Cineform – Premiere to After effects to Premiere workflow

[Steven L. gotz]

Import the green screen footage into After Effects and key it out using Keylight.

Then, you have two choices. You can use Dynamic Link to link the comp back into Premiere Pro. That is great when you are in a hurry and are still making changes, but it can be tough on the PC.

Once I have it where I am really sure I want it, I often export from AE into Quicktime using the Animation codec with Alpha channel. Then I replace the Dynamic Link with the exported footage.

I have also been known to do the keying and then superimpose it over the footage I plan to use. Then I can export from AE using Cineform HD AVI and when I bring it back to Premiere Pro there is no rendering required.

I avoid exporting until the system bogs down. If it never bogs down then keep using the Dynamic Link.

Steven

https://www.stevengotz.com

[Joe Cinquina]

Steven – Thanks for your fast response.

I do understand how the Dynamic Link works and its limitations due to PC performance.

I was must interested in how to export the “edited” green screen footage from premiere, when using Cineform. Should I exported as a quicktime or cineform file to keyout in AE? Then once done is it important to export as a cineform file to bring back into Premiere? How do you preserve the best quality? I guess Im not sure how that works with the Cineform intermediate AVI codec.

Also, the output will be SD DVD. Is this a factor?

[Warren Morningstar]

Is QT animation a lossless codec? I’ve been trying to find a good workflow for my green screen stuff. I shoot HDV and use Cineform Aspect to encode, then cut the key in AE with Keylight. I prefer to bring the matted footage back into Premiere to add the keyed in elements because AE is too slow and cumbersome on my machine. I have a difficult time matching my edits and insertions to the audio. (Maybe I’m doing something wrong in AE, too…) Aspect doesn’t support an alpha channel, so I can’t export back to Premiere using the Cineform codec.

Thanks for the advice.

[Tim Kolb]

All this depends on just how much footage you have…

The CineForm codec won’t give much up in an export>AE>Render keyed footage>Import into PPro.

Working with an alpha channel transparency clip as the AE key project output limits you flexibility in PPro to adjust…but I’ve had some instances when it made sense to do that as well.

You can, of course, simply run the key source footage on top of the background clip in PPro and import the PPro sequence into AE and setup each key and render it out from that…and drop it into the final timeline.

Lots of options…as mentioned, CineForm doesn’t support an alpha channel, but ‘Animation’ QT files are massive. You might try PNG QT files as a test. Jeff Brown introduced that idea to me…works well for certain types of footage.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

CPO, Digieffects