Jon Geddes
Forum Replies Created
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Yeah its pretty well known that Adobe Products (which use Main Concept mpeg Encoder) do an absolute horrible job at downscaling HD to SD. You will have much better results if you encode it with compressor, or you could even export an SD 720×480 (widescreen) version of the master from FCP, then have encore encode that file… though you will still probably get better results with compressor. Just don’t let Encore do any downscaling… the results are garbage, and have been for many years. Maybe they got stuck in some bad contract with MainConcept?
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
2 samples per frame is most likely your problem. Try 20. Also, you probably disabled the motion blur switch at the top of the timeline panel, and not on the layer itself. This will only disable motion blur for the preview, but not for the render (depending on your output settings). For smoother motion and not choppy motion, you should have motion blur enabled. To reduce the amount of motion blur, you should reduce the shutter angle. If it is configured correctly, you should be seeing beautiful results.
Also, if you disable motion blur in the timeline panel, you wont see anything change when you adjust the shutter angle. So crank up those samples per frame, enable motion blur in the 2 spots that is required for it to work (on the layer itself, and at the top of the timeline panel), reduce the shutter angle to your desired amount, and let us know what results you get.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
Maybe a screenshot or short rendered video would be more helpful to us? Show us what you consider ‘ugly’ and we can go from there.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
I’ve noticed static problems from ac3 files created by Procoder 3, so I always use encore to transcode the audio since it has never once had a problem.
Does the audio preview ok in encore before burning?
Are you having encore transcode the audio or are you transcoding it in another program? If you are transcoding with encore, what type of file is the original? If wav, what bit depth and kHz?Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
While the composition is open, press Ctrl+K (assuming you are using a PC) which will bring up the composition settings. Go to the Advanced Tab and you will see the settings for shutter angle and samples per frame. The samples per frame is used for motion blur. Imagine this; when a layer is moving really fast, and motion blur is enabled, you will see trails from the motion, just like you would with a video or still camera on an object moving very fast. The number of trails you see, is the ‘samples per frame’. So if you have the samples per frame set to 2, you would see 2 of the same picture slightly offset (and slightly faded) to create the illusion of motion blur. The more samples per frame, the more realistic it will look (I like to use at least 20), however it will take almost 20 times longer to render that particular layer because of all the offset duplicates it has to create. As for the shutter angle, think of it as shutter speed. The lower the shutter angle, the faster the shutter speed, and therefore less motion blur. I generally like to leave it at default (180), however if you think it looks too blurry, you could try to lower it. Also, no need to mess with the shutter phase.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
It looks as if you have ‘Light Transmission’ in the material options for the layer turned up. Make sure it is set to 0%
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
Make sure motion blur is enabled for each layer. You can then adjust the shutter angle in the composition/advanced settings for a more or less blurred effect.If you go for heavy motion blur, you might want to increase the samples per frame. All this will increase rendering time, but make it look much better.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
Well using my method will give you the actual focal distance that causes it to be in focus. Once you have that actual number, you can then try and determine why its not what you think it should be. Also remember it has nothing to do with the ‘Point of Interest’ in the transform properties of the Camera.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
So basically you want to create intermediate frames based on the frame before and after it. I’m not sure if you are aware of After Effects built-in capability to do this, so if not, here’s how:
Right click on your video clip, go to ‘Time > Time Stretch’
and slow your clip down to your desired length.
Then right click on your clip and go to ‘Frame Blending > Pixel Motion’ which will enable AE’s ability to render unique intermediate frames (without just blending 2 frames together).In some situations it can create some strange distortions, and it takes much longer to render. If you were already aware of this feature, and were not satisfied with it and looking for a third party plugin, then please let us know.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com -
If you mean render it out then watch it in another program, then you could use just about any program that plays videos (Windows Media Player, Quicktime, etc…). However, if you mean preview an After Effects Composition before it is rendered, then your options are limited. You could try using open GL previews if you have a nice graphics card to support it, or you could try using the dynamic link feature. If you have Adobe Premiere, open it up, start a new project, then import your AE Composition into premiere using Dynamic Link (should be under the ‘File’ menu tab). It still has to render each frame, but it seems to do it faster since its just a quick preview.
Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com