Learning by doing

Work on The Afflicted progresses - though I must admit I took a little "holiday" this week, and did less than I intended to.
As the special mods that are made for me by MikeDeBoing for the TM content are still in the works, I'm shooting this film in bits and pieces, and almost all the stuff I've got right now is just scenes prepared to get the background footage implemented. So, not that much to show off via screenshots!

I'm happy to say that I'm slowly getting into the workflow of Vegas though - today, I pieced together a scene where the principle character, Terbing (played by Goofparade), stands in front of a mirror.


I finally found out how to resize and align footage I want to play in a mirror; or a viewscreen - and Vegas has a neat "Glow" feature, which enabled me to make it look more convincingly like an actual mirror surface. I think it looks nice as it is now - though if anyone wants to offer advanced tricks, I'm always listening!

I also found out how to place an overlay in a shot - the sign on the wall you'll see in the next screenie was actually made using Photoshop - and it was very easy to place it exactly where I wanted it. In case you're wondering about the black background - this is just another shot which is waiting for its background footage...


The one thing I'll need to do more experimenting with is the shadows function in Moviestorm. I'd love to have shadows - but I've tried all the different settings now, and still the shadows look - pixelated. I have some scenes which cry for shadows (in fact I think the mirror scene would look even better if it had them) - but at the moment I'm too perfectionistic to use them - seeing the ragged edges pulls me out of the mood of the film. Maybe my expectations are too high - I know realistic shadows are damned hard to do, and I know I could do them manually - I'm very grateful that Moviestorm has them (TM never did, not for actors) - but before I'll use them in a movie, I'll first have to find a way to make the edges appear softer. Oh well, things to keep me occupied... :)

About getting used to new programs and the lamentable lack of documentation

Okay, so I've been playing around with Vegas for nearly a week now - love it! So many advanced features, so many possibilities... I probably shouldn't do this while in the middle of working on a project, but I just can't stop myself from wanting to use it on the movie.

Which brings me to a thing that I'm not that happy about - I printed out the handbook that came with the program ( it seems nowadays nobody likes to waste paper on documentation anymore - I wonder why that is - okay, there's the cost factor, but with a program of this prize category... or maybe it's because I've got a "bundle-version" - or do the programmers naturally assume, as this is a technical product, that it will be purchased mostly by men who are bound to throw the handbook away at first sight anyway? :p).

Anyway - while the handbook is okay, giving details of general use and how to get started on a project, there's next to nothing on the advanced features on offer. You're forced to find out either by a) hours of fiddling around, not really knowing what you're doing and missing all the best things in the process; b) watching online tutorials - some good, some bad, and sometimes confusing things even more; c) pestering unsuspecting long-time-users you happen to know (thank you!); and/or d) buying a tutorial book.

I did that (haven't got it yet, unfortunately..)

So while I don't begrudge the people who write tutorial books their money, I still think a handbook coming with a software should have a comprehensive list of the things the program is able to do. Then such a simple thing as resizing a video you want to play on a viewscreen in another video wouldn't be so.... challenging.

Besides, I'm old fashioned - I like written documentation. I like to be able to look something up in written form, preferably with illustrations. Of course, I also like discovering things on my own, have to admit that - but if I'm not able to, the knowledge that it's there for me to read up is very comforting.

So yes, this is a plea for better documentation on software. Anyone with me? :)

Fun with new and updated programs!

My Vegas arrived today - and just from playing with it for an hour, and testing the chroma keying abilities, I know I'll love this.... it's so incredibly much better than what I'm used to! :)

Only thing I need to find out about is which codec (?) to use for the sound of my Moviestorm renders - it definitely isn't the one I used before, 'cause there's no sound. But I'm sure I'll find out about that quickly...

Moviestorm got updated today - we now have a breathing function, and an advanced mood changer - I've been experimenting with that, too; the breathing is great! The rest will get tested over the next few days while working away on "The Afflicted".

So, generally a fun day in sisch's kitchen.... with lots of new spices.... :p