Half the day later, my mission in flames and my sent box littered with thisperson@adobe.com emails, I found myself communicating with Steve Forde, product manager for After Effects via the forums. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, I immediately abandoned my upgrade quest and asked the most relevant question I could think of, “What is planned for the next release of Ae?” Steve pointed me over to Todd Kopriva’s blog article discussing the same. The article which covers the most talked about request from the forums is more of a People’s Choice edition of have’s, must have’s and suggestions. Todd spends a great deal of time explaining that to ask for a feature is nice and encouraged, but specifics are what they need to give the request wings. He compiled the feature request based on popularity as following;

• import of AAF files:
• keyboard shortcut editor:
• Vector Paint effect:
• grouping layers in the Timeline panel:
• variable-width mask feather:
• saving projects backward so that they can be opened by a previous version of After Effects:
• scopes (waveform and vector):
• better handling of image sequences:
  • ability to see each image sequence as a separate item, not as a gazillion files
  • report showing exactly which frames are missing from an image sequence
  • auto-creation of a folder to hold each exported image sequence
• extrusion of vector graphics:
• GPU/CUDA acceleration:
• scaling: better algorithms and ability to choose:
• nodal compositing:
• custom zoom values:
• import of 3D objects:
• After Effects for Linux:
• bones and inverse kinematics within Puppet effect:

A good list, but as anyone who has followed After Effects for any significant time knows, a lot of the items above were addressed in CS5.5 or dropped in the 64bit port and would eventually be included back in (Ability to go back to Cs4 projects for example). To read Todd’s comments or to view the whole document go to http://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2011/12/top-after-effects-feature-requests-for-the-past-year-or-so.html (Steve Simmons also writes about this on his article for Studio Daily this week)

So what are my request for After Effects? My list includes some of the above (Scopes, CUDA Acceleration), but I’ll be more specific in my wish list and say for instance Scopes, specifically RGB-YUV Parade with realtime update and a ability to adjust sensitivity equal to the plugin from Test Gear (or port the technology over from Speedgrade). Here’s my list:

• Integrate every cool thing from Speedgrade (RAW Support, HDR Support, Scopes, Multiple Timelines, Ability to play 4K Clips from timelines from GPU (even without RED Rocket)

Interface for Speedgrade NX

• Dynamic linking with upcoming new Adobe Speedgrade Product for Color Correction, specifically sequence import with color descision list (CDL) intact and ability to port plugins across the product (example: Sapphires show up in Speedgrade, provided you have license of course)
• Mercury Engine Playback (or Speedgrade Engine) in Ae (Please!)
• Vector Graphic Extrusion of Illustrator objects and Text into 3D space with Bevel and material and texture assignment. (This last feature could be done in Illustrator and imported)
• Grouping of layers using an Uber-Twirl
• Nodal Compositing of Adjustment Layers, Plugins and Mattes: This gives the user the ability to assign a plugin to an Adj Lyr then node connect only the layers they wish to the layer, so say goodbye to sitting layers at top of timeline and having to re-order to disconnect influencing layers below

Nuke Interface using Nodal Compositing feeding multiple Lyrs into one Mask

• Matte Layers: Ability establish a matte on an Adj Layer and then connect layers to it via nodes noodles (like Fusion and Nuke)
  
• Variable width mask feathering or just ability to read those attributes from programs such as Silhouette or Mocha
• Python scripting for creating gizmos (Similar to Nuke) or applications containing both Plugins and Scripts that can be saved as gizmos or such (For example someone who does Keying might want a Key App that contains a sequence ready for keying but contains all the scripts also) This app can be pluged in, instead of opened
• Better handling of RED Metadata by making the dialog box more accessible and including feedback in Project bin in a column. Also more integrated reading of RED Time of Day, and Absolute Timecode.
• Better handling of Canon Color Science
• Bring back AAFs support
• Changing workspace to Display LUTs to be more in line with industry
• Add CUDA support to Render Engine (Free up the CPU) This would allow you to buy one low cost PC, stock it full of  Nvidia Cards and use it a GPU Render Farm!
• And finally, let users with RED Rocket engines enjoy realtime playback of RED clips

There’s my list, feel free to comment and I’d love to see yours, maybe I can compile all our list and send to Steve for his thoughts, and post here in future. Or better yet see some of them in April integrated into the next version of After Effects!

Frame from Open

MadWerkz animation and graphic artist Jeff Black recently finished (6) six amazing hand drawn and inked comic book style illustrations for a series of Short Opens being produced by MadWerkz Films.

