… Combat video (without the Cray) …

I finished a rough cut of the end of the “Combat” video today. It may sound like this project is coming together at a snails pace, but working with 10 megapixel images in 720p HD is a really slow process unless you have The Cray or something.

People think you can edit movies in real time on normal computers. Standard camcorder DV is fine in most non-linear editors. After Effects is my movie making application of choice. I usually do a quick cut in Premiere and then go straight into AE.

The problem is, you can’t watch your footage in real time. You have to render everything. It can take up to 30 seconds to render a single frame. When I want to see how a shot looks in time with the music, it can take minutes to generate a pass of a chorus or verse.

The bottom line is that it forces me to get it right and do the detail work. It doesn’t pay to be sloppy. Heck, I have to see every frame get spit out in slowmo on my screen so I have ample time to scrutinize everything.

Nevertheless, the video is coming along nicely.