[Kyle C.]

Thank you both for the advice! Very helpful…that video tutorial was great by the way John.

A couple more questions:

1). How do you guys think they accomplished those quick, jittery camera moves once the frame is frozen? I was thinking of something like Video Copilot’s ‘Twitch’, or maybe they simply adjusted the Position parameters over a short amount of time, or possibly used a Camera layer. Twitch seems like the easiest solution to me though, what do you think?

2). What specific color correcting effects do you think they used within After Effects? What are your favorite color correcting filters to use? I’m not very experienced with After Effect’s color correction capabilities, so figure I might start with the Color Finesse effect to try and attain that look?

Thanks for the help thus far,

-Kyle

[Kyle C.]

Thank you both for the advice! Very helpful…that video tutorial was great by the way John.

A couple more questions:

1). How do you guys think they accomplished those quick, jittery camera moves once the frame is frozen? I was thinking of something like Video Copilot’s ‘Twitch’, or maybe they simply adjusted the Position parameters over a short amount of time, or possibly used a Camera layer. Twitch seems like the easiest solution to me though, what do you think?

2). What specific color correcting effects do you think they used within After Effects? What are your favorite color correcting filters to use? I’m not very experienced with After Effect’s color correction capabilities, so figure I might start with the Color Finesse effect to try and attain that look?

Thanks for the help thus far,

-Kyle

[Kyle C.]

Hey guys, I’m back, this time with a new issue on the same project. After you guys solved my problem, I decided to play with some blending modes to change the overall look of my composition.

FINAL RENDER:5892_gonzagakickcreativecow2.mov.zip

PROJECT FILE:5893_gonzagakick3dcreativecow.aep.zip

I settled on the ‘Stencil Luma’ blending mode, just liked the overall contrasty/comic look it gave the footage. My issue now is how to get my Rotoscoped layer on top to match the background footage (which has the Stencil Luma blending mode applied to it). You’ll notice that in my final rendered video, as soon as the rotoscope takes effect (pants/legs of the fighter on the left), the colors no longer match the background footage. At the same time, I can’t simply duplicate and stack my rotoscoped layer, then apply Stencil Luma to the top layer (like I did with the background footage). This effects my 3D font and everything else beneath it, giving an unwanted look.

I’m aware that my solution likely involves some kind of precomposition, but I’ve been toying with it and can’t seem to figure it out on my own. I’ve attached my project file and my final rendered video so that you guys can look at my layers (and see the finished project) and perhaps tell me where I went wrong. If you have any questions as to what any of the layers are, etc, please feel free to ask (I say this because obviously, the media is going to be disconnected – this fight clip was much too large to upload).

Please let me know if you have an idea as to how I can apply this exact same ‘Stencil Luma’ look to my rotoscoped layer! Thanks for your help thus far,

-Kyle

PS: in case you’re wondering what the rotoscope is for, it’s to make the fighters appear to be ‘in front of’ the 3d text that reads ‘TESTING’ in the lower left portion of the frame (light purple).

[Kyle C.]

Thanks for the advice! Have fun in Vegas, a few of my professors are going so I’m aware of it and totally understand that you’ll be ‘busy’ for the next few days hah.

So today I brought my project and all of its subsequent media to a different Premiere suite on at my place of work. I wanted to test it out on another computer and see if it was my Premiere causing the issues or if it was a corrupt Project File and/or media.
Unfortunately, it seems to be the latter, because my ‘serious error’ messages when utilizing the Project panel still occurs even on a completely different Premiere Pro setup. I’m hoping that there’s still some way, any way to recover my timeline into a new project, I’m sure we’ll discuss that later (I’ll be googling it in the mean time).

Also, I’ve tried uninstalling, completely cleaning and re-installing the Adobe suite more times than I care to think about…even have gone so far as reformatting my hard drive several times over this issue, but still the exact same results (seemingly corrupt project file, but also can’t update my version of premiere without new bugs).

I will be in contact with you shortly, and can provide you the Premiere crash dialogue. One question – when you asked for me to send my ‘Apple System Profile’, did you just want the main, basic specs under System Report, or do you want the whole shabang? And if you want the info for everything, what would be an easy way to export all this info into a sendable file? I’ve never sent anyone a system report before.

Thanks again for your quick reply, and have fun at NAB. Wish I was going.

[Kyle C.]

Hoping this offer still stands, Dennis, as I’m having a HELL of a time with Premiere at the moment!

At first I figured I’d just not update until I finished my project…but now more and more bugs are happening. Frequent crashes only when working within the Project Panel (the window defaulted on the lower left corner where I can browse through the footage files I’m using in my Timeline).

I have saved some error reports and also sent them to Apple. The final straw came when I got a LOT of work done on my project, definitively saved (I’m an OCD saver…I KNOW I saved multiple times that night)…then came back 2 days later and all that progress is not there, including MUCH time spent organizing my Project Panel (creating new bins, placing files in these bins and numbering them, etc). VERY irked right now, and upset that I can’t get ahold of any Adobe Tech Support over the weekend.

I’m worried about attaching it here in a public place, because I’ve put a lot of time an energy into this project. Is this something you could still privately help me with, and in that case, could I send you a copy privately via email or whatever method you prefer?

-Kyle

[Kyle C.]

Thank you very much Walter, worked like a charm!

-Kyle

[Kyle C.]

Thank you both for the responses.

I wonder then, how I might go about getting the effect I’m looking for (the rendered .mov, but with the shadows all the way through). Any ideas?

Originally I was going to place the fighters in front of the text using a different method than Rotoscoping. I saw it in a tutorial a while back, but for the life if me I CANNOT find it again, very frustrating!

The way he did it was by duplicating the video layer as I did in this version, only instead of rotoscoping the top layer, he used some sort of Luma Matte (or maybe a track matte? I’m not sure). He had the full video (2 guys standing in front of a white board, on either side) as the bottom most layer. The goal was to insert a business logo onto the blank white board behind them, with their torsos obscuring part of the logo (aka they are ‘in front’ of it). The next layer up he had the logo. The duplicated video layer went on top of the logo layer I believe, and he changed the color of the video so that the two guys were either all black or all white (can’t remember which is transparent and which is opaque. But he made them opaque). Then he applied some sort of luma effect that ‘cut out’ the two guys from the rest of the video (because they were all white or black), then somehow (I think with a blending mode) he returned the two ‘cut out’ guys back to their original color, and wala, they were standing perfectly in front of the logo!

Some of the steps I listed above could be wrong, but this is what I faintly remember. I’m hoping it’s enough of a clue for someone here to be able to tell me how something like this is done. Because when I search for ‘place 3D text behind an object in video’, or something similar, all I get is rotoscoping tutorials (very frustrating, because this guy’s luma method was actually easier and better looking in his case).

Does this ring a bell for any of you vets out there?
Thanks for the help thus far,

-Kyle

[Kyle C.]

Thanks for the link Vishesh! So according to that it looks like my Media Cache can be stored on my startup drive without issue – I might still move it to an external drive (same as the Disk Cache) just to clear up some space on my laptop – I’ve got some BIG video files I’m working with!

Dave, my laptop came with 8gb RAM, but can take a maximum of 16gb. Been looking into either upgrading to 16gb RAM OR getting an SSD startup drive and moving my old HDD to where the Macbook’s Superdrive is (basically replacing my CD drive with my original HDD).

Still weighing those two choices and trying to decide which will give me more noticeable performance enhancements in AE, etc. I’ve used a mac w/ an SSD startup drive before and they are FAST! It’s so tempting…but then again, RAM is crucial to AE as well. Mine runs pretty decently at 8gb most of the time, but I know 16 would be better. What would you personally do if you only had the option of one of those upgrades?

[Kyle C.]

Thanks for the link Vishesh! So according to that it looks like my Media Cache can be stored on my startup drive without issue – I might still move it to an external drive (same as the Disk Cache) just to clear up some space on my laptop – I’ve got some BIG video files I’m working with!

Dave, my laptop came with 8gb RAM, but can take a maximum of 16gb. Been looking into either upgrading to 16gb RAM OR getting an SSD startup drive and moving my old HDD to where the Macbook’s Superdrive is (basically replacing my CD drive with my original HDD).

Still weighing those two choices and trying to decide which will give me more noticeable performance enhancements in AE, etc. I’ve used a mac w/ an SSD startup drive before and they are FAST! It’s so tempting…but then again, RAM is crucial to AE as well. Mine runs pretty decently at 8gb most of the time, but I know 16 would be better. What would you personally do if you only had the option of one of those upgrades?

[Kyle C.]

Thanks guys for the replies…was unaware that Draft mode only works for Ray Traced 3d and not Classic…thank you!