I’ve been meaning to write up a thorough post concerning work conditions for freelancers in post-production. In the mean time, there’s another resource recently set up by the staff at Motionographer, inspired by a cautionary tale from one freelancer.
Motion Design Standards of Practices is a public wiki for freelancers and employers alike. Right now it has some basic terms & definitions. But looks like it will expand as everyone adds their voice to this topic.
I noticed that the nibs on my Intuos4 seem to wear down pretty fast (I’m on my third one since June ’09). So, in the tradition of the Internet, I complained online.
@conigs: I’d really like @Wacom to tell me why the Intuos4 nibs wear down so fast…
@wacom: @conigs I asked about this. Because customers asked, we gave the new I4 tablet surface a more tactile, traditional pen-on-paper feel.
@conigs: @wacom Thanks. So it looks like it’s the surface, not the nibs. Any plans on redesigning the nibs to hold up to the newer surface?
@wacom: @conigs We’re looking at the issue now, glad that we’ve sent multiple nibs out with every tablet! :-)
So there you go. It’s not the nibs, it’s the new surface that wears them down faster.
“Publishers can do whatever they want. If you don’t like it, don’t send them nasty emails or browse their sites with ad-blockers: just don’t support them. Don’t read their content, don’t link to them, and don’t talk about them. Since money’s not usually involved, vote with your attention and read elsewhere.”
The same can be said of music, films, tv, or just about any content. Just because you don’t like a publisher’s method of distributing content, or the terms of that distribution doesn’t mean you are entitled to it anyway.
I want everything we do—that I do personally, that our office does—to be beautiful. I don’t give a damn whether the client understands that that’s worth anything or that a client thinks it’s worth anything or whether it is worth anything. It’s worth it to me.
I’m not afraid to admit that I’m slightly addicted to my iPhone. It’s a really useful piece of tech, not just for communication, but for my work as well. Here’s a list of apps I use almost daily for my motion design & post production work :
What The Font (Free, iTunes Link)
Take a picture of a sign, layout, billboard, or pretty much anything and upload it to What The Font. It operates much like the website and can be a lifesaver. Though it can be tricky to get matches back unless you have a 3G S, as the fixed focus camera on the original and 3G iPhones makes it tricky to get a decent picture.
cliqcliq Colors ($2.99, iTunes Link)
Choosing the right colors for a project is important and inspiration can come from anywhere at any time. Chose your own colors (up to 16) or use a photo as the basis for the palette. You can work in RGB, HSB, Gray or CMYK (for you print designers). When you’re done you can name & rate your palette, or even send it in an email. The email is especially thorough, providing ACO, ASE, Office Open XML Color Theme, bitmap, plaintext, and CSV file formats, along with a preview.
ColorSlide (Free, iTunes Link)
Speaking of color palettes, you’re probably familiar with Adobe Kuler. ColorSlide is basically an iPhone front-end allowing you to search, browse, and bookmark the palettes. Unfortunately, there’s no way to sign in with your Kuler account, though you can email links.
Mill Colour (Free, iTunes Link)
A great little photo adjustment app by The Mill. Allows you to chose from predefined looks or adjust lift/gamma/gain (both luminance & separate RGB) and saturation on your own.
PS Mobile (Free, iTunes Link)
From Adobe themselves. Crop, adjust exposure/saturation/tint, apply filters and save & upload your completed image to photoshop.com. I admit I don’t use this too often, but it’s handy to have.
Animation Timer ($4.99, iTunes Link)
Tap out timing for your animation. It’s similar to the “lap” feature on stopwatches, though instead of fractions of a second, you get frames, 35mm footage or timecode. It’s handy for timing everything from edits to complex character animation.
EditCalc ($0.99, iTunes Link)
A simple timecode calculator. Works in 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 59.94, and 60 fps. You can also work in varying film footages, from 16mm 1perf all the way up to 70mm 5perf.
AJA DataCalc (Free, iTunes Link)
Recently released, this app will calculate storage for varying frame sizes/rates and codecs, and closely mirrors their Mac & Windows calculators in function. You can work in days/hours/min/sec or timecode. What I really like about the app is you can chose between working in KB (1000 bytes), KiB (1024 bytes) or even Bits, which is handy if you’re working in Snow Leopard. One complaint is that they don’t offer 720p24 as a preset, though you can use custom setups, so it’s not that big of a deal. When you’re all done you can mail a summary of your calculation; useful if you’re on set and need to let your assistant know what’s coming.
iBlueSky ($9.99, iTunes Link)
If you’re not familiar with mind mapping, you might not care much about this app. But it’s hands-down the best app for this purpose. What I really like is that I can email my maps as OPML files (along with other formats) and open it up with OmniOutliner on my Mac.
Pocket VFX ($0.99, iTunes Link)
This is just for fun. Framestore (vfx credits include Avatar, The Dark Knight, The Golden Compass, and Where the Wild Things Are) has released an app of their own. You, too can have Framestore’s power in your own pocket!
Have other favorite design/post apps? Share them in the coments.
Last week I was working on a retail spot where we needed a product that wasn’t shot on-figure. But we did have a shot of a similar product. It just needed a little work. This is what I mean by “a little:”
I’m pretty pleased with the end result. It was a fun task to work on, though I hope I don’t have to do it too often…
While I would rather have better control of the title-/sction-safe within the built-in overlay, this is the next best thing. DH Widesafe from Digital Heaven. The downside it that it uses a video track and will cause re-renders if you use it frequently. Still, it’s better than nothing.
If you’ve worked on commercial project, you know there’s only one constant: change… especially at the last minute. One of the things that seems to frequently change is color choice. If you have a complicated AE animation and many layers that use the same colors, this can be a royal pain. You can reduce this pain if, from the beginning, you set up a color control layer.
[Note: this really only works well if you're working on vector animations with single-color objects.]
First, set up an adjustment layer and add the “Color Color” effect found under “Expression Controls.” Do this for as many colors as you want.
I recommend naming the controls for the layers you will be coloring rather than the color itself.
Then, apply the “Fill” effect under “Generate.” Here, you can option-click (alt-click on PC) and drag the pick-whip (that little spiral button) to the color control in your color control layer.
Now, when the client comes back to you with the comment “The trees should be purple,” you won’t be cursing under your breath (as much).
AJA DataCalc (Free, 
Pocket VFX ($0.99, 
