Jayson Rahmlow
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Anita,
I posted a similar question not too long ago in the after effects forum. Folks suggested I use the quicktime animation codec in a .mov container. At full quality it’s lossless. The only problem is that it makes huge video files which’ll strain your hard drive. I had to upgrade my hard drive to keep up with the files bandwidth. I ended up buying the firmtek 2en2. It’s in the mail now till then I’m using a firewire drive that blinks like wild when I’m playing an HD animation video.also, i’m aware there are more efficient lossless codec’s like sheervideo’s. But they weren’t as easy to use as the animation codec. But I’d like to hear if anyone knows of a better solution.
jayson
http://www.oldchldprojects.com -
copyright shmoppyright, he’s a student. That’s fair use:
https://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
jayson
http://www.oldchildprojects.com -
now what if you want to work more quickly or efficiently (to maximize my MBP with an external firewire drive), shouldn’t you work in a lesser render mode.
I’m experimenting with editing in offline quality render settings (25% frame rate and resolution, draft quality, etc.) then switching to online settings (100% frame rate and resolution, draft quality, etc.) just before sending the edit to compressor.
it works okay, but since i nest my cuts in sub-sequences, i have to go back and change the settings in all my sub-sequences too. Which is a pain. I wish there were a master switch to turn on and off line render mode.
jayson
http://www.oldchildprojects.com -
I’m running fcp on my macbook pro Core 2 duo no problem. It’s rendering scenes as I write this.
Yesterday, I used fcp on a desktop mac with a keyboard and a mouse and I actually like using the macbook pro’s touchpad and keyboard better than the desktop’s mouse and keyboard. (with the mbp touchpad you can drag two fingers up or down and navigate the timeline.)
also, I used avid before this on a desktop pc. I miss some things about editing in avid (specifically it being keyboard centric) but the final cut suite makes other things like dvd creation and compression very easy. So I’ll say it was good to learn on avid because it makes me use the keyboard as often as possible, instead of the mouse. Which makes editing much quicker.
jayson
http://www.oldchildprojects.com -
Dave, it turns out I was already using animation without realizing it. It’s the default export setting in Motion. Which I was using before AE.
Also, I think I’ll start using an offline/online workflow by exporting two copies of the video from AE or Motion: one lossless (animation or sheer video if I can figure it out.) and a second hdv version to cut with in FCP. (This will keep my firewire drive from getting bogged down by the wide bandwidth the lossless codecs require.) Then when i’m done editing the hdv I’ll replace the hdv files with the lossless files. Then I get the speed of working with hdv in the hdv FCP timeline. And the quality of the lossless for the export. Think that’ll work?
And I checked out that macbreak video, I liked it. I never really understood 4:2:2 vs. 4:1:1 before. Thanks.
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Paolo I downloaded the sheer video trial version to give it a try but it’s confused me.
Also it seems there’s 8 different flavors of the sheer codec (rgb(a) 10bf, sheer y’cbcr(a) 8bv 4:2:2, etc.)
Which should I use with HDV?
Do you use it as the fcp sequence compressor?
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So to sum up, I need to make some changes to my workflow. I should work with an fcp sequence with its quicktime video settings set to Animation (or sheervideo if I buy it.) Then convert all hdv footage into animation (or sheervideo) and then I can go between fcp and ae without having to render on the timeline. And also I don’t have to worry about generational loss. And I can work with an alpha channel. But I’m going to have to buy a terabyte or two’s worth of hard drive cause the files will be huge.
thanks for all the suggestions.
Dave, i just read your suggestions on keying. I’ll definitely check out that video. So far all I’ve done is output my video’s into websized files 480x210ish sizes. And I have a “loving hands at home” style so most is forgiven (see my website for examples.) But I do have the ultimate goal of hd+ projection. So I think I must heed everyone’s advice here and adopt the above workflow to keep from making the people of the future watch really grainy, mosquito-y, if charming video.
As for keying with HDV. It’s the best I can afford right now. I’m using the hv20. And also it helps that most of my keyed video ends up being about a quarter to fifty percent of its original size in the final video.
And paul you’re right, command+shift + 3 or 4 are very nice.
jayson
http://www.oldchildprojects.com -
Thanks for taking the time to spell it out for me Dave. I do a lot of effects work, and practically everything I shoot I key things out of. So I guess I’ll be buying another external drive for my mac book pro soon to fill up with prores and animation files. And I’ll be waiting for ProRes to add an alpha channel while my animation clips render.
jayson
http://www.oldchildprojects.com -
Thanks Paolo, yeah I looked at the bitjazz website, authors of the sheervideo codec. I was thinking of buying the educational version. Does anyone have any experience with it. Is it better at all than the animation codec.
Also, Dave, I ended up using the animation codec in the end. It works but it still needs to render before it plays on the fcp’s hdv timeline. I’d like to find a solution that plays in real time if possible.
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Thanks again Dave. I think I’ll take your suggestion and use the animation codec. I just found out that ProRes doesn’t have an alpha channel.
Also, I didn’t realize ae’s HDV exports are unusable too. I thought it would only stutter when the source was HDV. I don’t get it, it seems like this is a problem for 2006, not 2008.