Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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I’m less optimistic than Grant. No keyer will successfully, cleanly key that plate out, so your only real option (if you want a clean result) will be frame by frame rotoscoping.
It’s the shadows that are killing you most. If you can re-shoot, try placing the light much higher up so your shadows fall lower down, and hopefully out of frame.
You might want to also consider shooting at the highest speed your camera offers, even if it means using an interlaced option. Low frame rates (like 24p) result in motion blur on moving objects, which is great for live shots but a nightmare for keying. The motion blur on CineAlta frames can make keying tough, so it definitely will on any camera of lesser quality than that.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
There is a row of buttons running along the bottom of After Effects’ viewer window. One of them (little square icon near the right side of the window) is the Aspect Ratio correction. Toggling this will allow you to view your work in the correct aspect ratio, but the trade-off is that everything will look a bit jagged and screwy. Trust that upon re-export everything will look clean and sharp again provided you use the correct settings.
I usually toggle back and forth to check work in clean view and correct aspect ratio view.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
So far so good for the 5 machines I updated so far (4 Mac Pros and a Macbook). AE seems to be fine, but of course results may vary…
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Thanks for the correction Paul, I was pretty tired when I posted and totally forgot he was on an iMac.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
You should have at least 2GB per CPU core. More than that MAY be overkill, but who am I to judge?
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I would highly recommend that you render to the Quicktime Animation codec with the “Millions+” setting (full quality + alpha) using the “Straight” mode. These files will look strange in Quicktime Player but should import exactly as expected in any editing app that recognizes alpha channels.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
For roughly the same price as a firewire converter box (such as the Canopus ADVC110) you can pick up a Blackmagic Decklink card, which will provide higher quality connectivity options.
That said, there really aren’t many good reasons to use an old TV for monitoring. Because of the poor resolution and no real way of connecting via component cables or better, it can’t be trusted for doing color correction or ANY important image evaluation. At that point, you’re only using it to check broadcast/title safe, which is completely unnecessary. Professional-grade broadcast monitors offer higher lines of resolution and professional connectivity like you will find in the Blackmagic Decklink cards.
Your only other reliable option is to use a Blackmagic Intensity card, which provides HDMI connection to any LCD/Plasma TV. This is a much more reliable option than a standard TV, but (in my opinion) still inferior to a true broadcast monitor via BNC/SDI connection.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
I agree with all of Lars’ comments.
I would only add that you really should have a quad-core machine for AE work. Dual core is more of an absolute minimum. Just remember to heed the advice about the amount of RAM per CPU core. You really should install 2GB RAM or more per CPU core or AE will not be able to properly utilize your numerous cores. Since rendering/processing using multiple streams is a huge speed boost, this is one area that you can’t skimp on in AE.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
Try rendering to Quicktime format using the Animation Codec. This codec preserves all of the original detail of your animation, but it is very space-efficient and will almost always result in smaller files.
As for the render time, that is a function of your computer specs, the codec you are rendering to, the content in your animation, how you set up the animation etc. so there is no way for us to troubleshoot this for you without substantially more detail on the above items.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com -
You can’t delete the audio, AE considers the video/audio to be one single file. All you have to do is toggle the little speaker icon for each layer to turn the audio off completely for that layer.
Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com