Cineversity

Hello. I’m a Motion Graphics Designer who primarily works in Cinema 4D and After Effects.

Disclamer: I have no experience with using Ross Xpressions and I’ve got minimal experience in a live studio production setup.

At the company I work for, our latest project is to create a new graphics package for the news organization. While designing the graphics package, a frequent road block in designing would be the technical issues and language barriers between our primary design tools (Cinema 4D, After Effects, and Illustrator) and Ross Xpressions (the primary broadcasting graphics software that also talks to ENPS through the MOS plugin).

Yes, one way to solve this issue is for me to learn Xpressions, but budget wise- that would not be possible.

I’m looking for anyone that has experience with working in broadcast design using Xpressions, Cinema 4D, and After Effects and can speak to their workflow process. I’m up for a phone / video call if it would be easier to chat about this that way.

I look forward to this conversation! Thank you!!

Hi abruss,

If I got the presentation from NAB 2016 correctly, there should be a NLE plug-in for Premiere. Since you are using Adobe already and I guess your are savvy with it, to use then the connection to Premiere should be a big obstacle, if at all. Here I would ask Ross for a 1on1 or what ever they offer.
The presentation is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EINmqGZ2Sak

What I think is needed to be clear is what type of data this workflow/pipeline needs. It is mostly template based and works with XML or similar files to assemble to “render” content. As you wrote, you will not operate the system, you just provide the data for it. Isn’t there a list like a white-paper or requirement/spec-list for the data to provide or do they expect templates, XMLs, from your side.

Either way, I guess to have a look here isn’t a big time waster
http://www.rossvideo.com/graphics-system/xpression/xpression-u/
I guess the “tab” clips will be the best to start with for your needs.
There is also a download option for an “Xpression Specifications Sheet”. This will provide you with an folder after un-zipping, and there the Hardware specification will give you an PDF that shows all formats usable for it (Video, Image and 3D formats)

…and certainly the best way to get someone with experience would be here:
http://discussions.rossvideo.com

I hope I didn’t compiled here something that is already to your knowledge. I had no idea about the whole system a half hour ago, but the NAB clip and the Ross university clips, as well the pdfs were quite informative.

Since I guess that time is more the issue here than anything else, I do not think that using the suggest a tutorial forum makes any sense here.

My best wishes, and perhaps someone of our artists/members here like to share/support you.

Hi Dr. Sassi,

Thank you for your reply and the resources you provided from Ross! Yes, the information you provided is something I’ve already researched, but it helps that this is a topic that isn’t too familiar with the C4D community. Tutorials and theXpression-U resource would be the best option to my knowledge, but hearing from someone that has worked as a “pipeline producer” for broadcast would be most efficient, if possible.

Again, your help is greatly appreciated and thank you for your input!

Thanks for the kind feeback, abruss,

The pdf I mentioned gives the render formats (certainly always with alpha channel!) and “obj” as format seems the pipeline option for VR studios.

Since those questions are here in a forum, I believe that others might be interest in it as well. So more details than you might need.
My intention was mostly driven by the question: what formats are usable, so the production is not stopped.

I wish Ross had a compact series for content providers like you and how to create a package for it.
Perhaps they have something and I missed it.

Fingers crossed that someone gives you what you need.
But again, I guess the Ross Xpression forum seems the fastest places to get that connection.

They offer local training:
http://www.rossvideo.com/contact-us/general-inquiries/
Perhaps they know people who just consult for a few hours even via chat.

All the best.