TheRookies.co – a community for non-professional digital artists.
The Rookies website logo.
Founded in 2010, TheRookies.co is a community for non-professional digital artists. A place for artists with a passion for film, games, animation, immersive media, archviz, motion graphics, product design and other creative industries.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a hobbyist, student, self-taught or even wanting to change careers. All that matters is you want to become a better artist, learn new skills and be surrounded by people on the same journey as you.
I enjoyed browsing the site, there are hundreds of examples of art across a wide range of skill sets – each showing finished results and how they got there.
They also offer a variety of projects and contests to reward skilled work.
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https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2020-07-08 01:30:002020-07-08 01:30:00Tip #833: More About TheRookies.co
These are by far the best tools you can start with today without waiting.
Sculptris Artist: Barry Croucher
Here’s a list, published by TheRookies.co, a community for digital artists, of free VFX software. “These days there are plenty of free software licenses out there for you to play with. Most software companies offer educational licenses for their professional suite of tools, but nothing beats free. These are by far the best tools you can start with today without waiting.”
Blender. Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline.
Fusion 16. Now it’s possible to bring feature film quality visual effects and motion graphics to any production! Whether you’re working on a Hollywood blockbuster, episodic television show, national commercial or independent film, Fusion gives you the power to create photorealistic visual effects, stunning motion graphics and incredible title sequences that completely immerse your audience. Best of all, it’s now part of DaVinci Resolve so you can switch from editing, color or audio to visual effects and motion graphics with a single click!
Houdini Apprentice. Houdini Apprentice is a free version of Houdini FX which can be used by students, artists and hobbyists to create personal non-commercial projects. With Houdini Apprentice, you have access to virtually all of the features of the award-winning Houdini FX to develop your skills and work on personal projects. Apprentice lets you save to disk and render out with a word mark.
Foundry Nuke(Non-Commercial). With Nuke Non-commercial, you get access to free, non-watermarked versions of Nuke, NukeX and even top-of-the-line Nuke Studio for as long as you like, so you can learn, explore and have fun on your own schedule. If you want to learn to composite, edit and finish with industry-leading tools used on blockbuster movies, Nuke Non-commercial is what you’ve been waiting for. You can work on personal projects, update your skills, experiment, research or just play around.
Sculptris. A fun and engaging way to start off your digital sculpting journey! If you’re new to the world of digital sculpting, Sculptris is the ideal ground on which to get started. If on the other hand you’re experienced in CG, we offer you ZBrush. With our award-winning software, ZBrush, released more than a decade ago, Pixologic, makers of ZBrush and Sculptris, has become recognized for bringing ground-breaking innovations into the world of digital art.
This guide is for absolute beginners who are trying to find a career that compliments their passion for film, technology, design, coding and digital art. You are the type of person who knows that finance and medicine really isn’t your thing. You also know you never want to wear a suit to work either. However, you need some help getting started. It’s also a great guide to share with your parents and guardians who are trying to understand what the hell you are rambling on about, and why you are so excited.
What you will learn in this guide:
An overview of the Visual Effects industry
The most common jobs in the industry
How much you could earn as a visual effects artist
How to start learning visual effects
How to select the best school in your area
The best free and professional software to learn
Essential communities and blogs to start following
Top companies that employ visual effects artists
Essential reading for visual effects artists
Advice on how to get started with your own projects
Here’s the link to learn more, as well as a variety of links.
Timecode takes many forms, all with the goal of clearly labeling every frame of video.
The timecode display in Apple Final Cut Pro X.
Most of us are familiar with timecode: A unique label for each frame of video in a clip, expressed as four pairs of numbers: Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames (or milliseconds, depending upon format).
While timecode expresses these locations as time values, there is no necessary relationship between timecode and the time of day the image was recorded. Sometimes there is, but it isn’t required.
Thinking about timecode got me wondering about how many different timecode formats there are. And that took me to Wikipedia.
