[maxrehan]

Hey John,
Thanks for this thread. It could be very interesting.
I color/do vfx/finish spot work.
Actual quote from agency client. “Right now I can get anyone to do anything for any price.”
I think this has direct correlation to the “democratization’ of the production process. Prices have come down so far on gear for every segment of the business that, part of that statement is true. You can have an turnkey post facility for hundreds of thousands of dollars less than you could have just 3 years ago. Which, by the way, is the reason most of the big names we have seen go under this year were up a creek. They bought heavy into DI processes, that have been largely bypassed by digital acquisition. So, yes, it is possible for everyone to do everything now without a huge investment. Whether the quality is up to par is a different story.
Which is the most dismal aspect of the whole situation. Clients, for the most part, don’t care as much as they used to. Part of this has to do with shrinking budgets, so they can’t afford to be as picky. But part of it has to do with the malaise on that side as well. Agencies around here have gone down the list of their payroll, and lopped off those at the top, irrespective of talent or production. They can find someone else that can fill the hole for much less.
But at some point, you have to take lemons and make lemonade. Someday, hopefully soon, demand will come back, and budgets will rise again. The trick is figuring out what will be in demand, and positioning yourself for the comeback. There are always opportunities for those who look carefully for them.
B22

[maxrehan]

Usually this just means that there is a note attached to the clip. If you double click the n it should open up the note.

[maxrehan]

Convert the EDL in the edl module, and pull out the pull down on the capture. Then you get your 23.98 spot. you don’t have to work in a 23.97 project because smoke will put the pulldown in the player for you.
Later,
B22

[maxrehan]

Hey,
So under engineering there is a tab for Serial In Dual 4:4:4
i don’t know about the archiving though, we just go to files.
HTH
B22

[maxrehan]

That is why is can be progressive. It is just a little more than half of 1080, so it can scan the frames progressively. At 1920×1080 59.94 is interlaced fields, at 1280×720 is it progressively scanned fields. Which in no way makes up for its that format’s other shortcommings. If you want to avoid this issue you should just upconvert in the deck.
HTH
Nick

[maxrehan]

You shouldn’t need to change the speed as in Timewarp it. You should just be able to bring it over from your 24p project network library into your 1280×720 59.94i project source area. put that into the resize tool to do the down conversion. then add pulldown, that should be it. Or the superduper easy method. Let a deck do it.

HTH
Nick

[maxrehan]

Oh yeah, Thanks Eltopo, I forgot to mention what a hard time Discreet has had finding a hardware home the past couple years. That’s the big white elephant in the middle of the room.
I love Flame, and I wish it could live forever, but spot budgets are shrinking. Then so too must the budget for the sotware that only does half the work it used to do.

B22

[maxrehan]

All of this being said, i think we are on the edge of a very interesting time for our little corner of the world. I do commercial work so I also need a “front room” box. That is why I currently have a Smoke/Flame. But more and more, I find myself over here on the mac 3D tracking in SynthEyes (not because it is better than Flame’s 3D tracker, but it is as good and only cost $400 Not $12000 for the upgrade) doing particles in Particle Illusion or Particular. I even do most of my 4 point tracks (Screen replacements) in Monet. All of the motion graphics are done in after effects. Most of the in-depth painting in Photoshop. And now with Vue and more compasitor freindly 3D software like C4D I have better, more realistic soltuions to problems I used to fake my through in Flame.
Point being that Flame has become a rather expensive compositor/hub/palyback machine, when it used to be the only thing you needed. And the price point is a relic from that time when compositing was the only thing.

Quote:

My favorite phrase is that Flame is designed for interactivity and other packages are designed for iterations

Jeff, I think this used to be very true. But I think in someways Flame has been the victim of their dependance on 3rd party develpopers. What really used to set Flame apart were the ultra-cool sparks that were so much faster and cooler than on any other box. Now the only new image processing Spark package the has been developed in the last couple years are Furnace. Sure they are usefull, but they come out for Shake 6 months to a year before they are written for discreet.
With Apple rebuilding Shake, and adding Silicon Color, and perhaps Sony re-entering the arena, I think Flame is about to face, for the first time, real competition. Even Pirrahna, if it could just get it UI to be the slightest bit useful, could become an option.

Just MHO
B22

[maxrehan]

Have they yet disclosed the specifics of Red Code? How much color grading latitude will you be losing in that compression?

B22

[maxrehan]

FX Boys,
Definitely don’t dumb it down. You guys built this as a site where professional fx artists could come together, outside of the pressures of clients and salesmen, and better ourselves and our industry. Sometimes pushing the envelope will not involve elements that not everyone will immediately understand. But a lot of us working in this, got where we are by catching up to to the bar quickly, if not raising it from time to time.
The podcasts are great. But maybe instead of talking to the sales guys at release time, make them get you you Helie’s of the world so as to grill/praise them as need be. And perhaps include another user in that discussion to get more of the round table feel that you had at NAB.

Later,
B22

[maxrehan]

There is a spinner button once you have opened/formatted the archive that let you either archive that library only (default) Archive all libraries in the project (and maybe all libraries on the framestore?). I have used the all libs in project and don’t remember any problems, but that was before history and such.

Later
B22

[maxrehan]

Hey,
So the two best things you can do are:

1) Read the manuals. And I mean cover to cover. In order to understand the full scope of the tools you have in IFF.
2) Whenver possible get a chair and plant it behind the Artist. Watch for the patterns in what he/she does. Understand how he/she attacks problems that face them, And most importantly begin to anticipate their needs so you are prepared to meet them before they have to ask. That is how you will earn trust and eventually move up.

Remember your job is to get as involved as the artist wants you to be, the artist’s job is to tell you when to back off.

HTH
B22

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