DR_Open_teaser_480

The Open directed by Joddy Eric Matthews, which took 12 weeks to complete was a study in the old school, hand drawn approach meeting the digital age. “I use a tablet and pen, often, but to get the personality of the live action characters into these drawings, I needed to feel the paper and the pencil in my finger. I needed tactile response.” says Black.

Full Page artwork for Open

Even though each drawing was hand crafted and inked, more like a paper based comic, they were quickly scanned and colored in Painter and Photoshop in 16bit resolution. Effects such as dot gain, splatter effects and lens flares were added to the layered files as they were sent into After Effects for Motion graphics artist Jason Mithell, whose scene quickly rose to over 100 layers in some places

The layered PSD files, imported into After Effects as compositions, were quickly turned into 3D layers, animated and rendered to 16bit 2048 DPX and Apple ProRes 422 10bit files for lay back to the editor.

Jeff is currently in development for MadWerkz Films motion comic, “Trinity: HellWater” a prequel to the live action film “Trinity”, set to film in the fall. The motion comic, unfolding over five episodes, will see Mr. Black serve as Animation Director.

How many times have we all uttered this phrase? 50 times, 100 times, 200 times! Its a well used expression, by professional and novice alike. Everyone it seems, thinks they have a hit Television show in them.

Joke and Biagio Messina of Joke Productions in Los Angeles have produced several hit Reality Television Shows in the last decade (Scream Queens, Beauty and The Geek) and currently produce the IFC hit show Commercial Kings along with the upcoming hit MTV Reality Doc Caged. So it was a real treat to hear from Inda Blatch-Geib at IBG Productions that she was bringing the Reality Show vets into town for a Pitch Workshop.

“I thought it was going to be – spend your money and I’ll tell you how your ideal stinks! But they told us about the business and how to win at Pitching! I felt like they were really interested in me bringing a winning pitch to a Network Executive!”

— Gina Brinker, Indie Filmmaker

Geared to find Producers to partner with in the Midwest, the 2 Day Workshop (with another 2 Day workshop in November) was no-holds-barred from the start.  Joke and Biagio spent the first day elevating the audiences understanding of everything from the Producing structure (including pay rates!) to a detailed breakdown of EACH Networks (from Cable and Broadcast) wants and needs. The two filmmakers left no stone unturned as they gave the attendees the correct terminology to phrase their pitch (sorry can’t tell), and went thru several sample pitches, helping the attendees understand why they were pitched for one Network and not another.

Day Two brought the focus to the art of Pitching itself, with Joke driving the attendees thru several of the the duo’s winning and not so winning Pitch’s. Each pitch was broken down as Biagio helped the audience understand the art of making the perfect video pitch and how to craft an effective leave behind. The two talked about adding small elements to drive home message and rules to live by in making the pitch count. In the end, the attendees were tasked to take their ideals and develop them over the course of the next month, checking them against the new knowledge they had been empowered with and come back in November with ready-to-view pitches. The two host promised any pitches ready for a Network Executive pitch would get that opportunity.

The Attendees also recorded their own testimonials, have a look.

The second round of The Pitch Workshop will occur on November 5 & 6 at The University of Akron. New attendees are welcome. Contact Inda Blatch-Geib at indabg@neo.rr.com for registration details.

Have the perfect ideal for a Television show? Great we’ll see you there.

Ohh yeah, what is a MOP? Ask me at the workshop.

Using Final Cut inhouse, Jason relies heavily on it’s workflow and ease of use when sending projects to DaVinci for finishing. In talking about X, we  listened to his joy and pain (mostly pain) concerning Apple’s new version of their Professional NLE system. I thought I’d share it, as while the web is full of reviews of the new release, having a working NEO professional, who deals with deadlines and clients everyday, discuss first hand his experiences I thought would be great.

Jason Feiler

Many editors I’ve talked to have simply abandoned the idea of FCP X. Apple’s new release to be sure is a new, radical way of editing, and its definitely a 1.0 version. Its new keywording and bin structure features make it quite easy to get up and running on  a project, especially if you don’t have an assistant editor. Its fun to play with, add effects, and create fun little movies,but in very little time the “Pro” will realize that despite some sexy styling, this baby is made for the iMovie masses.

