Tuesday, October 17, 2000

Enter a New Dimension: Moving Into 3D

Learning a 3D program can be an important career move for an editor or graphic artist.

Because of either lack of time, or simple Fear of the Complex and the Unknown, many editors and 2D graphic artists resist learning how to use a 3D program. And that may be unwise. More graphic design is incorporating 3D elements - from the ubiquitous extruded flying logo, to cool lighting effects, to wireframes of simple geometric shapes added as visual spice. Your clients may not even know this is “3D”, but they know it’s a look they want...and if you can’t supply it, they’ll look for an artist who can. Don’t worry - you don’t have to create Toy Story 3 single-handedly - but some basic skills will more than pay back the moderate effort invested.

3D •
Motion Graphics •
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Thursday, May 04, 2000

Elements for Editors

Making sure others can use what you create.

As motion graphics artists, we’re often asked to supply elements for an editor to use in a final composite or program. These might include single frames of text, titles that build on in stages, or a fully animated title. If the production is a corporate video, chances are that the elements need to build in sync with a voiceover. However, final audio is rarely finished by the time we have to create our elements – at best, we have a scratch track. This puts the responsibility on the editor to time these elements over the final version. The image these go over may be live video, or a loopable animated background which you might also be hired to create.

All these variables add up to the need to supply individual elements to the editor, so he or she can decide on how the animation should build and sync to the script.

Editing •
Motion Graphics • (1) Comments • Most recent comments by: Christian Glawe, • Permalink

Monday, January 17, 2000

Luminance Ranges in Video

Different video systems have differing internal definitions of “black” and “white.”

It would seem like a simple concept: “black” is the darkest color you can have; “white” is the brightest color. However, not all video hardware and software think this way. Quite often, systems can go “darker” than black and “brighter” than white, allowing safety margins for certain situations.

This means that some systems uses different values for black and white than others. This can cause a lot of problems for a video editor or artist who uses a variety of tools during a production, because images may shift in relative brightness and contrast for no apparent reason. Compounding this problem is a lack of accurate information about how to manage these shifts. But if you ignore them, the results can range from washed-out images to illegal color values.

Therefore, you will need to take it upon yourself to be aware of the black and white definitions that different systems are using, and to translate between them as needed. We will also discuss the oft-confused analog concept of “set up” and how it relates to these digital values. It initially requires a bit of a mind-twist, but will pay off in the long run. We will be using After Effects for some of the examples later in this article, but these concepts apply to all systems - so read on…

Editing •
Motion Graphics •
Post Production •
Visual Effects • (3) Comments • Most recent comments by: Graeme Nattress, Chris Meyer, bill, • Permalink

Tuesday, July 27, 1999

Braving the 3D Elements

Daunted by the complexities of learning 3D? Here’s a couple of simple tricks to create elements for your 2D work.

Adding a 3D program to your motion graphics toolset can greatly increase your creative options. However, many are daunted by learning an entire new set of skills. Relax: No one expects you to create a pod race or Jar Jar Binks your first month out. Instead, think of 3D initially as a way of generating graphical elements to composite into your 2D creations. We’ll cover a handful of basic tricks well within the skills of most beginning 3D users.

3D •
Motion Graphics • (0) Comments • • Permalink

Friday, January 30, 1998

Field Order - Who’s on First?

Mastering field rendering may not top your list of creative exercises, but you can’t achieve professional results without it.

If you thought most NTSC video ran at 29.97 frames per second, that’s only half the story - literally. It actually runs at a speed of 59.94 fields rather than 29.97 frames per second (fps), with pairs of fields “interlaced” to form a complete frame (see the illustration at left). When you shoot footage with your camcorder, it does not record whole video frames unless you are explicitly in a special mode known as “progressive scan.” Instead, most of the time it captures one field, then a second field, and lays these fields down in a linear fashion to tape.

Motion Graphics •
Post Production • (1) Comments • Most recent comments by: Chris Meyer, • Permalink

Monday, January 19, 1998

Playing Squash: Blobby Text Effect for NBC

On squishing icons, and approaching multimedia on a (physically) large scale.

Back in 1997 - still fairly early in our motion graphics career - one of our more enjoyable gigs was creating promotionals for NBC. These promos didn’t appear on television; they were destined for the Big Screen - namely, NBC’s huge AstroVision screen in Times Square. Rather than showing upcoming episodes of specific shows, they often took the form of puzzles, trivia, and other bits of information about their stars (see the sidebar “Multithreaded Information” for more musings on that subject). As a result, each clip usually took the form of a simple animation or site gag. Well, they look simple - some of them took a bit of thought to pull off. This is the story of one of those gags.

Interactive •
Motion Graphics • (0) Comments • • Permalink

Monday, February 17, 1997

I Can’t Hear You: Correct Audio Connections

After we get our computers stable and video cables connected, it seems to be the audio wiring that befuddles us the most.

I felt compelled to write on this subject because of a real-life experience that happened years ago. Trish and I were scheduled to show tapes and speak about our work at an event. We had both BetaSP and VHS tapes, as well as some QuickTime movies to show from a Mac. As is our custom, we asked to inspect the gear before we were scheduled to go on, just to make sure everything would go smoothly.

I started at the BetaSP deck. There was nothing connected to its normal audio output connectors - a problem, since we really focus on the interplay between audio and visuals in our work. However, there was something plugged into the “monitor” output on the back of deck. This is an extra RCA-style output jack meant to be connected to the corresponding input on some video monitors (to hear your work through that great two-inch speaker so generously built in). They were using this, but not with a phono plug inserted - instead, they managed to jam into a Walkman-style headphone plug into it, which then went to a pair of RCA connectors. An inauspicious start.

Audio • (7) Comments • Most recent comments by: Chris Meyer, Anthony, Chris Meyer, Chris Meyer, eric james wood, Chris Meyer, eric james wood, • Permalink

Thursday, July 06, 1995

On The Level

Techniques for mixing layers of audio with maximum clarity.

Admit it: How many of you mix audio by dragging the music, narration, and sound effects or ambiance bed into your authoring program...and think you’re finished? Okay, you don’t, but I’ve heard numberous television programs and pieces of interactive media that sound that way. Each component might sound fine individually, but when more than one is playing at the same time, they obscure each other. Or maybe during quieter sections, an unacceptable amount of noise or distortion appears when played back on a system with lower bit-depth or compressed audio. The solution to both comes from proper management of audio levels.

Audio •
Editing •
Post Production • (0) Comments • • Permalink

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