Onlining in Combustion 4

Hello,

I'm reading a new book written by Stu Maschwitz (of The Orphanage) called "the DV Rebel's Guide". It's a great book! In it Stu talks extensively about using After Effects (as an Onlining tool). His processes and workflows are very workable and on the DV Rebel Forum I spoke of using Combustion as the online app for a music video I'm about to begin editing using FCP. Stu has his reasons for using After Effects but encouraged me to go for it.

I was wondering if anyone has used Combustion for onlining (e.g. commercials, music videos, shorts)? I realize this may be sacrilege to those who may have access to Flame, Smoke, etc. but I'm not in that category. I guess this is one reason Stu refers to us being Rebels :)

Keith Hill
http://www.LightedPath.biz
Dallas, TX
Final Cut Studio, Combustion4 (Mac), Cinema 4D r9.6, PhotoshopCS2, PIllusion 3, StitcherUlimited, Boujou_PXC; Mac G5 (v10.4.6) 2Ghz, 1.5 RAM

Do you also use AutoDuck for bring in your Timeline from your Editor? For me, this is FCP. I'm thinking that may be the way to go for me. I'm just hoping for some major upgrade for Combustion to keep it competitive with these other apps are coming on strong.

Thanks G.

Keith Hill
http://www.LightedPath.biz
Dallas, TX
Final Cut Studio, Combustion4 (Mac), Cinema 4D r9.6, PhotoshopCS2, PIllusion 3, StitcherUlimited, Boujou_PXC; Mac G5 (v10.4.6) 2Ghz, 1.5 RAM

i find combustion difficult for things like lip synch and critical trimming and tend to use it more for what happens within a shot or for graphic sequences in corporates - it is a great package but when it comes to audio i find it a bit tricky. to be honest i am lucky enough to have a Quantel eQ to do my editing, grading, audio etc - it is very fast but does not have some of the features that combustion has so i use what makes the most sense for the task at hand - sometimes i will take an edit sequence of a couple of shots from eQ into combustion and then re-import the original shots as well so i keep frame accurate and have extra material to do transitions etc.
i am looking at automatic duck to pull timelines into eQ.
given you have already edited in FCP then combustion is probably a great way to "online" albeit slow but i reccomend that you use a broadcast monitor to watch what you are doing as you can get into field dominance issues and get a very distorted color sense from a computer display.

Hi All,
I've been onlining with FCP and combustion for a couple of years now and its been fantastic.
My work flow is Offline in FCP at full res(PAL). Once the edit is approved i will either auto duck my sequence to C4 or just export a quicktime of the whole sequence.
and then do my grading graphics etc

99% of my work is for TVC's and most producers are happy with this work flow.

Infact alot of the "easier" jobs tht were previously done in avid and flame and now being done in FCP/C4.
Its not as fast as Flame but then again not all jobs need flame.
Its bluring the line between offline and online to a certain degree.

I can't recomend this workflow enough,it may not be for everyone but it works for me,
and at less than half the cost of Flame per day,producers love it.

Good Luck with everything.


Nicky Liddell
Concrete Wednesday Post Production.
Melbourne,Australia.

Is it just for 48khz? I've certainly seen that problem and I do usually use 48kxz audio. Good to know. Thanks.