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Grain. Industry Standard? Is that out of AE’s ballpark?
Hows it going.
I would like to add grain to my feature film, but am not sure If I should take it to a post facility where they have Flame, Smoke, Lustre, I dont want a divinchi at all.
How did George Lucas and others who shot with 1080p HD add realistic 35mm grain to their films? I would like to achieve this same, if not better result.
Magic Bullet suite is out there.
Ae has built in grain effects.
Possibly Shake or Combustion?What will give me a realistic 35mm grain look, because this needs to be done asap. Thanks. If AE has a plugin that could do this, great, if not, let me know where I should expect this kind of results. Thanks.
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6 Replies
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Hmm, sounds good. So my goal is for theatrical distribution, transfering to a 35mm print.
That brings up a new question to add to the list.
1. What is the best adding grain to 1080p HD footage?
2. Would one add grain to the HD master, or would the 35mm grain add naturally without any filters when transferred to a 35mm print, meaning adding grain in post, will double, the actual grain on the 35mm print.
3. Should I have 2 versions of the final master.
– 1 version with grain – to show at festivals, etc, to replicate to DVD,
– 1 version without grain – incase my film gets picked up for 35mm transfer, to allow the 35mm print to add the grain automatically?
–Clint Nitkiewicz Hern
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Andrew Kramer has a grain preset that gives you more control over the grain
https://www.videocopilot.net/presets.html?id=73
not sure if it’ll do what ya need
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Here’s my 1.5 cents:
AE can do wonders with the built in grain tools. Andrew Kramer (homesite: http://www.videocopilot.net) has some great presets available, one of which is a grain addition via a noise filter.
AE’s tools work very very well, but the grain tools can be EXTREMELY time consuming to render. Kramer’s tool *I BELIEVE* uses a fractal noise filter (very fast) and randomizes the seed… again, if I had to guess. I have the preset, though I have not used it yet. In tests it looked very good and much faster than AE’s built in tools.
I would recommend trying a trial film out of your project as Dave suggested above. Say a test reel of a few minutes of film. Most of the time when you are adding grain you are simulating film for another medium (video) or matching grain for composited objects that you want to look like they belong. If you film out everything to 35mm, you get the real (pun intended) deal. IF you’re unhappy with the results of the test, THEN you can drive yourself crazy trying to add in some grain prior to film out. I will warn you though, trying to “add” grain and then sending to film which has its own grain, may be more difficult to match and look natural than you think….
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Austin Reeves
AR&C
Production & Post Production Services -
Thanks Austin, that is some definate good info. Lets take the film 28 days later for example, shot on cannon xl1, no grain on original tape.
For theatrical release, looked great, like it was shot on film.
Did they not add grain in post, and just allow the 35mm print to do the grain adding for them, which is totally natural, or.
Did they add grain in post, and the print to 35mm added another coat of grain?
My goal is for optimal results as theirs… Thanks.
Seems to me like all these post tools to add grain, etc, are simply for shows that will air on television or go straight to dvd, not ever to touch a real film print, though correct me if Im wrong.
Thanks, and I welcome the more feedback the better, grain can get a bit confusing, especially when everyone is using it for different reasons, television, the web, dvd, theatrical release as I.
Clint Nitkiewicz Hern
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Well hopefully I was able to help somewhat, but look at it like this…
If you shoot on film:
-acquire on film (grain)
-telecine to video
-edit non-linear
-post & color correct
-reverse telecine back to film (more grain, but more importantly, MATCHING grain)If you shoot video:
-shoot on video (slight grain depending on format)
-edit
-post & cc
-film out to print (grain)I think to TRUELY know for sure you’ll just have to buck up and film out a minute or 3 and see what it looks like, but yes almost always when I’ve added grain it was either for an effect (think Night vision), to composite in a CG element (so that it looks like it was shot with the camera originally), or to add slight “film grain” to video to make it look more like film. In the last case this was always for video that was to STAY video. I think you will probably find that everything looks good in the film out.
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Austin Reeves
AR&C
Production & Post-Production Services
Washington, DC -
Ahhh, thanks Austin, everything is much clearer now! I work in a post house, where the Flame artists add grain, and color correct, etc, but it almost always is going to be shown on television. I guess that topic is not mentioned too much, whether to add grain or not if ones ultimate goal is theatrical release.
What is your recommendation may I ask?
Say all of George Lucas’s films, and other digital films shot on high end either vipers or f900s, they all film without grain.
Do you think they added grain in post, and added an additional natural coat when they printed to film? Or do you think they did not add any grain, and let the 35mm print do its job?
Because I know I can have my technique, but its good to know what others are doing, to stay on the safe side.
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