After Effects Error Codes

Chris Meyer | 11/07- 09:30 AM

Occasionally, After Effects has a hiccup. When it does, it often displays a dialog box with occasionally clear, occasionally cryptic text, as well as a series of numbers. Understanding exactly what these are telling you can help you diagnose the problem and at least work around it, if not cure it.

Lutz Albrecht (aka Mylenium) has created a useful page that goes through the logic behind these codes to help you narrow down where the underlying error may be. He is actively trying to expand and refine the list, so if you encounter an error in After Effects, email him the information so he can fold it in.

(By the way, Lutz also wrote one of the best overviews of the new features in After Effects CS4 that I’ve seen - you can read it here.)

Making “One Man, One Vote”

Adam Wilt | 11/03- 06:19 PM

Ten years ago a fellow named Marshall Spight posted a challenge on DV-L called “Throwing Down the DV Gauntlet”, in which he said, “everyone talks about shooting serious dramatic films with DV, but does anyone actually do it?” I responded, and we wound up making a 20-minute short called “The Beautiful Thing” using Sony DCR-VX1000s, the first 1/3” 3-CCD DV camcorders. It came out so well (it was for a time the top-rated dramatic film on iFilm.com, an early and long-defunct predecessor to YouTube) that we set about making a short political drama/comedy (?), “One Man, One Vote”. This one gave us a few more challenges.

Autodesk+RED Workflow Guide

Chris Meyer | 10/29- 09:56 AM

The RED One camera and its ability to capture large frame size, RAW-format files has certainly ignited the imagination of filmmakers and videographers. But its unusual file format and requirements has also created a lot of head-scratching among users trying to find the most efficient way to send RED footage through a normal production pipeline.

To this end, Autodesk just released a white paper that covers using RED One footage with their Smoke, Inferno, Flame, Flint, and Lustre systems. It covers shooting, lighting, color spaces, proxies, going from offline to online, audio, finishing and final output including suggested settings, as well as an appendix on RED-specific applications and where they fit into the workflow. In other words, this isn’t a brochure; it’s a mini-handbook for users that describes the current recommended practices in some detail.

You can download the white paper here. Here’s a thumbnail sketch of some of its suggestions:

After Effects CS4 is Shipping

Chris Meyer | 10/18- 07:02 AM

For those who might have missed the news, Adobe Creative Suite 4 started shipping this past Wednesday. Users are already receiving their pre-orders.

After Effects users looking to upgrade need to be mindful of two issues:

• As reported earlier, AE CS4 will not run on pre-Intel Macs.
• Not all CS3-compatible plug-ins are compatible with AE CS4; some will need upgrades. So far, most of these upgrades seem to be free or available for a nominal charge.

Fortunately, there’s information out there to help you through this upgrade decision and process:

Optical Flow Speed Effects

steve martin | 10/10- 10:09 AM

If you want amazing slow motion effects, consider sending your Final Cut Pro sequence clips over to Motion to apply Optical Flow.  Optical Flow is technology inherited from Shake and Steve Martin will show you why Optical Flow will help you avoid mushy-looking slow motion effects. 

Recently Added: Columns on Enhancing Footage

Chris Meyer | 10/04- 07:10 PM

We were recently asked by a reader to re-post a column we wrote for DV Magazine over nine years ago on enhancing subpar client and archive footage. It’s an ageless topic, as even in this day of cheap high-definition cameras, we all still have projects where we have to use less-than-ideal sources. As we were posting that column (Spinning Gold), we realized it referenced a second column on simple color treatments. So we’ve re-posted both of them online here at PVC:

• Spinning Gold
• Getting Behind the Color Wheel

We hope you find them useful. Feel free to share your own techniques and recipes in the Comments section. If there’s enough interest, we’ll update these with some additional techniques.

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