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Exporting DVCPRO HD from AE (PC) to FCP 23.98 FPS
Hello,
I’m working on some vfx shots for a foreign production. Project specifications as received from the
editor are: DVCPRO HD 960 x 720 23.98 FPS 1.33 pixel aspect.We did most of the vfx work and we started uploading *.rar archives containing *.tga sequences of the
finished footage.
The first thing I observed was that, while AE 7.0 supports DVCPRO HD, 6.5 does not so we created a composition preset with the exact same size and framerate, but with squarepixels as I didn’t find any 1.33
pixel aspect option in AE 6.5. As a sidenote as simple as it may be this pixel aspect thing has always given me headaches.
As I said we started uploading finished shots and the strange thing is that, while some shots look ok when inserted in the client’s edit, for most of them we received feedback which sound like:“the motion is too fast. 26 frames are missing”
“32 frames are missing”
“motion not fluid, missing 22 frames”
so on and so forth.Knowing that we’re working 23.98 and that this may arrise issues we checked and double checked every bloody composition in AE to makes sure everything is setup correctly. Moreover what puzzles is me is why some footage ended up OK most of it is busted. I really don’t get it although I’m biased to think it’s a framerate and pixel aspect issue but I don’t know if it is on our side or on theirs.
Alternativelly, I’m thinking that, there might have been some problem with the archiving or upload… I don’t know what to think…I’m in a pretty bad way here so if anyone has any ideea as to what has happened or what might I do please share.
Thanks,
CB -
8 Replies
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Strange.
Was the number of missing frames a constant percentage of the total number of frames for each shot?
Was your stuff all CG or did you deal with some captured footage?
Did you try taking a “bad” sequence and Zip it (not RAR) to see if it was just as bad on their end? -
“Was the number of missing frames a constant percentage of the total number of frames for each shot?”
Well… the number of frames vary per each individual shot but I don’t know if the percentage was actually equal. I’ll check this out.
“Was your stuff all CG or did you deal with some captured footage?”
We started with captured footage sent by the client and we just composited over some effects stuff, mostly 2D, only here in there some 3D dust particles that were that were rendered as tga’s in 24 frames from 3ds max (which cannot run in 23.98) and composited over the footage in the 23.98 fps AE composition.
“Did you try taking a “bad” sequence and Zip it (not RAR) to see if it was just as bad on their end?”
Didn’t try, but we will although I’m not really sure this has anything to do with the compression. I’m thinking that if the archive were corrupt they couldn’t have opened it in the first place.
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Are your shots long enough for 24 vs. 23.98 to be an issue?
Have you tried sending back a combination of footage and CG that matches, just to see if it matches on their end?
Is editor capturing footage and the editor assembling your work the same editor?Let us know on the other stuff from the last post.
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I don’t think the particles exported in 24 fps could be an issue. They were interpreted as 23.98 footage and then composited into a 23.98 composition and exported as 23.98 fps footage. The longes span of the footage containing 3d particles, I think is about 30 seconds tops. (I don’t have acces to the project right now). We didn’ try to ask them to composite the footage, we could try but as I said above there are just about a couple of shots with that kind of footage whilst the missing frames and speed issue appear on far more shots.
“Is editor capturing footage and the editor assembling your work the same editor?” I’m not sure, maybe so. I must ask this as well.
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Hmm.
Is there any pattern to the bad renders?
Any difference in process or source between the good and bad renders? -
No difference that I can recall. Your line of thinking makes a lot of sense. I cannot check it right now but I will follow this once I get back to the studio. I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks
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Well yes, as I said in the post title it’s all about Final Cut Pro and yes, the movie is probably targeted at NTSC. It’s a german-american co-production, one of those M class movies you buy for one buck at Wallmart.
However both us and the editor are located in Europe.
As far as I know the shot the movie on a Panasonic Varicam.I’m pretty confused because the editor didn’t send me any feedback at all yet and I did ask him to day some details about how he setup his project…
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CB-
We did a Feature film and had identical problem —
Make certain that both your FCP sequence settings and AE comp settings are set to a frame rate of 23.976 — not 23.98 — I’ll bet you $5 that fixes it!!
But, any work that was rendered at 23.98 and not 23.976 will have to be re-rendered aty 23.976
Jim Dodson
Quad 2.5 gig Mac – OSX
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