In video production and filmmaking, Wikipedia writes, SMPTE timecode is used extensively for synchronization, and for logging and identifying material in recorded media. During filmmaking or video production shoot, the camera assistant will typically log the start and end timecodes of shots, and the data generated will be sent on to the editorial department for use in referencing those shots. This shot-logging process was traditionally done by hand using pen and paper, but is now typically done using shot-logging software running on a laptop computer that is connected to the time code generator or the camera itself.
The SMPTE family of timecodes are almost universally used in film, video and audio production, and can be encoded in many different formats, including:
Linear timecode (LTC), in a separate audio track
Vertical interval timecode (VITC), in the vertical blanking interval of a video track
AES-EBU embedded timecode used with digital audio
Burnt-in timecode, in human-readable form in the video itself
CTL timecode (control track)
MIDI timecode
Keycode, while not a timecode, is used to identify specific film frames in film post-production that uses physical film stock. Keycode data is normally used in conjunction with SMPTE time code.
NOTE: Rewritable consumer timecode is a proprietary consumer video timecode system that is not frame-accurate, and is therefore not used in professional post-production.
EXTRA CREDIT
All these different timecode formats provide one key reason why we need to copy all files from a camera card to our hard disk. Many times, timecode is not embedded in the video.
Also, aside from BWAV (Broadcast WAV) files, audio does not support timecode.
GOP compression yields smaller files, but those files are much harder to edit.
One of the key reasons for transcoding highly-compressed camera masters into an intermediate (or mezzanine) format is to make the media more “efficient.” But, what makes some codecs efficient and others not?
In general, there are two ways that media can be compressed:
I-frame
GOP
In I-frame compression, each frame in a sequence is compressed individually. The entire contents of the frame are contained in that compressed image. This means that to display that image, all the computer needs to do is uncompress that one frame.
In GOP compression images are compressed in groups; generally containing either 7 or 15 frames. The first image is compressed in its totality. However, for each remaining image in the group, only those pixels that are different in each frame from the preceding frame are compressed and stored in the file.
NOTE: GOP (pronounced “gop”) is an acronym for “Group of Pictures.”
GOP compression creates far smaller files because only portions of each frame are getting compressed.
However, in order to display a GOP-compressed frame, the computer needs first to find the first frame in the group and decompress it. Then, it needs to add all the changes stored in all the frames after the first frame and up to the frame the playhead is parked on.
While GOP compression creates very small files, the computer has to work VERY hard to display each frame as you jump randomly around in the timeline. This is especially true as multiple clips are stacked above each other. Each group needs to be decompressed separately.
GOP compression is perfect for playback, because the changes in each frame can easily be added to the currently displayed frame. However, video editing means that we are randomly jumping from one frame and clip to another. In those situations, I-frame compression is much more efficient because only one frame needs to be decompressed, not an entire string.
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https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2020-07-07 01:30:002020-07-07 01:30:00Tip #829: Why Are Some Codecs “Inefficient?”
Hardware is faster because it doesn’t have the latency and overhead of software.
Image courtesy of Pexels.com.
As media compression codecs get more complex, compression starts taking longer and longer. Hardware acceleration comes to the rescue, but… what, exactly, is it doing?
In computing, hardware acceleration is the use of computer hardware specially made to perform some functions more efficiently than is possible in software running on a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU).
Hardware is far faster, but software is far more flexible when it comes to handling change. Hardware is superior when performing the same task over and over and over again. This is because software has a processing overhead due to loading and interpreting instructions as well as data. Hardware, provided it is designed for that purpose, doesn’t have the overhead and delay associated with software. But, it is much more difficult changing hardware when the task it needs to perform changes.
An operation can be computed faster in application-specific hardware designed or programmed to compute the operation than specified in software and performed on a general-purpose computer processor.
Hardware acceleration is advantageous for performance, and practical when the functions are fixed so updates are not as needed as in software solutions. However, the invention of reprogrammable hardware (FPGSs) has allowed hardware to be more flexible because it can be reprogrammed as necessary.
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https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2020-07-07 01:30:002020-07-03 17:07:53Tip #828: What is Hardware Acceleration?
All changes adjust the speed of the entire clip by the same amount.
The Clip Speed / Duration dialog in Adobe Premiere Pro.
