Jason Mann
Forum Replies Created
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The awesome low-light qualities of a 1.2 or a 1.4 lens seem obvious to me. But the question is, if your depth of field is going to so shallow that an entire face can’t be in focus at the same time, is it really worth it?
(I use a 5D, so maybe this wouldn’t be the case with a 7D.)
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Jason Mann
http://www.pull-start.com
jason *at* pull-start *dot* com -
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Kevin – I appreciate the thoughtful response… A couple of follow ups:
IS there an additional cost for the ARCHIVE option in CatDV? If so, how much is that?
What is the cost difference for the MXF-aware version of CatDV? (If we were to go with Calibrated Software…)
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, I shoot a bunch of footage and keep the archive copy on a Drobo, with the Capture Scratch folder on our edit drive, a RAID 5 box. (The capture scratch is organized by FCP, so there’s a folder inside for “Project A”, “Project B”, etc…)
If I want to keep the Previews generated by CatDV on the RAID after I’m done with the project and the original media is archived to a different drive, how should I have the preview paths set in Preferences > Media Search Paths? Should it be Path-based Previews: /Volumes/RAID and Original full-res media: /Volumes/RAID/Final Cut Pro Documents/Capture Scratch?
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Jason Mann
http://www.pull-start.com -
No offense taken, whatsoever, Dave. In fact, I’m assuming it IS user error (or lighting error) on my part. I have read and re-read The Foundry’s user manual many times. I’ve also used a great Keylight tutorial from Toolfarm (the name escapes me) that helped me learn the basics of using multiple instances, core mattes, etc in After Effects.
The only disappointing thing is that I thought I had lit this greenscreen better than my previous attempts.
That said, after some help from Matt via email (see above, and thanks again Matt!), I’m having a little more luck. And I think maybe my idea of what does and does not constitute a good vs. a perfect key was a bit off.
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Jason Mann
Compass Light, Inc. -
I am keeping it as DVCProHD (or have been so far). Just using Log & Transfer to bring the footage into FCP, then straight DVCProHD sequences.
If I understand you right, I should try:
1. Making a new sequence, setting it to ProResHQ or Animation or something like that, at 1280×720, square pixels.
2. Adding clips to that sequence
3. THEN running Keylight on those clips.Did I get that right?
I will give that a shot, anyway… Thanks so much for helping with this.
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Jason Mann
Compass Light, Inc. -
Thanks Matt. It’s DVCProHD, 720pN, shot on a HPX-170. I don’t really know why it seems so noisy. Other people don’t seem to have this much trouble getting keys from that codec.
I think I may have underexposed the subject slightly, maybe that is contributing to it. (But that’s just a total guess.)
Also, I’m using daylight balanced Kino tubes on the screen and subject. (Hopefully that isn’t the problem, because I’m on location now, and can’t easily get tungsten tubes.)
Detail level, vertical detail level in the camera are all the way down. Detail coring is at 0. I’m thinking of cranking that way up, but doubt if it will make much impact. (According to the Barry Green book, coring is more noticeable at controlling noise when detail level is set high.)
The vectorscope in the HPX-170 shows the dot that represents the screen right in line with the green target. Not that far out toward it (meaning it’s not that saturated) but it’s at least halfway out.
I’m at a loss.
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Jason Mann
Compass Light, Inc. -
Thanks Fred –
I’m looking at the R380 as another option. (I wish it was as cheap as the RocketRAID, but I guess it could be a get-what-you-pay-for situation…)
Glad to hear it works with Snow Leopard!
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Jason Mann
Compass Light, Inc. -
Thanks – that’s a good idea. I’ll try animation I guess.
does AE like Animation more than 8 or 10bit Uncompressed. (We tend to capture via our Kona Lhe card using either ProRes, or uncompressed.)
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Jason Mann
Compass Light, Inc. -
Aaaand as soon as I posted that, I have a change to note:
I added new background layers (a new solid layer, opacity 0%, also changed the Keylight setting and added a new instance.)
Noe the same thing happens, but this time it’s on frame 22 instead of frame 30. This is infuriating.
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Jason Mann
Compass Light, Inc. -
Unfortunately I’m still having the same issue. Precomping didn’t help, nor did using a different clip entirely for the plate.
Some interesting facts:
This is happening on three different clips. On one, it happens at 6 frames. On another at 0:11. On the third, at 1:06. And that doesn’t change if I alter the plate/background footage.
One would assume that there is something weird in the keyed footage at those timecodes, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out what it is. There’s nothing visibly different about the matte at those times, either in screen matte view, status view, or in the raw footage.
ARGH. Did I mention these shots are supposed to be done today?
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Jason Mann
Compass Light, Inc.