Hey guys, I am new here and was looking for some help.

I have been interested in Machinima for over a year now and the idea of making my own has been in my head for a while.


I got a hold of Sony Vegas, Adobe AE, Adobe Premiere Pro 2, WoW model viewer, map viewer, etc.

I spent countless hours researching how to use these programs, and got the basics down in all of them (except Premiere, still haven't used it yet).


So basically, I am looking to see if you guys could give me tips as I go along scene by scene with the editing side.

I don't want to barrage you with questions all at once, so I was hoping you could just answer them as I move along?



I was planning on releasing my movie script scene by scene. I would then ask for input on the scene. Whether some things were too hard or which program of the 3 I am used, or which would be easiest to use for that task. Or what effects would be the best idea for the scene.



So...

My first two questions:

1. Of the 3 man programs I have (Vegas, AE, Premiere), which should I use? I have more experience with Vegas, but I am willing to learn Premiere if it works better with AE.
2. Does any1 here have any idea on how to use WoW Map Viewer?


My first scene I could use tips on:

Title Screen
The background fades in from black. The words "The Flower Girl" follow and are shown as the title in a pleasant/warm font. The background shows a grassy area, with trees seen in the back, and the camera pans to the ground and focuses on a single flower.
Clouds are scene to move in, the screen darkens, and it begins to rain. A decaying effect takes hold of the screen. The flower is seen to slowly decay and the title words are decaying into a creepier looking font.
Low rumbles begin to be heard over the ever increasing rain. Suddenly a soft flash of lightning is seen. More follow, becoming louder and more frequent. The screen is quite dark, with a grayish quality at this point, when a large flash of lightning crashes across the screen.



Thanks for taking the time to read through all this!

- Dan

I am always willing to help if I can. I personally only use Vegas at this point, though I do have both Adobe programs. I also use WoWMapViewer. The title screen is cool. A lot of editing and special effects right there..but if the movie is as good as the title looks to be, Im interested to see the result!

Thanks so much for the informative replys!

I figure the best thing for me at this point is to find out exactly what each of these 3 programs is good at doing.

I know Vegas can combine clips and text. It has a bunch of basic effects (transitions, and otherwise).

AE is good for just straight effects. Chroma keying, color correction, etc.

Premiere has gone untouched by me, so if you guys could (fill me in/correct what I have said) it would help me so much.



One thing I like about Vegas is the ease of splicing/combining videos for instance when I am linking animations recorded from WoW model viewer. Also, the panning and zooming is really easy to use.

Can priemere do these things that Vegas does, and just as well? Can it do some things better?

My movie is gonna be 90% done in WoW model and map viewer, so I need animation linking to be as easy as possible. Also, panning will play a big part as well.


To rogue: Do you have a link to a good version of map viewer and maybe some general tips/directions to work it? Mine doesnt like to run correctly.




Thanks again for all the help so far, and here is the next scene for discussion on how to go about it:

Scene 1

Following the large crack of lightning, the scene changes to a dark, empty street in a city. It is raining heavily, with the occasional crack of lightning. You can basically only see the silhouettes of the buildings, with the occasional lit street light illuminating a small area around it. Only one person is visible, and he is very far away from the camera. The camera is slowly moving forward throughout the shot.

At an especially large crack of lightning, the camera changes to a close-up shot of the man. He is staring silently off to the right of the screen. You can only see upwards of his shoulders. He is soaked from the rain.

The camera changes once more and you can now see what he was looking at. It is a "Wanted" sign. Writing can be seen, but it is unreadable to the viewer.

The man turns away from it and walks down the street and into an Inn/bar.





Also, if anyone has ideas on how to specifically do some of the effects from the title screen, I am all ears. I am thinking of taking a screen shot of a forest, adding a flower in from model viewer, then the rest is effects. The decay effect is what has me stumped, so if anyone thinks they may have a cool way to show it, I am all ears!

Thanks for the info again!

I'll send you an email once I get home from work, since I can't get on it here.


I just want to clarify, you said that the Dead Worker's Party mainly used AE, would you happen to know if they used Premiere as well? If so, what for?

I am trying to find out what Premiere can do, that AE cannot. You mentioned the sound thing, already.

But can AE handle the green screening, linking of animations, and panning and zooming?

If so, how to I know what to use, premiere or AE? (For greenscreening and color correction and panning)



Also you mentioned the Huntology guy used Premiere and AE, and he had certain mistakes. Are these mistakes always gonna happen when you do this kinda stuff with the Adobe products? Could you clarify what mistakes?


Lastly (for now), what would be the best way to time parts of the movie to music? I will be having a fight scene that will have the beats in the music match the hits in the fight at parts. If AE cannot handle audio, how would I go about this timing?



It seems like AE can do most of the stuff needed. I am just trying to find out what Premiere does better, so I know what I need to learn to do with it.


EDIT: I only have .5 GB of RAM, so that idea of yours is most likely out of the question. " border="0" alt="sad.gif" />

About the Dead Workers, you may ask yourself " border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> They're here on the forum.

But talking about Huntology: The Movie mistakes. did you notice when for example there was i lightning effect and the elf was standing on the mountain (both were dark). But when the lightning hit, only the layer with the mountain was highlighted, and because of this elf's legs were clearly visible on the 'lightened' mountain. This was ugly a little bit " border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> it was like 1-2 secs, so probably Ciavarella didn't notice that. To prevent this, such effect should be applied not to single video tracks (it will be hard to time them) , but to whole sequence (you'll be able to select only the time of those few video tracks, but they will be all affected together.

AE is more proffesional than Premiere. It has more effects, more animation possibilities. In two words - Special Effects. Do you find it very easy to put transitions or the same sound to it? My answer was no, that's the reason why I use After Effects only for certain scenes just to add some beauty or to do some animations. Yes, you may do all the green keyings, color corrections there, but rendering will take much longer, it'll be harder to time everything up etc. (to be able to hear sound, you have to RAM preview for all the composition). And notice, COMPOSITION! In Premiere it's SEQUENCE " border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> That's the deal.

So to conclude, Premiere has a little bit less video effects, but has much bettter and user friendly sound editing. You won't be able to create whole movie in After Effects, so it's better to make some moments, that Premiere isn't capable with (didn't find any of those by now). Premiere is like - Production and Putting All together. After Effects - Indepthed Special Video Effects and Post-post-production, adding some candy

and btw, 0.5 gig ram... buy some more " border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> ram is cheap now. with this much, you won't be able to ram everything in premiere, not talking about even After FX. (it requers much more resources.)

I don't have a working link to MapViewer. Sorry. I just googled it and found a working one. As far as making it work, it is not a very good or stable program, and honestly with as little RAM as you have it will be very choppy and laggy. I can tell you right now, for making a video and using the programs you want to use, you desperately need to get more RAM. I would guess 2 Gigs would be a good goal. I don't really like MapViewer, I tend to record my scenic footage in game, whenever possible.

As far as effects for your scenes, I am not sure where to begin, because even with the descriptions, i don't see them as you do. You would need to narrow it down to a certain effect and let us know exactly what you want. However, it is best if you just experiment. Trial and error is really the only way you will learn what you need to. I don't even now what half the things or techniques I use are called, I just know what they do, so there might be a lot lost in transaltion. Also, if the community told you how to do most of your effects and editing, who's movie would it really be? " border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

Keep posting. We will help. But take your time, experiment, go find some free tutorials for your programs online, and get some more RAM.