Affter Effects: Importing MPEG 4 video

[David Bogie]

Most of us transcode codecs like MPEG4 to an editable video format before coming into AE. Just makes life easier.

from the AE Help System, supported video formats:

MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 formats: MPEG, MPE, MPG, M2V, MPA, MP2, M2A, MPV, M2P, M2T, M2TS (AVCHD), AC3, MP4, M4V, M4A
Note: Some MPEG data formats are stored in container formats with filename extensions that are not recognized by After Effects; examples include .vob and .mod. In some cases, you can import these files into After Effects after changing the filename extension to one of the recognized filename extensions. Because of variations in implementation in these container formats, compatibility is not guaranteed.

bogiesan

[Kevin Camp]

[david bogie] “Most of us transcode codecs like MPEG4 to an editable video format before coming into AE.”

yep. for use in ae, look into transcoding them to a codec that does not use temporal compression. uncompressed avi, lossless mov, quicktime photo-jpeg, apple’s pro res, avid’s dnxhd (free from avid) or even dvcprohd will work much better in ae.

if you are looking for a free app to convert your mpeg4 to a codec that does not use temporal compression you might look at mpeg streamclip. free, multiplatform and pretty straight forward to use.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Jerome Chenette]

” look into transcoding them to a codec that does not use temporal compression.”
” mpeg streamclip”

How might I do this and what format would be best?
Thank You.

[Kevin Camp]

[Jerome Chenette] “How might I do this and what format would be best?”

try one of the 6 codecs i listed, any of them will work with hd resolution footage… ‘best’ for you will be a combination of image quality and file size/data rate that works with your system.

uncompressed avi and lossless mov are great, you won’t lose any image data due to compression, but hd footage files will be huge.

photo-jpeg is a standard part of quicktime and has very good image quality at high quality settings (loss isn’t noticeable at levels above 90), but the file size/data rate can be a bit high compared to other lossy codecs.

apple’s pro res is a good alternative, but you’d need the fcp suite to get it. avid’s dnxhd is very similar and is offered free (search their site) as a quicktime component.

dvcprohd is ok and the data rate is pretty low compared to others (will playback in realtime off firewire800).

[Jerome Chenette] “mpeg streamclip”

it’s just an application that can convert a lot of different codecs/formats. i just mentioned it in case you were looking for an application to convert your mp4 media. click the link i gave and you can read about what it does to see if you need it. if you are using an nle to edit footage prior to taking it to ae, then you can use the nle to export the footage to another formate with a codec that i listed above, and you wouldn’t need mpeg streamclip (or similar application).

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Which AE version are you using, Jerome?

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Jerome Chenette]

Adobe after effects master suite CS3

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Yes, Jerome.
After Effects CS3 doesn’t support MPEG-4/H264 video. CS4 added support for handling these formats, since it’s what AVCHD uses (there are a couple of issues with some flavors, though).
The reason why CS3 imports theses files at all… is tricky: the Quicktime architecture reports that it can read these files. But not in a way that AE can use.
So, for CS3, it’s true that you will have to convert the files to something else (as explained above).

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Jerome Chenette]

Are you saying that is might be well worth the expense to upgrade to CS4.
Is it an issue with the hardware at all….I am having difficulty rendering particular effects in pre-compositions…..is it the hardware. How many gigs do you recommend (is 4 sufficient)?
Thanks

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Jerome: I work for the Adobe After Effects team, so I am kind of partial regarding the convenience of upgrading to CS4 🙂
Each new version of After Effects adds support for recently introduced formats. But it’s all relative, because as you saw, some users prefer to convert some formats to something else before using them in AE (a whole subject in itself).

The amount of RAM you’ll need doesn’t change that much from CS3 to CS4. In fact, AE CS4 does have more control over variables when you don’t have that much RAM (like limiting the number of cores used for rendering). In any case, RAM usage is more dependent on other factors. For example, if you work at HD resolutions, you will need more RAM. Yes, 3 or GB of RAM would be recommended. Otherwise, RAM previews would be very limited in their duration, and some Composition may not render successfully. If you want to take advantage of multiple cores (by enabling the “Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously” feature), then you will need even more RAM (2 or 3 GB per processor/core on your machine).

Adolfo Rozenfeld · Adobe

[Jerome Chenette]

If I’m not mistaken is it not true that the Adobe Creative Suite 4 for Macs is 32 bit? Is that not a great loss?