Rendering proper progressive output with DV codec

[Kevin Camp]

by default, when dv footage is imported into ae, ae will probably assume that it is interlaced.

by choosing file>interpret footage>main and setting ‘separate fields’ option to off, you will tell ae not to deinterlace the footage (which it sounds like you have done already).

when you render (composition>add to render queue), by default ae should render as progressive. but you can check the render settings to make sure that ‘field render’ is set to off (again it sounds like you have done that too).

however, what type of dv is vegas looking for natively…? from ae’s render queue you are most likely rendering and .mov with dv compression. does vegas take work with .mov natively, or is vegas converting/transcoding it to another container…? maybe .mxf or .dv? if that is happening then it maybe it’s vegas that is interlacing the footage.

can you open the rendered dv file back in after effects or quicktime? double check that there is interlacing before the file is brought into vegas.

another option: use file>export>dv stream to create the dv file. set those settings to progressive and see how that imports into vegas. that file will be a .dv file and may work better with vegas (i don’t know, i’ve never used vegas, i’m just trying to think of other options).

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Roger Matthews]

Hi Kevin, thanks for the quick and thoughtful reply.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I’m rendering using the .avi container, which is what Vegas accepts natively (and the format the rest of the footage for the project is in).

I also forgot to mention that when importing the RENDERED footage (created by After Effects) back into AE, it is still interpreted as interlaced.

I’m now trying that file->export->dv stream option, but AE warns me that I should use the render queue instead, so we’ll see what happens. Not sure if Vegas accepts .dv natively, but I guess we’ll find out.

However, my money is on something going on in After Effects that I’m just missing. I’ll post if I can come up with anything else. Thanks again for responding so fast.

[Roger Matthews]

Dave,

I see, that’s interesting about the proper definitions of certain words. Definitions in language can get mangled through popular use, huh?

That aside, when I import the new renders into AE, AE reads out specifically “Separating Lower” (Lower Field interlaced). The original clips are not marked as ‘Separating Lower’ (since the project was shot in progressive ‘interlaced).

I also tried rendering in .dv format, but I still got Lower Field interlaced footage as a result. AE confirms the footage as Lower Field interlaced. So AE is definitely converting the footage into Lower Fields interlaced despite me disabling fields (or enabling psf) both inside the ‘Interpret Footage’ menu and in the Render Queue.

Really stumped here. What else can I do within AE to make sure the footage is rendered properly?

EDIT – forgot to mention, when I chose Export to DV to make the .dv file, I specifically was given the option between Interlaced or Progressive (or ‘psf’) and chose Progressive in a very simple menu. What gives?

[Roger Matthews]

Dave,

Well, exactly. No matter what you call it, the rendered footage is still not in the same format as the original footage, so my NLE has to either convert the footage in realtime (my computer is not fast) or re-render all of the footage to match (ridiculously inefficient).

What I am doing is rendering all of the raw footage from a B camera for a wedding to have it re-inserted into a larger multicamera project. It’s just simply more efficient to have the new footage match the existing footage from the A camera, so Vegas doesn’t convert the footage in realtime, on my admittedly slow machine.

If I was making a final render I wouldn’t care, but in this case I’m using AE just because it has vastly superior color correction plugins available versus Vegas, and is needed. And most importantly, I want to have an efficient workflow for future projects that doesn’t force conversion AFTER a render.

And while I could just pre-render the timeline, I am tweaking multi camera edits spanning about two hours, so that would be a major pain. It’s all about efficiency here.

[Roger Matthews]

Dave,

Thanks, good idea. As much as I like Vegas, I am getting sick of its lack of plugin support/public exposure, haha. Hence me branching out into AE, and probably new NLES as well soon.

Thanks for the quick replies.

Roger