What FX/compositing software works best with avid

dory_breaux

dory_breaux

Todd Wannabe
Hey all,

I'm trying to find something that integrates with Media Composer better then AE for CC, VFX and compositing. I was looking at Avid Studio Toolkit but somehow that seems a little... un-professional? What are your thoughts?
 
What's your budget? I've heard that autodesk has some amazing compositing products. But I don't know of any others in the After Effects price range other than Motion and Shake.
 
Well, my school usually buys my software for me, so price isnt not too big of a problem. Probably cant swing something thats like, 20k plus but they just bought 5 copys of MC 2.8 so I dunno....

I looked at the Autodesk ones and they do look awesome, but I also kinda like the look of Nuke, jsut wondering how well it will integrate with MC.
 
they just bought 5 copys of MC 2.8 so I dunno....
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Avid recently dropped their educational pricing to $300 for MC.

All of the high end finishing systems (Autodesk, Avid DS, Quantel, etc.) that have tight integration between editing, CC and VFX will set you back a fair bit more than 20K.

You could tighten the integration between Avid and AE by using Automatic Duck.

What sort of problems is the lack of integration causing?

I don't think Nuke or Fusion offer any better integration than AE.
 
Oh well that could explain why they bought 5 copys haha.

Mostly with the workflow, and the fact that AE is more of a motion graphics and 2D compositor. Like, when I was using Premiere, I didnt have to render anything to go into AE, I would just import the PPro Project into AE and do all my compositing/FX in that. But I'd also like to get something that has more CC and VFX options then motion graphics, and something that integrates with Maya or 3DS Max better then AE.
 
The dynamic link between Premiere and AE means tight integration. The linking between FCP and Motion is very tight as well. But once you wander outside of a single parent company (Adobe or Apple for example) then you have to pull a few more strings to make it all work. If the apps reside on the same workstation you can always use QT ref files to move from Avid to your VFX app, at least you would need to render everything out of Avid.
 
I go back and forth between Avid and AE all the time and never have problems rendering out and importing quicktimes. However, if you want flawless integration for color correction, take your media composer edit and open it in an Avid Nitris. Works perfectly.

If your effects aren't too extreme, there is a lot you can do within Avid itself. The Animatte and Paint Tool have been around for years, but now Media Composer comes with built in Motion Tracking. Using Timewarp and rendering with FluidMotion, I've gotten motion effects as good as what I can accomplish within After Effects.

If you add the Boris and Saffire plugins to your Media Composer, there is a lot you can do without ever having to leave the Avid world.
 
Well, I'd say that color correction is my biggst thing, and as of late I've taken to doing that in Photoshop (still working on the workflow and such but so far I prefer it to AE). But, I also do 3D compositing and FX, so that could pose a problem. I'm checking out the demo of Autodesk Combustion and it looks pretty damn neat, especially since I use 3DS Max alot, altho I dont see how it will be any easier to integrate into MC. Maybe I should just buy an extra HDD just for inbetween renders?
 
you'll need AE. Not only is it great for compositing and animation, your avid DVE is aliased so even a basic rotated box with worth the render.
There are lots of great CC tools out there and oddly enough, my favorite by far is genarts sapphire's film look. I find tweeking it's rgb lighting gets me exactly where I wanna go avoer and over again.
It's other filters are wesome as well. If you do alot of extreme sports stuff, you'll dig it's shake effects. Scanlines are cool too and very seldom do I spit out a show without some glows here and there. It has it's own DVE too and it's lees aliased than Avid's 3D DVE (which has seen very few updates since it's release in '95 in MC v5.)
 
Thanks grinner. I was actually looking for something that would import 3D models from Max or Maya without needing to render them.

I'll look into the stuff you mentioned, thanks again.
 
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