[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Samuel,

I suspect that your PPro 2017 version might not have been programmed to support ProRes.

A suggestion would be to upgrade to 2019 or later versions, as this is when Adobe integrated ProRes across both Mac and PC.

Out of interest: What happens when you put the h264 “clean” rendered version through Adobe Media Encoder (or PPro) to ProRes?

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

It is a common issue that not all h264 clips are equal.

Send through Adobe media encoder and output to ProRes, should hopefully make those clips “stable” to use.

Do let us know if that solves the problem.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Adam,

Re-installing Windows 10 sounds extreme, so you might already have tried everything.

My first stop would be the video card?
How does the video look like if you export it out, is it full frame, or small on black “frame”?

Next stop would be to check the hard-disk if there is enough space on it? (silly question, I know, but sometimes the footage ends up on the main-drive, rather than media drive)
Might be worth running a scan on the hard-drive (SSD) to check if there are any bad sectors, or similar issues.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Conan,

Best to ask the cinema/distributor that question.

Do you need to just give the cinema a high resolution file (ProRes etc)?
Or, do they want a DCP master?
And, will they be playing your “stereo” mix out on a 5.1 set-up, in which case you may need to have the audio tracks separated Left (1) | Right (2) + the rest.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Emiel,

Is your timeline set to progressive?

Or are you rendering it out as a progressive file?

Keep in mind that in the olden days of shooting 24 fps on film, the DOP had to be careful with pans. Same goes with the basics of working in progressive on digital, in a speed that matches what the frame-rate can handle before you start getting problems in motion effects.

There is a number of effects that you can add to make better (smother), such motion-compensated frame interpolation, but is all based on trial and error.

Alternatively slow the shot down, or make it run for longer.
One quick and dirty trick that might work, is to export out the effect shot interlaced to a high-quality video-file, and then re-import it into the progressive time-line.

But one thing that you can be sure of, is that if your relatively small monitor picks it up, there is every chance that a large cinema screen will amplify the issue.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey David,

You are very welcome.

Your short cut for the TV look is either to play-out your final video to VHS, and capture it back in again. Although you might find it more cost effective to use a filter for that.

My go to, as I’ve used #BorisFX since late 1990’s would be the “Damaged TV” filter in Continuum 2022 (https://borisfx.com/products/continuum) – you can get your hands on that suite of filters on a monthly plan (and/or free trial).
There is plenty of other places to find similar filters, but many depends on whether you are PC or Mac, and to how much support you need.

In regard to the sky gradient on the globe, I would suspect that they used animation software to create the Globe and the elements around it. However, get a spinning globe from stock, with alpha or similar, double layer it, and diffuse + replace colour on the bottom layer (maybe fill mask), and you might get a similar result 😀

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey David,

My initial thought was that this is a Bad TV “effect” from when the clip was captured.
As Tom Brokaw worked for 55 years for NBC, it might be worth checking when the actual titles was used, and deduct from there what the animators was capable of back then.

However, setting aside the video capture, apart from using a Bad TV effect.
I would suggest that you in After Effects look through the Adobe “Distort” and/or “Stylize” effects folders.

In order to get them to go the whole way to the top, you might have to go a bit extreme on the slider.

Brush strokes might be too much work, Roughen Edges might not be extreme enough – but Turbulent Displace, using Vertical displacement, might just give you that effect.

All of the above requires trial and error.

Have fun 🙂

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

It might just be me, but your two links are identical and both takes me to the still.

In any case; in your “Black Solid” composition, you add a layer at the bottom, which you could call “Green Solid”.
A green solid can be generated inside After Effects, or in Photoshop, or similar.

If you do that, I would expect your “background” to light up Green.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Bobby,

Just looked at your still.

Could you not just put a green PSD file on the bottom layer or change background colour, and then key out the black?

WARNING: Just thinking out loud, not necessarily from a point of knowledge 🙂

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Bob,

Hang in there, it will be back.

In the meantime, call your clients for the last 5 years and ask them how they are doing and what’s happening?
Maybe also ask the companies that manufacture the stuff you make work so brilliantly – are they selling? And to who?

If based in NY, I would look up any company that has “arrived” in the last 2-3 years (many UK companies seems to be hitting NY with an office). Are those new companies happy with their infra-structure?

Also, if you are having a bit of time on your hands, no disrespect intended, but your LinkedIn profile could use a bit of loving. You have a lot of connections + a lot of ticks for various skills. But where is your profile picture? How about a case-study or two – maybe even ask a recent client for a reference. And you can use LinkedIn to reach out to long lost friends, colleagues and customers.

Work the phone, knock some doors down, get seen…

All the Best
Mads

@madsvid, London, UK
Check out my other hangouts:
Twitter: @madsvid
https://mads-thinkingoutloud.blogspot.co.uk