Ben G unguren
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After Effects Coin
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COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Here’s my workflow (I do keying with the RED a lot these days):
– Editor pulls rough keys of whatever she wants, puts it all together in Avid or FCP.
– As specific shots or sequences are “locked”, she sends me a shot list with in and out points of each shot that needs keying, along with info for background plates. Sometimes she’ll just put clip names and timecodes over each clip and exports that. Sometimes she’ll send me an XML, which I can take into Premiere and then port over to AE.
– (KEY!!!!) Now that I know the shots, I go into RedCine, do some basic color correction, then export 16-bit DPX sequences with 2-second handles. As Dave mentioned, sometimes I will export full 4K, sometimes 2K, depending on the need.
– Work with the DPX footage from there on out.
One thing to keep in mind is that R3D files get messy if you want to do media management after the project is over. You don’t just need the proxy file, but all the files that the proxy references, and in my experience that kind of management needs to be done manually. Not to mention that 10 years from now whether or not that r3d will be read in the same way is suspect. An image sequence is much more reliable IMO, so I’d get into image-sequence land as quickly as possible. R3Ds give you amazing latitude, and you can save your RedCine project in case you need to reexport with different settings. But a 16-bit image has everything you’ll need (assuming you do a good initial color correction, and didn’t clip anything important!).
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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I’m not sure how auto-keyframing works in Motion, but keep in mind that in AE keyframes will ALWAYS be created for attribute that already has a keyframe on it, regardless of whether auto keyframe is on or off.
When auto keyframe is on, the modification of any property (scaling a layer) will create a keyframe, even if no keyframes existed before.
This behavior is different from a lot of 3D apps, which will not create a keyframe even for a property with existing keyframes unless auto-keyframe is enabled….
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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AE has default rules for interpretation of imported files. I believe one of those rules is that if footage comes in at 29.97fps, 720×480 pixels (for instance), it will assume the footage originated as DV, and thus has fields, lower-field first. There are a number of these interpretation rules.
There is a file called “interpretation rules.txt” — I can’t remember off hand where it is located. Either with your app, or with your preference files. You can alter this to your heart’s delight! (But make a copy first…..)
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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You need to render your video with an alpha channel. In your Render Queue, for the Output Module, choose the “Lossless with Alpha” preset. Later, you may want to customize things, but for now that should get the job done.
PS Make sure your background is in fact transparent: click the checkerboard background box at the bottom of your comp window in AE to verify that the only thing that will be rendering is the text, the rest transparent….
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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What you’re seeing on his suit is called “moiré” — there are a lot of methods for removing it. I like to isolate the area and add a bit of a blur to it. Do a google search for After Effects and moire.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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I’ve had problems with nested rotoscopes when the frame rate doesn’t match up exactly. Even something like 23.976 in a 24fps comp will send things awry. Check to make sure your comp frame rates are identical. If that doesn’t work, you can use a series of hold keyframes (this only works if you don’t need motion blur on your moving mask):
Option-click your mask path to make an expression — for the expression, type in “value” or just leave it at the default. This should create an expression that creates the same result as before you had the expression. Then right click on the mask path and choose Keyframe Assistant –> Convert Expression to Keyframes. This gives you a keyframe on EVERY FRAME of your animation for that value. Finally, select all the keyframes, right click on them and choose Hold Keyframes.
If this fixes the problem, here’s why:
Before, AE wasn’t reading your keyframed mask value; rather it was reading an interpolated (halfway-between) value somewhere between two keyframes, even if those keyframes were right next to each other. By enabling hold keyframes, you force AE to read the last available keyframe for the mask, so no more interpolation troubles!Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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Scale is multi-dimensional, so you need to produce 2 or 3 numbers (3 if the 3D switch is enabled) instead of 1.
It’s easy enough to do; just assign a variable to the last line:
a = thisComp.layer(1).transform.scale.valueAtTime(time - d)Then make your answer apply to X and Y with the following:
[a,a]Or, if it’s 3D:
[a,a,a]Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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Well, your source timeline is 29.97, so it makes sense that a 29.97 export will look better than one at 24. It would work better to export at 29.97, then take it into AE and try to resample the frames into 24fps using Timewarp. It isn’t the best solution, but works tolerably well with some due diligence on google etc. Good luck!
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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In the pixel size for your export settings, unselect the chain-link box just to the right of the numbers (this forces the pixel aspect ratio to remain consistent, but it is set to a 4:3 ratio, and you want 16:9). Then change the 1620 to 1920, and you should be good to go.
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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Install the FREE version of QuickTime. This will install a bunch of codecs on your machine, but you won’t be able to export anything from qt without paying. THAT is why you then get MPEG Streamclip, which is a free solution for exporting, and it will allow you yo use all those qt codecs you just installed.
I prefer qt pro over MPEG , but when I hop on a friend’s machine and he needs a couple quick exports I go this other route. But you could use this for a full production workflow as well (it allows for batch exporting, etc).
Ben Unguren
Motion Graphics & Editing
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