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Fields
I’m a little new to video so bear with me. I shot some footage at “24P”. The camera recorded at 29.97 and the footage was captured as such.
I loaded it into After Effects and, observing very closely, I happily discovered that enough fields existed in here to provide me with 24 entirely different frames per second. I’m going for a 35 print later on.
How do I make AE do this for me? I tried something called “Magic Bullet” at default settings, but I have a sneaky suspicion (no proof, mind you) that it’s giving me what I want by interpolating fields. By interpolation, I mean that it’s copying an existing field and nudging it up or down to complete the frame.
I don’t want any interpolation to take place, because all the fields I need are right there, in the footage, waiting to be brought together.
What plug-in, if any, should I be looking into?
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8 Replies
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[SSGGMM] “What plug-in, if any, should I be looking into?”
You should probably look at articles about Removing 3:2 Pulldown. Try this: in the Interpret Footage dialog tell AE to ‘Guess’ at Removing 3:2 Pulldown. This will bring your footage to 23.98 FPS, if your footage was shot the way I think it was then each of those frames should consist of 2 fields belonging to the same frame after this process.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
That’s it. That’s all it took. I always wondered what 3:2 pulldown meant. Thanks a lot for that.
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Yes. I understand this quite well. I simply didn’t know that “3:2 pulldown” applied to this process. Makes complete sense, though. Except for the “pullDOWN” part. Shouldn’t it be called a “pull-UP”? I mean, you’re pulling the footage UP to 30, aren’t you?
I digress.
Here’s another issue: AE can’t guess the pulldown cadence when the footage opens with colour bars.
Any way to make this happen, without the insanity of counting, past 30 seconds of bars, past frozen actors, until I finally reach movement and that combing effect?
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The editor is me. I also did the catering. You get the picture.
I get the distinct feeling I’m going to have to find the first clear and obvious cadence and start counting backwards until I reach the start of the colour bars.
Am I right?
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Hopefully this footage was never edited without the 3:2 Pulldown removed, which, among other problems, can result in a non-uniform pulldown pattern.
If the footage was properly handled then you should be able to either render out a short test section of footage, re-import it and have AE guess the pulldown pattern, or look at the split frames and determine the pulldown pattern yourself.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
I was completely aware that the cadence often resets between shots. I sincerely was. I’m going at it one shot at a time.
Yes, entire tapes were captured. These tapes were then split with an AVI splitter because my AE wouldn’t load them otherwise. It’s quite a handful, as you can imagine, but it’s fairly under control.
It’s DVCPRO50, shot with the SDX-900.
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…but if I choose the wrong cadence on a given shot, it WILL be noticeable in my 23.976 composition with pulldown removed, right?
I did a small test. 4 out of the 5 possible cadences led to some unsightly interlacing. Is this simply a lucky shot, or will the same happen on every shot?
Please say yes.
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You have no idea how happy that makes me.
Fact is, I can tell when the image is moving along the way it should at 24fps. That part is easy enough. I don’t even mind selecting the right cadence myself, one shot at a time.
My big concern is this: I’m worried that somewhere, somehow, AE will see fit to interpolate a field without telling me. I simply would not be able to tell on this monitor.
So, to wrap things up, here’s what I’m doing:
1) I load my 29.97 footage;
2) I interpret it lower first, guess pulldown;
3) I drop it into a new comp, which automatically goes to 23.976;
4) I frame-by-frame a segment with a lot of motion, I see that that every frame progresses forward, no combing;
5) I smile and I walk away.
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