[Jeremy Allen]

I can vouch for Carl’s DVD. If you don’t know much about roto, you will be much better off watching this before you do the work.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2

AE CS3

[Jeremy Allen]

Are you duplicating it in the comp timeline, or in the project bin?

If you duplicate in the timeline, you are making an exact copy, so anything you change in the duplicate will be reflected by the original comp.

If you duplicate in the project bin, you are creating a new instance of the comp, and any changes you make to the duplicate will not affect the original comp.

I think that’s right anyway.. Hope this helps.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11

AE CS3

[Jeremy Allen]

What’s up Brent! It was a surprise to see your name on here today. I’d have to agree with the others, it should be 23.976 . I had that problem a while back and it drove me crazy too.

Seeing that you’ve been doing this for so long, I wonder if there isn’t something else going on though. I’m sure you’ve worked with this type of footage shot in this particular way at some point. Let us know if setting the fps to 23.976 doesn’t work for ya.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11

AE CS3

[Jeremy Allen]

This is a bug in CS3.. I’m afraid you will have to reinstall the program..

Just kidding, haha.. The lines you are seeing is called a grid. It helps when you need to line things up in the comp. To get rid of it, you can either:

a) Hit control + ‘ or command + ‘

b) go to View > Show Grid

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11

AE CS3

[Jeremy Allen]

Hey thanks for the ideas everybody.

@Pete – I’m trying to check out your link, but it seems to have a problem loading. Maybe I should try it later.

@Dave – We actually did get a chance to shoot some rain on the streets during the shooting. Since I was on camera and editing/graphics, I tried to think ahead and “shoot for graphics”. Some of it worked out ok, but I will still need some sort of nice text treatment, or overall theme to the whole thing. The umbrella thing is a good idea. I’m tying to think of other things that can convey rain or water, and you got me thinking 🙂

@Paul – Funny you should mention that tut. I watched the first 2 parts yesterday and will be watching part 3 shortly. It’s definitely a nice look if I end up with a literal interpretation of rain.

Also, the performance of the video is mostly the artist standing/sitting against a brick wall inside a living room. So I thought of using the brick wall as an element somehow, although I know that’s been done to death. However, when the artist is against the wall, you can see the shadows of rain running down the window across her face and the wall. I really liked the way it looked and thought about using that somehow. Like maybe the title of the show would be “projected” on the wall and you could see the shadows of the rain from the window. And maybe the lower 3rds would have that same kind of treatment.

@Adam – I like you’re approach, looking at it from the other side. The song is kinda slow, young break-up, heartbreak, crying, etc. So, inherently I think the rain kinda adds to that feeling. I’ll probably use muted/dark colors to convey that aspect of the song. I’ll read through the lyrics again to see if anything pops out.

Again, thanks to all for responding. I work at home so it’s really nice to bounce ideas around with other talented people.

Any other ideas or links to similar treatments/themes are still much appreciated..

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11

AE CS3

[Jeremy Allen]

Don’t be so quick to say no Dave. With CS4 there is some limited support of importing 3D models. I haven’t really read into it too much, but it has something to do with opening the model in Photoshop and then exporting from there as a certain file. You can then import that file into After Effects and rotate around it.

Again, I have not tried this yet, so I’m not sure of all the limitations. I’m sure it’s not perfect, and maybe it only works with certain types of models, but at least the option is there. I’m sure this feature will get better with time.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11

AE CS3

[Jeremy Allen]

It would probably help more if you gave a breakdown of how you are trying to achieve that output. There are several ways you could do it… And when does it look bad? The rendered output, or inside AE?

IS this going for broadcast or DVD/Web use?

DVD/Web
I would make a new comp, 720×480 with the Pixel Aspect Ratio set to D1/DV NTSC Widescreen.

Broadcast
I would make a new comp, 720×486 (NTSC D1 Widescreen) with the Pixel Aspect Ratio set to D1/DV NTSC Widescreen.

Then just place your HD comp inside this comp, render as Animation, DV/NTSC or None compression, and see what happens.

That’s what I would try, but someone else may have better or more correct advice.. Good luck!

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11

AE CS3

[Jeremy Allen]

Well, I guess I was close.. Iknew it had to be one of those! Glad it worked out for ya.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11

AE CS3

[Jeremy Allen]

I could be way off, but it looks like a shutter angle or shutter phase issue to me. Go to Composition settings > Advanced tab. Check the Shutter angle and shutter phase.

The default settings are:
Shutter Angle: 180
Shutter Phase: 0
Samples Per Frame: 16
Adaptive Sample Limit: 128

Let me know if this helps or not.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11

AE CS3

[Jeremy Allen]

I would ask them for the original video source. The flv video will most likely be highly compressed, which will affect the final quality of your edit, especially if you add any FX or color correction to the video.

Having said that, this should answer your question. You will have to convert the flv to an mov or other editable file. The FLV format is not intended as a file to be edited.

There are several programs that will do this, but I can’t speak to their performance because I’ve never used any of them. A quick Google search of “Flv to Mov” will return plenty.

Finally, since you posted this here, I will assume you are planning to edit this stuff with After Effects, which is certainly not the best workflow. You should edit with something like Final Cut, Premiere, Sony Vegas, etc..

I hope some of this helps.. Good luck!

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11

AE CS3