[quote="Lou Delgresiano"][quote="Rick Tugman"]The graphics artists at Fox are very creative and they have always listened to what we the users in field have to say. They are always pushing the envelope, but they will be restricted by what is out in the field especially at the regional level.[/quote] I've always thought they were top notch, and I apologize if my post wasn't clear. The revisions I've seen come more from issues with timing (2-3 seconds for replay moves that should be 20-30frames). Wrong In/Out moves for NHL, things like that, less of an issue with the equipment being used. As for the Left/Right boxes, those were an easy enough fix to marry the mattes to one page and split them in the DVEous, now forget about trying that on a dual. Curse the director dumb enough to try to use it on a dual.[/quote] Oh, they've definateley used those boxes on duals. The Devil Rays dual show tried using those boxes quite a bit....and yes, major yard sale was the result of pushing a swithcher(show) beyond it's limits. I was there. :)

[quote="Rick Tugman"]The graphics artists at Fox are very creative and they have always listened to what we the users in field have to say. They are always pushing the envelope, but they will be restricted by what is out in the field especially at the regional level.[/quote] I've always thought they were top notch, and I apologize if my post wasn't clear. The revisions I've seen come more from issues with timing (2-3 seconds for replay moves that should be 20-30frames). Wrong In/Out moves for NHL, things like that, less of an issue with the equipment being used. As for the Left/Right boxes, those were an easy enough fix to marry the mattes to one page and split them in the DVEous, now forget about trying that on a dual. Curse the director dumb enough to try to use it on a dual.

[quote="Lou Delgresiano"]Regionally, with MTV Group installing the Abekas Clip Store (although cheap) it seems it would be short term given the complexity of effects that could possibilty come down the line. By installing the Clip Store someone did not think about what is to come and they now have limited themselves and Graphic artists to just a two channel box for fill and matte animations. Additonally, this product has problems and while it works for the most part, as Scott mentioned, it was brought to the market too soon. It is just troublesome and it can make you very gun shy because your effect just might not be there when you run it. It uses 3 Drives... one for your Fill one for your Matte and one for Audio. There is no way to network it like you can a SpotBox. While a SpotBox cost $80,000 and the Clip Store is $12,000 there are still limitations because a SpotBox could do so much more and also double up as a extra machine for the producers if need be.[/quote] At this price point the GVG turbo is a pretty good buy as well. Two channels and it can do direct machine control with a Kalypso. Will do AMP with Clips or BVW based. Basically a PC, so you can network AVI and other files. Think it does HD, but not using HD SDI, using DVI or something, so that may be messy. But just another cheap device out there if anyone is ever looking for a step up from a FFV Bill

What if you put a custom wipe pattern in the stillstore and use that as the undercut (underwipe?) transition under the DDR? Biggest issue I see is having to deal with a shortage of stillstore channels on a dual. Also if you're in a dual truck but there isn't a dual going on that day, you have two clipstores... Have the EIC figure out a way to run them both off same Lance (or even just deal with using two Lances as long as you don't have to run over to dual-land to set up stuff on the second clipstore) and you have 4 channels of DDR. Something to think about if you're ever in an MTVG truck and you know there isn't going to be a dual. Like maybe after they finally get rid of duals? Wishful thinking, I know.

[quote="Lou Delgresiano"]I love the Fox gfx artists hierarchy of efx. They'll build a three channel move for football that looks perfect, yet they'll be forced to do three revisions of replay out moves for FSN MLB, NBA and NHL. The gfx may come out of the same shop, but they really are two completely different worlds.[/quote] Lou, that was always one of my points about creating such effects and I had discussed this with the Graphics Guys and the Director of Field Operations at FOX. Some of these effects will eventually stream down into the regionals where they just can't be done properly. Case in point; the MLB on FSN Left and Right Box. That effect was orginally made for the Network baseball show the year before and had one fill, and two mattes. It filtered down to the regionals the same way. Sure there was a work around for "that" effect, which we also did for the Network show. We all knew there is no way to use this effect "properly" at the regional level given the tools we have access too. My point was the trucks aren't speced out to for what graphically would be coming down the line. FOX's NFL graphics were created with one key element in mind... 4 channels which the SpotBox has. You have to remember that when FOX went all HD on the first 6 games of NFL they required specific specifications on their mobile units. Two of those (visually) were the Kalypso and a SpotBox. Before that we always used 2 Fast Forwards giving us the 4 Channels. Regionally, with MTV Group installing the Abekas Clip Store (although cheap) it seems it would be short term given the complexity of effects that could possibilty come down the line. By installing the Clip Store someone did not think about what is to come and they now have limited themselves and Graphic artists to just a two channel box for fill and matte animations. Additonally, this product has problems and while it works for the most part, as Scott mentioned, it was brought to the market too soon. It is just troublesome and it can make you very gun shy because your effect just might not be there when you run it. It uses 3 Drives... one for your Fill one for your Matte and one for Audio. There is no way to network it like you can a SpotBox. While a SpotBox cost $80,000 and the Clip Store is $12,000 there are still limitations because a SpotBox could do so much more and also double up as a extra machine for the producers if need be. The graphics artists at Fox are very creative and they have always listened to what we the users in field have to say. They are always pushing the envelope, but they will be restricted by what is out in the field especially at the regional level.

I love the Fox gfx artists hierarchy of efx. They'll build a three channel move for football that looks perfect, yet they'll be forced to do three revisions of replay out moves for FSN MLB, NBA and NHL. The gfx may come out of the same shop, but they really are two completely different worlds.

[quote="JohnHowardSC"]The designers built the new effects around those arrows because they wanted it to look like we're "Rewinding" to the replay and "Fast Forwarding" back to live action.[/quote] The designers missed one key element- the TiVo "beep boop" sound effect.....

Matt, I believe all of our shows are on Kalypsos (or would the plural be Kalypsi?). My trucks so far this year have been former NMT, now NEP trucks. Bill, what you're referring to was the image refraction that was part of the old move. It was also a three-channel effect (animation fill/matte & a video matte), but the that video matte was filled by the DVEous which had the replay M/E clean, a little out of focus and blown up a good bit. That was all under the basic replay animation so it gave the effect this really cool glass refraction kind of look. The new look uses only the program output of the replay M/E as it's fill source, not a clean feed - again because there is no refraction kind of thing going on. The designers built the new effects around those arrows because they wanted it to look like we're "Rewinding" to the replay and "Fast Forwarding" back to live action. Kinda cool.

In the past weren't they blurring the 'live' video as well using a PCF re-entry or something, remember reading about that a while ago. That made it look kind of cool, think they are still doing that. Bill

I believe they are using Kalypsos. Trucks come from NCP, F&F, NEP and Game Creek. (Not sure if I missed one.)

Thanks a million, John! That makes perfect sense! What switcher are you generally using for the FOX shows these days? Matt

Matt, The move is a 3-channel SpotBox (or, Heaven forbid, Fast Forward!) effect. Channels 1 and 2 are the animation fill and matte (essentially the "Rewind (on)/Fast Forward(off) Arrows" and the NFL on FOX logo that flips in the middle), channel 3 is a second matte that is key-split with the replay M/E. The "ON" reveals that M/E as a key source. The "OFF" starts with the replay M/E full (again, as a key), then reveals the PXP M/E underneath. I think some guys are using the DVEous as a combiner for all of this to save keyers, but since we're not refracting images anymore I just dedicate two keyers for it; 1 keyer for the animation, a second for the M/E key. My macro undercuts the replay M/E so when the key comes out there is never a shift, whereas you may see some shifting if using the DVEous as a combiner. Does that make sense? JH