I was today years old when I learned…

[Lightningad]

I think the vuvuzela is unique to South Africa!

[johnt]

@BrittCiampa

…T using a mux node with two inputs with key framed input selection between plate and then comp and then back to plate will save you loaaads of render time, with no need to splice clips together in a timeline or slip around in batch. The plate will render basically real time, then the comp will render how it’s gonna render, then back to the plate rendering in real time, all in one neat and tidy clip.

Nice. As an adjunct: I absolutely hate that input 1 is labelled as selection 0 and so on. This is not user friendly.

[ytf]

This drives me nuts too.

[Lightningad]

[eric_mason]

I was today years old when I learned that there’s a “data window” option on import for OpenEXRs (namely for undistort maps), that will magically expand to a correct undistorted(larger) pixel resolution.

Especially when given STMaps “nuke” style.

[andy_dill]

@Lightningad

I think the vuvuzela is unique to South Africa!

That was the best World Cup by miles. I don’t even remember any games, but I loved the drone of those plastic horns.

[andy_dill]

While I’m here, I recently learned about “link special” where you can copy a variable and paste it into another one AND add a basic function all in one go.

Very handy for the expression fans among us.

[johnt]

@eric_mason

there’s a “data window” option on import for OpenEXRs

NB this only references the first frame of the render. It can and has happened to me that the data window size changes throughout a render. in that situation I got the render done again without stuff disappearing into the bounding box. Took a little while to figure out.

[FLYfx]

@paul_round

It was a while ago now, but the little blue dot, top right of all icons takes you to the animation curves for that node. Really useful when you have a mega batch.

NICE.

[FLYfx]

@MikeyBrown

As a sanity check for connected conforms I colour all the segments in the main/longest edit to one colour then click through the other edits to make sure they’re all linked. Then at least I know any segments that dont have the matching colour are unique to the edit or didnt get linked properly

Love it! Thanks!

[fredwarren]

We tried to change the MUX input numbering some years ago but it was requiring A LOT more work than expected just to make sure old setups would load correctly. This is the problem we have with things like these; we would gladly spend a few days to change them, but spending weeks just on this is not something we consider a good investment of our time.

[andy_dill]

@fredwarren

just to make sure old setups would load correctly.

I feel like this one concern holds back a ton of development and I don’t like the idea of the software being kneecapped by people who make their money reloading the same setups year after year.

As much as everyone loves to gripe about the anniversary edition, it was also the best change the software has ever seen, and if changing the Mux to make everyone happy today is going to force someone to re-wire or (gasp) rebuild their setup from two years ago, that is an acceptable cost.

[Ryland]

I could not agree with this sentiment more.

[hBomb42]

@andy_dill

I feel like this one concern holds back a ton of development and I don’t like the idea of the software being kneecapped by people who make their money reloading the same setups year after year.

The first number being a 0 is a programming thing that doesn’t bother me in the slightest. We occasionally have to reload huge shot from a few years back to revise a comp, and it’s often not the original artist doing the revision. I’d rather not have Surprise Comp Problems because people are upset about the labeling on something that otherwise works. It’s not something we deal with often, but I don’t think it’s unfair to expect it to work. Otherwise why archive at all?

[andy_dill]

Why not restore it to the software that it was built on? Like if the shot can be loaded into flame 2020, why should flame 2024 need to load it?

[hBomb42]

Because we all got forced into moving to rocky Linux, and because of how subs work adsk won’t even give us licenses for 2020 anymore?

[imag4media]

Strong prefer to leave the first mux input at 0 please.
This isn’t for sake of loading older setups for me.

This is expected format in coding/python and across many cg apps.
Changing expected rules for sake of personal pref breeds chaos.

Some tools are counterintuitive at first glance.
Please don’t assume that’s a reason to change them.

[imag4media]

My 2 cents on autokey:
I specifically choose the “trippy” version so it’s obvious even from corner of my eye.

I’m constantly switching that off/on depending on what I’m doing, with my default being “off”.

If I pickup a setup from someone, clearing out unnecessary keyframes is one of first things I do.

[GPM]

Preach, Andy. PREACH.

[andy_dill]

@hBomb42

Because we all got forced into moving to rocky Linux, and because of how subs work adsk won’t even give us licenses for 2020 anymore?

That sucks. I’d like to think Autodesk would still give you a license for some old software, but who can say. Flame’s a small part of a small part of a staggeringly large company and the people who run it do not give a shiiiit about any of us.

My gripe is that almost everything in flame, from Paint, to Action, to Gmasks are hobbled by the need to be backwards compatible. So unless the devs can figure out a way to secretly bolt on new tools, we don’t get to have them simply because they’d break old tools.

This is part of the reason why paint has the same issues it always has, why there’s no new particle system, why the type system is still janky AF.