[Ivan Eldredge]

Helly Cindy!

From what I can see on the included screen captures you posted, you’re trying to animate clock hands using slider controls. If that’s the case, adding code to the “position” property won’t help you achieve the desired result. For animating clock hands, you need to focus on the “rotation” property, not the position.

Here’s what you should do:

– Create separate rectangle objects for each hand (hours, minutes, and seconds).

– Set the anchor point of each hand to be at its base, and center the anchor point on the clock face.
– Add your expressions to the rotation property of each hand, not the position.

Here’s a generic code you can use for rotation:

sliderValue = thisComp.layer(“Controller”).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);

sliderValue

Then, you can multiply the sliderValue by 30 for the hour hand or 6 for the minute and second hands:

Hour hand: sliderValue * 30

Minute hand: sliderValue * 6

Second hand: sliderValue * 6

This will rotate each hand based on the corresponding slider values.
Hope this helped.
Best regards,

Ivan Eldredge G.

[Ivan Eldredge]

Hello Raconteur! To replicate the iPhone’s time counter with a red background and white timecode in Premiere Pro, follow these steps:

Create a Red Matte:

Go to File > New > Color Matte.

In the color picker, select a red color similar to the iPhone’s recording indicator.

Click OK and name it appropriately (e.g., “Red Timecode Background”).

Drag the red matte onto the timeline, placing it over your video track.

Add the Timecode Effect:

In the Effects panel, search for “Timecode.”

Drag the Timecode effect onto the red matte you just created.

This will overlay the timecode onto the red background.

Reduce the Timecode Background Opacity:

Select the red matte with the timecode effect on your timeline.

Go to the Effect Controls panel.

In the Timecode settings, reduce the Opacity (under “Timecode”) to 0. This removes the default black background of the timecode, leaving only the white time digits visible on the red matte.

Mask the Red Background Around the Timecode:

Select the red matte layer in the timeline.

In the Effect Controls panel, go to the Opacity section.

Select the Rectangle Mask tool to draw a rectangle around the timecode, creating a clean, iPhone-like box around the digits.

Adjust the mask size and position to fit perfectly around the timecode digits, making sure it aligns neatly.

Final Touches:

Adjust the position, size, and font of the timecode if necessary in the Effect Controls to match the look you’re aiming for.

Once done, your timecode should appear over a clean red rectangle, closely mimicking the iPhone time counter look.

Let me know if you have any additional questions or need further assistance. Thanks, and good luck!

Ivan Eldredge G.

[Ivan Eldredge]

Hello Grant, thanks for the follow-up! Let’s dive into your questions:

1. How does AE’s “None” colorspace compare to ACES or other wide-gamut color spaces like Adobe Wide Gamut RGB?

I’ll use an analogy to help explain color spaces in video. When you work with “None,” you’re essentially working with either linear color values or Gamma 2.2. It’s like having a picture painted with thousands of colors, but your view (due to the lack of color management) is limited to seeing only a few hundred of them.

Also, since you’re using linear color values in this mode, you won’t have or be able to take advantage of the subtle nuances and dynamic range present in log color spaces like S-Log3.

2. Would chroma keying behave better in a color-managed workflow vs. None?

Yes, definitely. Using the same analogy, working in a color-managed workflow is like seeing the full range of colors in your picture, those thousands of colors are now visible and accurate. This ensures that color translation is precise, allowing AE to correctly interpret the footage and give you better results when chroma keying.

In contrast, with “None,” you’re limiting your view to only a portion of the available colors, making it harder to pull a clean key, especially with log footage that requires proper color interpretation for accurate keying.

3. Would chroma or luma keying work noticeably better in Linear mode?

Working in Linear mode is like seeing the picture of the analogy above with proper lighting, where colors and light behave as they do in the real world. This makes the transitions between colors much smoother, helping chroma keying produce cleaner edges and more accurate blends.

For luma keying, however, Linear mode might not be as beneficial. While the lighting is accurate, you might lose some of the subtle brightness variations that are crucial for precise luma keying, especially in log footage, where those details are important for a clean separation.

I hope this clears everything up. Thanks again, and best regards,

Ivan Eldredge G.