FCPX Interface

Its not that its a bad “app”,  its just not designed for pro editing and pro output (To date, X does not support a second monitor or output via Kona or BlackMagic card). A huge part of editing is making cuts on intuition, in order for that to happen you need to have muscle memory. Meaning that an editor can wave their hands over the keyboard and perform magic without using the mouse, quickly and seamlessly. Well Apple felt that was no longer important, and that as editors we should drag clips around a “storyline” until it magically (or magnetically) found its place. Thats fine for someone that has never edited or doesn’t really appreciate what its like to trim a single frame away for the perfect cut, but not for professionals. We need control, we need that muscle memory. Often, the meter is running as I work and Apple’s radical changes in “thought process”, shouldn’t cause me (or anyone else) to have to think, “what is the new way of doing this?” as clients sit, a few feet away.

Here’s a few things that a Professional Editor might be able to live with or without in considering upgrading to X;

Extensive Terminology re-education
No support for OMF (no sending files to ProTools)
FCP 7 Plugins won’t work until updated to new 64bit FxPlug2
You can’t import previous FCP projects (this is HUGE)
Color Match in Color Board doesn’t show feedback in controls

Lets talk about color correction in FCP X. This is an area that really concerns me, as Apple has added a whole bunch of canned looks into FCP X, and a new color board. I have to admit I had a blast “playing” with these looks, however at the end of the day it was very destructive. I want to clear the air on this subject, yes technically if you do more then a primary correction its called color grading, but lets be real there is so much more that goes into color grading then tweaking a few colors or adding a vignette. BlackDesign DaVinci is my tool of choice and a great one at that, in fact no other name says color correction like DaVinci. It’s a powerful tool and I use it every chance I get. But for the project that needs finish in the NLE, I still like to be able to offer something other than canned looks to my clients. The thought is nice, but again, a tool for the iMovie masses. (In fact, I’d have to say that ripping off the Magic Bullet Looks approach to cc, makes the Apple solution even more puzzling, i.e. build a better mousetrap, etc.)

One more thing that keeps getting overlooked is that FCP X is designed around the HDSLR/H-264 user. Apple wants you to bring your native h.264 footage into FCP X, thats fine, but what about the rest of the filmmaking community. (To date, FCP X cannot even work with RED or Alexa footage.) Remember h.264 is a compressed output CODEC, not a capture and definately not an editing CODEC, we seem to have all forgotten that. I’ve found that part of editing is knowing what to do when something goes wrong and how to fix it, its understanding CODECs, framerate, bit depth, resolution, the list goes on and on, but in FCP X you simply do not have that control, and I think that most users of FCP X right now are okay with that lack of control and understanding.

Who knows what will happen in 6 months or a year, but one thing is for certain, and thats the television and film industry will not stop and wait for Apple to come back down to earth. Use whatever tool gets you to where you need to be, but don’t sacrifice quality to get you there.

Me? Still running FCP 7 and I’m now evaluating Avid and Smoke at the office and Adobe at home.

Jason Feiler is a DaVinci Colorist and Editor at Kalman Pabst, he can be reached at jasonpfeiler@gmail.com

Early in the year, we wanted to see what workflow performed best for our clients. Being primarily a VFX company we have our own internal workflow that revolves around 32 bit Linear based formats such as OpenEXR or Tif and for grading 10bit DPX. But recently an increased amount of RED work has come into the studio often from DOP’s we have never worked with before. Last year saw everything from REC 709 baked DPX’s to CameraRGB and PDLOG LUTed 8 Bit Jpeg shots coming in. True, the look is just that, a look (if we get the r3ds) and the metadata can be changed at any time (CameraRGB can be changed to REC 709 easily inside REDCine) But the choices the DOP made while looking at this “Look” are forever. DOP’s who light via the 720p output of the camera could almost be considered a plague now. Whether it’s ArriRaw, Canon StuLog or Technicolor color science, DOP’s who don’t test or know what the color science is doing inside the camera, and adjust their style to match, are all too common.The last thing we want to see is a look of surprise on the DP’s face as he sees his footage on a 10 bit Cinetal display for the first time. (as opposed to their own 14 inch LCD MacBook Pro)

At the beginning of the year we set out to develop a workflow best suited to the Indie producer but which allowed us to deliver a good product. We hoped to be able to engage Producers and DOP’s before they shot as to solidify the workflow. Some had time, some did not. After the conversations we took some RED footage we shot from last year and treated it like it had come in from the three most common color science choices. The results….

