Best practices for animation clips in FCPX

I used to be able to treat Motion projects just like any other clip on the time line. Is this no longer possible?
For example, I want to set in and out points in FCPX, but a Motion project imported as a Generator will only allow me to start from the first frame. I can not set an in point. Did I import it improperly? Im not really sure how the best way to bring in my Moption animations. They are not really Titles, Generators or Transitions. Any advice would be appreciated.

Ah, then you have some optoins, if it's something you'll be using a lot, even if only in one production.
Save As Template, and just save it as a Generator template, it'll work the same way pretty much. When you right click it in the Generator, you can Open In Motion to make changes. Once you make the changes, and save, come back to FCP X, you'll just drag-and-drop the new "updated" Generator onto the old one in the Timeline (Replace) and it's that easy. Not the same, but still pretty easy.
I'm doing a mixed media (animations of various types, photos, real life video, etc) project now, and am finding saving my stuff as Generator Templates, in a Theme I've titled the same as my production, very easy to use. There's the extra step of doing a replace edit once a change is made, but it's not a big deal, very easy, very fast.
All of these custom templates are stored in your Movies folder, inside a "Motion Templates" sub-folder, if you ever want to archive or access them directly.

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Best practice for animating a presentation

I have been asked to animate a 2 minute presentation with no
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issues that I would like to resolve. I am aware that animating
through actionscript along with a preloader will more than likely
allevate my problems, but I am not sure the best way to go about
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I realize this is a question that would have a lengthy answer
if fully explained. Are there any good resources I could look at?

Nothing better than packaging them and using Dropbox to share. I caution you
on one thing as far as packaging:
http://indesignsecrets.com/file-packaging-feature-can-cause-problems-in-dps-
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Best practices for animated 3D renderings of products for Muse portfolio site?

We design books for independent authors. Page layout is done with ID CC, and covers are designed using PS CC, AI CC, etc.
My idea for our Muse portfolio site is to create animated videos from image sequences exported from Luxology Modo. I've built 3D meshes of the various book formats: perfect bound, case laminate, hard bound with dust jacket, etc. I've created an animation which starts out with the book standing upright on a white surface and angled 30° to the right to show the spine and the front cover. The book then rotates clockwise to straight on, pauses, opens to a spread, still centered on the recto page, pauses, pans left to view the verso page, pauses, closes right to left to show the back cover, pauses, then rotates back around to its starting position.
I use Premiere Pro CC to make the videos from image sequences generated from Luxology Modo. The reason for image sequences is so that I can change durations of various hold frames of the products during the animation.
I'm thinking of using an HD-like resolution of 1080 pixels tall, but also with a square format. So it'd be 1080 x 1080.
Not sure about the frame rate, but I'd like to try 12 fps to keep the file sizes down.
Is mp4 the only format? What about bit rate?
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Hi!
My suggestion is to skip the folders all together! It will end as a total mess after a couple of years. My recommendation is to use the classification of the document type and classify the document with the right information. You can then search for the documents and you don't need to look through tons of folders to find the right document.
I know that you have to put the document in a folder to be able to create it in EasyDMS but at my customers we have a year folder and then month folders underneath where they just dump the documents. We then work with either object links or classification to find the right documents in the business processes. Another recommendation is to implement the TREX engine to be able to find your documents. I donu2019t know if this was the answer you wanted to get but I think this is the way forward if you would like to have a DMS system that could be used to 10+ years. Imagine replacing Google with a file browser!
Best regards,
Kristoffer P

Best Practice for commenting clips?

