoHey, Michael. Thanks for the explanation. I would love to meet you someday and hear about how you've been shot in movies! (I am trying to go to NAB for the first time next year!). Mmm.... Would you translate Squib for me? I am foreign! And I am also foreign to "Fiction" film-making I have seen behind the scenes footage of some of these japanese movies, and it seems like the guys are wby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Special effects - 18 years agoI am a bit embarrased to say this, but lately I got very curious about the blood throwing methods they use in all those japanese Yakuza films. Anybody know fun/interesting stuff to read about that? I mean, from the "substance" itself to the devices they use to splash it all around!by Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Custom Gradient Banding - Ugly - 18 years agoHello, Kevin! If he's mastering to DV other codecs won't help, that's true. But enabling HDR processing will. It really reduces banding significatively. Yes, if he's going to DVD using another codec might help. I really like options like Sheer and Microcosm, two (commercial) uncompressed Quicktime codecs, that produce stunning 10/16 bpc files with half or less the data rate of ordinary uncompreby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA Re: Proc Amp Filter in effects??? - 18 years ago"Once FCP "surpassed" what you could do with a switcher, the Proc Amp filter did become obsolete, but they kept it anyhow? I guess now would be a good time to ask, "Why?"" Mostly, so you can open projects made with those early version of FCP Also, because people used to it may want to keep using what they know. As I said, the best tool is the one that gives the rby Adolfo Rozenfeld - Café LA |
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