Question to the pros: Effects and overlays

Hi all, I'm merely an amateur game movie buff. I've recently found my skill limited and desire to be able to do more. that being said, I have a couple of questions.

1. What editor do you prefer and why?

2. what do you use for overlays/ special effects. specifically, explosions, or interweaving one footage over another?


I have practically every video editor except pinnacle, I tend to prefer premiere elements, probably because I am most familiar with it. Anyway, thanks in advance for your input.

i use photoshop for most of them and import them to premiere. And i tweak alot in premiere with the effects

Pinnacle/Avid.... yeah. Thats what I use, tho it is certainly quite quirky, it does just about everything and then some. Pinnacle has tools for all sorts of effects/overlays, blend, green screen, 1000s of transitions.. its rather impressive once you get the hang of it.

For all my video needs right now, I just use Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects. Don't have the money for avid and those programs seem to do what I need.

1. Premiere, because I use the full CS3 at work, and Vegas Pro. Simple edit assignments get Vegassed-treatment (if the Client doesn't mind) cause there is less setup involved initially.

2. After Effects.

Sony Vegas, all the way...

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I use Vegas

My husband and I do a little indie film-making now and then, so as a wedding gift to us we bought a dual-core Mac (we got married 2 1/2 years ago) and Final Cut Pro Suite. I use Final Cut Pro for editing, Motion for effects, and Soundtrack Pro for audio.

I use Sony Vegas as well. It has a lot of cool effects and tools that you can use, but they take some playing with to figure out. Or you can just go to YouTube and find people who do video tutorials on each of the effects. It's how I figured out how to use the Velocity envelope

I'm messing with After Effects as well to try and see what it can do and I use Virtual Dub every now and then to get some extra Sharpness or to resize frames if need be.

Oh, and I envy CaptainYarr, Final Cut Pro is freaking nice. The people here at school that have Mac laptops have it and it's so easy to use. It can do a lot of really great things.

Sony Vegas here too.

I started off with Windows Moviemaker 2, which is actually a lot better than people give it credit for, especially if you're just starting out and want to be able to make stuff quickly.

I've used Pinnacle stuff too, but I found it a bit unstable and clunky.

WMM has its uses... and it's a good learning tool. But when you're ready to 'graduate', WMM just won't cut it.

After Effects is still a program I'd like to nab to try...

But the one I REALLY want to get (and learn)... is Maya.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[ QUOTE ]

But the one I REALLY want to get (and learn)... is Maya.


[/ QUOTE ]Autodesk offers a free, personal learning, version of Maya for those that want to learn how to use it.

thanks for all the info. I didn't see anyone mentioning particle illusions, which I stumbled actross after posting here. Its worth a look if you want to add particle based special effects. the big selling point for me is that it works as an overlay to about any rendered movie.

Linky
Particle Illusions

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

But the one I REALLY want to get (and learn)... is Maya.


[/ QUOTE ]Autodesk offers a free, personal learning, version of Maya for those that want to learn how to use it.

[/ QUOTE ]

*attention comes to a screaming halt*

WHA-?!

SERIOUSLY!?!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

But the one I REALLY want to get (and learn)... is Maya.


[/ QUOTE ]Autodesk offers a free, personal learning, version of Maya for those that want to learn how to use it.

[/ QUOTE ]

*attention comes to a screaming halt*

WHA-?!

SERIOUSLY!?!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

[/ QUOTE ]Indeed.

Autodesk - Maya Personal Learning Edition

Sure it's 'free,' that is if you don't mind Autodesk water-marking all your work.

[ QUOTE ]
Sure it's 'free,' that is if you don't mind Autodesk water-marking all your work.

[/ QUOTE ]True but it is not like I am going to be making some big 3D world with it, plus, I know a way in After Effects to get rid of the water mark.

OoOooo... do share!

Never tried it but it involves simply matching the color of the watermark so that it is no longer there as the entire video matches the color and then fixing it with color correction I think. Also been a while since I saw the tutorial.

Ummm... how would that help with water-marks that have a beveled-edge (for a fake-glass 3D effect) while being transparent, not bound to a single color? Or the watermarks that 'shift' the position of the video around the edges so that their outline appears raised up from the surface? Today's water-markings are better and more sophisticated (and also may contain invisible digital-IDs embedded in the file as well) than the simple color-marked transparencies and overlays of the past.

Oh well... too much trouble to remove altogether. Back to the drawing-board.