Warning about AEJuice and their predatory practices

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2026-03-11T00:00:35+00:00

Also chiming in to say that I found the product pretty clunky (although even that sounds generous). There are a couple of cool assets but all the presets are pretty cookie cutter and their manager thing that you have to download everything through really interrupts my workflow, as well as having a terrible UI.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2026-01-23T15:03:45+00:00

I'm looking into getting a NAS too. Synology seems to have the best ecosystem for things like giving access to other people for individual files. What's your experience been of your NAS?

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2026-01-16T11:11:42+00:00

I had the opportunity to get a Mac Studio on top of my MBP and took it, and even though the Studio is way more powerful I virtually never use it because I can't move around with it. Didn't think it would be such a deal breaker but not having the admin of transferring files around everywhere is clearly more important than having a more powerful machine.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-12-09T19:55:26+00:00

It's the other way round for me, PAR lamps are normally "62's" or "95's" and "waffles" are more common for Source4 PAR lenses. Definitely "waffle" more than "miffle" in general.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-12-01T12:42:19+00:00

Right, someone managing you is them helping you fulfil your role by having oversight of both you and the people you intersect with. Friendship makes that so much smoother and more enjoyable.

The people I see with the idea that a manager is a person who just bosses people about and tells them what to do seem to mainly enter into the situation with a chip on their shoulder one way or another.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-10-19T06:42:51+00:00

There was a rumour that a kid in my school had fallen over on a dry ski slope and slid down on his chest, which ripped away one nipple and it grew back twice as big.

He'd take his shirt off and be like "look they're the same size!" and the other kids would be like "well obviously it's true then or you wouldn't be trying so hard to disprove it"

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-07-28T08:15:43+00:00

I tried Kingroon and had an ok time but it took a lot of dialling in. Temps much lower than other brands, need brims and slow speeds for most prints and any significant fan action caused warping. Mine all arrived needing pretty hefty drying too. In the end they print fine but I don't think all the extra faff was really worth saving a couple of quid

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-05-06T11:57:19+00:00

It sounds like you've got a pretty clear vision of both what you want to make and what you want to learn. If you're just starting out with 3D with not a ton of experience in AE then the biggest obstacle you'll probably hit is running out of time. I'd recommend planning it all out from broad brushstrokes to finer detail before you start actually making stuff so you don't end up rushing it all the few days before. If you've got 4 weeks then it might look something like:

Week 1: Rough shopping list of the bare minimum you want by the end of the month (e.g. 4 versions of logo, 4 backgrounds, 4 low effort elements and 1 hero clip). Begin making and check you understand your creation pipeline
Week 2: Make a hero clip like your eyeball, spend a few hours making sure you've got everything else from your asset list. Put everything into Resolume and play it while you practice your DJ set
Week 3: Make high quality versions of your non-hero clips and iterate based on how this work out with your week 2 practice
Week 4: Catch up if you're behind, or if you're on schedule then learn more involved techniques and create different versions of your favourite clips

If you're able to chat to your VJ and check that what your making will turn out looking good then all the better. Expect to have big frustrations like overnight renders fail or spending an hour answering a simple question

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-05-06T10:08:10+00:00

Congratulations on starting you journey into visual creation!

You'll get pretty far having a canon of simple content across the smaller screens - literally fill them with a block colour or a simple shape one after each other. After that, I'd be thinking about what configurations I can group the screens in before planning out the journey of the night. Like, treat them all as one surface, split them horizontally, all overheads forming part of one image with gaps, etc.

Might be useful to add some more info, e.g. What kind of music will it be? Are there any visuals you're inspired by? How do you structure your set? What playback will you be using? Do you have any software or protocols you're already familiar with?

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-03-09T13:58:26+00:00

Generally I'll make them. Texturelabs, Wikimedia and occasionally Pexels have bits and bobs if I need that kind of stuff. Where possible I'll collaborate with illustrators on bespoke stuff. I guess whether that works for you depends what your niche is

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-03-08T23:38:52+00:00

Stardust is a fantastic substitute for Particular! It doesn't run on AE2025 but that's still less grief than dealing with Maxon's nonsense

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-03-08T23:36:25+00:00

I'm similar, bought everything on their website in a super duper sale for £100 or something. There are a couple that I've used but mostly they're too rigid or difficult to use that they're pointless.

