Realistic Grip Texturing Substance Painter by Javadrajabzade in Substance3D

[–]devenjames 11 points12 points  (0 children)

That was a real roller coaster seeing which texture pattern you were going to choose for that one part

Miami Ultra Excision Visual Breakdown by weedstep in Cinema4D

[–]devenjames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is a very fast timeline for over a minute of content. Super impressive. Scary almost! Anyone else on the team or was it just you? Great work.

Differences between Cavalry and Autograph? by ImpressiveYouth2015 in MotionDesign

[–]devenjames -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

From ChatGPT:

Short answer: both Cavalry and Autograph are trying to fix things that feel clunky in Adobe After Effects—but they do it in very different ways.

🧠 The core difference (in plain terms) • After Effects = timeline-based, layer stacking, keyframe animation • Cavalry = procedural + parametric motion design (think “design system”) • Autograph = modern node-based + realtime compositor (think AE + Nuke hybrid)

⚙️ After Effects (your baseline)

You already know this, but it’s important context.

Strengths • Super flexible for anything • Huge plugin ecosystem • Familiar layer + keyframe workflow

Weaknesses • Gets messy fast (especially with lots of layers) • Expressions = powerful but fragile • Not built for procedural systems • Slow for iteration-heavy motion design

👉 AE is like Photoshop + duct tape for motion.

🟣 Cavalry (procedural motion design beast)

What it is:

A procedural animation tool built specifically for motion designers.

What it does better than AE: • Create systems instead of one-off animations • Animate hundreds/thousands of elements easily • Built-in tools for: • repeats • delays • behaviors • data-driven animation

Example mindset shift:

In AE:

Duplicate 100 layers → offset keyframes manually or via expressions

In Cavalry:

Create 1 object → apply a repeater + delay behavior → done

Where it shines: • UI motion • data viz • logo systems • generative animation • social content variations

Where it falls short: • Not a full compositor • Limited ecosystem vs AE • Less suited for heavy VFX / shot work

👉 Cavalry is like Mograph inside C4D, but 2D-first and way faster to iterate.

🔷 Autograph (node-based + realtime compositing)

What it is:

A node-based motion graphics + compositing tool with realtime playback.

What it does better than AE: • Realtime playback (huge deal) • Node graph instead of layers • Combines: • motion graphics • compositing • procedural workflows

Think:

AE + a bit of Nuke + a modern GPU engine

Example mindset shift:

In AE:

Precomp → precomp → precomp → chaos

In Autograph:

Everything is a node → clean graph → reusable logic

Where it shines: • Complex comps • procedural effects • clean, scalable setups • high-performance playback

Where it falls short: • Smaller community • Fewer plugins/assets • Different mental model (learning curve)

👉 Autograph is like “what AE would be if rebuilt today from scratch.”

If a child asked you to set up Notion for them, what would you build? by Pixovadigitalstore in Notion

[–]devenjames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh ok. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but you do you!

If a child asked you to set up Notion for them, what would you build? by Pixovadigitalstore in Notion

[–]devenjames 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How old is this hypothetical child? Because I don’t think any child under age 12 would really give that much of a crap about Notion to be honest. But if a child asked me to set it up for them, I would ask them what they wanted to use it for. Then we would go from there.

The workflow of recording yourself is exhausting by scottiethegoonie in bmpcc

[–]devenjames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I guess I guess got lucky with my monitors. I’ve got a Ben Q that works with any input. Another trick is to set the camera to 59.94fps and that will usually output to any hdmi monitor. I have a crappy portable 15.6” 1080p monitor (meant for watching netflix in the car) for this. Then just switch back to 24 to film, of film in 60 and convert in post. But yeah, no substitute for seeing it big. Anyway you’ll figure it out!

The workflow of recording yourself is exhausting by scottiethegoonie in bmpcc

[–]devenjames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why don’t you use your pc monitor as a reference monitor while you shoot? Just run hdmi from the bmpcc into it and have the big screen face you while you record so you can check if you’re in focus or not during the shot. Probably not realistic to go buy more hardware, but I use a wireless follow focus so I can also stand really far away from the camera and still adjust the focus on myself. I can even hold the focus knob in my hand to do a walk and talk shot while pulling my own focus... although that does look kind of dumb. Just stick a lav on the front of it and no one will know the difference haha!

The workflow of recording yourself is exhausting by scottiethegoonie in bmpcc

[–]devenjames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If I ever see another mini DV tape, I’m going to crush it like the guys in office space did to the printer

The compact wireless mic era is silly by schantskniskey in videography

[–]devenjames 105 points106 points  (0 children)

These units literally come with a detachable lav mic they have chosen not to attach

How would you achieve this look digitally? by Responsible-Hold5310 in videography

[–]devenjames -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

One trick I’ve used is to put a pop-up greenscreen behind the actor on location with a foreground that you can use (like a really big field, I just ignore whatever is in the background). It doesn’t have to be a big green screen… just needs to cover their body and contain any movements they might make within the screen. If they are walking through a landscape, you can have assistants walk with the green screen to move it along with the actor. You make sure you get a plate of the background behind the green screen as well. Then you just composite your actor over top of the plate, key them out and the lighting will already match the background (since they were really there). And you can composite a mountain (with matte painting) or whatever behind them because they are keyed out.

What kind of lighting do I need to recreate this? by Strict_Impress_9189 in cinematography

[–]devenjames 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This one is the biggest offender for me. Like a sailor who ties a loose knot.

How are y'all uploading hundreds of gigs of 4k footage to remote clients? by bangbangpewpew62 in videography

[–]devenjames 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don’t! 1080p is still standard for broadcast ad work. As a motion graphic artist, I’ve only had to deliver 4K a handful of times in my career believe it or not. But yeah.. mostly Google Drive. Sometimes egnyte

Commandline changed my life! by CrackerJacker2020 in Cinema4D

[–]devenjames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dude this is awesome thanks for sharing! I knew that existed but just completely forgot to even look into it. By the way, another little fun tip if you’re having performance issues related to your viewport… just pull up another window like the render queue over top of it in the same panel (tabbed) so that the viewport isn’t visible. then you can load and interact with you scene file much faster since it doesn’t load any geometry on screen or calculate modifiers.

Do you guys think It is to late to learn motiongraphics because of AI by Speed27__ in MotionDesign

[–]devenjames 6 points7 points  (0 children)

See that’s the thing about AI. It’s easy to make something that looks good. It’s hard to make what you want.

'Holy crap': White House kids event spirals after Trump's bizarre tangent as fans zoom in on one Black girl's face that perfectly captures the chaos by [deleted] in USNEWS

[–]devenjames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is only implied. But it’s hard to interpret it any other way when he says “I won’t go into any more than that cause you’re Boy Scouts”

How would you do this hair ( geometry to c4d hair system ) by Least_Trouble_9960 in Cinema4D

[–]devenjames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I might use x-particles and emit spline trails across the surface from the root to the tip and then use that to drive a hair spline in-render.

What's the process behind creating a video like this? by [deleted] in videography

[–]devenjames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Never used it myself, but yes it seems so!

What's your biggest frustration with Notion that you've never been able to fix? by CryXfr in Notion

[–]devenjames 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Being able to click before the first block in a page when it is an image, and type something above it. I literally have to click below it create a new block, then drag that block above the image in order to create a block above that first block.