Boris Motion Graphics Pack User

Steve Oakley - Practical Illusions

Steve Oakley is the resident 'Digital Illusionist' at Practical Illusions. He and his company have spent over 25 years working on national network projects for CBS, NBC, HBO, MTV, ESPN and finishing corporate work Fortune 500 corporations.

Working within Discreet's *combustion, Steve uses Boris Continuum Complete and Boris Red 3GL to give his projects the high-end look these clients require at a cost he can live with. The following are excerpts from an interview he recently gave.

Q: When did you start using motion graphics tools?

SO: The Amiga 2000, a Supergen. Deluxe Paint and Imagine 3D were the starting point. Those programs let you playback from RAM, a whopping 8Mb, in 4096 colors. It was a start though. If you worked with the limitations, it was possible to do some decent work. In those days, you also did practical things like using a switcher, DVE, and camera on a motion-control rig for graphics and effects. It was pretty crude, but you still got the job done. At that time, motion graphics involved lots of very expensive hardware.

In an early speed test, I created a series of Picture in Picture effects and rendered in AE. It took two hours to render. My buddy created the same effect tape-to-tape using a DVE; it took him around two hours. While I sat around doing other things, he spent the time working. It set a precedent for how other projects would be handled.

Q: Who was your first national client?

SO: Hmmm that was a long time ago, but I think it was a spot for Sharper Image Jeans, about 14 years ago. It was edited tape-to-tape and the graphics were done on an Amiga 2000 using Deluxe Paint. Since then, I've done work for every network out there. I used a beta version of Red 1.0 for the Battlebots Pay-Per-View show while cutting on a Media100. That single show went on to spawn the series that has run for several seasons, as well as several copycat shows. Red was there to start it all.

Q: How do you use Boris Continuum Complete and combustion?

SO: I use BCC with C2 all the time. BCC works with C2 very well, especially in schematic view where you can route different layers into a BCC PixelChooser input. BCC winds up in almost everything, because the filter set is a broad collection of useful items. I used the Mosaic filter to simulate digital image breakup in the opening of my demo reel. I use the BCC Colorize Glow all the time, as well as the BCC blur filters. I'm just starting to work with some new filters like motion blur. Optical Flow provides great speed conversions with footage. The new Wire Remover plugin works pretty well. There are just so many others as well.

I often use the BCC matte filters for extracting and cleaning up things that weren't meant to key, like skies.

Q: Have you used the PixelChooser?

SO: PixelChooser definitely sees use here. You can also create a paint object in C2 and route that into the PixelChooser or the b&w output of a key filter. Since combustion allows you to route the output of a layer or operator to multiple inputsthe PixelChooser means that you can steal a matte from anywhere in your project. This makes for some nice flexibility, saving duplicated layers, and creating simpler projects.

Q: What's more important, ease of use or quality of output and why?

SO: They are equally important. Ease of use means reduced time spent getting a job done. Having 16-bit support is important because you can avoid all the problems with 8-bit color space. If I can design faster, I finish faster. Even with the fast computers today, most of the time goes into design. Renders can be managed, during lunch or overnight, or on another machine on the network. What I've found is that as computers get faster, designs grow more sophisticated to make use of that speed. If you have an 8 or 10 hour day for the design, you tend to use it. Faster computers let you use that time better, creating fancier work, and getting more previews done for motion checks. Render times for final output tend to be about the same...except for the simpler projects.

Q: What is your most common workflow?

SO: That depends on the project. Typically, video comes from FCP or M100, then goes to C2 or RED. If the project is just a lot of text treatments, it may stay on the FCP or M100 timeline and I’ll use Red. If the project is more image based, C2 often comes to use with a bunch of BCC filters. I don't think there is really a common workflow because every job is different. You adjust your work habits to the project. Often enough under deadline, if you have multiple machines around, you can render better quality previews while working on different segments.

Q: Arethere commonalities among national clients during the post process?

SO: With big clients they expect and demand service at a moment’s notice, and that is not something everyone can deal with. You have VERY demanding clients who want it NOW. Fedex 8:30am isn't fast enough; you had better have messengers or web previews. They expect new eye candy all the time, and both Red and C2 with BCC fill the bill. I've been doing work in C2 that competes with some very high-end graphics studios. In one case, I used C2 to create new material to match a network's current ID package. I created new pieces that seamlessly matched what the network had done at a high-end and a well known graphics studio.

Q: What is the biggest complaint from national clients?

SO: Speed. I want it NOW. They are all into instant gratification, and having some cool new effect that sets them apart from everybody else. The arbitrary rules of style are subject to change at a whim’s notice. Being able to accommodate this is critical. You never know when the winds of change will blow in a different direction and you have to make revisions. Often what might seem to be a small change can be a big headache. You learn to create projects that allow for easy changes, and avoid doing cheats that can stick you in a corner when changes are required. BCC filters let you save and load presets directly in the filter. This is such a big help because once you get a look with a filter, you can save it and use it else where. I can start a new project from scratch and access my settings for a filter, without any clumsy copy and paste operations between two projects.

Q: If you were stranded on a desert island what tools are must have?

SO: FCP, RED, BCC, C2, Premiere Pro, a dual G5 loaded with RAM and HD space, and a matching dual 3G PC.