[Jim Arco]

A lot of what you do will depend on the sophistication of your user. I sometimes make a pre-comp called “put footage here” or “change text here” for techniques I use very frequently.

You may want to include example footage and title it “delete this footage” or “change this text”.

Jim

[Jim Arco]

The black edges are the sides of the frame (where the footage has been moved around by w-s.) I’m still using CS4 so I don’t have warp-stabilizer, but I’ve done this with other stablilzing software:

Duplicate the stabilized layer and place it behind your main footage, then offset it several frames or more in either diretion. The duplicated layer fills in the edges with similar enough material that it becomes un-noticeable. Sometimes this works better if the duplicated layer is not stabilized, so the w-s footage is moving around on top of the un-stabilized image.

Jim

[Jim Arco]

Nico,

Thanks for the information.

It’s sorta ‘good news/bad news’ from BMD. Good news because they did respond and did confirm that it is a problem and not something unique to your system or mine. Bad news because they really didn’t provide what seems to be a known workaround (downgrade to old version) or even promise to fix the problem!

I chose BMD because they seem to have a much better customer relations than other choices. Hope I haven’t made the wrong decision!

Jim

BTW – I’ve done some more testing with 8.0.1. It works fine with After Effects and Premiere CS4 for SD analog video input and output. I’m not getting any images out from Photoshop CS4, but PS is a bit squirrely with video output and I may not have all the configs correct (although it did work with the later version of the software.) I still haven’t tested any HD in or out via HDMI because I have been using the Shuttle to get some backlogged work done.

[Jim Arco]

Nico,

Thank you for the suggestion. I haven’t tested everything yet, but rolling back to Desktop Video 8.0.1 fixed the AE problem. Seems a bit strange that BMD support wouldn’t have suggested that as a solution.

In any case, thanks again for solving this problem!

Jim

[Jim Arco]

I’ll give it a try.

Curious as to how you discovered this fix.

Jim

[Jim Arco]

BTW – I was sometimes getting “After Effects Warning: Couldn’t open QuickTime video output component.”

Unfortunately this seem to be some sort of generic warning that can occur under thousands of different circumstances. Don’t know if you are seeing that same message.

Jim

[Jim Arco]

Nico,

I’ve found NO answer yet. I can select the device inside of AE’s preferences, but there is still no image output. I was hoping to hear from someone what the difference is between AE’s output path and everything else. I thought maybe delete/reinstall might help but I can not find where BMD places the AE “output definition file.”

I’m running an ASUS P6 MoBo with i7 920 Intel and 12gb of memory, which is not one of the ‘recommended’ systems. But output from everything else (PPro, Photoshop, etc) tells me that this thing works, there is just something unique to AE on my system.

FYI a phone call with BMD sort of pointed the finger at AE, but I can’t find a solution on Adobe’s website either. Please post here if you find any answers.

Jim

[Jim Arco]

Kristian,

Levering off your idea, I may have stumbled on a clue:

I powered down the PC, restarted, then opened AE CS4. Next I imported a few files (previously captured with the Shuttle) and dragged one of them to the ‘create new comp’ icon. That creates a comp that matches the footage.

When I go to Edit / Preferences / Video Preview, I can choose BlackMagic Video Output as the ‘Output Device.’ (Other choices are Computer Monitor Only and IEEE1394.)

The button below ‘Output Device’ is ‘Output Mode’ and it shows a gray pulldown box, but there are NO choices available. Clicking on OK brings up: “After Effects Warning: Couldn’t open QuickTime video output component.”

Shouldn’t I see the Blackmagic choices (NTSC, PAL, HD, etc) on the ‘Output Mode’ button?

Jim

[Jim Arco]

Yes, Black Magic is selected in Preferences/ Video Preview/ Output Device in After Effects.

It is a bit puzzling since I can get output from Premiere, Photoshop, and Media Express.

I have also de-installed and re-installed the BMD driver software, but no change.

My next thought is to de-install the BMD ‘plug-in’ for AE manually, then re-install. Does anyone know where the BMD ‘plug-in’ for AE is located in windows file system?

Jim

[Jim Arco]

At ColorBurst, we do a lot of ‘fix my footage.’ The first thing I do is try to understand what makes it “bad footage.”

Improper exposure, color balance, focus/sharpness, noise/grain, vignetting, etc can each make footage look “bad.” We work through each shortcoming to improve the final image, usually starting with exposure and color-balance, then noise reduction, contrast enhancement and so on. Sometimes we have to even out the auto-exposure/auto white balance from scene to scene, or even within a scene.

There are numerous plug-ins that can simplify the job, but almost everything can be done with the tools that come with AE. So far, I have not found any magic button or plugin that painlessly fixes everything automatically.

Of course, you’re never going to get that mixed lighting, 4-stops underexposed, handheld old VHS footage to look like it was shot with a tripod-mounted high-end digital cam on a properly-lit set. But you CAN make bad footage look a lot better.

Jim
ColorBurst Video

BTW – If you post some sample footage, or even still frames, I’d be glad to give you specifics on the way I’d approach it.