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Proxies and File Resolution
OK, I HAVE searched around, trying to find some authoritative answers to a general question and have had no luck.
Mainly, “What are the most effective, accurate proxy codecs for working with 2K (2048 x 1556 RGBA 16 bit color) files in the Adobe recommended ProPhoto RGB Linear colorspace ?
I tend to work with Silent Era motion picture files that are captured in one pass per reel and dumped in a directory — usually 12,500 to 16,000 files per directory.
I need to import the files as one string of footage, render the proxy, break the footage up into discreet shots and then dust bust, stabilize and color correct before rendering back out to either a HDTV image or back to TIFF files for film output.
I work with a HP XW8000 dual Xeon 2.6 ghz, 3gb ram running Windows XP Pro SP3, NVIDIA GeForce 7 300 – 512 MB video card, a 2.5 TB ESATA 300 array — not exactly cutting edge, but being that MOST of my After Effects plugins won’t run on 64 bit systems, I don’t see the profit in investing in all the ram and extra processors that won’t be used anyway.
I tried using Quicktime movies @ 1/2 resolution using the Pro RGB codec with 95% quality and they render out totally black. What a waste of 4 hours!
I tried Windows Media Files (.AVI) @ 1/2 resolution and uncompressed, but for some reason, the file is cropped and much darker than the original footage. which kind of kills the whole purpose of using proxies…
Any thoughts?
Kinohead
“The camera is a base instrument; you must do violence to it…” Orson Welles
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3 Replies
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Posted this question on several boards and got no response, so I went to Adobe and asked them:
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Thank you for contacting Adobe® Web Support for assistance with Adobe
After Effects® CS3.
I understand that you would like to know what codec to use to render
proxies of your 2K footage.
You may consider rendering your proxies using the DV-AVI codec, as this
will typically preserve the color qualities of your footage while
producing a fairly small file. To do this:
1. Add your composition to the Render Queue.
2. In the Output Module Settings of the Render Queue, select Video For
Windows as the Format.
3. Click Format Options, and then select Microsoft DV for the
compressor click OK.
4. On the Color Management tab of the Output Module Settings, verify
that Preserve RGB is unchecked, and that Convert To Linear Light is set
to On or On For 32 BPC.
5. Click OK to close the Output Module Settings window, and then render
your footage.
I also understand that when you rendered your footage to an Apple®
Quicktime® format, the resulting video was entirely black.
For this issue, you may want to verify that you have the latest version
of Quicktime Player installed, and that your video card drivers are
up-to-date. Visit the Apple website to obtain the latest version of
Quicktime, and visit the website of your video card manufacturer to obtain the latest video drivers.********************
I am posting this in hopes it may help others with similar problems in the future.
Kinohead
“The camera is a base instrument; you must do violence to it…” Orson Welles
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So much for taking things at face value…
It appears these settings bomb-out in the AE compressor with the error: “After Effects error: image size or format not supported by compressor, or there may be a hardware or memory problem (53::30).”
This may or may not have something to do with the quality settings in the render queue. I set mine at “HIGH”, as it would be useless to have “draft” quality settings when I am trying to dust bust an image.
I will continue to post as I find out a solution, for whatever it is worth…
Kinohead
“The camera is a base instrument; you must do violence to it…” Orson Welles
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No answers from Adobe or any boards I have posted to, so I fell-back and disabled color correction, but am working in 32 bit project space, so I hope I can make all my corrections and then do an overall correction to render out to HDTV or Film color space for final output.
Broken and confused color space issues in After Effects seems to be the 800 LB gorilla in the room that no one wants to see…
Kinohead
“The camera is a base instrument; you must do violence to it…” Orson Welles
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