Ben G unguren
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After Effects Coin
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COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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One thing I often do is generate a nice, noise-free alpha channel using Keylight, then duplicate the layer, reset Keylight, and do a much less aggressive Keylight key (keep the screen gain at 100, screen levels at 1 and 100, or nearly so, etc). I set the view to “Corrected Source” and then use the good alpha channel as an Alpha Matte. Usually this approach works very well. I often end up adding some edge color correction to the Corrected Source layer, particularly by brightening the edges a little bit (I will tweak it when the final composite is underway).
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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If you can turn your z-depth map into alpha information, then you can use it as an adjustment layer for the rest of the image. A quick way to do this is to apply the “Shift Channels” effect to your z-depth layer, and set the Alpha to Luminance.
You will have to Precomp your newly-alpha’ed layer (including the effect) in order for the adjustment layer to recognize the alpha when passing effects to layers beneath it, e.g.:
COMP1, LAYER1: Z-Depth map w/Shift Channels effect (Possibly “Invert” effect applied before Shift Channels if you need to switch which part is visible)
COMP2, LAYER1: Nested Comp1, Adjustment Layer switch enabled, LEVELS EFFECT applied
COMP2, LAYER2: 3D Render, now having levels effect applied to it based on luminance of the z-depthHopefully that makes sense… good luck!
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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Also, in the example above, I took the lighter concrete and cheated it down a bit. That way I could have some overlap before the dark shadow became super-dark, and composited it with a Darken blend mode.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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You’ll need to mask out any existing shadows that will be cancelled out by your CG shadows. Use a program like Mocha if there is any camera or object movement, or just buckle down and roto. A procedural matte (or something like a luma key) will usually have too much flicker.
What you want to do in the end is cut out the DARKENED layer where existing shadows are. I find that using the “Darken” blend mode can help smooth things together as well….
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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You can match up shadows pretty closely using a grey-ish solid set to a darkening blend mode like Multiply or Linear Burn. Apply a Hue/Saturation filter to the solid, click colorize, and tweak the hue, saturation, and lightness of your solid until it creates something close to the color of the shadow…
A second option, which I tend to use, is to make a copy of your background layer and use your “shadow” solid as an alpha matte for the background layer. Then apply levels to the masked background plate and tweak the various settings until you get a look that is similar to the shadow color. It can be a little tricky, but you can get shadows that are VERY close to the original shadows. Here’s one I did recently:
The cougar on the left was composited in. The shadow was done in a separate pass, using the masks/levels method I just described. Notice how cleanly it matches with the actual horizontal shadow that it intersects with. (Note that this was with footage shot on a RED camera, 32-bit floating imagery, so I had a lot of image-range to work with.)
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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You only need Dynamic linking when you are going to go back and forth between apps. Sometimes I’ll use Premiere to assemble and arrange the clips, then take all that into AE and never come back to Premiere. In that case Dynamic linking isn’t necessary.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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Be sure to try all the usual troubleshooting techniques:
– Restart the App (I’m sure you’ve done this)
– Restart the computer
– Close the app and trash the prefs, then try againSounds like there’s something glitchy going on with that particular file, and I’d definitely make a copy of the file before going any further, just in case….
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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That’s a great list, Paul. More than just a feature request, this can be helpful to FCP users coming over to Premiere, as it will help them see a couple of the features they won’t be getting. Of course, we might also want to provide a list of new features that Premiere has to offer!
I like the rising pitch (#9), though I can see why you’d like it the other way. Make it a preference instead of a feature.
#13 (timecode reader) you are able to see the timecode of each clip in the Info window. Certainly not the same thing as a plugin, but it’s something that I don’t think FCP had, and has proven useful for me in the recent past.
For me, though, the through edits are the biggest thing that I miss from FCP. Or, going beyond just that, it’s the ability to select edits — then you could delete it (if it was a through edit), and you could move an edit around, similar to what you can do with a clip in FCP.
I’m worried that this thread will become a “what’s different” list instead of a “strengths of FCP over Premiere” list. In the spirit of the latter, I’ll add one more item:
— When you link audio and video clips together, if they are from the same clip, an out-of-sync number will appear in FCP (showing how far out of sync the two clips are). In Premiere there isn’t any indicator of whether the audio is in sync or not (I go to the Info window, find the two timecodes, and slide one of the clips around until the TCs match). This stands out to me because, in Premiere, an A/V clip that is inserted into the timeline will show out-of-sync indicators, which results in an inconsistency: some out-of-sync clips will show it, others will not.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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Try the “Posterize Time” filter. It allows you to set a frame rate at which the video will be displayed. You might want to choose 8 or 12fps….
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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If you have After Effects, you may want to look into Mocha AE, which is included with the more recent releases of AE. Mocha is perfect for this kind of tracking. Of course, if the camera goes too far out of focus, there might not be anything that can track it accurately.
Mocha’s website has a lot of great video tuts to walk you through the process, e.g.:
https://www.imagineersystems.com/videos/steve-wright-planar-tracking/view
https://www.imagineersystems.com/videos/steve-wright-basic-tracking-techniques/viewBen Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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