200 things all Flame Artists should know.*
*Or so I’ve heard.
When in doubt, blur it out.
If you can’t fix it, mix it.
If you can’t solve it, dissolve it.
If it’s silly and it works it’s not silly.
How to become someone’s favorite, and why it’s a good thing.
The number of hours of sleep your body needs each night to feel good.
The number of vegetables you should eat each day to feel good.
How often you need to exercise to feel good.
The difference between a lift and a shove.
How to scromp.
When to ask for help.
Nine foods that start with the letter Q.
When it’s okay to ignore the edit.
How to read a room, er, Zoom.
How to serve coffee.
How to make tea.
How to recommend a good lunch spot.
How to serve lunch.
The power of directional blur.
When to apologize.
How to apologize.
What to do when you screw something up.
How often you’ll screw something up.
The importance of homemade bump maps.
What title safe is.
What action safe is.
When to care about title safe.
When to care about action safe.
Both ways to make 29.97fps from 23.976.
How to fix Backburner yourself.
Why your timelines should always be 10 bit.
How to choose the right surface filtration in Action.
The one time each year you should be using Anti-Aliasing in Action.
The difference between archiving and disaster recovery.
When it’s okay to sit on set.
How long it takes you to upload 10gigabytes.
How to type your own legal.
The top 10 most commonly used fonts.
How to additive key.
When to roto it yourself.
When to get someone else to do it.
How long :30 is.
How short :30 is.
The correct order of 5.1 audio channels.
When you should stay late.
When you should go home.
How to eyematch an edit.
How to rack a machine.
The difference between MB and Mb.
How to pronounce Mb’s last name.
How to compress your EXRs.
When to work at native res.
The gift of gab.
Your client’s kids names.
Your director’s name.
Your editor’s name.
Why you should hardly ever use Lanczos in your timeline.
Why matte containers are overrated.
How to manage your own time.
How to bid your own time.
How to give accurate time estimates.
How to disable your Wacom’s buttons.
The feel of Cherry MX Red keys.
The sound of IBM keyboards.
What it feels like to save the day.
What it feels like to earn another invitation.
How often you should archive.
How to write archives efficiently.
How to compress archives.
How to kill Flame that’s crashed.
How to check your own comps.
How to receive feedback.
How to deliver feedback.
How to get what you want.
When to shut up.
How to match blacks.
How to match whites.
How to use color management.
The simple joy of an Aeron headrest.
When to get out of your chair and walk around the block.
When to send thank you cards.
When to send thank you wine.
When to send thank you whiskey.
The importance of a clean work environment.
How small our role is in the image making process.
How hard it is to work in production.
How hard it is to make something that’s never been made before.
When to use someone else’s pictures.
When it’s better to be kind than correct.
The difference between premultiplied and unpremultiplied images.
How an alpha channel works.
The 3 different ways to work on anamorphic images and when to chose each one.
The 5 ways to convert frame rates and when to chose each one.
The sound of your producer’s high heels on hardwood floors.
The sound of your creative director’s high heels on hardwood floors.
The sound of your boss’s high heels on hardwood floors.
The sound of Mr. Kneale’s laugh.
How to be humble.
How to 1 point track.
How to 2 point track.
How to planar track.
How to object track.
How to camera track.
How to import a camera and geo.
How to describe what you do to a complete stranger.
The importance of music.
When to wear perfume or cologne in a session.
What cable to jiggle.
What a tweaker is.
The average size of a 4k 16bit EXR.
The average size of a 2k 10bit log DPX.
The average size of a :30 ProRes.
How to export a file with an embedded alpha.
How to read a spec sheet.
What to ignore in a spec sheet.
How often a lift is a lift.
How often it’s in title safe.
How often your cg renders will be on time.
How often your cg renders will need denoising.
How to use an ST map.
How to use a UV map
How to use a depth map.
How to take a depth map.
How to use motion vectors.
How to normalize motion vectors.
How to create a fake reflection.
How to create a fake shadow.
How to create fake chromatic aberration.
How to remove chromatic aberration.
How to create fake caustics.
How two create fake distortion.
How to texture a cylinder.
How to make a displacement map.
How to use a displacement map.
The difference between digi green screen chroma green screen.
The feeling of a new computer.
The feeling of Sony MDR-7506s on your ears.
The average number of shots in a spot.
The average number of deliverables in a campaign.
The difference between box and gaussian blurs.
What ISCI stands for.
The syntax of an AD-ID.
When to use green screen.
When to use blue screen.
The feeling of a 1 click key.
How much time it actually takes to key a green screen.
How to fix dark edges on a green screen.
Why grey screen is overrated.
The average cost of you every day.
The average price your company charges for your work.
How to network with other artists.
How to negotiate compensation.
The smell of burning plastic.
The smell of burning metal.
Where the nearest fire extinguisher is.
Where to find extra pen nibs.
The cost to power your Flame every day.
When to let someone struggle.
When to check in with someone who is struggling.
How to develop your own bullshit meter.
Why the grass is greener.
The sound of a Spirit 4K rewinding film.
How to hold a 1,200 foot lab roll without dropping it.
What to do when you drop 1,200 feet of motion picture film.
The difference between field-based and frame based pulldown.
How many frames a dissolve should be.
The importance of making generics.
The best keyers for human skin.
The correct number of minutes to be early for an interview.
The correct number of minutes to be late for an internal meeting.
How to cut a showreel.
How to rip a video from YouTube.
How often you should have staff meetings.
How to name your files.
How many handles to use.
How many handles to care about.
How to add frames to an already consolidated shot.
The difference between a rolling shutter and a global shutter.
When its okay for your matte to have holes in it.
How to install your own plugins.
How to install your own Matchbox Shaders.
How loud the music in your session should be.
The number of points you need to manually 3d track something.
How to take a photograph.
How a motion picture camera works.
How interpolation works.
How extrapolation works.
How to write an expression.
When brute force makes sense.
The difference between spherical and anamorphic lenses.
The average number of times the Production Supervisor will refer to you as “the science club” on set.
When it’s appropriate to name drop.
How to read a waveform monitor.
How to read a vector scope.
How to read a VU meter.
How to move audio by subframes.
When to shoot a clean plate.
How to make a clean plate.
How to be compassionate.
How to lead with empathy.
When to turn your phone off.
The correct number of minutes to arrive at a job interview early.
The frequency of which a different matte actually works.
How to slice lemons.
How to fix your hotkeys in Centos 7.6
What an ascender is.
What a descender is.
What a main line is.
How to ping a computer.
How to run a Volume Integrity Check.
How to restart X server.
How to install a cage nut.
The frequency in which zip ties are appropriate.
How to build a team.
How much Nuke you should actually learn.
The difference between line out and mic out.