[Ivan Eldredge]

Hello Grant, let’s try to go over all of your questions:

“If AE’s colorspace is set to none, and you are working with, let’s say Sony S-Log3 footage. If you use the footage to create the comp, what colorspace does AE use? Does it assume S-Log3? What does it mean to be none?”

When the colorspace in After Effects is set to “None”, it means AE is not color managing anything. It won’t make any assumptions about the footage’s color profile; it will simply interpret the raw values of the footage as they are.

Additionally, when set to “None”, AE will use your project’s color management settings, typically either Linear Color or Gamma 2.2, depending on how you’ve configured the project. Be aware that this will result in AE making a linear interpretation of footage that may have been shot in a log color space, such as S-Log3. This can lead to improper dynamic range interpretation, incorrect gamma, or other color artifacts (such as dull or overly flat footage).

“Is ‘None’ a default limited colorspace?”

Yes, it can be considered limited because AE isn’t taking advantage of its color management features. When the project is set to “None”, AE does not apply any color space transformations. In the specific case of log footage like S-Log3, it will perform a linear interpretation of the log data, which can lead to clipped highlights, loss of detail, or incorrect color rendering.

“Do you need to switch to color management and specify S-Log3?”

Yes, for footage shot in log formats (like S-Log3), it’s important to enable color management in AE and set the appropriate working space based on your final output or delivery format (e.g., Rec.709 or Rec.2020).

To ensure AE interprets your footage correctly, you should also manually interpret the footage as S-Log3 by going to Interpret Footage → Main, and under the Color Management tab, choose the correct input profile, which would be S-Log3 in this case. This allows After Effects to convert the log data to a display-referred color space correctly, avoiding the reading issues described above.

“What if you’re using a ProRes 444 export of Sony S-Log3 footage in a None colorspace project?”

ProRes files do not embed metadata that tells AE which log format (like S-Log3) was used for encoding. So, if your project’s colorspace is set to “None”, AE will treat the ProRes file as raw linear data without any color management. This could lead to incorrect gamma and dynamic range interpretation, similar to the issues described with S-Log3 footage.

To handle this correctly, you would still need to manually interpret the ProRes footage in AE, assigning it the S-Log3 profile (via Interpret Footage → Main → Color Management). This will ensure that AE knows the footage is in S-Log3 and can apply the proper conversion to your working color space.

Hope this helps!
Best,

Ivan Eldredge G.

[Ivan Eldredge]

Hey David,

I understand the confusion, but I think Tod and I are actually on the same page — we’re just explaining it from different angles.

What Tod is saying is that timecode designates the beginning of a frame, not the frame itself. So when you set an Out Point, you’re marking the end of the last frame. Premiere Pro’s Media Duration includes that last frame in its calculation, which is why it shows one extra frame compared to the Media End.

To put it simply: Media Duration counts all the frames, including the last one. Media End represents where the video stops, which is what you should use when delivering to the FAST channel.

So to clear it up:

When you’re delivering your timecode for the feed, use the Media End timecode, as that’s where the video actually ends visually.

The Media Duration being one frame longer is normal and won’t cause any issues. It’s just Premiere’s way of counting that last frame, which makes sense mathematically but isn’t something you need to report.

Both Tod and I are saying the same thing from different perspectives — one focusing on how the system works (timecode math) and the other on what you need to do for delivery.

Hope that clears it up!

Best,

Ivan Eldredge G.

[Ivan Eldredge]

Hello David!

The difference between Media Duration and Media End is based on how Premiere Pro calculates timecode.

Media Duration: This shows the total number of frames in the clip. It is inclusive of the start frame but not the end frame.

Media End: This shows the timecode at the last displayed frame.

Because timecode counts from zero (00:00:00:00), the last frame of the media technically ends at the next frame’s start point. Therefore, the duration count includes that last frame, but the end timecode doesn’t, since it reflects where the media stops. This results in the duration being one frame longer than the end timecode.

In your case, you should provide the <strong style=”background-color: var(–bb-content-background-color); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; color: var(–bb-body-text-color);”>Media End timecode for the <em style=”background-color: var(–bb-content-background-color); font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; color: var(–bb-body-text-color);”>FAST channel feed. The one-frame difference in duration is a normal behavior in Premiere and won’t cause issues if you use the end timecode since that indicates where the video content actually stops​​.

Hope this helps!
Best regards,

Ivan Eldredge G.

