Importing After Effects into XpressPro

[Jon Zanone]

Can you post more information? What settings did you render it out of AE? What were your settings on import into the Avid?

Jon

“So you want to throw out the old you – but the old you is old enough to know it won’t make it better”
Del Amitri – “Make it Better”

[Ken Calcaterra]

The problem appears to be on the Avid end. But here’s all the info. I’ve rendered from After Effects many different ways.

1. Quicktime – Animation Codec – Millions of Colors +

2. Video for Windows Movie – Millions of Colors – No Compression

3. Quicktime – None –

4. Tiff Sequence – Millions of Colors

5. PNG Sequence

The import settings on the Avid are currently (note I’ve tried many scenarios)

Aspect Ratio – Maintain, non-square

Color Levels – RGB

File Fied Order – Even (Lower Field First)

Alpha – Ignore

Could it be the DV codec in Xpress is making everything muddy. I looked at the Quicktime generated from AE and it’s tight. In Avid it’s a little pixelated and the text jagged, the overall image being a bit desaturated.

[Ken Calcaterra]

I’ve tried every import setting

DV 25411 MXF
DV 50 MXF
1.1 MXF
1.1 10b MXF

[Jon Zanone]

The only thing I see different from how I do it is I use 601 levels rather than RGB.

I use animation CODEC exclusively, bringing in at 2:1 on a Meridian Mac, and DV50MXF on XPress…

Jon

“So you want to throw out the old you – but the old you is old enough to know it won’t make it better”
Del Amitri – “Make it Better”

[Paul Lewis]

Ken,

Check your comp size, even a mis-match like
720×480 imported into 720×486 will look bad!
Those stretched or crushed six pixels will wreck the smooth lines.

Cheers
Paul Lewis

[Dave Schweitzer]

Ken,
how does it look on your television monitor?
QT files – esp DV25 – look jaggedy and bad on the comp monitor, but somehow when played out to an interlaced television monitor most eyes don’t notice the missing information.

[Kenneth Lustig]

I think I’m having the same issue, Ken. Unfortunately I don’t have a solution yet. I do however have a whole bunch of dead ends to share and some screen shots of the problem. Let me know if this is the same issue.

I’m using an Adrenaline and AE 7. I also tried this on laptops with XPress Pro and the result looks basically the same.

Here is the screen shot of my nice lower third in AE:
https://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=viewedinaeda4.jpg

Here is one of many cleanly exported Quicktime variations, seen in the QT player:
https://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=viewedinqtplayerbc0.jpg

Here is the poor result when the clip is imported into Avid:
https://img167.imageshack.us/my.php?image=importedinavidig0.jpg

Here are the solutions I tried:

I rendered the comp to all codecs that support an embedded alpha channel and a 4:3 ratio under Quicktime, Video for Windows, and OMF settings, as well as to TGA and PNG image sequences. I used the appropriate new Avid Quicktime codecs, including the Avid DV, Avid Meridian, and Avid Unpacked codecs. I used the none codec setting in Quicktime and Video for Windows as well.

In each codec, I exported each possible combinations of the following settings: straight alpha, premultiplied alpha, interlaced upper first, interlaced lower first, and noninterlaced. In turn, I imported each version with correctly matched and incorrectly matched alpha and interlace settings. In most cases, invert alpha was correct for the alpha channel, and the image would overlay on my video tracks and mix properly. The image quality stayed looking pixelated, however, no matter what. Mismatching field settings did make the image look slightly worse.

I set each codec to the best quality setting possible as my lower thirds are 8 seconds though file size did not appear to affect the problem in Avid. I did not manually set keyframes when the option existed, assuming the “best” slider would produce the optimal image export.

My comp and Avid project are both 720 x 480. However, I also toggled each of them to 720 x 486 in all four combinations just to be sure. Mismatching created a slight horizontal stretch or squash, as expected, but did not affect the pixelated look of my lower thirds.

I imported each file in OMF 1:1, OMF 2:1, DV 25, and DV 50. Regardless of setting, the image did not improve. At DV 25, the image looked very slightly worse.

My Avid is in High Quality with the green indicator on at the bottom of the sequence window. I verified that the image quality is not just a preview problem by rendering, sending the video to tape, and exporting to a Quicktime from Avid. What appears in the viewer and the screenshot from Avid above is indeed the final quality of output.

I do have a successful workaround: Exporting the edited video from Avid and adding the lower thirds in AE. I can also bring them into Premiere, but my workcenter uses Avids and a Unity server so we’re tied to that workflow, Premiere being mainly an extra on the AE workstation. In any case this isn’t an efficient solution with the import/export time involved.

I have burned up two full work days and 9 DVD ROMs going from one workstation to another figuring out what is not the problem. Hopefully someone will see the images above and know what the solution is. 🙂

[Ken Calcaterra]

Still haven’t figured it out. Tried similar tests but to no avail. Very frustrating.

[Jayson Landerito]

Hi.
I don’t know if this post is too late.
I’m also having a problem like this before.
Try rendering the project to Tiff sequence and select straight unmatted. Then in avid import it with 601/709,non-square, Non-interlaced, RGB, invert existing and don’t forget to click autodetect sequential files.

Hope this will solve your problem.

[Todd Smaretsky]

Jayson!!! This is 3 years later – but THANK YOU!!!!!!!