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Putting AE in the middle of the pipeline… suggestions?
I recently did some camerawork on Skirmish USA’s ‘Invasion of Normandy 2007’ paintball game in the Poconos, PA and the task has fallen to me to do the edit for their DVD. What I’ve been brainstorming for a while is a traditional video edit in Avid Xpress Pro mixed with graphics added in Adobe After Effects 6.5 Pro. I’ve got a skeleton edit done, and I want to bring it into AE to add some of the graphics for the section I’m working on. So here’s the question for the experts:
What is the best way (i.e. filetypes and compression settings) to get video exported from Avid, imported to AE, then rendered and imported back into Avid for placement in the master timeline?
I’ve been toying around with various QT and .avi settings, but I figured I might save some time if I went right to the guys who would know.
Thanks,
Sean Emer
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9 Replies
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Quack…Quack…. check out Automatic Duck!
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hey that looks pretty cool… I just need to update my AE from 6.5 haha! Thanks for the tip man!
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forgot to add: since I don’t have the budget quite yet for that neat auto duck thing, does anybody have any ‘conventional’ tips?
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Caveat: I don’t use Avid.
3. Working backwards from the end, your render out of AE should match your Avid timeline settings, whether Meridien uncompressed, 2:1 or whatever.
2. From that, naturally your AE comp frame should match your Avid frame. D1, yes?
1. Backwards from that, you should export your Avid clip (going to AE) to the Animation codec to avoid recompression when rendering from Avid. However … if your Avid clip contained no rendering within Avid, you should export it using “current settings” or whatever causes the clip to be exported unchanged (except for in/out points) from the Avid.
I say that the clip can be exported in the native codec because exporting to Animation will not improve the clip, it would just leave it unchanged … and much bigger. Exporting natively (without recompression) should leave it unchanged, which serves the same purpose.
So:
1. export from Avid without recompressing
2. Use Avid frame size in comp
3. render to settings used in Avid.
4. (oops) make sure that when you re-import into Avid, you use the same RGB/601 setting you chose when rendering in AE to the Meridien codec, for example.If you go to the Automatic Duck site, you should find the Duck manual, which gives AE tips.
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I know how to keep everything uniform etc., but my problem mainly is deciding WHICH filetype (.mov or .avi etc.) and WHICH codecs with what settings would be optimal for doing what I described.
Thanks,
Sean
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Oh.
Avid guys I know use Meridien codecs at 2:1 for shot video, and uncompressed for graphics. They often use 2:1 for graphics anyway, to save space and because the quality is acceptable to them. I think that “uncompressed” means “lossless” in the Avid world.
I understand that using any other codec requires transcoding (recompression) by the Avid system, which takes time and recompresses the video.
Only use AVI if your software requires it. MOV is more flexible, with more options.
If you’re working in DV, then stay in DV. Your system should accept .dv files as well as .mov files (compressed to the DV codec), but I could be wrong. I think you’re working in DV, no? If so, leave your footage in DV codec, export from Avid without changing (recompressing), then render a QT to the DV codec in AE. You should have no options for the DV codec, so that should simplify something, anyway.
Does that help?
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I work with both avid and ae and excluding automatic duck, the best work flow is using a QT reference.
Personally I wouldn’t suggest exporting the entire video, but just the sections you are going to modify. Choose and highlight the areas you are going to graphic from the timeline, the from file and change to QT reference. Basically a QT reference is a map to your original source footage. Anything you’ve done in avid will be flattened and rendered, but you now using the highest level video possible.
In AE, import your the QT ref file. For some reason, AE never interprets my fields correctly on a avid qt ref file, so you will want to make sure they are lower first. Now you can drop it a comp and go to work.
For export I always use QT’s avid codec. Takes some work to find it, but it’s at avid.com. Do some searches over there for quicktime and codec, eventually you’ll find it. Render to the media settings of your footage on the avid, lower field, 2:1 1:1…whatever.
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
http://www.ckandco.net -
Thanks very much! I always use QT ref when I’m going to DVD, but it never occured to me to use it in AE, thanks for the tip!
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thanks for the help! Once I get this project out of the way I think I’ll go back and play around between what you suggest and the other techniques I’ve found
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