[Eric Goldstein]

Hi I haven’t used Fieldskit, but I tested Magic Bullet and another product Algosuite. My main interest was in “uprezzing” interlaced DV and HDV footage to to 1920X1080, removing the interlacing, etc. for a film output (the project at hand was an Indy feature).

I found Algosuite to provide the best results – although render times were very slow. The reason, I believe Algosuite was superior for this application was because it had very effective anti-aliasing and very good DV/HDV deartifacting. Magic Bullet also had good deartifacting.

The downside to both programs: On this particular project, we had to convert from 29.97 to 23.976. Both Magic Bullet and Algosuite had major problems producing smooth motion with this conversion. Ultimately, I ended up using a series of passes on the footage – starting with DV Film Maker – which provided excellent framerate conversion and then followed up with processing through Algosuite.

This may be more than you wanted to know. Algosuite is expensive, but you can purchase a week’s license for about $70. It’s a really good idea to test your footage with demo versions of these softwares before purchasing – as results can vary considerably based on what you’re doing. I believe each of the three companies I mentioned provideds Demo software.

I hope this helps.

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Just to eloborate: I usually edit to get my greenscreen or effects shots to their final length – so I’m not doing more effects work than necessary. I then export my effects shots individually at their edited length and import them into AE. Once effect are completed, I render them and bring them back to my editing program.

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

I just found that the original Photoshop documents were created in Photoshop 5.5. We are using Photoshop CS 2, here. Apparently, where PS 5.5 created a layer that AE sees as, for instance, 350X240 pixels, after editing the document in CS 2 the layer is reloaded at a much larger and very different size. Other layers on the document are sometimes, but not always affected as well.

Anyone know a way to keep the layer size the same when editing them?

Thanks again,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your thoughts. I had a momentary brain lapse. I’ve been working at 1/4 and 1/2 res in draft mode, because there are so many layers. I hadn’t thought about it, but the apparently, the AE doesn’t do the pull down compensation in these modes. When I viewed problem frames at best quality and full res, the compensation worked and everything looked fine.

Thanks anyway,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi, Thanks for your responses. There is absolutely no connection between the layer out points that seem to be defining the jump in the layer above them. There is only one continuous camera. There are no key frames near the jump. It is the end of layers above those in which the jump occurs that are determining where the jump occurs. Changing the out point of the unassociated layers changes where the jump fram occurs. Moving these layers – all above the layers being effected as opposed to below them, eliminates the jump. Also – no expressions used in any of these layers.

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Darby, Thanks very much for the help.

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Okay, I feel stupid, but I finally figured out what’s going on.

I had the cell phone screen layer checked, but didn’t have the main motion blur switch on. So, when I chose “on for all checked layers,” it applied motion blur, when I chose, “current settings,” motion blur was off because I didn’t have the main motion blur switch set to on.

So the culprit was motion blur. With motion blur off, the tracking worked with no problem. With motion blur on, the screen jumped all over the place. I assumed motion blur would keep the object centered on the track in each frame, but that obviously isn’t the case.

I’m using a blur effect in place of motion blur and now everything is fine.

Thanks to everyone for their help.

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Mathias,

No, I’m definitely rendering the correct camera. However, I just found the setting that is causing the problem although I don’t understand why it is causing it:

I have motion blur on the tracked object (a cell phone screen) in order to blur the screen when it is moving. in In the output modules, if motion blur is set to “on for checked settings” then the problem occurs – that is, the cell phone screen appears to jump around and not be tracked properly. However, if I change the output module setting to “current settings,” it renders perfectly.

I don’t understand, because in this case “current settings” should be the same as “on for checked settings.” Any thoughts?

Thanks Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Roland,

I tried rendering to TGAs, but still had the same problem. I found something odd though, by setting most of the render settings to current, the file rendered properly. I’m trying to narrow down, which setting or settings are causing the problem. I’ll post, once I have it figured out.

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Roland,

Footage was originated as DVCPro HD 1920X1080 60i.
When I import into AE, interpret footage comes up with:
nonsquare 1.50:1

But, at this pixel aspect ratio, the image proportions are squeezed horizontally. When I set the pixel aspect ratio to square, the image proportions are correct.

So, I have PAR set to square for footage. Image size is set at 1920X1080.
Comp is the same: square, 1920X1080.
Output is 1920X1080, I’ve tried both lossless (Animation codec) and DVCProHD 60i. I’ve tried with and without field render. I’ve tried all combinations of intepreting footage upper, lower and none and the same in output. I’m using Best and Full.

I’m still baffled, but the results are consistanly the same as described.

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com