Brendan Coots
Forum Replies Created
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I agree with Moldyboot, and just bear in mind that neither of the cards you listed will necessarily give you increased frame playback. In most apps that is more a function of available RAM than it is the video card. In After Effects you can enable OpenGL rendering when you have either of these cards and it will help, but the OpenGL implementation in After Effects is still fairly weak. Adding 4-8GB RAM is usually the biggest performance booster with these apps.
I don’t think FCP will use the GFX card too much either, except for some real-time effects. Motion and Maya both will take better advantage of the card, with Maya being the biggest winner here.
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16-bit. 8-bit is ok for most low-end work, but these days the use of gradients, clean lines etc. dictate that 16-bit is the best choice. Just be aware that the files you render from AE will only be 8-bit even when your project is 16-bit. Not a problem, but some people expect the rendered files to be 16-bit as well, and it doesn’t work that way.
Only bother with 32-bit if you have very high end HDR-type needs, or want to squeeze some extra realism out of your effects such as blurs, etc. They composite a little better/more realistically in 32-bit, but the slow down in workflow is not usually worth it for average use.
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You can’t import P2 files (MXF) directly into AE, and probably never will be able to since AE is not an editing app but rather a finishing app.
The bigger issue that people run into is that DVCPRO files are not PC compatible – this MAY be resolved with the Premiere update people are talking about, but I’m not sure. If not, you will need a DVCPRO50 codec to use the files, such as the free Matrox codec:
https://www.matrox.com/video/support/ds/software/codec/home.cfm
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The safest (and best quality/color rendition) option for Mac/PC compatible preview files is MPEG-4, encoded as a Quicktime .mov file. Even very old versions of Quicktime can read these files without issue. When using the MPEG-4 codec, avoid using the .mp4 extension which some apps will default to. Also, tell your artist to set the bitrate to around 1200-1600kpbs, which gives good, clean results and files that aren’t ridiculously huge to download.
MPEG-1 is older, nowhere near as high-quality, results in larger files, and is not as widely compatible, and therefore I never use them.
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I don’t use Premiere so I can only answer some of your questions:
Setting AE to interpret footage as lower fields first, whacking that into a composition and sending it straight to the render queue with output settings set to progressive (no fields), do I loose any resolution?
By doing this you are allowing AE to do the deinterlacing. Not the end of the world, but there are better tools for that task – as you mentioned FieldsKit/Magic Bullet.
When it comes to Fieldskit and MB, why do they need to analyze the footage so extensively and do vector analysis and so on… Putting 50 half images into 25 full images should be pretty straightforward right?
As you probably know, fields are displayed intermittently – upper field then lower field then upper field and so on. If you simply merged two consecutive fields to make one whole frame, you would be removing half of your footage, causing it to be half as long and play in fast motion. Therefore, the main function of deinterlacing tools is to create the missing data from nothing other than guesses and math, which isn’t exactly easy if you want very high quality results. Looking at it that way, you can see how varied the approach and results might be, depending on the software used. After all, you are asking a piece of software to create footage for you.
As for your questions about Premiere and deinterlacing, generally speaking semi-pro apps are not the best place to be doing something that can vary so widely in quality depending on the tool used. If you are frequently battling interlacing issues, you are the ideal FieldsKit/Magic Bullet customer, and it would probably be worth every penny to you. Download a demo and see if it saves you time/money – if so, the decision is a no-brainer.
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Good advice from the guys above, and I would just add that HD is always upper field first (if interlaced) and square pixel. The AE presets for HD should work just fine for your situation, but this info could save you some confusion down the road.
Also, don’t sweat this being your first HD project. I was pretty freaked the first time I worked in HD, but immediately grew to LOVE the larger space, crisper graphics etc. it’s really a LOT more fun than working in standard def. and aside from getting the settings right, it’s no different in terms of workflow. In short, HAVE FUN with it.
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Assuming you would be using a GOOD camera for both options (as Steve said, NO HDV), then I would go HD. I say this primarily because the 16:9 aspect ratio will give the viewer a wider field of view. Assuming this is an indoor shoot, the limitations of 4:3 combined with lenses that can’t go very wide can often make it very tough to see what is going on without a lot of panning around, which doesn’t really give the viewer a sense of the space.
Another consideration is your workflow. If you use an IT-based HD camera (aka records directly to HDD or flash memory) like the Panasonic HVX200, you can easily and quickly transfer the footage into your editing app with no special tools, even doing so on set if desired. With DigiBeta, you will need access to a very expensive deck just to transfer the footage.
The HVX200 records in 4:2:2 as well, so the main advantage of the DigiBeta route would be larger chips and better lens. Not that these are trivial advantages at all, but how high end must the virtual tour be? Is it worth the added cost and hassle of DigiBeta? Using the HVX200 would probably give you a 4:1 cost advantage over using DigiBeta.
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If you have the Flash Video Encoder installed (comes with Flash), Quicktime Pro can convert any file to FLV. It does a great job and is a cheap solution. If you don’t have Flash, try the free Riva FLV Encoder. It works great provided you select an adequate bitrate for encoding.
MPEG-4 is an interframe codec, meaning that it only actually encodes beginning and ending frames every so often, and then guesses to create the inbetween frames. Programs like AE work on an intraframe basis, i.e. expect files that have a series of unique individual frames it can access. It is choking on your MPEG-4 because it can’t readily find individual frames, only groups of frames and it takes it much longer to interpret.
Quicktime doesn’t have this problem, which should enable it to compress your video to FLV MUCH faster than AE.
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My suggestion would be to hire a freelancer rather than a company to create it for you, by posting an ad or two in the “creative gigs” section of craigslist or your local classifieds.
You can ask to see samples from respondents and select an artist based on whether their work matches the look you are going for. Using a freelancer also means you will likely get more bang for your buck and will be able to work more closely with them to get it exactly right.
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In situations like this it’s probably time to completely reinstall After Effects.