Ben G unguren
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After Effects Coin
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COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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a lot of “PC-only” codecs can be read with the Flip4Mac plugin. Give it a try:
https://www.telestream.net/flip4mac-wmv/overview.htmAlso, if you open the file in Quicktime 7, you can usually find the name of the codec. You may get a “We don’t have the necessary codec” message, but it will open anyways (a white screen) and if you press command+I for the info window, the codec name is typically there, even if you don’t have it installed.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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For that kind of sporadic, organic movement, I’d suggest the Displacement Map filter. This filter is often used as a part of the pipeline when turning text into smoke or fire — you wouldn’t push it as far as that, but a little displacement will get the job done. If you aren’t familiar with the effect, you will want to watch a tutorial or two beforehand, as it requires an additional reference layer to define the displacement.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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I’d try to make the background of the footage as even as possible. The “Change Color” filter can help with subtle adjustments, for instance. I’ve also had success using a Levels or Curves filter as an adjustment layer, using multiple feathered masks to get the result I am hoping for.
Once you have the background as even as possible, then you create a solid that matches the background color. Really, it’s fairly straightforward. If your footage is less than stellar, then your options are certainly more limited….
A second option is (as I’ve already said) make a plate in Photoshop that matches how the background edges are looking in the footage. Use the paint brush tool in Photoshop, with the eyedropper to match certain colors, etc.
At this point I feel like I’m more or less repeating the same thing. If the footage was supposed to have an even background, and didn’t, there isn’t necessarily an easy solution. Sometimes you simply have to plow through it, frame by frame, until it works. Good luck!
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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Make sure you’re interpreting your image sequence correctly. If you’re in a 24fps comp but interpret your image sequence as 30fps, then every 5th frame will be dropped in the 24fps composition.
Select your sequence and press command+opt+G (command+alt+G) to set the frame rate of your imported sequence. You can also set a default fps for sequences in the AE preferences, under Import.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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If you’re exporting Animation codec and still experiencing banding, then the problem probably isn’t about codecs. Option-click/alt-click the “8bpc” in the bottom of the project window and go up to 16 or 32-bit color. Rerender and see if that fixes it. If not, then add some noise to the gradient (for gradients, a little noise tends to make it look better anyway, IMO).
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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I suppose I don’t quite understand the problem, then.
If you’re shooting the them against white, then it should blend seamlessly into a white solid behind them. Make sure to adjust the levels on your actor plate so the white background goes fully white (hopefully it was shot well enough to do that!). Then I’d do a garbage matte around the actor and put them against white. I’ve done this lots of times….
Again, if I’m misunderstanding what you’re trying to do, please post a screenshot, which will help me orient my thoughts, etc.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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I’m totally with you, Tom.
I’d say this is the number one frustration of FCP users who are migrating to Premiere. We didn’t realize how spoiled we were with FCP’s ability to quickly assemble a Quicktime file from a timeline.
FWIW, I haven’t found that Avid exports any faster than Premiere — have you?
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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I can give more helpful advice if you post a screenshot of the two plates you’re trying to combine, but in general it’s a matter of building a matte that matches in color, black- and white-level luminance, and style. When I’m trying to match a background (as opposed to inserting greenscreen) I will usually take hi-resolution stills from the original footage and use them as a reference when building the background plate.
And, again, if your camera is moving, things get trickier.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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My advice is: don’t use H264 or any mpeg-compressed video for motion graphics input. It’s a very good format for delivery (output), but can have plenty of problems when it comes to workflow. A jpeg sequence is better — a png or tga sequence is better than jpeg, though, as they have less compression.
A lot of animators work with videos rendered to the Quicktime Animation codec. Other common codecs for source or input video is PNG, Photo-JPEG (set to maximum quality), or ProRes422 (I’m less a fan of this last one, as it works in YUV color space, so there’s some unwanted color conversion happening).
If you convert your h264 video into one of the above codecs, I’m 95% certain most of the problems you listed will simply dissolve away….
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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I know this can be done with Adobe Acrobat — you can save each page of a PDF as a tiff image.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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