New to community and filming. Need professional help - Special Effects/Audio

[SteveFX]

Hello everyone, I am glad I found this site. The involvement and community as far as I have seen is great.

Filming is something I have always wanted to do since my youth and now that I am graduated from high school and moving on to college I want to dedicate my time and schooling to get in a quality filming career. I want to specialize in Special Effects and Audio but I have no idea where to start. Coming this fall I have a group of friends, some coming from far away to get together and start spending time learning how to make quality films. My job is to be the best I can at the special effects and the audio end of things. What id like to do is jump into the professional programs used for these aspects. My situation right now makes things easy to get going. I have lots of time on my hands and my budget wont be a problem whatsoever, I just need the best and I want to learn from the best.

I have heard that Adobe After Effects is what most professionals use. After looking at some youtube videos I kept thinking to myself that I wanted more. Maybe what I saw was shorts that havent had enough time spent on them to satisfy my hopes. For Special Effects used in Professional Films that hit the box office for example, is this the "common" program that is used?

So far as ive seen, Sony Vegas is also the common program used for audio enhancement and editing. Is this also true?

Bottom line of what im asking is, are these 2 programs "the" top of the line for quality films. If I am going to spend my time learning how to include special effects in videos and including the best audio, I dont like the idea of being held back from something that could have more versatility and quality if spent time learning and practicing.

Thanks in advance

Steve

 

[Anim8]

This is a loaded question.....

So are you going to college for this stuff or just getting some friends together to make a movie?

For effects, After Effects is where you want to start. A lot of "pros" out there never use anything else. If the youtube vids didn't meet your expectations, it's not because of the software. Most kids throw in an explosion or blood shot and call it done. Theres no thought to environment, movement, camera angle, etc.
If you can do shots in AE that people cant discern from reality, then think about moving on to bigger and better. You are looking at a big chunk of time learning the basics of AE coming from little to no experience in editing/compositing.

For audio I would recommend you start off with something like cubase or Reaper (free). Theres every bit as much, or more to learn with audio as there is with doing effects. If you can master recording, mixing, correction and effects with these, then step up to protools.

Honestly, to do both of these on a pro level within a year would be next to impossible. The best compositors/FX people out there have some type of artistic background. The audio guys are 99.9% musicians first.
You have to have an eye for FX and an ear for music. $20k in software wont make you any better if you don't have talent.

If you are making a movie with your friends it may be better/cheaper/easier just to farm the fx and audio out to "pros".

Either way, good luck!

 

[SteveFX]

Thanks for the reply. For the time being I will be playing with FX and sound for the shorts our group will put together. Once I get later in my career, I definately feel my position would be best served in special effects, so that is where I will place my focus. I do plan on going to college. I am hoping for USC next fall. Until then its just shooting shorts. The only benefit I have is not worrying about any budget. Im sure if money wasnt an issue, some of you would also be looking for the best ways to improve your videos. I do agree that all the equipment/software in the world wont do anything without the talent. The money spent on the best equipment is a small portion of what would produce a good movie.

 

[Alcove Audio]

Mastering both audio and CGI would be an enormous undertaking. I'm an audio guy, and I spend a lot of time just keeping up on the technology and the techniques, and maintaining and upgrading my gear.

The DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) you choose will be depend upon if you are using a Mac or a PC.

For a Mac - Pro Tools, Digital Performer and Logic are the programs most professionals use. Nuendo and Cubase are popular with intermediate and amateur users. People who own Final Cut use SoundTrack Pro, which comes bundled with FCP. Pro Tools is the standard, mostly because it got there first and is heavily supported by third party plug-in manufacturers. PT HD systems are extremely expensive - getting started costs a minimum of $25k. There are also PT native systems (PT LE). If you are going to use a native system any of the other DAWs will do just as well.

For PC - Pro Tools, Nuendo, Cubase and Sound Forge are the more popular DAWs.

Besides the DAW software you will need a quality audio interface, good speakers (are you doing stereo or 5.1 surround?) and a couple of decent microphones as well as a sound proofed and sound treated listening environment. You're also going to need a few audio plug-ins that don't come standard with the DAW, such as Noise Reduction and IR reverb. You'll have to learn EQ, dynamics processing, noise reduction and delay & reverb effects.

You are going to have to learn the techniques of dialog editing, production sound clean-up, ADR, Foley, sound FX creation and music editing as well as re-recording (mixing).

It's an awfully big bite to take on in one year.

 

[SteveFX]

Mastering both audio and CGI would be an enormous undertaking. I'm an audio guy, and I spend a lot of time just keeping up on the technology and the techniques, and maintaining and upgrading my gear.

The DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) you choose will be depend upon if you are using a Mac or a PC.

For a Mac - Pro Tools, Digital Performer and Logic are the programs most professionals use. Nuendo and Cubase are popular with intermediate and amateur users. People who own Final Cut use SoundTrack Pro, which comes bundled with FCP. Pro Tools is the standard, mostly because it got there first and is heavily supported by third party plug-in manufacturers. PT HD systems are extremely expensive - getting started costs a minimum of $25k. There are also PT native systems (PT LE). If you are going to use a native system any of the other DAWs will do just as well.

For PC - Pro Tools, Nuendo, Cubase and Sound Forge are the more popular DAWs.

Besides the DAW software you will need a quality audio interface, good speakers (are you doing stereo or 5.1 surround?) and a couple of decent microphones as well as a sound proofed and sound treated listening environment. You're also going to need a few audio plug-ins that don't come standard with the DAW, such as Noise Reduction and IR reverb. You'll have to learn EQ, dynamics processing, noise reduction and delay & reverb effects.

You are going to have to learn the techniques of dialog editing, production sound clean-up, ADR, Foley, sound FX creation and music editing as well as re-recording (mixing).

It's an awfully big bite to take on in one year.

Yeah, I really dont expect to learn all this in 1 year but I would like to start with something ill still be using years down the road, especially for special effects. What im looking at right now is choosing between Adobe Creative Suite or Final Cut Studio. I have both a PC and a Mac so it doesnt matter if I use either. Anyone have any pros and cons to Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut Studio? What are the strengths and weaknesses of both packages?

 

[Anim8]

You are asking about visual effects, special effects are done on set.

If you want to do visual effects, then you need After Effects and Photoshop.
Final Cut is really an editing suite.

It sounds like you need to do some more research before you jump into this. Theres plenty of info out there, just read it.