I have started working on a project that includes taking a bunch of previously shot video for a series of marketing campaigns. Each video is a short 2 - 3 minute vignette of one part of the institution I work for.
The clips I get are already dumped from the camera and come in the form of:
{date}-{time}-{incremental}.mov
I import them all into the clips area and, while watching them, I add comments in the Comment A and Comment B fields so that I have an idea what the clip is. However, as I was doing this, I found that there was more information I really needed, so here is how I was categorizing things:
Clips were all renamed Clip-{incremental} (ie: Clip-001, Clip-002, etc) so that I could have an easy reference method when talking to clients.
*Comment A:* Generally what is occurring in the clip
If there are a number of subjects in a clip (some of the interviews are contained in a single clip that is very long) I will put markers in and add comments to the market points
*Comment B (renamed to "Talent"):* Who the primary speaker is (makes it easier to find clips of whomever I am looking for)
*Master Comment A:* Technical (audio/video) Quality from 1 to 5
*Master Comment B:* Content Quality from 1 to 5
This allows me to sort on any of the columns and find what I am looking for easily.
Because I am new to this, I have no idea if there is a better or standard system that others use. How do you go about categorizing clips? Is it different if you shot the video?
Also, is there a way I can customize the clip bin to be the same each time (based on my own settings?)
Message was edited by: a.calder

If you are going to be at this project for a while and will need to reference a bunch of clips, you might want to look into CatDV by Squarebox. It is a well regarded digital asset manager/database that integrates very well with Final Cut Pro. Not sure how well it will work with FCE but it is worth investigating.
http://www.squarebox.co.uk/products.html
Good luck,
x

Best practice for speeding up animation...

Hi,
What would be best practice for speeding up an animation? - Increase the frame rate, or is that considered cheating (already set to 25)?
The alternative would be to manually adjust the length of the tweens on each layer.
~ Let me know what you'd do.
Thanks!

Keep the frame rate as low as possible to create acceptable smooth tween and adjust the length (amount of frames) of the tween on the timeline. By keeping frame rate low you are reducing the amount of code execution per unit time (i.e. 24 FPS or 0.04167 seconds per frame)

Best practice for putting together scenes in a Flash project?

Hi, I'm currently working on a flash project with the following characteristics:
using a PC
2048x1080 pixels
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there are actions that relate to the audio, so the timing is important
at least 10 scenes
about 7 minutes long total
current intent is for it to be played in a modern theater as a surprise
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Do it all in one project file?
Split the work into different project (xfl) files for each scene and then put it together when all the scenes are finalized?
Use one project file but create different "scenes" for each respective scene? I think this is the "classic" way (?).
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I'm currently working on it by having it all in one project file. But I've noticed that there's some lag (or it gets choppy) at certain parts during playback and the SWF history shows 3.1 MB with a yellow triangle with exclamation point symbol. Thanks in advance.

you would only do that if it makes your job easier. generally speaking, it would not.
when trying to sync sound and animation i think most authors find it easiest to use graphic symbols because you can see their animation when scrubbing the main timeline. with movieclips you only see their animation when testing.
however, if you're going to use actionscript to control some of your symbols, those symbols should be movieclips.

Best Practices for Export

I have recently begun working with a few AIC-encoded home movie files in FCPX. My goal is to compress them using h.264 for viewing on computer screens. I had a few questions about the best practices for exporting these files, as I haven't worked with editing software in quite some time.
1) Is it always recommended that I encode my video in the same resolution as its source? For example, some of my video was shot at 1440x1080, which I can only assume is anamorphic. I originally tried to export at 1920x1080 but then changed my mind as I assumed the 1440x1080 would just stretch naturally. Does this sound right?
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3) I've heard that it might be better practice to export my projects as master files and then encode h.264 in Compressor. Is there any truth to this? Might it be better for the interlaced to progressive conversion as well?
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

1) yes. 1440 will display ax 1920.
2) put everything in a 1080p project.
3) Compressor will give you more options for control. The h264 from FCP is a very high data rate and makes large files.

Best practices for setting up projects

We recently adopted using Captivate for our WBT modules.
As a former Flash and Director user, I can say it’s
fast and does some great things. Doesn’t play so nice with
others on different occasions, but I’m learning. This forum
has been a great source for search and read on specific topics.
I’m trying to understand best practices for using this
product. We’ve had some problems with file size and
incorporating audio and video into our projects. Fortunately, the
forum has helped a lot with that. What I haven’t found a lot
of information on is good or better ways to set up individual
files, use multiple files and publish projects. We’ve decided
to go the route of putting standalones on our Intranet. My gut says
yuck, but for our situation I have yet to find a better way.
My question for discussion, then is: what are some best
practices for setting up individual files, using multiple files and
publishing projects? Any references or input on this would be
appreciated.