Dailies/ProRes Transcode REC709 Gamma
VFX REC709
Grade:REC709

No Brainer here, if we setup the files this way, we had the best reaction to dailies, the grade versus the FCP offline and/or VFX Shots that were delivered back to the client. The reason- the shots at all times most closely resembled the shots as seen in the onset monitor and the editors FCP/Avid pass. But the loss of latitude in the highlights or dark areas, the baked in contrast, coupled with the response curve mimicking video more than film, left the final prints looking more like a good 5D shoot than a 4k image lens on a film lens. This is also the quickest workflow because so many decisions have already been made.

Dailies/ProRes Transcode REDGamma2
VFX REDGamma2
Grade:REDGamma2

Definitely an improvement, the REDGamma2 curve allowed us to be able to get a curve closer to film and take advantage of the latitude available with the MX Sensor. Only in a side by side could the clients see a difference in the onset look (Rec709) provided by the RED monitor with all of them choosing the REDGamma2 as a more film like image. True, RED considers the Color2/Gamma2 to be the closest Linear curve to film. While not log, doing VFX using this curve was definitely doable and meant that transcoding to 32bit OpenExr, gave us our VFX plates and finals for grading at the same time. This allowed us to grade in After Effects or Nuke, without a Speedgrade pass.

Dailies/ProRes Transcode REDLogFilm
VFX REDLogFilm
Grade:REDLogFilm

Our preferred format, it closely resembles the latitude of film and gives the greatest response back on grading. If you construct a beautiful shot, REDLogFilm will give it back to with the love, discarding the harsh edge of film. Not quite the Eterna look (yet) but REDLogFilm also gives us the best environment to grade and composite our vfx shots. Most major film post houses work in Log or Lin 1.0, and that allows them to squeeze every ounce of beautiful out of the negative. The drawback- The image in no way matches the on set image. Untreated, it looks milky and flat. To the untrained eye it is a disaster. But it is the color science we (and most of the industry) probably would like to be handed to deal with. To DOP’s working in Independent Film, asking the Director and the Producer to trust him to turn the milky image to beauty is a battle they have to fight if they want their images to compete.

The solution. For now we recommend REDGamma2 with REDColor2 as the color science. It strikes a nice balance between the DOP’s need to show an image that is vibrant and contrasty, but will not have the shock factor associated with learning that they had more latitude in the camera than what they saw thru the monitor. The majority of our clients are seasoned pros who know these things, but as new DOP’s and Producer learn to work with bigger budgets and more ambitious projects, it’s imperative that they find successful workflows. We are trying to educate our DP clients to get to know the curve of REDLogFilm and REDGamma2 so they can light for the extra latitude, even though they can’t see it on the set. Much like the old lady, good old film, trusting a light meter and experience will yield great results.

Part 2: We’ll grade the Log RED Footage, dealing with the image in several solutions such as Adobe, Sony, Iridas and Finally Final Cut Pro.

(Note:) We decouple the Quicktime gamma on all our workstations in order to not let Apples 1.8 Gamma influence our decisions.

Here’s where the decision to “Finish on your own” if you are an indie filmmaker can turn into a nightmare

While Colorista and Color are wonderful tools and they have saved my butt many times, Stu Machowitz (the creator of Colorista) never intended for them to replace a DaVinci or the skilled artist that uses one. Colorista and Color’s toolset is impressive, especially given it’s price, but the fact that sophisticated but necessary task such as tracking are difficult, if not impossible to do easily in these programs, frame those tools as Primary and simple shot grading tools more specifically.

Sophisticated re-lighting or painting with light, in essence, recreating the mood or making a shot into a work of art, similar to a painting are the domain of the Colorist, not just making every shot balance out before a Quicktime is rendered

Tangent 200 Colorist Board

That is not say that your feature or short can not be done in Color or Colorista by your Editor or yourself, quite the opposite. But given the fact that more times than not, an Indie shoot is rife with let’s say “Less than ideal conditions” means that your footage is going to need MORE, not less attention in the grading stage. And that demands an artist, a Colorist, not an editor or producer “watching tutorials” minutes before starting a primary. My point usually to the Producer is to be as concerned with finishing as they are with sound. Both make or break a film. Both need capable professionals in tune with capturing an audience. Color decisions that make sense in a Quicktime environment such as FCP (like stacking 3way Color nodes to get a look), can prove disastrous if then that Quicktime is used for a DCI theater presentation (Film Festival). XYZ colorspace not with standing, the false gamma given by Quicktime has been known to make have many filmmakers scratching their heads trying to find out why the image on the movie screen was so flat.