A lot of key features in Premiere are hidden – unless you know where to look. Here’s another one: the Clip Speed/ Duration dialog. Here’s what it does.
To open the dialog shown in the screen shot, select one or more clips and type Cmd + R. (You can also choose Clip > Speed/Duration, but menus are boring.) This dialog allows changing the speed of a clip by typing in a percentage change or the duration you need it to match.
NOTE: Not all speed changes yield good results. I’ve found the best success using speed percentages that divide equally into 200.
The Reverse Speed checkbox plays a clip backwards.
By default, changing the speed of a clip also changes its duration. This means that an upstream clip, that is slowed down, will crash into the clip next to it. Checking the Ripple Edit box moves downstream clips out of the way.
Time Interpolation is only relevant when the speed of a slow-motion clip goes below 15%. Most of the time, you’ll get the best results leaving this set to Frame Sampling.
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https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2020-07-07 01:30:002020-07-07 01:30:00Tip #824: A Fast Way to Change Clip Speed
The secret is to Control-click the mic icon for the track you want to record in.
The Voice-Over Recording dialog window.
Another hidden feature inside Premiere is the voice-over recording settings. Most of the time, when you need to record audio, you’ll do that outside Premiere. But, to quickly create narration scratch tracks, nothing beats recording directly in Premiere. Here’s how.
Control-click the small, white mic icon in the track header for the track you want to record on.
Select Voice Over Recording Settings from the pop-up menu. This displays the dialog shown in the screen shot.
OPTIONS
Name. This names the clip you are about to record. As always, you can change the clip name later.
Source. The specifies which mic to use. I use an external headset mic, digitized using a Scarlet 2i2 A/D conveter.
Input. This specifies which channel the mic is on. A stereo input has two channels.
Sound cues. When you start recording, Premiere displays a countdown. If you also want the countdown to beep, check this box.
Preroll. When you start recording, this determines how many seconds to back up before starting recording.
Postroll. If you set an Out to determine the end of a recording, this determines how many seconds after the Out to continue recording, in case the voice talent’s timing isn’t perfect.
Click OK to accept the revised settings.
NOTE: The audio meters at the bottom display the input level of your mic. In general, set levels so that you are recording around – 12 dB. You can adjust these later during the final mix.
RECORDING
You can mark an In and Out in the timeline to specify where the recording will start and end. Or simply place the playhead where you want the recording to start.
Click the Mic icon again to start recording.
Press the spacebar to stop.
EXTRA CREDIT
I rarely set an In or Out, most voice talent, including me, wants the freedom to make mistakes. It is easy to edit a recording later to clean up mistakes, or configure it to hit a specific time.
Premiere makes it easy to export full sequences – or just segements.
The blue line at the bottom of the Export Media window supports setting an In or Out.
When you need to export just a portion of a sequence, Premiere makes it easy – but not obvious. Here’s how.
Open the sequence you need to export.
Set an In and Out in the timeline to mark the section you want to export.
Choose File > Export > Media (Shortcut: Cmd + M).
In the export window, on the left, the In and Out are shown in the blue timeline at the bottom (screen shot, red arrow).
EXTRA CREDIT
If you select Export Media, and forget to set an In or Out, no problem. In the timeline on the left of the Export Media window you can set the In or Out by dragging a white triangle or typing “I” and/or “O”.
To alter or remove an In or Out, regardless of how it was set, drag the white triangle left or right. There is no “instant reset button.”
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Storage locations can be customized for each library.
The Library Storage Locations window.
It used to be that Final Cut only gave us two choices when importing media: Leave it where it is, or move it into the library. However, now, we have new options.
Select the Library name in the library sidebar next to the browser.
Open the Inspector.
Click Modify Settings next to Storage Locations.
In the dialog illustrated in the screen shot, you can set a custom location for media, Motion templates, cache files and project backups.
These settings can vary by library.
In general:
Leave cache files on the internal drive for speed.
Store media to a separate, external location.
If you plan to share the project between editors, store all custom Motion templates in the library.
Finally, store backups in a separate location from the project file itself… just in case.
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https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2020-07-06 01:30:002020-07-03 16:56:35Tip #818: Change Media Storage Locations
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