We're looking for a Plugin that will allow us to show a countdown on screen - from at least 3 hours to zero.

I know I can bodge this is various ways (TC Generator etc...) or make it in After Effects, but we're trying to keep it within the Avid Environment.  Anyone know of one?  We have BCC and AvidFX, but I don't think there's anything in there.

Any help, greatly appreciated!

I'm just guessing here, but could you use MC 3.0's new timecode plugin on an empty timeline with 3 hours of filler?

Set up your font choices etc... then render it out.

Import it into whatever project is needed and essentially 'reverse' the playback so it counts down instead of up?

(Of course, this would by no means be the quickest solution due to rendering 3 hours of timecode. Unless you made it in a lower-resolution project and cropped only the area you wanted?)

If you have After Effects I'd go with that.

You know, I think the new TC effect is really great, and also a bit of a wasted opportunity.

There's no way of changing the font, style, or adding drop shadow etc..

If there was, this would be a killer way to do a countdown - with a workaround or two.

Shame.

That sort of thing is really common in live titling applications, so perhaps one of the plugin versions of those has something?

[Edited...]

Maybe this? http://www.chyron.com/products/software/lyricforavidplugins.aspx

Ra-ey Saleh:

 a countdown on screen - from at least 3 hours to zero.

3 hours! Wow.

I'm guessing a CG such as a Deko or Chyron would be the best tool for the job.

I've done a few countdowns in AE for tradeshows, "Next Show in 15 minutes".  But never anything as long as 3 hours.  I suppose if you did this in AE you would measure the render time in days or weeks instead of hours. 

Haze:

Ra-ey Saleh:

 a countdown on screen - from at least 3 hours to zero.

 

3 hours! Wow.

3 Hours, at LEAST.

Sycophant:

That sort of thing is really common in live titling applications, so perhaps one of the plugin versions of those has something?

[Edited...]

Maybe this? http://www.chyron.com/products/software/lyricforavidplugins.aspx

Thanks, will look into this.  And yeah, 3 hours is a LONG time.  Trying to convince them to render out 18 x 10 mins files from AE, but they seem pretty determined.  We'll see.

In the old days. we'd just make a countdown on an Aston in a Linear suite and pit it to tape!

Like I said earlier, I actually think the new TC effect is a little bit of a missed opportunity, I mean it had the engine, just not the parameters...

After Effects expressions make it fairly easy to create the countdown quite easily.

Let us know if you find something.

Oh well, sometimes you can't save the clients from themselves.   

Once it's done are you going to compress the heck out of it and put it on a DVD?

The data rate for putting 3 hrs on a DVD is around 3 Mb/sec.  -  it'll look gorgeous.

Haze:

Oh well, sometimes you can't save the clients from themselves.   

Once it's done are you going to compress the heck out of it and put it on a DVD?

The data rate for putting 3 hrs on a DVD is around 3 Mb/sec.  -  it'll look gorgeous.

Yeah, 3Mb/s for a single-sided single-layer DVD. But if they've a dual-layer burner/disc to hand then they could get that bitrate closer to 5.8Mb/s which would actually look fairly decent.

Haze:

Oh well, sometimes you can't save the clients from themselves.   

Once it's done are you going to compress the heck out of it and put it on a DVD?

The data rate for putting 3 hrs on a DVD is around 3 Mb/sec.  -  it'll look gorgeous.

 

 

No, it's actually for a show we're about to work on ('so technically the 'client' is us).

We'll only backup to DVD at the very end.

Still waiting to hear back from Chyron, but as it takes 2 days to register Online, I'm not exactly holding my breath.  Seems AE will be the way to go.

 Avid FX has text fields that can be configured to count - I've used them for counting up numbers and day/date/month so I assume it will also count down time - never tried one on a 3 hour counter.  Would be tempted to create a 60min countdown clip then add the hour number as static real time FX out of Marquee and put 3 edits in for 3, 2, 1 etc.  Render time would be significantly reduced this way.

Avid FX?  Really.

Be great if you had to time to talk us through it.  The 3 hour thing is the least important thing (as now they're talking about reducing the clock).

 Not in front of the Avid today but from memory

1. * Add Avid FX plugin to timeline and open avid FX
2. * add text layer in AvidFX
3. * Select font and text size etc as per normal - I think you would add your character seperators too ie ":"
4. * Go to the layer window in FX and expand the text layer with the little arrow symbol next to it
5. * There will be a sub layer called "text" or similar - select this (sorry to be vague here)

Selecting this sub component of the text layer will give you a whole lot more tab options in the edit window and one will be annimate text.  From within this dialogue you'll be able to choose "type on" "reveal" and an option field for counter.  You select date time or counter settings from in here.  This is keyframeable so you want a "linear" FX and set the start time you want with the sliders (or are they field boxes - again a bit vague in my head), go to the end of the timeline and select its keyframe and give it an end time and "linear" and voila - timer.  Key thing to remember here is that the timer doesn't care if you give it a 60minute count on a 50minute clip - it just counts quicker, so for your 1 or 3 hour timer to be accurate, you'll need to have a timeline that matches it.

PS - I added dot points in this post and they dont come up - why?

The bullet points haven't worked since the forums were upgraded, Carl.