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Newt
04-04-2005, 11:07 PM
Quick technical question, I'm sure someone can point me in the right direction.

I'm making a very high res movie: 3200 x 1024 pixels x 48 fps (odd aspect, it's on three projectors). I'm on a brand new high-end G5. I want to be able to comp together 3d renders, video (HD/DV) and composite everything together in... something.

I know the 3d end - I need some video-savy people for the compositing end.

Question One: What software do I want to use for compositing something this large/awkward. I'll be rendering out to uncompressed stills for three massive servers to dole out to three projectors.

After Effects? Combustion? Final Cut Pro? Shake? Uh...

Second question: Can I render out a the final composited movie in three 1280x1024 chunks from that software?

Feel free to forward me somewhere too - is there a compositing forum I should direct this question to? Video editing forum?

Thanks in advance for any help - :)

Newt
Aruna
04-05-2005, 03:58 PM
I'm only familiar with shake and FFI, so I'll give you my thoughts.

Shake seems like it might be a good choice, simply because of the large output format. It'll also allow you to bring in all those HD and 3D elements and comp them together without complaining too horribly. You can also work in proxy res, which is a quicker way to work, and then render out a final full res version at the end. You can also split up the final image into three separate outputs if you'd like as well. I'm not sure if you've visited VFXtalk yet, but there are some gurus in the software packages you mentioned over there. They might be able to help you with any more fine details on a comp package that works for you on the G5.
billyg
04-06-2005, 05:18 PM
I'd just like to add that while shake is a great, high-end compositing program, it's not the easiest to use if you don't totally know what you're doing - especially while outputting resolutions. I'd recommend After Effects Pro because if you have the Hardware to handle everything you've mentioned, AE should be able to handle it too and it's as easy as Photoshop to learn if you're familiar with Adobe. Not to mention that setting non-typical film res sizes is easy and breezy. Especially on a dual proc G5.

And you should be able to take the final product (with 3D, video res, and HD or whatever else) and render it out at one project setting no problem. Just set that resolution for the entire project first and then import the other footage into it. Should be fine!

Good luck!
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04-06-2005, 05:18 PM
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