After Effects Sequences Assembled in FCP-Specs?

[Walter Soyka]

[Jesse Harris] “I have been compiling the raw sequences in AE at 24df, 23.976. I started shooting the architectural MKII footage at 30df to preserve sharpness and avoid panning artifacts I might’ve incurred with 24p. I am wondering if I can convert the 29.97 video to 24 in FCP and have it look good. Obviously I am inexperienced in the video world and am extremely grateful for some advice and opinions.”

If you wanted 24p, it would have been best to shoot 24p. Shooting 30p and converting to 24p won’t get you out of the panning issue — that’s just part of 24p and its lower temporal resolution. You can use a product like Magic Bullet Frames to go from 30i to 24p, but 30p to 24p is more difficult. You might also try RE:Vision Effects Twixtor.

[Jesse Harris] “Is there any advantage to working 16 bit in AE with my time lapse sequences? And if so, when would I down-convert to 8 bit – if at all?”

You could work at 16-bit if you’re going to be doing a lot of blurring, compositing, or coloring. ProRes is 10-bit, so you can preserve some of this color depth going into FCP.

[Jesse Harris] “I’m fairly sure there is no relation between Photoshop/still photography color space, (ie: Color Match, Adobe RGB, sRGB etc) and video – but is there a reason to work in a particular color space in AE? Or none at all – and color-correct final output in FCP?”

You should use color management precisely because photos and video handle color differently. Set AE to use the working space of whatever your final output will be (for ProRes in HD, use Rec. 709). Adobe’s color management will handle all the color space conversions seamlessly, behind the scenes, ensuring that your photos appear on video like they did in Photoshop.

[Jesse Harris] “In addition I’ve been reading the preferred codec for rendering, (non-Alpha channel), out of AE for FCP is now Pro Res 422, where some years ago it was Animation. Opinions?”

Going to FCP, there’s no reason not to use ProRes. Animation is only 8-bit, and you’ll likely end up re-rendering it to ProRes in FCP anyway. There are some important notes about using ProRes with After Effects, depending on which version of AE you are running. Check out Todd Kopriva’s blog entries:

• ProRes 422 colors in After Effects (CS3-CS4)
• ProRes 4444 colors and gamma shift when working with AE and FCP (CS3-CS4)
• ProRes 4444 and ProRes 422 in After Effects CS5

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Jesse Harris]

Walter,

Thanks so much for your very thorough response!! Much appreciated. Your comments are of enormous help.

“Frame rate conversions made easy (Important Note: frame rate conversions are supported only from within After Effects and Combustion ).”

https://www.revisionfx.com/products/twixtor/features/#ae_compatible_4

This is from the Twixtor product feature section for AE. This means I would have to import the 29.97 5DMKII videofootage into AE, (I have v10) to make use of this feature, correct? I did not see this exact feature available for FCP – or am I missing it?

https://www.revisionfx.com/products/twixtor/features/#fcp

Thanks for the guidance regarding color space and bit rate!! And if you have time to weigh in regarding clarification above I’d be more than grateful.

Best, Jesse

[Walter Soyka]

[Jesse Harris] “”Frame rate conversions made easy (Important Note: frame rate conversions are supported only from within After Effects and Combustion ).” … This is from the Twixtor product feature section for AE. This means I would have to import the 29.97 5DMKII videofootage into AE, (I have v10) to make use of this feature, correct? I did not see this exact feature available for FCP – or am I missing it?”

I don’t think you’re missing anything. FCP is pretty rigid in how it treats frame rate, so it makes sense to me that the frame rate conversion feature in Twixtor wouldn’t be supported in FCP.

You can download a demo of Twixtor and try it out to make sure you’re happy with the frame rate conversion.

You mentioned that the footage was architectural. You might be able to get away with altering the speed of the footage, instead of trying to convert it. If you interpret your 29.97 fps footage at 23.976 fps in AE, you’ll slow it down 20% and have true, clean 24p footage, with no intermediate frame generation required. As long as there are no people, cars or something else that would show the slow-mo in the shots, it could work.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Jesse Harris]

Once again Walter – thanks so much for taking the time to respond!! Very good and valid feedback! I hadn’t thought of slowing the footage down – although there are people in some of the video footage… I will definitely give Twixtor a try.

I’m sure I’ll be resurfacing on the forum(s) with more questions.

Until then,

Jesse