David Braswell
Forum Replies Created
-
Glad you found the problem 🙂 My search suggestion wasn’t meant to be chastisement; I just remembered all the good info when I was having the same problem. This is why the COW rules. Thousands of heads are definitely better than one!
-
Regarding your jittery DVD from reference movie.
You need to do a mixdown of both audio and video before you make your reference movie. You should ultimately have 1 video track and 2 audio tracks to create a ref from. Since the reference movie simply points to the OMF (or MXF) files in your project, your original project and capture settings will determine the field order of the mov. That is, if you’re capturing NTSC flavor video (SD or DV), the field order will be lower field first. The process of prepping your sequence for export to a ref mov and subsequent DVD encoding has been covered pretty thoroughly in previous posts. Do a search 🙂
HTH,
mav -
Unless you specifically create an alpha channel in PS, you need to ensure that whatever image you create is over the “checkerboard” background in PS. Then when you import into AE, interpret the alpha channel as straight. If you work in PS over the checkerboard (transparent) background and save the file as a Photoshop file, it should import correctly into AE.
-
Reliable frame accurate editing requires 422 machine control. That’s why the insert functions are greyed out when you connect a DV cam to print your master. I just lay my timeline out the way I want it to appear on tape and crash it in from the digital cut tool and set time code to “ignore”. For example, a minute or two of black at the head followed by 30-60 sec of bars and tone, then another 30 seconds of black before start of program. This should work fine for archiving purposes, however you may need access to a machine controled deck if it’s for a broadcast tape. That’s the only way to assure acurate TC track.
-
It’s common to see a little of the raster when exporting video from NLEs. Depending on your encoding software, you’ll have to crop the sides. I do a weekly webcast video and use Sorenson to encode a 360×270 WMV9. I automatically crop 6px left and 3 right to lose the black edge. I don’t know of a way to do this if you export directly from the Avid. Adobe Media Encoder also offers a crop/pad facility. If your’re exporting from After Effects, you can set your “region of interest” to eliminate the edges.
-
a
-
1-Turn off “background” under View menu.
2-Under Window–>Properties–>Render, make sure “Generate matte” is selected.
3-Under Render–>Options, make sure “save result” and “save matte (as alpha)” are selected.
4-Determine whether to export with straight or premultiplied alpha. This is largely determined by the program you intend to use the graphic in. Try both if in doubt.
4-Targas and PSDs with alphas are supported. When you save the current frame your resulting file will export the matte as an alpha channel. A quick check in Photoshop will verify this… even though it nails the graphic to a black background.
-
Just some ideas:
1-Unless you’re working with DV footage that may see further layering and compositing, I would try working with QT reference movies exported from Avid. Save some space on your hard drive.
2-If your final footage doesn’t have to carry an alpha channel, I would try exporting using Avid’s codec from AE. I’ve had issues with Avid coded ALpha channels, so I use Animation codec for alpha stuff.
3-Double check that all video footage (even ref movs) imported into AE have proper field interpretation (i.e., lower field first for NTSC DV and SD footage).
4-You probably know this, but be careful of thin lines (less than 4 px) and ultra-sharp (as in vector art) graphics. Check the motion blur box when animating imported photos or vector art. Check the field blending box when slo-mo’ing imported video. Apply a little blur to sharp-edged vector graphics.
5-Avoid multiple renders of footage when possible.
6-Try doing more compositing inside the Avid. Yep, it’s painful sometimes, but the right mix of AE and Avid can be beautiful.
I’ve seen a few posts like yours here and on Avid lately. I’ve used AE with Avid for a short 3 years, but haven’t encountered the issues I read about from other posters.
Best wishes
-
Marquee is a bit of an odd duck (kinda like that strange ani software than came with Video Toaster), but very capable. Until you get AE, for simplicity’s sake I would try making your title elements (backgrounds, shapes, masks, etc.) in the regular title tool and moving them with 3D warp. Unless you’re really cozy with Marquee, it’s much easier to animate in the Avid sequence. If you’re only sliding a title onscreen, just open the effects editor, select your title, and keyframe the movement. Add a little easing and you’re done.
-
It all depends. Avid’s tools are fine for static titles. But I often use After Effects for motion graphics, especially anything containing alpha channels. However, I’m slowly transitioning to using Avid-Boris-Sapphire for more grafx. There are obvious efficiencies to be had by remaining in the Avid application.