[David May]

It truly has, and I for one really appreciate it. Im going to be doing the final export in about 2 weeks, as I still have some masking to finish in AE, so Im sure ill have some more questions between now and then.

Thanks again Vince, your a champ

[David May]

Alright then, thanks for the quick reply.
Could I ask a few quick ones about the dvd export then? As i said, Im deinterlacing on export for obvious reasons and this film is being marked for my HSC, so cant risk it screwing up on whatever player theyre using (can assume it will be fairly new).
What is the best MPEG 2 DVD preset to use, and what should i do for my
Field order? (None? Upper? or lower?)
Bitrate Encoding=2 Passes?
Min Bitrate=?
Target Bitrate=?
Max Bitrate=?
Just seems such a pitty to only use 200mb of that potential 4gb 🙁

Strange thing is, the film is on a 16:9 aspect ratio, but when I use it on the dvd player in my english class, it reverts to an almost 4:3 picture(cutoffs disappear, zoomed in). The dvd player is set on 16:9, but when I change the player to 4:3, my film goes to a 16:9 appearance. This is a strange one, but I dont want to have to attach a note asking the markers to fiddle until they see the widescreen cutoffs. Any ideas?

Thanks Vince, much appreciated

[David May]

Its going to be on a dvd, and as im submitting it for marking for my higher school certificate, im paranoid that it looks its best. To test, i rendered it out as a nice high quality HD MPEG2 and i got heaps of interlacing. But when i used nero vision and put the video onto a dvd, interlacing disappears and everything looks great (audio also looses some low level background noise which was a bonus).
I know it sounds silly, but i figured that if i export the final product as the highest quality HD 25fps picture i could find (doesnt make a difference if its MPEG 2bluray?), then put it onto a dvd, id retain a really great picture. Would exporting it to encore (dvd) as 720×480 at a 1.2 PAR achieve exactly the same thing? Ive got some spare dvd’s, so ill have a play around. I just really dont want to have to go through all the hassle of de-interlacing in AE.

Dave

(HOORAY FOR DYNAMIC LINK! Thanks for sharing that with me, its saved me alot of time and effort)

[David May]

Ah crap. I dont know the number of bits in the footage, but yeah, I really cant afford the RAID setup. I have the adobe installers on one 200gb sata, and the video files on a 500gb sata.

Heres the properties of the footage taken straight from premiere
File Size: 11.6 GB
Image Size: 1440 x 1080
Pixel Depth: 1440
Frame Rate: 25.00
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz – compressed – Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz – 32 bit floating point – Stereo
Total Duration: 01:03:30:02
Average Data Rate: 3.1 MB / second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.333

So if i have 9 of these files in after effects, opened straight off the premiere save, is rendering uncompressed out of after effects so i can re-attach the audio in premiere, and then render again the best bet? I can leave my computer on for a week just to let it get through all the footage if needs be. Or will i be able to get away with rendering from after effects as BluRay (or the highest quality codec i can find…i have no idea what that would be?), attaching audio and rendering again at the same codec without getting a big quality drop?

Hope that makes sense, let me know if any clarification is needed. I just need it to look amazing when it hits that dvd, but thats a whole nother set of questions.

Cheers

Dave

[David May]

I got sick of its unreliability (couldnt load presets), so Im just using the curves effect in color correction to get the desired look. I will hopefully try and fix it when I have more time, as it is expensive software, Im just annoyed it doesnt work straight up.
Thanks mate

[David May]

Great suggestion! This work has taken me over 150 hours so far, so Im having a bit of trouble taking that step back and thinking of the best idea. Hopefully not having the audio in there will also speed up my working in AE, as its chugging along with the whole project.

Ill get started on my effects, and without a doubt ill be back when i finish the effects with more questions on exporting.

Thanks a lot mate 🙂

Dave

[David May]

Alright sweet as, Im nearly out of questions, so heres my final few.

Once ive finished applying these effects, is it easy for me to bring the edited project back into premiere pro and finish the audio? Im going to follow your advice and not touch it in AE, but i will need to fiddle with the volumes once its done, but i just want to make sure all the effects will stick to the shots when i bring them back. Secondly, if i backed up my premiere project, and then chose not to import the audio into AE, how will i get my audio back on once if finished in AE? I imagine the solution is related to the first question, its just that if i export it as a premiere pro project and then copy the audio from the backed up version onto this new project, It never seems to stick.
eg. Ill open an older pp save that has all the same project files, copy a section of the timeline. close the project. open the new save that has all the same files, paste the copied timeline section in. All seems to work fine. save. close project. But when i open back up, the copied timeline sections will be blank.

Hope that makes sense. really just need to know how to stick my audio timeline back on, and how to get the project back in pp once im done.

Last but not least, the premiere project is set at 29.97 fps, frame zize: 1440×1080 16:9, with a pixel aspect ratio: HD anamorphic 1080 (1.333)

The AE comp with the imported save is on HDV 1080/29.97 1440×1080 and a pixel aspect ration of HDV 1080/DVCPROHD 720 (1.333) 16:9, 29.97fps.

But for some reason, the footage from the pp project, once opened in AE appears to be sqeezed. If i change the AE comp settings to HDTV 1080/29.97, it seems to regain its widescreen format. I just thought this is strange seeing as HDTV is at 1920×1080 and the original footage is at 1440 x 1080 and yet, it looks correct when on the HDTV setting.
strange no?

Thanks again for your help, i know the first question is a bit stupid, but i dont want to go through all the hassle of applying effects to find i cant get my nicely touched up footage open in pp, and have no audio

cheers

[David May]

Fantastic! My timeline is there, and after watching some of the video co-pilot series, im not as disorientated as before.
As i said before, i want to apply a number of different effects to different shots, but with all the seperate layers, im having trouble finding the one my indicator is on. Is there an easy way to find the layer thats being used? If i turned them off one by one, id get there in the end, but i have a feeling theres an easier way to locate them. So seeing as each layer corresponds to one shot or effect, if i locate the correct layer, i can apply my effect to the shot, and it will still fade out as normal. The main reason for this question is i will be using a number of masks and i want to make sure they fade with the shots.
I havent used anything but basic transitions, some slowmotion, and 2 audio effects (reverb and multitap delay) in premiere pro, so hopefully i wont get any compatibility issues.

Thank you so much for your help Simon, your a lifesaver and i hope these questions arent taking up too much of your time.

[David May]

I love you. how do i import just a timeline? I wasnt sure you could do that with after effects, but god im happy that you can.

[David May]

All good, i managed to use the shot full screen by adding a few new ones before it. But yes, lesson learned i think.
Thanks for your help guys, i really appreciate it.