October 16th, 2002
[ bussiness / artist demo tapes / Expression Demo / Media 100 ]

by Erin Dean

Business

--forum will soon be up on the nycmg website
--"something" new is coming from Trapcode!
--poll will soon be on the website, allowing for user feedback on products
--NYCMG celebrates 500 members!
--for feedback on the MGNYC website, contact Jeff or Webmaster.

Future meetings

--"Lip-sync guy" may be coming to give demo
--Adobe will sponser meetings (resulting in free admission!)--if the member
list / meeting attendance increase
--Boo Wong from Curious Pictures will give a presentation at the November
meeting
--Virtual Media Expo (plug-in manufacturers) is slated for February
--Canoa 3D, similar to Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator, may present in November
--Avid will give demo at upcoming meeting
--Color Finesse ($695) will demo at upcoming meeting

HELPFUL SITES, LINKS, RESOURCES
(these will soon be in their own section on the nycmg site)

postforum.com
creativecow.net
designinmotion.com
mandy.com
maslowmedia.com
bda.tv
boston user group (website address?)

Artist's Works:
The following artists showed their works at the October Meeting.

Howard Tiersky
Ernst + Young
E+Y Demo Reel

Jane Gussin
Vivid Screen Designs
Compilation of motion graphics. All After Effects incuding photo collage animation. Commercials and TV Graphics.

David Finkelstein
Lake Ivan Performance Group
A 3 minute excerpt from a 29 minute avant-garde video art piece. Dased on footage shot of a live, improvised performance, manipulated the footage in After Effects - notable the maya Paint Effects plugin.

Mr. Dana Stefenson
NBC Olympics
Salt Lake City copilation of the entire NBC Olympic Graphic Design Group's work - Bumpers, Rejoins, opens.

Scott Gingold
Scottie "The Toonman" Productions
Demo Reel: 1 min short film done in maya "Ostrich Egg", clips from short film "Island Crazy" (maya), walk cycles, clip from Sesame Street, Elmo's World, clip from MTV's Daria, 10 sec animation clip "Gorilla".
http://www.scottgingold.com

Jay Mahar
Chromavision
HIP :30 spot

Dave Stoy
Freelance designer/animator
design demo reel
http://www.theDWSprocess.com

Jeff Kryvicky's Expression Demo

1. option click on the watch icon to create expression
2. type a number in the expression feild. A number is the important thing that
an expression needs.
3. scripting for expressions follows a chain: Comp--Layer--Parameter--Value
4. Always use variable names, never "hard-code"
5. note that if you tie an expression to "layer1" and then re-arrange the
layers, the expression is disrupted.
6. use the picwic to select and link the expression to another layer parameter
7. note that values for different parameters require different sets of values.
more than one numeric value is called an array, syntaxed as two numeric values
within brackets and separated by a comma--ex. [20,20].
8. For example, rotation is one numeric value, 2D position is two numeric
values in an array, 3D position is 3 numeric values in an array, and color is
4 values in an array.
9. "We" website proposal--utilized the breakdown of a screen into a grid of
many squares. Expressions were tied to each square which stated (in
english)--"1. go into the color channel and find the specified list of colors,
2. go into the "movers" layer, and find out if bars are touching the
boundaries of the square. 3. if bars are touching the boundaries of the
square, then move the color to the next specified level."
10. remember that variables for expressions are NOT cumulative. The occur on a
per-frame basis.

MEDIA 100 844/X DEMO

--retails for around $65,000.
--new hardware architecture utilizes A6 on a multi-processor Dual Xenon system
(can use Mac platrform, it is OS X compatible) to accellerate performance.
--uses 10-bit uncompressed video
--systems contain either 360/720 gig arrays for storage which equals 5/8 hours
of footage
--real-time editing of up to 4 layers
--still fast after 4 layers, allows for unlimited layers, user has option of
continuing to edit in real-time any 4 of the layers in the timeline
--combines vertical editing common to Avid with vertical composite power of
Flint/Flame
--compatible with After Effects and Combustion
--"image correction within an editing interface"
--"realtime, online editing environment"
--"streaming system is like a big switcher-in-a-box."
--parameter editor lists 7 categories of real-time effects: blur/sharpen,
geometerics, opacity, color corrector, keyer, de-interlace
--can create moveable mattes, transitions, etc from within timeline
--layers can be placed on many blend modes, add, etc., as well as advanced
transparency modes like multiply. These can be animated.
--easy compositing is enhanced by ability to copy & paste layers containing
effects, copy & paste keyframes from one layer to another, and ability to save
composite properties to a bin.
--allows for compositing and editing ways to achieve desired effects: ex. 1.
transition to dissolve one layer to the next VS. 2. using keyframes to do the
same thing
--Curve editor allows the user to add/manipulate keyframes and their bezier
splines
--keyframe editing etc occurs in real-time--as the timeline is looping, user
can adjust keyframes. Same with effects from the parameter editor.
--Real-time editing/compositing capabilities allow user to work in the room
with a client--no rendering/ram previewing/processing required.
--processing more than 4 layers allows user to "render as you go" creating a
single media file and only processing what is necessary--called "processing
recursively."
--coming soon--the ability to export the timeline to AE.
--coming soon--.psd layer recognition
--coming soon--ability to import GFX files larger than 720x486?
--to archive, use DLT or AIT, or a firewire drive
--compatible with Final Effects plug-ins (not real-time)
--plug-ins render upstream from FX, and then become video clips.
--Scales video with decent quality to 160%, scales overall to 1000%
--coming soon--HD

[ bussiness / artist demo tapes / Expression Demo / Media 100 ]