[Dominic Lamontagne]

Thanks all,
Actually, I’m trying to understand how one properly outputs 24p for SD NTSC DVDs.
Videographer friends tell me to let Compressor and DVD Studio Pro do the work, but I’d like to understand what this actual work is. IS there interlacing, IS there pulldown?

I thought SD MPEG-2 video for DVD had to be 60i (30 drop, lower field first), but Dave seems to suggest that DVDs can playback 24p on SD NTSC TVs…

This confuses me a bit, but I’ll try his suggestion and see if it fixes the slight hiccups I get throughout my slow pans in my movie when played back on a DVD player…

I don’t own anything else but TOAST titanium as far as DVD authoring tools are concerned though.

[Dominic Lamontagne]

I’m sorry, but I don’t know MOCHA too well (know it exists for AE, but that’s about it).

The TIFF export route would create 240 to 300 separate TIFF image files (about1.5 MB each) for a 10 seconds shot. That’s a lot of frames to retouch… Maybe the effects shot you need could be shorter?

If you own AfterEffects and Photoshop, rendering out your shot as a TIFF sequence would allow you to retouch the images individually in photoshop, then you could import them back as a TIFF sequence in AE and export them to FCX as a movie file. Then again, maybe FCX also allows TIFF sequence export and import, so you wouldn’t need AE at all.

This might help: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3023720?start=0&tstart=0

[Dominic Lamontagne]

Normally, 30 drop is interlaced. To be sure: import your original clip in AE and select File:Interpret Footage:Main… and then choose Separate fields : lower fields first and then open your clip in the footage viewer (double-click). Using the “page down” key on your keyboard to step through the frames of your clip, you will notice that the timecode moves up one frame for every two keystrokes. This is because each frame contains two fields and the “page down” key moves you forward one field at a time. Now, the important part: if you notice comb-like patterns in fast moving areas of your frame, and the image changes from field to field (from half frame to half frame) your footage IS interlaced. Choosing a fast panning camera move in your footage is best to notice fields.
If there is no combing effect, and you only see a slight jitter from field to field (no movement), your footage is NOT interlaced. If it is interlaced, leave the interpretation (lower field first) as it is. If it’s NOT interlaced, interpret the footage back to “no fields” to Separate fields: OFF.

Now, the 225% issue: SD NTSC is 720×486 and uses non-square pixels (0.91 pixel aspect ratio). You could scale your 320×240 up to 640×480 (200%) but the surrounding “unfilled” area could show on your final NTSC display (especially if it’s a projector). Some people don’t mind this though.

What I prefer doing is working within an AE preset D1/DV NTSC comp (0.91), correctly interpreting the footage I am using (in your case, you’ll have to figure out the fields issue first and also choose Interpret Footage:Other options:Pixel Aspect Ratio: D1/DV NTSC (0.91)) and then fill-up the comp with the footage. In your case, to fill the comp with a 320×240 movie file in a 720×486 environment, you need to scale it up 225% (2.25×320=720).

Some people will tell you that you are softening the image even more going to 225% instead of 200%, but I don’t think this will be noticeable and you’ll know exactly what will be displayed on-screen.

[Dominic Lamontagne]

What format is your footage?
What format is your final output?

I could possibly help if I can handle your format(s) and there aren’t too many frames to retouch (as is often the case with effect shots).

Normally, you would output the shot as a TIFF sequence (a series of TIFF files) from AfterEffects and work on the frames in Photoshop.

If you need somebody else to do it, you would need to post the TIFF files on the web (http or ftp) so I can download them. Then I would ship them back to your public ftp directory or I can upload it to my own website and you would download from there.

After that, you would import the TIFFs back in AfterEffects (as a sequence) and edit the sequence into your project.

[Dominic Lamontagne]

Hi Brad,

I’m pretty much in your “coming out of retirement” situation, so here are my two cents:

For DVD output, I would scale up the (movie) layer full screen in a 720×480 composition (NTSC DV preset in your Composition settings) running at 29.97fps before render.

640×480 is close to Standard Definition (SD) video but to get a nice full frame on TV, you should use the standard SD format which is 720×480. If your layer IS 352×240, scaling up 204.5% will give you a 720×491 layer which would be more than enough to fill-up the 720×480 comp nicely. If your layer is 320×240, scaling up 225% will yield a 720×540 layer which you can position how you like in your SD 720×480 comp.

Then there is the frame rate issue. Is your footage 30fps, 30 drop (29.97), 15?
Is it interlaced (lower field first?) or progressive (full frames)?
When rendering SD video (for DVD), frame rate is 30 drop (29.97) with lower field first field rendering enabled.

Enabling frame blending will give you smoother motion on 15 fps footage that is “spread” across 29.97 frames.

Interpreting your footage (file-interpret footage) correctly when you import it in AfterEffects is critical.
Basically, if AfterEffects understands the type of footage you are feeding it, you can play with it in your comps (stretch it, move it, etc.) without any problems.

When rendering time comes, don’t forget to turn on field rendering, but keep the output module to H.264 or Loseless (don’t forget to add sound back in if you use the Loseless preset) and use ANOTHER software to compress your videos for DVD delivery. I use Adobe Media Encoder. Others use Compressor.

So there it is!