AVI to Quicktime to AVI conversion problem

[Kevin Camp]

what are the render settings for your avi vs. your mov? what codec are you using for your avi vs. mov (mpeg-2, lossless, uncompressed, etc.)? are you creating a progressive dvd or interlaced?

i suspect your field dominance may be incorrect on your quicktimes. it’s also possible that you’re rendering progressive on your quicktimes, both of which are set in the render settings.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

sorry, i just re-read your post… you using the animation codec (lossless, i assume) in quicktime.

i’m confused by your work flow… originally i thought you were outputting two file types of the same comp, one avi and the other mov and seeing differences. but i’m not sure why you are taking an avi into ae, rendering it out as a mov, importing that back into ae (for effects presumably) and then rendering out to avi? if you’re able to work with the avi in ae, then just keep working with it and output your final back out to avi.

i’m not sure what you’re trying to gain by converting to a mov in the middle?

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Mark Garvey]

Yeah I’m confused by my workflow too!!

When I try to work with the original uncompressed AVI in AE It’s almost impossible to work with but works as I mentioned the first 2 clips I did just that with and perfect pictures but a nightmare to work with.

I then decided to encode the AVI into a Quicktime ANIMATION Uncompressed which AE really likes and I can work with, everything flows very smoothly but when I output AVI Uncompressed and then take that file into DVD Studio Pro and it encodes it to mpeg2 it jitters.

The same thing is also happening on my clients machine when he makes a DVD ffrom the file the other 2 files are fine.

I’m guessing it must be the encoding to quicktime or the encoding back to AVI.

Any ideas on workflow would be very gratefully received .

[Mark Garvey]

I have an AVI uncompressed to start

I then imported into IMovie to convert and output a Quicktime Animation uncompressed which I then take into AE.

After adding my effect I then output to AVI uncompressed.

I then deliver the AVI uncompressed on ~DVD to my client he then compiled his movie and then burnt a DVD. Jitters appear!!

In all there are 3 scenes 2 of the scenes I applied my effect in AE without converting to Quicktime and
they are fine but a nightmare to work with everything is very slow.

But when I converted the 3rd AVI to quicktime Animation codec uncompressed and AE really likes that file type, real easy to work with but does not work when encoded back to mpeg2 for DVD playback. The other 2 are fine on DVD playback.

I think I have a workflow problem can you help.

[Robert Houghton]

Jitter can happen with multiple causes. When you import the AVI into AE, does it interpret fields in the original file? If so, output the Quicktime with the same field interpolation and the problem should go away. If you are not interpreting the fields on the imported footage properties try doing that and then following the above directions.

I use QT all the time at work (Mac environment), not sure if there’s a similar Codec in windows media to QT’s Animation codec.

-Rob

Motion Graphics Animation
Professional & Freelance
Respond2

Opinions expressed above are not in any way connected to Respond2.

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[Mark Garvey]

The reason for the .mov in the middle is i’m using a mac OSX and AE will not import AVI I have recieved. So the only way I’ve found of converting to something AE OSX can read is to output from IMovie to Quicktime ANIMATION . AE seems to like that and it’s the only lossless I can find.

if you know any other workflow I would really like to know.

many thanks all

[Kevin Camp]

i think imovie may be the problem… i think (i don’t know for sure) that imovie works in dv. when you import the avi, does it take little while, longer than just opening a clip might take? if so, i believe you are converting your uncompressed avi to dv and then converting dv to the lossless animation codec and somewhere along the line your field order is getting messed up.

try going to flip4mac… download and install the free player. it gets installed as a quicktime component and i believe it will allow ae to read avi. that way you can either use it in ae or use ae to convert it, making sure you are maintaining the correct field interpretation.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

th more i think about your avi issue, the more i get confused…

you mentioned that ae worked slow with an avi… ae isn’t a realtime app so high data rate formats rarely make much of a difference speed wise, its generally just the frame size or frame rate that effects rendering rather than file size (mega/kilobytes). are you transfering the avi to your hard disk or working from the dvd? i could see a speed issue if you were working from a dvd.

if the problem is that ae can’t read the avi then i think the free flip4mac player that i mentioned before may help.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Mark Garvey]

Oh yes most definitely on the hard. It

[Kevin Camp]

i’ve actually never used an avi in ae, but i found i can export them via the file menu, but can’t render them from render queue. i do wonder what codec they might have used in the avi that seems to be requiring so much processing to decode…

next time you might ask for an image sequence, most software that can spit out a media file will also export an image sequence. i always dislike having to jump through too many hoops to get a project done.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW