[Kevin Reiner]

Thanks for the reply Scott,

Yes, that is how I would do it manually as well. I should have made it clear that I was just throwing out a random time span. I’d like to have it do the calculation automatically to any time span.

I often get asked to make quick slideshows (always with different pics and a different music track). This is mostly for friends and family, mind you. I’d love to automate the process as I have less and less time to help with these gift projects.

And I know there are a lot of consumer apps that do this, but I’ve been on AE for 12 years and feel most confident if I could find an Adobe workflow. I already have a PS action that preps all of the slides for size and basic color correction. Now I just want to speed up the AE side of things.

-Reiner

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[Kevin Reiner]

We’re all idiots. That’s what the COW is for. 😉

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[Kevin Reiner]

So even if I make a smooth 30p AE movie to be inserted into the 24p sequence, frames will be thrown out, just to add pull-down frames on final export.

Makes total sense. 😉

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[Kevin Reiner]

Dave, thanks for this workflow. It just helped me out.

My videographer insists on shooting 24p even though I argue for 30p to make my life easier. (filmic shmilmic)

So should I just start with a 30p sequence and edit the 24 footage into it? Or should I make your method be the final step and stay 24 up to that point?

… and if so, what if I have an AE sequence that is to be edited into the spot? Do I do that in 29.97 or 24.98?

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[Kevin Reiner]

Is the sign supposed to be painted on? If so, maybe try texturize and use the video as the texture layer.

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[Kevin Reiner]

Like others have said, number 1 looks best. It also helps to do a quick color correction before keying. I often find that keylight has trouble with black and introducing noise. So be aware of that with that suit.
-Reins

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[Kevin Reiner]

Being on the other side from Jason (and agreeing with him), it is always good to know that project files are needed prior to working. That way you can work with the forethought that you need to bake these animations. This forces you to organize well and not spend a bunch of clean-up time after you’re done with main animations.

For the non-production clients, I usually don’t do it. Or at least that was my philosophy in the past. But lately I’ve just been saying “sure, here you go”. Quite often they don’t have After Effects, or working knowledge, or needed plugins, or that certain font. They quickly discover that it isn’t so easy. 100% of the time I’ve done this, I’ve gotten a call about a week later that starts with, “Um yeah, we might need you to…”

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[Kevin Reiner]

Realize that the method I am proposing will drop the uncompressed file size drastically because you will be outputting an SD file instead of an HD file. It will still be large, but not nearly as large as HD. Try the DV codec maybe?

If it is still too large, then I would still do my scaling in AE as I explained, and then export your mpeg out of AE. Do a test and see if that helps.

AE really isn’t meant to be used for editing. You’re using a screwdriver to hammer in a nail. You’d be very happy if you moved your editing to an editing app and then do select effects work in AE, and then compression in a good compression app.

Good luck,
Kevin

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[Kevin Reiner]

Are you exporting the MPEG2 out of AE? I wouldn’t do that.

Try this on a 1-min sample of your show:

1. Make a new comp at NTSC DV widescreen.
2. Insert your master show into this new comp.
3. Resize it to fit. (Layer/Transform/Fit to Comp)
4. Export to a lossless format (animation or prores)
5. Then take that file and compress it in a compression application using their best preset for SD DVD widescreen.

Hope that helps.

If I understand your original post correctly, you’re editing 90 min shows in AE? Unless it is all effect work, that is your biggest problem. Why not use an editing app like FCP or Premier?

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[Kevin Reiner]

It is not juddering on my end. This might be a compression problem. What application are you using for compression? What are your settings?

-Kevin

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