Bill Russell
Forum Replies Created
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Hello! Yes, you asked “How did they do this?” In Final Cut Pro 7 there are two pull-down removal tools.
One is “Cinema Tools Reverse Telecine” tool which uses the Cinema Tools engine. Cinema Tools is rather blunt and simply assumes that the cadence begins AA = :00, removes the pulldown based on that, writes a new 24p (23.976) file with the cadence removed, replaces the media with the new file of the same name, and relinks to the project. A completely new media file has been written.
The other tool is the “Remove Advanced Pulldown” tool. Since 24pA has all the needed frames already, plus the extraneous “BC” frame (third of every five frames), all this tool does is rewrite data WITHIN the existing file so that it skips the “BC” frame on playback. NO new media file is written.
This is my question. The media file contained a standard 3:2 cadence, but was mistakenly submitted to the Advanced Pulldown removal tool. Too easy. The media contained AA BB BC CD DD. 24pA contains AA BB BC CC DD, where the “Remove Advanced Pulldown” tool simply removes the one unneeded BC frame. The the resulting file contains AA BB CD DD instead of AA BB CC DD — in other words, you are stuck with a mixed-interlaced “CD” every four frames. (You’re right, that’s not random.)
Since the Advanced Pulldown Tool does NOT replace the media file, only alters it to SUPPRESS playback of the third of every five frames, and correspondingly changes the TC count from 29.97 to 23.976 to restore correct speed, there must be a way to restore the five-frame playback and 29.97 count. (No, changing the count from 23.976 to 29.97 in Cinema tools does not work — all it does is speed up the clip.)
I used Apple’s Atom Inspector and compared headers of a media file before and after advanced pulldown removal, and could not find anything sensible. I don’t even know if editing the headers is the right way to go, or how to HEX edit the file. But since the Advanced Pulldown tool does not have any kind of verification check, you can ruin any media file by accidentally choosing this tool. To me that means people have suffered this before, and I would think there must be a way to undo it, either legit or a kluge.
We would love to restore the playback and count of this file, so that we can then properly remove the standard cadence.
In other words… help! 😉
“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –
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Well, there you go, look at that. Nice. I like that much better than converting to keyframes (which is similar-ish to what I’ve always done, and a pain to constantly revise).
Meanwhile, I have indeed already used the expression like a mofo last night and today as we ping pong back and forth on these credits. Thanks again for all of it!
“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –
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Oops, apologies, I didn’t take time to notice there was a dedicated expressions forum. However, I’ve already used your latest solution on my current project. Revisions and corrections with clients always mean changes in duration and landing points, so this is helping make the position adjustments much easier, hugely.
I will be using this. If you have any sudden inspirations on how to custom the duration of the curve, and “S” curve the ramp, do share! I’ll feel around for that as well. Meanwhile, this is fantastic.
Thank you!!
“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –
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Thank you for your help!!
One more question if I may — I looked up easeOut and I’m still having trouble understanding how it does what is does. For instance, how do I lengthen the ramp down (for instance, to last four seconds instead of two) and keep the curve very even, smooth? I’ve played with the values and am just making a mess — can’t get a smooth and even curve except with the values you offered.
“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –
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You’re my hero! This is just what I’m looking for and so close.
The problem I’m having now, the position jumps at the layer marker. For instance, to test it I located the marker where position y value hits 1111. At the layer marker the position y jumps from value “1111” to “-908”, then ramps to a stop from there.
Thoughts?
“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –
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@Dave — oh, the photoshop file is actually separated out and the layers placed in space before the camera. The sky is on the back plane, the cityscape is trapezoidal and “flat” against the “floor” along the z axis. The rig (which is masked at the moment in my examples above, for silly contractual reasons) with smoke all hangs in the middle-foreground. And there will be a portion of another rig on the right side in close foreground. The camera will truck out from that rig, the other elements moving in “Kid Stays in the Picture” fashion.
Right now I’ve resigned myself to brute force, just slapping different tails against each other to build the shape like clay. It’s conceptually ugly process-wise, but visually it is sort of working. Not render friendly, as you can imagine.
P.S. You saw through my short white person costume!!
I’ll post my final animation here for kicks when it’s all done.
“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –
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Yup, what you see here was created with Trapcode Particular. I’m having trouble figure out how to shape the smoke trail — vary it in size, shape and speed at different places along its path.
“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –