After Effects Poll

Re: After Effects Poll

Commotion is very cool because I think it still has a faster and more accurate motion tracker than AE 6 Pro (which everyone was gushing about when it first came out). Rotoscoping and simply efficient 'painting' were the main advantages of this program (semi-automated wire removal, clone tool, etc.). The matte generation is also top notch (color correction, spill supression, etc. is all very simple to use but customisable as well).

However, with the introduction of AE6 Pro, the gap closes and the advantages of Commotion had less of a hold on me. AE6's Keylight tool is amazing for pulling good mattes from bad footage (something which I had to do today). Also, AE6 has a whole slew of vector based painting tools (such as a clone tool, brushes, etc. which are based off of photoshop's paint tools). Also, while the motion tracker isn't as good IMO as Commotion's (haven't used Combustion's enough to gauge it--still learning), it's much better than any previous motion tracker AE employed. Before picking up AE6 Pro, I was not looking forward to the idea of using Commotion in conjunction with AE (which I had done since AE4), as I was tired of switching between programs just to do an effect. Since I started using AE6 Pro, I have not used Commotion a single time. While I would still say that it is an awsome program, AE just has so much more than Commotion as well as a good amount of what Commotion itself has. On the other hand, Commotion does what it does great, but cannot compete with AE in any other respect.

Combustion is also very nice (especially with the (not too) recent price drop). I just find that AE does what I need well enough not to warrant the purchase of another piece of software.
 
Re: After Effects Poll

If your really looking for a good rotoscoping tool, I know many may laugh at this idea but look at using macromedia flash.  I did a 30sec short commercial for a class and did all of the rotoscoping in flash.  It may seem wierd but it works amazingly well.  YOu can see the piece I did on my web page.

http://www.stefweb.net  

go to the short films section, and it is #3 "faux target ad".  It took forever to do, but it was a good learning experience.
 
Re: After Effects Poll

dont laugh... I do all my text in flash. Flash kicks ass, even more that it has full quicktime support.
 
Re: After Effects Poll

IT really depends on how fast your computer is. You can set your resolution to anything immaginable. IT also depends on how you use flash. You can basically let flash do all of the tweening for you, which will give a "too perfect" computer look, or you can hand draw everything for a much more rough, hand drawn look. I chose to hand draw everything and when I was done I exported to quicktime at 24fps and mixed in music and sound effects in premiere. It really doesn't look much different than what can be done in after effects. The only thing that flash can't do is add motion blur, but that can be done later anyways.
 
Re: After Effects Poll

It's all about using the best/easiest tool to get the job done. Shoot, I use AE to actually edit alot of the time... (aside from effects & compositing). The sheer amount of manual control you have over every aspect of your piece is great.
 
Re: After Effects Poll

scharky-

I really liked the idea of that target ad, with the freeze frame product features, etc... very creative idea. I can imagine it too you FOREVER rotoscoping that in Flash...
 
Re: After Effects Poll

Yeah, it took me about 27hrs just for the rotoscoping.  Then about another 7 or 8 hrs for the other effects, chairs, table etc.  Then about 2hrs for the music and sound effects.  And I still only got a B+ on the dang thing.  
 
Re: After Effects Poll

Hm sorry but I think AE is kind of akward nowadays as most of the Adobe products. They are all heavily in the need of a total rewrite (in terms of coding)! ;-)
I just had to work with their SDK again (writing a plugin)... *sigh*
However Digital Fusion is missing here in the poll!!! It's super fast.. absolutely rock stable... more kind of Shake style ;) and personally I find it much more intuitive to use.
I think it comes down to taste and to what you can afford price wise.
Personally I'm a Fusioneer! Yeah baby.. ;-P

Cheers,
-Sören
 
Re: After Effects Poll

btw: considering Digital Fusion is about 5 times the price of AE Production bundle, is that a fair comparison? DF is more along the lines of a Shake seat.
 
Re: After Effects Poll

After using Maya Fusion , and now Digital Fusion for some time I think After Affects is for people with too much time on there hands, for a lot of thing you simply are more productive with Digital Fusion, or shake or any other node based compositing tool.

since I begin to dislike adobe for some reason (slow with innovation, old GUI), I prefer the more open packages like fusion, shake, ok it cost a lot more, but what about the improved workflow , thats worth some money isn't it ?

bottom line: node-based all the way!
 
Re: After Effects Poll

Kai there are bundles etc. or smaller packages available that cost much less than the full blown DF version!
I think Lars' post sums it up nicely.. couldn't have said it better!
(I think Adobe is currently benefiting from it's image mostly rather than real product quality ;o)
 
Re: After Effects Poll

Nevertheless, Adobe has always been a staple in the design world, and AE is used worldwide in films, television, etc (just like DF, Shake, etc)...

Maybe it's a staple the same reason Yamaha NS-10's were THE studio monitors back in the day (ya know black with a white cone). Granted they were the staple because Yamaha gave them away to studios everywhere so they'd be used... but guess what.. they were. If something has been around long enough and enough people use it, it's going to stick.

After Effects has been around for awhile, and probably always will be. There will always be bigger and better products.. that's the nature of software and computers, but for me and many others, AE fits the bill on both price and performance.
 
Re: After Effects Poll

true enough.. I refuse to ever put photoshop on my system, only because by the time photoshop actually loads I coulda done it 3 times in another program. Im just to impatient I guess. Everyone thinks im crazy though.. "how the hell do you do anything without photoshop?"
 
Re: After Effects Poll

i dont even like photoshop..i use it for some stuff, but i prefer corel draw..it just fits my thought process better , and i like the workflow.
 
Re: After Effects Poll

Photoshop opens pretty fast on my computer. It opens faster than AE or Vegas on my System. But then again, I've always used Photoshop, so I'm used to the wait.
 
Re: After Effects Poll

Kai--

I just saw your clip for MTV's DUB TV--very impressive! I have a couple of questions for you, if you don't mind revealing some secrets....

1) What method did you use for the white silhouettes-to-video on the stills? It looks like the alpha channel with a moving matte revealing the video--am I close, and could you explain your process?

2) What was the liquid effect you used when transitioning up to the logo & later in the Missy Elliot shot?

Thanks!
 
Re: After Effects Poll

Hi Jay-

1) The white silhouettes were pretty simple actually. I initially traced the shape of the body in Photoshop, and saved out a layer in a psd with the white (ie: layer named "kobe_white", etc). Then, it's animated using a track matte to reveal the layer underneath. So yes, you were close :)

2) It's actually a smoke effect being used as a luminence track matte. It was some old stock footage I had of smoke filling up the frame (black & white)

Let me know if you have any more questions! Thanks for the compliment man :)
 
Re: After Effects Poll

one more thing, in the shot of Kobe sitting in the lamborghini, it has a "write-on" effect at the beginning to bring in the silhouette. That part was just animated by hand old-school-like 8)
 
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