Beer glass scene creation
This course contains a little bit of everything with modeling, UVing, texturing and dynamics in Maya, as well as compositing multilayered EXR's in Photoshop.
# 1 09-02-2003 , 03:35 PM
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Final cut pro for compositing? (Maya)

Hi! I am hooked on getting the new 17" Apple Powerbook.

I use Maya on my desktop PC (AMD 2100XP). I am getting better at Maya and need to buy a compositing application.
I am not sure what is good? After Effects seems like a good choice. Would it be better to get After Effects for compositing/editing my Maya animations on the desktop PC. OR should I take my Maya rendered frames(Tiff's) and cut and composite it in Final Cut Pro-3 on my Powerbook?

PLEASE ADVICE?

# 2 09-02-2003 , 03:36 PM
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Plus is May on Mac working good? or is it buggy?


grrrr
# 3 09-02-2003 , 03:37 PM
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I mean MAYA :-)


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# 4 09-02-2003 , 04:15 PM
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Don't know much about Macs but isn't FCP more like a video editing program? Like Premiere...?


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# 5 09-02-2003 , 05:18 PM
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That's what I thought but apparently you can do compositing work as well.....or my info is wrong.


grrrr
# 6 09-02-2003 , 08:33 PM
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can u not get combustion for macs?


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# 7 09-02-2003 , 09:38 PM
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Final Cut Pro is primarily is video editor, but it has some compositing features built into it. It's not a flexible as a dedicated compositor like Combustion or After Effects, but it is powerful enough to get relatively simple composites done. Overlaying clips with alpha channels, color correcting, etc, are very easy to do. The benefit of using FCP for compositing is that you can edit and output all at the same time. AE and Combustion aren't exactly great at editing.

Also, Maya runs just fine on Macs, although it is not as fast as it is on comparable PCs. There are some display glitches every once in a while (it's OpenGL), but, functionally, everything works the same. Even though my PC is faster with Maya, I still spend more time using Maya on my Powerbook. It's nice being able to work away from my apartment.


Danny Ngan
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# 8 09-02-2003 , 09:58 PM
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Well slickrenderer, I'm not saying that your info is wrong, but using FCP to do compositing is like using poser or bryce and calling yourself a pro 3d modeler/animatoruser added image hehe...

FCP will work for editing your shots.
But if you are SERIOUS about compositing, get a true compositor.
After Effects, Chalice, Shake, etc, are but a few of the great compositiors that I would suggest.


/* BEGIN RANT
This is NOT aimed at you slickrendereruser added image

Sorry for the bias here folks, but my boss is a HARDCORE mac freak, and he WASTES his/my money on USELESS apple software SIMPLY because it starts with the letter "i", and because he thinks Steve Jobs is god.
(no kidding, I caught him playin with himself during Steve's last Keynote adress)

Apple prey's on people like this.
They seem to think that consumers won't notice if they market sub-standard hacked-apart 2d/3d sofware and call it "Professional".

They specificly target helpless "hobyists", NOT TRUE PROS, who heard about Maya or Chalice in an article about (insert movie here) on a plane or newstand, and are ONLY looking for the quick and easy way out.

My boss is JUST like that. He doesn't seem to think that QUALITY VFX takes TIME, KNOWLEDGE, and SKILLED EFFORT.

Apple sells software always claiming that they've invented the killer app that has the famed "Make Dinosaur" button.
Well, if that's all a user is interested in, the easy way out, then that just proves to me that they are simply a hobyist, and NOT a professional.

My boss recently showed me an OLD article about the beautiful work that was done on "Hollow Man", and he came to me and had the nerve to say, "Hey! We can do this right? I mean, I JUST bought the NEWEST Poser version, so we can get started right away, and have it done by this weekend right?"

