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AE CS4 randomly skipping frames when ram previewing
Hello everybody,
I desperately need some help here, please let me know if I’m doing something wrong,
I have a bunch of .mts files that my client sent me via ftp and I’m editing them on Premiere Pro CS4, the files open fine without any need of converter or anything.
Occasionally I need to track some shots so I can stabilize them or add a title plate to them, nothing fancy, 3 or 4 seconds each time at most, so I sent the clip to AE from Premiere in order to only get the part I need rather than the entire clip. So far, so good.
I first tracked with AE built in tracker, and I noticed a couple, maybe three abrupt jumps, so I fixed the tracking manually, then I added a null object and a text parented to it and that’s when I noticed the jerky movement I was getting, as if the file was being interpreted with the wrong filed order, I changed the filed from upper (automatically detected by AE) to lower, turns out upper was right, I got really jerky movement, so I went back to upper, then I thought that maybe the codec was playing tricks on me so I rendered my comp in a number of formats, .mov, .tif, .png. and .tga sequences. I checked the frames on Photoshop and everything looked fine, yet when I imported them back in Ae to track over those again I got the jumps, three or four almost at the end. I played the ram preview frame by frame and I was able to isolate the frames, there were 4 of them only, and they were not being skipped, So I ram previewed up to one frame before the jump happened and everything fine. I ram previewed again with the full work area selected and the jumps are there.
My guess (and I’m no expert at all) is that I got a faulty video card (I got a late 2008 macbook pro with 4 gigs, 2.8ghz and read about some defective video cards made by Nvidia installed on those) but I want to be sure first, any help will be greatly appreciated, I’m under a bit of a deadline here and I tried pretty much everything.
Thanks in advance,
D.
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3 Replies
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With four frames, you should be able to do this manually and meet your deadline. As for the cause of the anomaly, my guess is that it’s the CODEC. Try rendering out from Premiere into an uncompressed format and see if the issues still prevail.
Good Luck
RoRKbroadcastGEMs – AEPro Volume 02 (Professional Adobe After Effects Project Files – Now Available).
Adobe After Effects Training in South East Asia.
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Thanks Roland,
The problem is that is not always the same four or five frames the ones that are skipping, plus is the entire frame the one that it’s jumping so tracking the points manually won’t help either because regardless when I export to .mov or any image sequence the jerkiness is still there, the tracking info is correct but the video will have the bizarre jumps anyway.
What I did is that I followed your advice (at least the second part of it ;-)) and I converted it first with 4media video converter to HD .mov, that took away the jerkiness but darkened the image considerably; since I had no trouble with the original .mts file when I wasn’t tracking it, I used this new darker hd .mov file generated by Video Converter to track the image and then rendered the title plate with an alpha channel and placed it over the original .mts file untracked, that worked for the moment and helped me to meet my deadline.
Any ideas on how to prevent the color shifting when converting the mts file? I already tried a bunch of software and this one seems to be the one that preserves the most quality from the original image.
Best,
D.
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[david Cabestany] “What I did is that I followed your advice (at least the second part of it ;-))”
Hehe. Well, going with conventional practice and expectations, I did keep the best for the last. 🙂
I’m glad it worked out for you. As for the luminance shifts, that has been a demon for years and it’s something that no colour management tool(s) will fully solve for digital video practitioners without requiring obtrusive, individually inventive and manually unnecessary practices for as long as developers (OS and/or applications) in the industry are not able to set a worldwide standard (ISO ?) by which every player abides by for a duration of time long enough to last till perpetuity.
Even if a worldwide standard is set, who is to say that some developer (OS and/or applications) won’t have an economic incentive or an inkling to want to push the envelope, ahead of the rest of the group?
Sort of a rant eh? 🙂
MTS is a 3rd generation digital video architecture, a dynamic media file container. Its role is to encapsulate dynamic media into a viable format for acquisition, distribution and hopefully it is good enough (someday) for actual, seamless post production). It requires CODECs for it work. Depending on the CODEC, OS and application you use, your mileage towards all things related to post production (when the media finally gets into the computer) differs.
The solution – not mutually exclusive are as follows – obtrusive, individually inventive and manually unnecessary practices. In short, use an Adjustment Layer at the end of your AE workflow OR make the neccesary adjustments in your NLE.
Fortunately, this is a one-time thingy. Unfortunately, you will likely have to go through numerous trials before you finally find the correct effect/plugin and the required settings to make amends for the luminance discrepancy that you alluded.
But let’s not forget that youmay encounter issues with changes with hue when going from one acquisition device, its dynamic media’s architecture, its CODEC, your all-conquering OS, your first application to be in contact with the media and thereafer, onto another applicatin and back.
It’s about RGB and YUV and monitor calibration at its simplest but you can always count on developers to make your live easier.
OK, I’ve written too much already, time to check out my just-completed render. Use Levels to sort out the luminace and even changes in hue.
And I did keep the best for last. 😉
Cheers
RoRK
(looking ahead towards an overseas holiday where he can get laid without feeling guilty) 😉broadcastGEMs – AEPro Volume 02 (Professional Adobe After Effects Project Files – Now Available).
Adobe After Effects Training in South East Asia.
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