-
Pulldown Problems
I have some video transferred from film to DVCAM and Beta. I did some composites with the DV footage and had AE guess the pulldown removal on each shot. I rendered these with no problem. Now I want to redo the composites from the Beta footage so I batch captured from the Beta tape and had AE guess all the pulldown removals again. But it’s weird, AE kept guessing wrong. I still have repeated frames on some shots. So I tried to manually set it using every possible pulldown removal combination. Still I get repeated frames, some settings worse than others but never working properly. Why / How can this happen? Is there anything I can do to fix this?
-
11 Replies
-
When we get film transfer reels, our AFX guys run into pulldown removal problems if they digitize across cuts…Each shot on these reels often has its own pulldown sequence because the shots have been compiled from a larger master, and may not have been part of a continuous sequence on that master. The first thing I would check with your Beta footage is that you have not accidently digitized two shots (“across” a cut), even if by only a frame. If each shot has a different pulldown sequence, no matter which way you remove pulldown one of the two shots will be wrong…
The second thing I always do if I’m having trouble is open the problem layer in a footage window before I remove the pulldown, and step through it manually. You should be able to see the pulldown sequence of whole and single frames in the first five frames. If you remove pulldown using that pulldown sequence and still have a problem, it is because the pulldown sequence is changing somewhere between the first and last frame of your shot (most likely for the above reason: there is actually two shots that were not sequential on a master).
Hope that is helpful…
Matt
Matt Stalker
Center City Film & Video
mstalker@ccfv.com -
The footage on the DVCAM and the BETA is identical. But I had no problems with the DVCAM. There are many many shots on these tapes but I have interpreted them each individually. The problem is that there is no existing phase which does not cause repeated frames. The other thing is that AE recognizes the pulldown and specifies a phase, but frames still repeat with the beta footage. I can’t wrap my brain around this. I’m totally frustrated.
-
Yes, I’m no stranger to finding myself totally frustrated with my computer! Hmmm…I occasionally have this problem if I remove the pulldown, but then accidently put the shot into a 29.97 fps comp. May want to check the comp settings if you’ve not already done so.
Also might want to check that both tapes are indeed *identical*. Is the timecode on both exactly the same? One doesn’t have drop frame and the other non-drop or anything like that? I’ve seen it happen. If you used the same batch digitize in/outs for your clips but the timecodes are off even by a frame, obviously your clips from each reel will not be exactly the same.
I suppose there could be a problem with the footage, but more likely there is just some small variable between the tapes, or the way they are being handled in AE, that is hiding from you. Find that small variable and you will likely solve the problem. I’d be interested to know what it was if you eventually solve the problem.
Just out of curiosity, why do you need to re-composite using the BETA footage? Better quality? Just wondering…
Matt
Matt Stalker
Center City Film & Video
mstalker@ccfv.com -
Way better color quality with the beta. Maybe I am misunderstanding something here. I intentionally set all of my compositions for 29.97 fps. Isn’t that what I should do? I remove the pulldown to treat it as 24fps but I thought that if I set the actual composition for 24 fps it would cause problems when I render because I am editing in a 29.97 sequence in AVID. Does that make sense? Could this be the problem? I could try setting my compositions to 24 fps but how do I then reintroduce the 3:2 pulldown so I can use it in AVID?
-
You’re setting your comps to 23.98 or 23.976 fps, yes?
Your comp should be 23.976 (or .98, I don’t think AE makes a distinction) then you add pulldown in the Render settings to create a 29.97 file.
The phase of the added pulldown is unimportant, but just remember it if you need to remove pulldown from that render later on for some reason.
Does that help?
-
I can’t find the menu option to add pulldown anywhere in my render settings. I’m using AE 6.0 . Where might I find it?
-
Under the render settings (not the output module) you have to first enable field rendering, then the 3:2 pulldown is enabled.
-
I mean that the pulldown drop-down is enabled, allowing you to choose pulldown.
-
thanks, I’ll give it a go.
-
Okay, It’s time for a new problem now. You guys really helped me out on this. I set my comps to 24fps and I added 3:2 pulldown back in. The beta footage looks great under those settings. The new problem, however, is that the footage I’m compositing over the beta footage originated on HDV and was shot at 29.97fps. So now, when I render the compositions with 3:2 pulldown added in it makes my composited characters move all crazy-like on top of flawlessly moving backgrounds. Is there anything I can do for this problem? I’ve been working on this project since last october and I just wanna be done! Thanks in advance.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up