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Replacing Low Resolution VFX Elements with High Resolution VFX Elements?
This may have been answered before, but I couldn’t find it.
I’m doing some visual effects shots with 2K plates (2048×1024). To create “draft” versions of my shots, I knocked my plates down to 1Ks (1024×512) and rendered all my 3D elements to the same 1K resolution. Just to work quicker and easier.
My imported VFX element layers have all kinds of transformations, masks, scales, tracks, and other goodness applied in the 1K draft composition.
I’m all through now, and am ready to go back up to full 2K. To do this, I will re-render my 3D elements out at 2K and bring them into AE. My problem and question is this, how do I appropriately replace the 1K VFX layers with the 2K VFX versions? I’m finding that if I just scale the layer up, by parenting it to a layer that I scale, this will correctly scale the masks, transformations, etc., etc. all up to 2K, but my new 2K VFX elements will be twice as big as they should be because of the scaling of the layer. If I don’t scale the layer up and keep the 2K VFX elements the way they are, then the masks, transformations, etc. etc., are not scaled up the new 2K plate. It’s kind of a quandary.
Do I have to like scale my new 2K VFX down by 50%, then somehow parent that layer to the old 1K VFX layer? So that when I scale that layer up, my new 2K VFX will be scaled up to 100%? I’m basically wanting to do a clean source replacement a la CTRL + ALT + /. What’s the strategy for this?
I didn’t use proxies at all, I just worked with the 1Ks I made(which is like using a proxy, but I didn’t set it up as a proxy in AE).
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5 Replies
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Anyone? I’m still stuck on this and I think it would be a common issue.
Thanks – Ross
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Awesome help! Thanks.
Ross
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I think my issue is that I should have been using the normal proxy workflow.
I should have knocked all my plates down to half size, setup proxies, and then setup all my composites and 3D elements.
Then I could have just replaced the proxy with the normal footage and rendered out.
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Hi Ross,
Did you ever have any luck with replacing your double sized footage? I am having a similar problem where I should have used proxies, and am now stuck with lots of layers that need to be modified. -
My memory is a little fuzzy because it’s been a while.
But for layers where I needed my original track scaled up by 100% (that I’m sure I painfully hand-keyed) I had to parent that layer with the track to a new solid. I then scaled the solid up 100% (this scales the track up). Then I unparented from the solid. I then had to bring in my new 2K VFX element and parent that to the original layer that scaled up. The new 2K VFX layer now had the appropriately scaled up track.
For layers where I needed masks, I did the same thing as above. Scaled them up by parenting them to a solid. Then I used the “Fill” effect to fill in the masks with white and filled the rest in with black (by using a new black solid and copying the masks and effects over to it). I had to bring in my 2K VFX elements and use a track matte (set to luma) and this made the masks work as they originally did on the new 2K VFX elements.
It was a nightmare, but I got it all working in the end. Lesson learned: use proxies!
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