David Johnson
Forum Replies Created
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I never recall the proper name (Remove Grain or Remove Noise), but the built-in AE plugin does a very good job. I’ve actually found it to work better than the third-party plugin grain removers … most tend to just blur images out to get rid of the grain. The downside is it’s very render-intensive so plan your render for overnight and use the most powerful machine you have access to.
Because it sounds like a possibility in your description, I’ll also mention that, since it’s intended for true film grain, it works well on grain or noise … not so well on compression artifacts and the like.
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I’ll just add a couple things to Dave L.’s good advice. First, applause to you for researching before posting, but you seem to have misunderstood some things you’ve read …
[chris mclaughlin] “It looks like that the only way to import into FCE from AE and NOT have to have FCE render my footage is with the DV/DVCPRO codec in the output module…is this true?
No, it isn’t true. The way to not have to render between AE and FCP/FCE (or any other NLE software) is to use exactly the same video and audio codecs in both programs … whether that codec is DV, DVC-Pro, or any other you choose for your needs or preferences.
[chris mclaughlin] “I have read many things and understand that after effects in no way should be used to final render”
That isn’t true either. It depends on your needs … it usually isn’t wise to render web video delivery formats from AE since separate media conversion/compression software (Squeeze, Cleaner, Compressor, etc.) does a much better job. However, if you’re rendering broadcast media (Uncompressed 8-bit, Uncompressed 10-bit, etc.) and have done everything needed in AE (no need for further compositing, editing, etc.), there’s no reason you can’t render a final output from AE (with proper codecs, etc.).
Most pro editors I know aren’t big fans of DV in general, but if you have to or want to use DV for whatever reason, at least use DV50 instead of DV25. If you’re not familiar with the difference, it may beneficial to read up on codecs in general as the subject has become more complicated than ever in recent years. If you search this forum, you’ll find tons of posts with useful info. One example directly related to your original question …
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/200/880078#880088
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At risk of inciting yet another platform war that I would gracefully bow out of, I felt compelled to offer my two cents …
Most of these debates seem to blatantly disregard that the user is always the weakest link in the chain … not the hardware, software, or platform … in other words, since the capabilities of both platforms are definitively equal nowadays, but each person is usually much more familiar with one platform or the other, the right platform for you and your situation is the the platform on which you are most proficient and that best fits the needs of your situation (software you run in addition to AE, etc.) … regardless of my opinions or anyone else’s.
As far as the the definition of “PC”, the bottom line is that all computers other than severs, etc. are “PCs” despite the erroneous contention that “PC” (aka personal computer) applies only to Win machines … however, nowadays, it seems generally accepted that “PC” refers to Win machines while “Mac” is more obvious.
It is definitely true that it requires a little more effort and know-how to run a “clean” Win system than it does to run a clean Mac system since virus writers, etc. simply don’t focus on a 10-20% market share (not counting cell phones, iPods, etc.) for obvious reasons, but from the perspective of someone who has done so successfully on both platforms on a daily basis for many years now, it is absolutely possible to run a “clean” Win NLE without excessive effort and any inability to do so is purely and exclusively user-error.
The platforms are equal in capabilities when user error is eliminated from the equation so it boils down to which platform a particular user is most efficient on when all things are considered. Personally, I find the customizability of the Win platform most suitable for my needs (i.e., the wider range of available software, as well as greater hardware and software customization options). However, one reason I work on both platforms every day is the fact that each has strengths and weaknesses that are interchangeably relevant in the varying scenarios that arise in my work.
One of my opinions on this subject does relate to price in that I’ve found the vast majority of Win-Mac comparisons to be Apple-Orange comparisons (forgive the pun) … in other words, it simply doesn’t make any sense at all to me to compare the performance of a $2k Win machine to that of a $5k Mac machine. Having done many comparisons using truly comparable systems and wide range of needs, I’ve found AE to perform best overall on well-equipped and cleanly run Win machines, but I also prefer the simplicity of the Macs for less complex projects, although I’m sure others have had opposing experiences based on their particular needs.
With all of that said, the bottom line is that the “best” platform is a balance between the one a particular individual is most efficient on (with years of learning curve adequately factored in, if one decides to switch from the platform with which he/she already has years of experience) and the one that is most suitable for the needs of a specific situation, which are inherently different for every individual.
In conclusion, I respectfully concede to the nay-sayers … yes indeed, both of my platforms suck and yours rules. Cheers.
