David Johnson
Forum Replies Created
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I’ve used a range of Red Giant and Sapphire plugins at the same time for years and know many others who have as well so it seems unlikely the issue is a conflict between the two. I’ve seen many AE errors over the years, but that one is new to me. So, sorry I can’t be more help than to maybe narrow down the issue some. If you mention the AE version, O/S, plugin versions, etc., it may help narrow down the issue further for someone else here or if you decide to contact support.
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As Simon says (no pun intended), you can just change the extensions to MPG … if I recall correctly, FCP won’t read the muxed audio so you might first have to open the MPGs with QuickTime and export the audio as AIFs, then import those into FCP to put back with the MPG video.
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Sounds like codec issues. Similar to MOV, AVI is a just wrapper that can be encoded with any one of very many codecs. So, if you render an AVI using a codec the players you’re using can’t decode, those players won’t be able to play the file. Try checking exactly what codec your AVI is set to render with to make sure its a codec you’re familiar with and that doesn’t require a proprietary decoder that you don’t have installed. Note that “uncompressed” still requires a codec and there are many codecs that can be used to render “uncompressed”. On my Win machines, I have “uncompressed” codecs from AJA, BlackMagic, Avid and a few others I don’t recall, but I had to install most of them and probably had to install separate decoders for some of them.
I hope that helps and sorry if its all stuff you already know.
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I’ve used custom render settings and output modules for so long I don’t recall what the default settings are, but the “best” and “lossless” settings very likely make uncompressed video files, which most computers would have trouble playing smoothly. That would be compounded by the large screen sizes you mentioned.
Both of those issues are further compounded when files are played from a drive that isn’t fast enough or through a drive connection that isn’t fast enough. I’m not familiar with a “media extender”, but it sounds like some type of proprietary external drive. The smoothness of video file playback is very dependent on the read speed of the drive and the speed of the connection its tied to the computer with (whether internal or external).
Try putting the animation on DVD or tape to confirm whether the “chopiness” is an issue with the file itself or the playback method since the latter is a very common issue … in other words, if you try to play an uncompressed video file on a regular computer, it’ll play back choppy, but there is nothing wrong with the file.
Also, are you sure there are no differences between other files you’ve had success with and your current animation? Obviously the content is different so I’m just talking about specs (codecs, frame rate, screen size, etc.). Eliminating any possible differences should help figure out why you’re getting different playback results.
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Since, considering your initial post, you might be skeptical of such advice from a company guy (even though Todd K. is an objective and awesome AE resource), I’ll just chime in to say that I too consistently get poor results with time adjustments in FCP, but get great results in AE … however, as Todd pointed out, the results do depend entirely on how you go about it and the settings you use.
Also, although it sounds too late since you’ve already shot your footage, but my personal opinion is that, when extreme time adjustments are needed, the best results are gained by using a combination of software methods in post and in-camera methods (if you have access to a camera that is capable).
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I’m not in AE at the moment so I can’t check whether CC Radial Fast Blur is one of the effects that uses a preview box, but regardless, the issue is very likely one of these two things:
[1] if you’ve applied the effect to footage that doesn’t fill the whole composition size, you’ll see a sharp cutoff where the effect stops at the edges of the footage … to fix that, you can either precompose the footage into a precomp thats the size you want the effect to extend to (the method I prefer) or use the Grow Bounds plugin
[2] some render-intensive effects use a preview box to limit the effect to one area of the footage while you tweak the settings … when that’s the case, the plugin has a dropdown box in its settings window … you would just need to change it to “final output”
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Maybe I’m misunderstanding the issue, but it seems you’ve left out the two factors that are more important to the playback you get than the types of files you used to make your animation or its frame rate … with what settings did you render the output file (codec, screen size, etc.) and how are you playing it back (via a desktop media player, burned to DVD and played on a DVD player, etc.)?
In other words, from this statement, it sounds like the issue is not with your animation or file, but with the method by which you’re viewing it …
[Sofia Svensson] “The animation looks pretty okay when it’s being played on my PC. (Flawless at 60 fps)”
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Neat Video does work better than other third-party plugins I’ve used and there is an AE version as well. It’s been too long since I’ve used SmoothKit to compare, but ReVisions plugins are very good in general.
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I’ve never heard of one, but there may be some kind of scripting option. If you can’t find one, there are some ideas for similar needs that’ll probably help in these old posts and you could probably find more with a search:
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/962009#962028
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/961574#961578
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No, but if you search this forum you’ll find some discussions of how various people have manually converted their projects from a newer AE version to an older one. All approaches I’ve heard of are relatively time-consuming so, personally, I consider it a last resort … especially with large complex projects.
Cross-platform is a separate issue … the main things you’ll have to deal with there are font and third-party plugin differences.