Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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I agree with Dave on this one. But based on what you HAVE said, I would bet that the “progressive” footage you received is actually pulldown-based. For example, a lot of 24p footage is actually 29.97fps with pulldown to make apps think it’s 24 progressive frames. Rather than manually setting it for upper fields first, set that to “none” and use the “guess pulldown” option. This may clear things up a bit.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Make sure you are outputting the file from After Effects using Composition>Add to Render Queue.
I would also recommend that you output your After Effects animations to Animation Codec Quicktime files. Graphics rendered to DV format look pretty sour since DV is highly compressed. You may want to render the file interlaced (which can be set in the render queue options), but even that isn’t totally necessary.
Even though you would be mixing formats in FCP (DV and Animation Codec) you will still get real-time playback and proper output provided you set your project/playback settings correctly. I am a CD not an editor, but I believe your FCP project settings should be set to use the Animation codec as the timeline/working codec and all is well.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
IF it’s all for personal use and fun, then it’s probably not worth dropping a big chunk of change on the camera. My assumption on these forums is that it’s being done for pay, which introduces a totally different set of requirements and needs.
That said, the Panasonic DVX100b is a top choice in the mid-priced prosumer market. Brand new it’s going to be out of your price range, but you might find a used one on Craigslist or Ebay within your budget. The problem is you have a slightly conflicting set of goals – quality and ultimate portability (vacations etc.). The DVX100b offers great quality, but like most other prosumer cameras it is much larger than a “handicam” type camera making a bit too bulky for vacationing.
The camera you currently have is probably just fine once you figure out how to use the files on your mac. I have heard of people having success with the .mod files that come out of these cameras by manually changing the file extension to .mpg so that Quicktime recognizes it (do this on a test clip first as it may ruin the file if it doesn’t work), others have used software that converts the format for you without actually transcoding the file. Google search “mod files mac” or something and I’m sure you’ll find what you need.
To answer your original question about what format to use throughout production, I would convert the files to Quicktime Animation codec. The files are going to be way larger, but since this is for short-form work that shouldn’t be a big problem. The Animation codec is lossless, meaning that it won’t lose quality no matter how many times you output it. This makes it ideal for multiple round trip activity such as pulling clips into AE for effects work and back into Premiere for output, editing, etc.
Good luck!
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Sometimes the frames AE has cached can get corrupted or suffer other oddities and they simply need to be flushed and replaced with good frames. Try doing Edit>Purge>Purge All. This clears your cache and will usually remedy the problem.
Once you clear the cache, re-render and see if it’s still occurring.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Unfortunately everything I know of within that price range is going to suffer from the same core issues:
– Small CCD – anything smaller than 1/3″ is going to yield more blocky, blurry images lacking in clean detail
– Odd Shooting Formats – The problem with all of these wacky formats is that they don’t adhere to any standard, the manufacturers are all creating their OWN standard and hoping the industry follows. What you, the consumer, get, is poor support in your favorite apps and clunky workflows. HDV is no exception, especially since it’s the same basic specs as mini-dv yet passes itself off as “High Definition.”– Poor Optics – Any camera that cheap is, without fail, going to have a very cheap lens attached to it. The lens contributes substantially to the overall image quality, but it also limits low-light performance, etc.
– Build Quality – It goes without saying that a cheap camera is cheaply built. Not really a huge problem if you store and transport it in a nice Pelican case, but it doesn’t bode well for overall camera reliability.
Now, you just have to decide if these are all factors you can live with, and a lot of it depends on what you are DOING with the camera. If you are just using it for basic testing/hobby, then you might not mind these issues. You do need to consider that any footage pulled from these sub-$1K cameras is going to be more difficult to manipulate or “enhance” in apps like After Effects, so they might not be the best choice for testing. Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
These cameras are a nightmare, not only because they have a tiny sensor, but from what I’ve read the captured files are some wacky, nonstandard format (it’s not DV). To make matters worse, it seems this ridiculous format doesn’t play well with macs without some form of conversion.
Google it, and I’m sure you’ll find some answers to help you through it.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
AE tends to choke on larger images and slow things waaaay down. A 7000px wide bitmap image can consume hundreds of megs of RAM (or more) per frame, whereas using vectors you could pull in a tiny, 100Kb file and scale infinitely. It goes without saying that vectors are going to save you a lot of processing and rendering. If you must use bitmap graphics, however, here’s one technique to speed things up and prevent render errors.
Create a comp the size needed (in this case, sounds like 7000px wide X whatever height), but in Photoshop break up your master map into 1000×1000 or smaller squares. Pull all of these squares into AE and reassemble within your giant comp.
Visually the result is exactly the same, but After Effects is being tasked with processing a handful of average sized images rather than one huge, RAM hogging file. Depending on the source materials, the difference in processing and rendering speed can be quite substantial.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
RAID 5 is a mix between 0 and 1 in the sense that you get both redundancy and performance.
The problem all around is that a 2-drive RAID is fine for RAID 1, but is pretty pointless with 0 or 5 – you won’t notice much improvement with RAID 0 and RAID 5 requires at least three drives.
The ideal setup without an external box would probably be three or four drives in RAID 0, while using an automated backup software solution to do nightly backups of the drive. If your guy is willing to drop 6K on a DLT drive, getting him to buy a hardware RAID card for $100 and a few extra drives shouldn’t be hard.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Screw ’em, I wouldn’t give it a second thought. At least they let you know up-front what kind of client they would have been.
Every time studios let a client get away with something like this, they are irreparably harming the industry as a whole.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
It seems that ripping off production companies is a favorite pastime for accounting departments across the country…
We have taken to calling our client contact the week before the job wraps and reminding them to submit the invoice right away so that the check is ready on delivery. Then we call them two days before delivery and remind them again, mentioning that we can’t deliver the product without the check. At that point, we don’t deliver if there is no check and the client has no one to blame but themselves. It’s worked 98% of the time.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com