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You can easily keyframe stuttering motion in AE using The Wiggler … I’m sure there’s an expressions method too, but I’m not the right guy to advise you on expressions.
Figuring out how to do it via a couple keyframes and The Wiggler will be pretty simple so, if you’re trying to literally reproduce the effect in the example, it may be more important to note that the entire frame isn’t stuttering, which means the singer is a separate plate from the background … either via chromakeying or rotoscoping … neither of which are basics territory so you may want to look for tutorials on the subjects.
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Search the forum for “plugins” and “plug-ins” and you’ll get a wealth of good advice … I’m pretty familiar with almost every AE plugin ever publicly available, but AE does so many different things and there are so many different types of plugins that its very hard to offer good suggestions without factoring in specific needs.
With that said, I like the big sets for a number of reasons. They’re not cheap so appropriate suggestions also depend a lot on budget, but I believe in the you-get-what-you-pay-for philosophy. I lean toward the big sets like GenArts Sapphire and BorisFX BCC, as well as sets from Red Giant and DigiEffects because:
[1] The wide range of types of plugins in the big sets better suits the wide range of things I need to do that plugins are useful for.
[2] Having been an AE user for a long time, I know that the individually-sold plugins too often change hands a bunch of times so getting upgrades and/or support becomes problematic after a while and I often have to revisit projects I made years ago.
[3] Similar to the previous reason, the bigger sets are made by more established companies that have been making AE plugins a long time so they tend to be written better and, therefore, work better and render faster. The established companies also tend to offer better support and perks (customizable presets, tutorials, etc.).Oh yeah … if you do much color/image correction or stylistic “looks” with raw video, the DFX set from Tiffen is also one of my favorites (most of it originated with Digital Film Tools, but its now much better than ever before).
By the way, Adobe’s recent product cycle history implies that we may see CS5 before year’s end.
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Mel, Sorry I can’t help without knowing the effect you’re referring to and details of the unexpected results you get … I’m sure you’ll get a solution if you start a new thread with a more descriptive explanation of the issue since I would guess that most people rarely peruse old threads, as is the case for me… just happened across this.
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Hey Michael, Sorry I never responded … I usually uncheck the “email me when someone responds” so I only just saw this when looking for an old post I had made.
Yes, I have two COW accounts, but shhhh … not sure that’s allowed anymore, but I needed full access to the COW at work, but also needed to keep my long-standing freelance/personal COW account separate from my job for several reasons.
By the way, I read many of your posts since you’re one of the few who frequently take time to offer in-depth answers and its helpful to hear others’ approaches to things since one of my favorite things about AE is there’s a zillion ways to do everything. You definitely bring a wealth of knowledge to the AE community and I’m sure the COW leaders appreciate the help from people like you. Cheers!
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Glad to help, Neil.
Neil Weaver “after giving you a motion path with bezier handles, the subsequent paths are linear”
I don’t recall whether it specifically addresses that scenario, but there’s a check box in the preferences called something like “default spacial paths to linear” … unchecking that box might solve that for you. At the same time, I think I leave it checked most of the time since getting non-linear keyframe paths unexpectedly throws me off sometimes … if you’ve ever seen the many posts on here about why a layer’s values are changing between two keyframes with identical values, if I recall correctly, non-linear keyframes are the culprit when the person wanted and was expecting linear keyframes.
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There may be a more complex scripting/expressions option, but is there a reason you can’t just have the arm and hand as one ‘layer’? It seems a hand will never naturally move too independently of an arm so, perhaps just precomp the arm and hand layers. If, for example, the hand needs to wave, there would probably still be some arm movement so perhaps a second instance of the hand layer might do for the rest of the motion that applies to only the hand. It seems the same rationale could also apply to any finger motion there may be.
It’s hard for me to put my AE thought process into words so I hope that makes some kind of sense and is helpful.
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Thank your for granting usage rights, sir … you’re a gentleman and a scholar. And, I have an idea for you … a series of fix-it-in-post t-shirts … one has an image of a shooter with the lens cap on his camera and one of the ‘dangerous’ types standing next to him saying “just fix it in post” … on the other side of each one is “Dave LaRonde’s Stock Answer #2” … they’ll go like hotcakes!
But, ugh … sometimes I wish I could delete my posts … especially those from when I’ve just left meetings with the ‘dangerous’ types. I know random rants aren’t good in a public forum, but sometimes ranting to others who understand is the only thing that keeps me sane! lol