Hi,
Here are some of my suggestions:
1) Set up a style guide for all your standard slides. Eg.
Title slide, Index slide, chapter slide, end slide, screen capture,
non-screen capture, quizzes etc. This makes life a lot easier.
2) Create your own buttons and captions. The standard ones
are pretty ordinary, and it's hard to get a slick looking style
happening with the standard captions. They are pretty easy to
create (search for add print button to learn how to create
buttons). There should instructions on how to customise captions
somewhere on this forum. Customising means that you can also use
words, symbols, colours unique to your organisation.
3) Google elearning providers. Most use captivate and will
allow you to open samples or temporarily view selected modules.
This will give you great insight on what not to do and some good
ideas on what works well.
4) Timings: Using the above research, I got others to
complete the sample modules to get a feel for timings. The results
were clear, 10 mins good, 15 mins okay, 20 mins kind of okay, 30
mins bad, bad, bad. It's truly better to have a learner complete
2-3 short modules in 30 mins than one big monster. The other
benefit is that shorter files equal smaller size.
5) Narration: It's best to narrate each slide individually
(particularly for screen capture slides). You are more likely to
get it right on the first take, it's easier to edit and you don't
have to re-record the whole thing if you need to update it in
future. To get a slicker effect, use at least two voices: one male,
one female and use slightly different accents.
6) Screen capture slides: If you are recording filling out
long window based databse pages where the compulsory fields are
marked (eg. with a red asterisk) - you don't need to show how to
fill out every field. It's much easier for the learner (and you) to
show how to fill out the first few fields, then fade the screen
capture out, fade the end of the form in with the instructions on
what to do next. This will reduce your file size. In one of my
forms, this meant the removal of about 18 slides!
7) Auto captions: they are verbose (eg. 'Click on Print
Button' instead of 'Click Print'; 'Select the Print Preview item'
instead of 'Select Print Preview'). You have to edit them.
8) PC training syntax: Buttons and hyperlinks should normally
be 'click'; selections from drop down boxes or file lists are
normally 'select': Captivate sometimes mixes them up. Instructions
should always be written in the correct order: eg. Good: Click
'File', Select 'Print Preview'; Bad: Select 'Print Preview' from
the 'File Menu'. Button names, hyperlinks, selections are normally
written in bold
9) Instruction syntax: should always be written in an active
voice: eg. 'Click Options to open the printer menu' instead of
'When the Options button is clicked on, the printer menu will open'
10) Break all modules into chapters. Frame each chapter with
a chapter slide. It's also a good idea to show the Index page
before each chapter slide with a progress indicator (I use an
animated arrow to flash next to the name of the next chapter), I
use a start button rather a 'next' button for the start of each
chapter. You should always have a module overview with the purpose
of the course and a summary slide which states what was covered and
they have complete the module.
11) Put a transparent click button somewhere on each slide.
Set the properties of the click box to take the learner back to the
start of the current chapter by pressing F2. This allows them to
jump back to the start of their chapter at any time. You can also
do a similar thing on the index pages which jumps them to another
chapter.
12) Recording video capture: best to do it at normal speed
and be concious of where your mouse is. Minimise your clicks. Most
people (until they start working with captivate) are sloppy with
their mouse and you end up with lots of unnecessarily slides that
you have to delete out. The speed will default to how you recorded
it and this will reduce the amount of time you spend on changing
timings.
13) Captions: My rule of thumb is minimum of 4 seconds - and
longer depending on the amount of words. Eg. Click 'Print Preview'
is 4 seconds, a paragraph is longer. If you creating knowledge
based modules, make the timing long (eg. 2-3 minutes) and put in a
next button so that the learner can click when they are ready.
Also, narration means the slides will normally be slightly longer.
14) Be creative: Capitvate is desk bound. There are some
learners that just don't respond no matter how interactive
Captivate can be. Incorporate non-captivate and desk free
activities. Eg. As part of our OHS module, there is an activity
where the learner has to print off the floor plan, and then wander
around the floor marking on th emap key items such as: fire exits;
first aid kit, broom and mop cupboard, stationary cupboard, etc.
Good luck!

