Recently in Avid Xpress - Media Composer Category
There are many different settings you need to be aware of in the capture settings dialog box, but the first one you need to address is the length of allowed capture. What I mean by this the the time that Avid will allow you to capture your footage before it stops capturing. The default is 30 minutes, which I have always thought to be way to short considering that your average DV tape is 60 minutes and for the most part I want the time limit to be when I press stop. So, I set mine to 120 minutes that way I have complete control over my capture time limit. To do this go t o your project window and select the settings tab. Double click on capture and the capture dialog box will open. Click on the OMF Media Files tab and set the maximum capture time to your time limit of choice. Make sure you sign up for our next up and coming Avid class, class sizes are always small and seats are filling up fast!
Here at GeniusDV, we recieve a large number of calls on a daily basis from editors seeking support on a wide variety of issues that can arise in a day in the life of a working editor , but occasionally, we receive calls that would seem better suited for someone who works in the paranormal!
one of our past Avid students, who produces two shows a week for his local church service, called us and stated that he was hearing strange voices as he was putting together his projects. Naturally, we all looked at one another and wondered if this guy had a late night and was hearing the voice of Jack Daniels, but as we dug deeper and deeper into his situation, we discovered something quite fascinating!
This producer was using a cheap, unshielded firewire cable and everytime someone was on a cell phone, or when the church used their wireless microphone system while he was capturing his material into Avid Xpress, those signals became mixed with his audio signal. He had the better part of an entire conversation and a sermon intertwined in his audio tracks. He went out and bought a heavy duty firewire cable and that solved his problem. We didn't need Scully and Moulder after all!
If you are trying to sift through all of your render options and find that you are confused by all of the settings, then I would like share with you my work-flow and hopefully it will help stop the confusion. First and foremost you need to decide the delivery vehicle for your program, is it going straight to the web, are you publishing a DVD or simply exporting to another application. My philosophy is to always keep my exports at the highest quality at all times. So to do this I have found that a QuickTime movie set to Animation is the best uncompressed export setting. There are a few key reasons that I have come to use this for my exports. It will always embed a clean alpha channel that is easily recognized by most applications, it does not compress your sequence and even if I am making a DVD I still render to this setting and I then allow Adobe Encore or Sorenson Squeeze hand the transcoding. This is not only efficient but most authoring programs handle the transcoding much better then After Effects or Avid. If you want to make animated gif for the web After Effects allows you do this and I use this setting if I am posting something to the web that is not needed for any other application. The last setting I use is .FLV. Flash Videos are the best way to post your work on the Internet. Not only do they play fast but they look great. The settings for your .flv will change from project to project so you will need to play with your settings to achieve the results you are looking for. Just remember that QuickTime set to Animation; Flash Video and Animated GIF’s will get the results you are looking for in most applications.
Where you wondering if Media Compser Software version was up to the task of editing big motion pictures? Well, wonder no further. I Am Legend is posed to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the holiday season and it was cut on Avid Media Composer Software. Wahrman (the films editor) owns five specially equipped Media Composer systems that he rents out to productions (four were used on I Am Legend). He believes that investing in his own systems offers revenue-generating benefits and also helps ensure the overall quality of a film. Wahrman, who has been using Avid systems for nearly a decade, particularly relies on the script-based editing feature. Read the complete story and sign-up for the latest Avid editing training bundle and set your sights on the next blockbuster film!