I proceeded to show him the cinefex story that explained that it took a TEAM of modelers working non-stop for 2 YEARS to model the Kevin Bacon character.
I didn't even have to explain the techniques that were used because it was then that his eyes glazed-over, and he returned to his office wih his tail between his legs and his poser license in his hand drenched with his tears from crying about how a 17 year old apple apple rep lied to him.

He later said, "You mean, they actually MODELED that character from curves by HAND??? You mean you REALLY can't do that with poser???" ....fricken idiot....

Sorry to break these facts to you "die-hard" apple fans out there, but it BURNS me to no end when good people are repetedly LIED to like this. However this does explain why apple only has a 6% consumer market share, and it's falling every yearuser added image

Sadly enough, apple bought a few good compositing apps that will now ONLY work on your mac, and they offer NO support to those of us pc users that purchased it before apple raped them.

END RANT */

My point it this, use a compositor to do your compositing, and use an editor to edit your footageuser added image

Sorry folks, I just got a little faclemptuser added image


Israel "Izzy" Long
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izzylong.com
# 9 09-02-2003 , 10:15 PM
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Izzy, you need to chill... :p

user added image user added image user added image


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# 10 10-02-2003 , 12:00 AM
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Izzy.. you sound like a very disgruntled Shake user... funny and interesting read though (your boss sounds like a schmuck)
Apple buying Nothing Real AND Silicon Grail (ie makers of the two most Maya friendly compositors) was just plain wrong, and i totally see where your coming from.

who knows.. maybe apple will continue to lose its grip on the market and Shake and RayZ will once again make their way back to the OS's they were originally meant to be run on. *edit* by this i dont mean take away OSX support, as choice is good, but just let windows users run the current versions too. kinda funny... apples response to people bitching about killing win32 support was "ok you can have discount of mac hardware and cheaper shake licenses".... great ...spend out a load more cash on equiptment that takes twice as long to get the job done. Sweet deal.. thanks Steve!
user added image

# 11 10-02-2003 , 12:07 AM
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Originally posted by slickrenderer
Plus is May on Mac working good? or is it buggy?

AFAIK it works fine... 3.5 had its probs, but heard 4.5 runs sweetly

# 12 10-02-2003 , 12:39 AM
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Originally posted by dannyngan
Izzy, you need to chill... :p

user added image user added image user added image

hehe... LOL.. yeah... I knowuser added image
Kev knows me as a major mac hater....
Maybe when they get their stuff together, i'll go back, but....

I started out on an amega, then went to apple, got REALLY PISSED... now I'm HAPPY with my pc's.....

Sorry all... just needed to vent some steam...


Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com
# 13 10-02-2003 , 12:45 AM
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Such negativity. [sigh] :p

Let's face it. Macs, PCs, whatever -- it's all just a bunch of stupid hardware. Just use whatever you need to get the job done. user added image


Danny Ngan
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# 14 10-02-2003 , 02:47 AM
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FCP has compositing features that are similar in nature to what's in Avid's editorial products. It's serviceable for small projects but it's not meant to be a full-blown compositing solution.

As for Izzy's comments, I couldn't really discern anything there except for irritation at Shake being unavailable on Windows. Honestly, and this is from a reliable source, Nothing Real probably would not have financially sustained themselves for another year without Apple buying them. In any case, Nothing Real didn't have that many paying customers (counting licenses, I mean) on Windows, otherwise they would have continued support for another year or so as they did for Irix and Linux.

The market for good compositing software is, for some reason, tremendously small, and After Effects seems to have the low end locked up, while there's almost no money to be made even with a successful high-end product.

-- Mark


Mark R. Wilkins
author of MEL Scripting for Maya Animators
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# 15 10-02-2003 , 03:00 AM
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omg izzy! that is the funniest story ever! especially about your boss braking down in tears. (is that even true? even if it isnt.. its just really funny how you explained it) and also about your completely un educated boss asking if you can do that kevin bacon thing in poser by the end of the week! ahahhahaha. Thanks for making me laugh! user added image

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