Best Practice for Updating children UIComponents in a Container?

What is the best practice for updating children UIComponents in response to a Container being changed? For instance, when a Canvas is resized, I would like to update all the children UIComponents height and width so the content scales properly.
Right now I am trying to loop over the children calling InvalidateProperties, InvalidateSize, and InvalidateDisplayList on each. I know some of the Containers such as VBox and HBox have layout managers, is there a way to leverage something like that?
Thanks.

you would only do that if it makes your job easier. generally speaking, it would not.
when trying to sync sound and animation i think most authors find it easiest to use graphic symbols because you can see their animation when scrubbing the main timeline. with movieclips you only see their animation when testing.
however, if you're going to use actionscript to control some of your symbols, those symbols should be movieclips.

Best Practices for Removing Shots from BDMV folder

CS6 Production Premium Suite
Win7x64
Canon XA10
I would appreciate feedback on the best practices for the following situation:
Using Windows Explorer, I copy the BDMV folder from the XA10 to my Talk2 project folder.
The BDMV folder has three one hour shots (talks) where each shot is one hour called Talk1, Talk2, and Talk3.
Each shot consists of several MTS files in the STREAM folder since MTS files have a maximum file size so a new MTS file is created when a given MTS file reaches the maximum file size.
Since I only want to have Talk2 stuff in my Talk2 project folder, I need to remove the Talk1 and Talk3 stuff from the BDMV folder.
I delete the Talk1 and Talk3 MTS files from the STREAM folder.
I delete the Talk1 and Talk3 CPI files from the CLIPINF folder.
I leave the PLAYLIST folder as is.
Using the Media Browser, I import Talk2 (which consists of two MTS files).
I edit the clip.
This procedure seems to work, but I do not know if there are any "got you" issues.
Thanks in advance.

Oh, don't do it that way. I know a lot of people do, heck, my boss does, but it's just asking for trouble.
Treat your card as if it was your original tape master (because it is). It is the most important thing you have. Don't delete or move any part of it.
If you want to break up the talks, do it as you shoot them. Use separate cards for each talk and archive each one separately. There is too much valuable information in the structure of the card format. You may not need it now but your editing program may need it later.
Hard drive space is cheap but digital recordings are priceless

Best practices for handling elements and symbols (including preloading)

I am trying to learn Edge Animate and I have not seen enough animations to know how this is typically handled and I searched the forum and have not found an answer either.
If you have many different elements and symbols for a project, what is the best practice for having them appear, disappear, etc. on the timeline? I ask this question not only from a performance based perspective, but also keeping in mind the idea of preloading. This is a 2 part question:
Part 1: Using elements and symbols later in the timeline:
Since artwork is always imported directly to the stage in an "always on" status, should we place a visibility OFF on every item until we need it?
or should they be opacity 0 until I need them?
or should they be set to visibility hidden until I need them?
Which of these is the best option if you don't want the element / symbol visible until later in the timeline? Does it matter?
Part 2: Impact on page loading
Does the above question have any impact upon page loading speed
or is this something handled in preloading?
or do you need to make a special preloader?
Thanks for the help.

Hi, escargo-
Good questions!
Part 1: Using elements and symbols later in the timeline:
Since artwork is always imported directly to the stage in an "always on" status, should we place a visibility OFF on every item until we need it?
or should they be opacity 0 until I need them?
or should they be set to visibility hidden until I need them?
Which of these is the best option if you don't want the element / symbol visible until later in the timeline? Does it matter?
I would recommend that you set your visibility to "off" instead of simply changing the opacity. The reason I suggest this is that when your visibility is set to off, your object's hit points also disappear. If you have any type of interactivity, having the object still visible but with 0 opacity will interfere with anything you have underneath it in the display order.
Part 2: Impact on page loading
Does the above question have any impact upon page loading speed
or is this something handled in preloading?
or do you need to make a special preloader?
Thanks for the help.
No, none of this has any impact on page load. As you already noticed, all of the assets of your project will load before it displays. If you want only part of your composition to load, you may want to do what we call a multi-composition project. There's a sample of that in the Edge Animate API in the Advanced section, and plenty of posts in the forums (and one in the team's blog) explaining how to do that.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/edgeanimate/api/current/index.html
https://blogs.adobe.com/edge/
Hope that helps!
-Elaine