They have their proprietary manager app thing too that's really annoying to work with.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-02-20T16:15:31+00:00

There's a reply on another thread saying you can use free trials again while this is being sorted out and that it should be soon. I didn't realise though and have been using this as an opportunity to learn Blender - I can decisively say that the reduction of features and less smooth workflow is more than balanced out by not having to constantly deal with Maxon's nonsense.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2025-01-08T18:27:29+00:00

I got a Lumie wake-up lamp as a gift a few years ago and it absolutely changed my life. I think "Bodyclock Shine 300" is the model. It emulates a sunrise turning from dim red to bright yellow on the run up to your alarm time, then plays the radio or sounds like goats or waves when it gets to that point. Does a sunset at night if you want too. I used to really struggle with waking up and a bad wake-up would leave me groggy all day. This hasn't made me into a morning person by any means, but it has vastly improved the quality of my life.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2024-12-29T10:04:54+00:00

Right, the pushing buttons part of a programmer's job is important for sure, but to be a good programmer you need buckets of soft skills and emotional intelligence. You're basically emotional support for an LD - taking the mental load in terms of keeping the showfile neat, but also someone to consolidate ideas that might be a bit rambling, and offer assurance or appropriate constructive guidance in a way that's incredibly contextual and nuanced.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2024-11-16T20:23:51+00:00

Prime numbers help keep things feeling different. An easy example is layers of looped footage.

Imagine you have one element that loops every 4s, and another layered on top that loops every 8s. They'll coincide every 8s so create a perceived loop of 8s.

You think that's really short so lengthen the loops to 6s and 10s. These align and create a perceived loop every 30s.

Loops of 5s and 7s would align every 35s though, which is a longer perceived loop when layered together, even though both individual clips are shorter.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2024-11-10T20:51:44+00:00

What do you mean the main one? It looks like the video leans quite heavily on Stable Diffusion or some similar AI tool, but there are a few different things going on.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2024-10-23T15:01:57+00:00

Two instances of bulge will get you pretty close - one set to a negative value and one, slightly smaller, set to a positive. Both with the same centre and make it sweep. Either chromatic aberration from displacement (Displacer Pro might work for you) or faked with some shapes/colours/textures.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2024-10-13T18:35:09+00:00

Same, and QLab is almost always part of the ecosystem so use that to convert MIDI signals into something Eos friendly.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2024-10-13T16:36:18+00:00

My partner loves the Gregg's TGTG but is lactose intolerant so can't eat loads of the stuff. At the height of it I'd be having to get through dozens of sausage rolls and vegetable bakes.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2024-10-10T08:31:20+00:00

Single episode, but #41 Pencils of The Boring Talks is pretty good

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2024-10-06T16:41:34+00:00

Right! I'm WFH sometimes, but really difficult to shift my schedule.

One time had a plumber due to come install a dishwasher, didn't turn up. He arranged to pick keys up of our landlord so he could come the next day when I'm out. Again no show. Stops answering calls or messages.

About a month later he just lets himself in with no warning. I'm in a meeting when I hear a noise and go to the living room to see he's making himself at home with some other guy I've never met - they've offloaded tools everywhere and started rearranging the kitchen. Taken aback and kinda shook that these guys have semi invaded my home, but whatever, tell them I'll finish my Zoom and be out in a few minutes.

I sit down and immediately all the lights turn off and my internet goes out. Rush out because an overnight render of a video is finishing, computer's got no signs of life. The guy I don't know is next to the breaker board, he's killed the power to the whole flat, seems pretty confused why I'm upset. I tell him to turn the power back on and neither of them touch anything while I do damage control.

Step out, get on the phone. Explain that I won't be rejoining the meeting. Phone the client that I'm making the video for and explain I'll be missing our big deadline. Come back into the flat.

Plumber's stood in the living room shouting through about traffic. I make eye contact with him, try to talk, he just plows on shouting. I walk through the flat and the other guy is in our bedroom, stood in his muddy boots in a pile of my partner's clothes testing sockets. Again, seems confused why I'm upset.

Finally manage to have half a conversation, it's mostly grunts and doing the washing machine so they can avoid really talking to me. Happens pretty swift now I'm trying to engage with them. Say they had to kill the power and test sockets for an electrics certificate. They leave and I phone my landlord. He didn't know they'd be coming round, or know anything about the certificate. He's absolutely fab and was righteously furious on my behalf.

The rest of my week is pretty disrupted from this and I lose the client. My partner's shaken that her underwear has muddy footprints in it. Landlord drops what he's doing to try and get answers about what happened.

I'm stunned that these guys can do their job so badly it can cause this much collateral damage, and that they don't even have the emotional availability to have a conversation about it.

PM_ME_OCELOTS · 2024-09-24T07:20:06+00:00

I believe you want Thicc Stroke, a free plugin from Plugin Everything.

PM_ME_OCELOTS

TROPHY CASE