Popcorn Island

GO Particles

Ross — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:45:43 +0000

Experiment in creation of a particle engine for the GO Animation System.
Uses Single PointEmitter
Emitter and Particles are Tweening Simultaneously

GO Animation System

Ross — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:45:52 +0000

A interesting first post to our newest blog category “Film Tech”. The GO Animation system has been released for public beta.

This set of code is written in Actionscript 3 and is the successor The Fuse Kit. Why is this Film Tech? Well let me explain.

Film is quickly moving to the we, at no slow pace have we seen a youtubian revolution with every social network and its brother picking up on the bandwagon. Flash is a key to all of this, and understanding how to do animation is flash has, usually, been a keyframing nightmare. In stepped the fuse kit, which changed code based motion tweening. Making everything much more logical and easier to manage, especially for someone that thinks in code. So when your making all those sites to house your films and showcase your work.. well this is a good place to start, if you can manage the coding curve. Not to say its difficult code, actually a lot of work has been done to make the GOASAP as easy as possible.

The real key here is starting to tap into flash as a motion graphics tool. With the new Virtual Machine in the Flash player 9 the flash world has seen a huge opening in possibilities. The world of film and graphics has yet to really realize the potential of flash as a tool in their workflow. Hopefully we can see a change in that as people begin to realize what flash can do. Code based art and modern motion graphics will come of age in the world of film soon enough. Check out this use of Processing to create an amazing Flocking Bird application for Fox Movies, links to the final render are on that page also.

Soon I will be doing some tutorials on merging Flash and After Effects together, as I feel there is going to be a huge trend in Code Art. Now with such a powerful animation system coming out in flash that has plans on supporting Physics and Particle Simulations, you better bet flash is going to be able to create some amazing motion that will finally push it away from the web, and onto the screen and your TV.

More to come, but for now. Check out some of the work going on in coding art, and if your in need of inspiration you can always head over to Complexification and see the Gallery of Computation. More on the GO aniamtion system at the GO Blog

Final Cut 2 After Effects

Ross — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:08:10 +0000

Moving projects from F.C.P to After Effects
Using the Popcorn Island FCP2AE Conversion app.
High end tools like Automatic Duck’s Pro Import AE.

Final Cut Pro To After Effects

Ross — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 07:03:35 +0000

Version 1.0.3 (for AE cs3)
Basic Editing Translation
Segmented Clips
Basic Keyframes
Time Remapping
Nested Sequences
Multiple Frame Rates and Aspect Ratios
Audio Channels
Name Length Error Checking
Support for PAL25 and 60

P2 Organizer for mac FINALLY HERE!

Josh — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 07:21:06 +0000

Hey guys, for all of you out there that don’t know yet. The P2 Preview program once only available for PC users is now available for Mac. Yes this is exciting! Why didn’t they just do this when they came out with the P2 system you ask??? Well keep searching for the answers you won’t find it here. But I’m happy to say it’s about time.

You will be looking for two things on the left side of the screen in boxes. One: The P2 Driver Download and Two: The p2 Contents Manager. Those are the two things you need. Install the driver first.

This program, The p2 Contents Manager, will help you organize, import, export, rename, burn, and archive your P2 data. All without Final Cut Pro. Best of all, it’s FREE! Now isn’t that nice?

HVX 200 Now available from Popcorn Island

Josh — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:18:01 +0000

Need to rent an HVX200 HD camera? Well look no further. Popcorn Island has what you need. Guaranteed to offer the lowest rental rates in Chicago, call us today to book your shoot. We have studio and doc packages available. HD, SD, DV, you pick. The Camera can do it all!

Check us out!

P2 Change in Final Cut

Josh — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:50:19 +0000

Hey guys! Final Cut Pro has updated and with it one small change that may throw you P2 Users for a loop. There is a new process to import your P2 Data. Instead of going to file-import-p2, you now have to go to, file - log and transfer. This is a huge difference I know, keep your pants on!

It took Ross Gerbasi like 3 days, 4 nights, 10 Red Bulls and a visit from the tooth fairy to find it. Why the tooth fairy new how do it I’m not sure, but rest assured Ross is back in good health and coding like no one else I’ve ever seen.

Cheers!
J.Tallo

FCP to DVD Studio

Josh — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 05:51:25 +0000

Exporting movies using Compressor
Importing Into DVD Studio Pro

The P2 Basics

Josh — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:13:48 +0000

Importing Panasonic P2 media into Final Cut Pro
Backing up P2 Cards

Quicktime Trick for Better Quality

Josh — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:39:49 +0000

I was clued into this little Quicktime trick from a friend of mine. Now, most people might already know this little secret, but for those who don’t it is pretty nifty. First of all you can use any Quicktime file that you have saved, downloaded, or exported to your computer. Open the QT file. Go the top of your screen and choose — Window — Show Movie Properties (Apple Key = J). A new window will pop up. That window will show you Video and Audio properties. Click on the line that is labeled – Video Track. This will change the setting preferences at the bottom of the screen for Video. You can make a number of changes at this point, but what we are interested in is only the Visual Settings Tab. Click on the Visual Settings Tab. At the very bottom right corner of this window there are 3 options that can be checked, High Quality, Single Field, and Deinterlace. First check the box next to High Quality. This will increase the visual quality of your QT file instantly. Now, I’m not exactly sure how this works, or why you have to go through this process to do this, but it is noticeably different. Specifically in titles and text you have in your movie. The other two options are are your discretion to check or not. If you are working with interlaced footage, you should check the Deinterlace box as well. this will remove those ugly horizontal lines from your footage and make your footage appear smoother.

Once you are done checking your boxes, you can close out of the properties window. Now, when you go to close your QT file you will be prompted to SAVE your changes that you made. Save them and your QT file is now updated to its fullest quality.

J. Tallo