[Ivan Eldredge]

Hi,

Regarding your current specifications and the projects you are currently processing, you are absolutely overdue for an upgrade. Here are my recommendations:

Motherboard & Processor: You would benefit from upgrading to a modern Intel i7 or i9 (13th Gen) or AMD Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 9 processor. Those processors can handle 4K footage and heavy practical effects a lot better, not to mention they can offload that activity from your graphics processing unit.

RAM: 16GB of RAM is low for your current workload. When working with 4K footage, you would want to get to 32GB–64GB of DDR4 (or DDR5 depending on your new board). The minimum recommended speed would be 3200MHz or higher.

Storage: You should consider replacing your current HDD drive with a NVMe SSD (500GB–1TB), which would allow for faster read / write speeds, and would greatly benefit high-resolution footage. You could always keep the HDD for general storage or backup, but you would need an SSD for editing.

Graphics Processing Unit: Your current graphics processing unit (GTX 750T) will not keep up with the actual needs for video editing. You might want to upgrade to something like an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or 4070 with a minimum of 8GB of VRAM performance. This will allow for future performance in rendering and using GPU accelerated effects.

Power Supply: Be sure to check if your power supply unit (PSU) could handle the individual specifications of the new parts, mostly the added power consumption of the new graphics processing unit.

Cooling: Be sure to think about cooling. If you’re upgrading to a higher performance CPU and GPU you will want a really good system (air or liquid cooling) as cooling is critical to system stability for high-action edits.

Overall, these recommended upgrades would increase your editing performance significantly, and provide future performance consideration for editing over the next couple of years.

Best,

Ivan Eldredge

[Ivan Eldredge]

Hi Josh! Thanks for the reply!

To check if you’re able to change the renderer/acceleration mode on your machine do this, go to File > Project Settings > General, and then under Video Rendering and Playback, see if you can switch acceleration modes from the Renderer dropdown. On my M1 MacBook, I can’t change this setting, so I’m not entirely sure if you’ll be able to on your M3 Max Mac, but it’s definitely worth a try.

Now, regarding the H264 codec: Even if you haven’t had issues with it in the past, problems can arise at any time due to the nature of how this codec works. H264 is highly compressed, which means your machine has to work extra hard to decode each frame, especially when additional elements like text overlays are involved. This extra processing can sometimes cause the kinds of playback issues you’re describing.

Given this, I’d still recommend trying to transcode a few files or use proxies to see if that helps. On a Mac, transcoding to a ProRes codec is usually the best approach, as it’s much easier on your system and typically eliminates these kinds of issues.

I hope this helps! Let me know how it goes, and good luck!

Ivan Eldredge

[Ivan Eldredge]

Hello Josh! While I haven’t encountered this exact issue before, here are some steps I would take to troubleshoot the problem:

First, have you tried the standard Premiere Pro troubleshooting steps? Resetting preferences, clearing the media cache, enabling or disabling graphics hardware acceleration, or switching the acceleration mode might help. It’s also worth lowering the playback resolution to see if that improves performance. Additionally, third-party plugins can sometimes cause conflicts, so I’d recommend checking those as well.

Specifically for your project, you might want to try using a different font, as sometimes the font itself can cause unexpected issues. Even though 4K H264 footage is widely used, it can still be demanding on a system, so I often suggest using proxies or transcoding to a more computer-friendly format.

I hope one of these steps helps you resolve the issue! Let us know how it goes.

Good luck!
Best,

Ivan Eldredge

[Ivan Eldredge]

Hello Mark!

When it comes to ingesting footage, I usually follow one of two paths depending on my workflow: I either use Media Encoder or Premiere Pro directly. Each has its benefits depending on the specific needs of the project.

For batch renaming, I haven’t felt the need to do it lately, but when I do, I use a free app for Mac called NameChanger.

As for adding metadata, I typically import the files into Premiere Pro. You can manage metadata in a few ways:

• Metadata Panel: You can enter or edit metadata here once your clips are imported.

Project Panel or Subfolders: In the list view, you can activate the metadata criteria you need by right-clicking on the column headers. This allows you to view and edit the relevant metadata directly in the Project Panel or any subfolder.
If you need any additional explanation, I’ll be glad to help you.

Best,

Ivan