Best Practices for Team Collaboration using Adobe Captivate

With a team of 6 Instructional Designers, how can Adobe Captivate be approached where we can collaborate while producing e-learning material while maintaining a consistent look and feel of the e-learning we produce?
What are the best practices for a team of 6 IDs working and creating e-learning material in Captivate? Is there anything build-in that allows us to connect to the same libraries, templates, etc to share?
Please advise.
Thank you!
Susanne

Only some tips, never collaborated with someone else, being the solo teacher. You didn't mention which version you are using, what I write here is meant for CP7.
Be sure to prepare a theme and/or a template that will be used by everyone. A theme consists of master slides, object styles, skin editor. Master slides can have custom navigation shape buttons. In a template you can eventually also prepare different slides with placeholders, and eventually advanced actions etc. For CP6 and earlier that is the only way to reuse advanced actions, in Captivate 7 you can export shared actions that can be imported in any project for reuse.
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If you are on CP7 you have automatically the roundtripping with source Adobe Photoshop files and source Audition files, both from CC. That can also make collaboration lot easier if those assets are prepared in those applications. Will not expand on that, because I'm not sure you have the Creative Cloud applications.
Those are my two cents.
Lilybiri

Best practices for setting up users on a small office network?

Hello,
I am setting up a small office and am wondering what the best practices/steps are to setup/manage the admin, user logins and sharing privileges for the below setup:
Users: 5 users on new iMacs (x3) and upgraded G4s (x2)
Video Editing Suite: Want to connect a new iMac and a Mac Pro, on an open login (multiple users)
All machines are to be able to connect to the network, peripherals and external hard drive. Also, I would like to setup drop boxes as well to easily share files between the computers (I was thinking of using the external harddrive for this).
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Hi,
Thanks for your posting.
When you install AD DS in the hub or staging site, disconnect the installed domain controller, and then ship the computer to the remote site, you are disconnecting a viable domain controller from the replication topology.
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Best Practices for Adding Domain Controllers in Remote Sites
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794962(v=ws.10).aspx
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Best-practice for Catalog Views ? :|

Hello community,
A best practice question:
The situtation: I have several product categories (110), several items in those categories (4000) and 300 end-users. I would like to know which is the best practice for segment the catalog. I mean, some users should only see categories 10,20 & 30. Other users only category 80, etc. The problem is how can I implement this ?
My first idea is:
1. Create 110 Procurement Catalogs (1 for every prod.category). Each catalog should contain only its product category.
2. Assign in my Org Model, in a user-level all the "catalogs" that the user should access.
Do you have any idea in order to improve this ?
Saludos desde Mexico,
Diego

Hi,
Your way of doing will work, but you'll get maintenance issues (to many catalogs, and catalog link to maintain for each user).
The other way is to built your views in CCM, and assign these views to the users, either on the roles (PFCG) or on the user (SU01). The problem is that with CCM 1.0 this is limitated, cause you'll have to assign one by one the items to each view (no dynamic or mass processes), it has been enhanced in CCM 2.0.
My advice:
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Good luck.
Vadim

Best Practice for Securing Web Services in the BPEL Workflow

What is the best practice for securing web services which are part of a larger service (a business process) and are defined through BPEL?
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Defining agent for each?
Gateway for all?
BPEL security extension?
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Regards
Farbod

It doesnt matter whether the service is invoked as part of your larger process or not, if it is performing any business critical operation then it should be secured.
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If all the services are in one Application server you can make the configuration/development environment lot easier by securing them using the Gateway.
Typical probelm with any gateway architecture is that the service is available without any security enforcement when accessed directly.
You can enforce rules at your network layer to allow access to the App server only from Gateway.
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The next BPEL developer in your project may not be aware of Security extensions
Centralizing Security enforcement will make your development and security operations as loosely coupled and addresses scalability.
Thanks
Ram

Best practices for animation clips in FCPX

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