[Jeff Dobrow]

Try pre-comping it first….

[Jeff Dobrow]

Sandra,….you now have me replying to you on 2 seperate boards (check mograph)…

Good,…sorry, there was some confusion,…..you ARE using the correct 1.42 pix aspect ratio,….which is good,…if you used rectangular (.9) then you ‘would’ have to scale it……

Confirm the posed test on mograph,….until this Avid export format issue is explained further, I am out of ideas………..

[Jeff Dobrow]

Oddly enough, I have been importing MP3’s since the day AE added the format. I have never, ever had 1 issue with it. I only use them for reference ofcourse,….but still never had an error or problem of any sort…….

…strange….

btw – I am on a PC, not that it should matter?

[Jeff Dobrow]

I assume you are working with Frames and not fielded vid…..

Have you DEFINATELY tried it with uncompressed footage? And you get the same result?

I took a huge image file, scaled it to 1024×576, imported it and put in a comp (square pix)…..I then took that comp and dropped it in an 720×576 (rec pix) comp…..scaled it on the X to fit, and aside from looking ‘squeezed’, it looked absolutely fine.

AE handles pix aspect conversions just fine,…as well as interpolation when scaling….the only thing I can think of is if you have fields which are getting shifted somehow, (which I doubt u do) OR if it has something to do with the codec.

Why would you work with compressed footage in AE in the first place? Aquire compressed, output uncompressed -> manipulate till your hearts content -> re-import into NLE…… ?

[Jeff Dobrow]

I would agree. Almost any 3D app with a decent particle system could do this quite easily,…..whereas with Particular there would be alot of smoke and mirrors involved…..

[Jeff Dobrow]

Hmmm…I am not familiar with AVID codecs at all, and our Avid suites are used for offline editing only. I DO know that when I work on an effect during the offline process I have the Avid editor export an UNCOMPRESSED file for me to work with in AE (I prefer SGI or Targa frames,…not Qtimes). I work with the data in AE and then export Targa files back out for the Avid editor to import. This works fine,…ofcourse if he aquired using too much compression, then what he gets back has compressiona artifacting, but no more than what he gave me to begin with…..

You are losing quality somewhere in the chain of import/export using a codec.

[Jeff Dobrow]

Go to http://www.houseoflime.com and check out the ‘dings’ font section,……TONS of curvy cool ornamental ‘ding’ fonts,….you can then use them in Illus. scale up, convert to outlines and viola!
They are only like $5 a piece too

Hope this is what you were looking for……….

[Jeff Dobrow]

Unofrtunately it is not that simple with MAX,…the whole coordinate system is different, from the simple fact that the MAX universe is at 0,0,0 and the AE universe centers at 360,243,0 (technically at compX/2,compY/2,0) to the more complex issue that Y and Z are flipped……. So null locators do not work,…and cam data is off automatically by the above mentioned universal offset……makes for no fun.
MAX2AE (www.boomerlabs.com) is a product that does seemless MAX object/camera/light translation into AE……

[Jeff Dobrow]

ahhh….the pain of matchmoving.

Ok,….let me see if I follow you.

The process ‘should’ in theory go like this:

1) Plan a shot of your people. Plan it like they were ‘really’ walking in front of this building even though it is not really there. Shoot them.
2) Use voodoo to get the cam info.
3) Apply the voodoo data to your MAX camera relevant to the MAX building and render.

4) IF you have done this correctly you will have 2 movies, 1 movie of your people that you shot with a vidcam, and 1 movie of your building that you rendered out of MAX. The camera moves, perspective, ..etc..etc should be the SAME. As if both were shot identically……

5) If you do not have the above 2 movies, that look like they are properly aligned, and with the same camera movie go back to step 1 and double check everything, re-do it or whatever….

6) Once you have these 2 movies,….you should be able to import the 3D building into After effects, then import the greenscreen people movie into AE. Place the greenscreen people in AE on a layer above your 3D movie and then apply some keying filters until you have keyed out the green. Align the start time of the people clip so that the camera moves begin at the same time. This SHOULD (roughly) be the process you need to get what you want. It should be a very simple keying composite in AE once you have the 2 match-moved movies. There SHOULD NOT be a need to use AE’s camera at all. Just a simple composite.

RECAP:You have 1 movie clip of people walking around in front of a greenscreen, 1 movie clip of the building….BOTH clips ‘appear’ to be shot with the same camera movement, from the same location..etc..etc. Simply bring them both into AE, keyout the greenscreen and make sure your 3D movie is undernesth the people movie….again, just a simple 2 layer composite. The hard part is getting the 2 shots (people video AND 3D) to look as if they were shot identically…..)

Maybe this helps some more?……Maybe I am not understanding everything exactly right….

[Jeff Dobrow]

ahhh….the pain of matchmoving.

Ok,….let me see if I follow you.

The process ‘should’ in theory go like this:

1) Plan a shot of your people. Plan it like they were ‘really’ walking in front of this building even though it is not really there. Shoot them.
2) Use voodoo to get the cam info.
3) Apply the voodoo data to your MAX camera relevant to the MAX building and render.

4) IF you have done this correctly you will have 2 movies, 1 movie of your people that you shot with a vidcam, and 1 movie of your building that you rendered out of MAX. The camera moves, perspective, ..etc..etc should be the SAME. As if both were shot identically……

5) If you do not have the above 2 movies, that look like they are properly aligned, and with the same camera movie go back to step 1 and double check everything, re-do it or whatever….

6) Once you have these 2 movies,….you should be able to import the 3D building into After effects, then import the greenscreen people movie into AE. Place the greenscreen people in AE on a layer above your 3D movie and then apply some keying filters until you have keyed out the green. Align the start time of the people clip so that the camera moves begin at the same time. This SHOULD (roughly) be the process you need to get what you want. It should be a very simple keying composite in AE once you have the 2 match-moved movies. There SHOULD NOT be a need to use AE’s camera at all. Just a simple composite.

RECAP:You have 1 movie clip of people walking around in front of a greenscreen, 1 movie clip of the building….BOTH clips ‘appear’ to be shot with the same camera movement, from the same location..etc..etc. Simply bring them both into AE, keyout the greenscreen and make sure your 3D movie is undernesth the people movie….again, just a simple 2 layer composite. The hard part is getting the 2 shots (people video AND 3D) to look as if they were shot identically…..)

Maybe this helps some more?……Maybe I am not understanding everything exactly right….