Rum Runner Title Sequence

Rum Runner
Shot on Canon 5D, Zeiss Lenses,
Courtesy of ACK, ACK Productions

I wanted to pick an example which is reflective of the experience most Indies are having these days. The above image is from Rum Runner, a wonderful short directed by up and comer, Andrew Fenske, debut DOP’d by Kevin Coyne and Produced by Gina Brinker. Veteran Canon shooter John Turk served as Steadicam and Camera Operator for Kevin which allowed him to spend a great deal of time researching his look, but unfortunately as time constraints threatened the production, Kevin had to adjust on the fly. As a result, although lit adequately, he was not able to get the look he had hoped for in camera. The edit was done in Final Cut Pro and then sent to Apple Color where I performed a quick Primary and Secondary Grade on the film in order to get it out for a festival showing. But because Kevin and I had talked extensively before, during and after the production phase, I had a good ideal of what he was looking for and planned to go back later and do a full grade My workflow in Color was as follow, establish a Primary Grade, using the ProRes 442 online files with a roundtrip back to FCP in ProRes 422 with a gamma of 2.6 for theater delivery. Once the festival was done, I went back and looked at my notes for the shoot and CineSync reviewed all the shots. Below is the result.

Because a lot of the shots on the production were done on a stabilizer and/or with a handheld approach, tracking a lot of the Color correction changes would be necessary. Faces, adding lighting to walls, corners, etc. would require a track first to compensate for the camera drift. Here’s where the decision to “Finish on your own” if you are an indie filmmaker can turn into a nightmare. While Colorista, MBLooks and Boris can use the AE tracker to apply an Adjustment layer with color changes applied to it, the process means stepping out of the plugin, tracking, then going back to the Color software. Not to mention that finding a reliable tracking point on a face is an adventure upon itself. The novice quite often chooses to just do a Primary using Magic Bullet Looks for getting a safe (Film, Television, web) deliverable rather than tackle a series of time consuming, tracking task along with stacking of Colorista nodes to get a look. The Colorist takes many different factors into account, such as concatenation (the negative result resulting from stacking plugins of same mathematical process on top of each other) 8 bit banding, and chooses the tool best suited to getting the job done. Sometimes Colorista is the best tool, sometimes DaVinci.

The second grade of Rum Runner saw the shots converted from the Canon master into Tif files (I usually like to use 10bit DPX files, especially if the master is RED, ArriRaw or some format that can give me a Log file. Since CineStyle was not available when we shot, the files were already encoded REC709, so Tif worked as a grading solution. I also want true 10bit images so I needed to bypass the ProRes Quicktime curve and acquire in as close to original master look as possible. The files were then taken into Scratch (my tool of choice for Canon 5D grading) and then a series of mattes, secondary scaffolds (Power windows), a key matted Diffusion pass (to smooth out skin) and a lens flare was added. A paint pass to fix skin blemishes was done and finally the color was graded for DCI (Theater, Film Festival) and REC709 (Television) and two different passes were output to digital files.

While the snapshot above does not reflect the finished shot, it is a significant improvement of the first grading session that I would call equal to what most indie filmmakers do. Quick, down and dirty. And while the software chosen helps, the point is that in order to compete, one has to emulate as much as the Hollywood experience as possible, for audiences will not except anything less. Grading is an art form and while the failure to do it well won’t destroy your film, a good Colorist can most definitely propel your film from ho hum to memorable.

The compelling open to a Project Gilgamesh sampler was completed by visionary Artist and Director Joddy Eric Matthews. The particle animation streams, synced to the haunting music of International Artist DBR, each consisting of over 12,000 particle per frame, was rendered using trapcode particular and uses custom scripts in Adobe After Effects. The destruction wave which creates the logo, which was supplied by Studio C, was done was custom expressions. The finished open was added to the online edit of Editor Lee Will of LeeWillEdit.

Click here to see movie

Helmed by Director and Animator Joddy Eric Matthews and featuring amazing compositing work by new Visual Effects Artist Brian Beba, we created six 4 to 8 minute 3D Stereoscopic movies for transformer giant SD Myers, was created in 3D using Autodesk Maya and composited in Adobe After Effects. Beba, handled over 100 gigs of information and created several custom stereoscopic rigs in After Effects.

In order to get accurate models of the companies various products completed on time for the quick turn around, we called upon the amazing talents of artist Doug Kiley and the great teams of TRGReality (www.trgreality.com). The completed videos were authored to BluRay 3D and s3D digital files for digital delivery.