[Marius Crowne]

I’ve done some experimenting and the process seems to be that the base illustration (color blocks) were made in Illustrator. Then that was imported into Photoshop where the individual elements are (possibly) isolated with the magic wand and then the shading and highlights are manually painted in with a stipple brush!

Also, a brush (not the stipple kind) has been added to the stroke in Illustrator to make the line look organic.

Woohoo!

Ok! Thanks again for your help!

//M

[Marius Crowne]

Hey there. Sorry for the delayed response!

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don’t think Film Grain is the way to go.

It essentially looks the same as what I mentioned I had tried. Basically, adding black grain, then adjusting it’s opacity with the blend mode on multiply. OR by doing the same and then using overlay to get white.

If you look at the illustration above, the grain has color, rather than simply adding black and/or white to create shadows and highlights.

Is there some way to do this with the film grain effect? I apologize if it’s something obvious. I spend a lot more time with this sort of thing in Illustrator.

Thanks again!

[Marius Crowne]

Thanks for the response, but I’m afraid this isn’t the problem. Sorry I wasn’t clear, I should have posted an accompanying image.

And, what the hell, here’s the AE file (CC 2014) as well:

7846_dundarseismograph.aep.zip

Thanks!

[Marius Crowne]

It looks the same. Crap.

I’m losing hope.

It’s phenomenally depressing to spend so much time on a project and then not be able to show it to anyone.

//M

[Marius Crowne]

Just in response to your previous suggestion of alternate uploads. It still looks like complete trash. I don’t understand what’s happening. I’ve also tried YouTube and that looks horrific as well.

Anything else? Anyone else? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[Marius Crowne]

Hi, Eric. Thanks for getting back to me.

The animation preset was a great suggestion. I got terrific results, HOWEVER, that doesn’t seem to be the problem. The real issue is when I upload the video to Vimeo, it turns to garbage no matter what my results are on my computer.

Thanks again.

[Marius Crowne]

Alrighty. Hi there, Ivan. Sorry for taking so long to make it back.

So, yes, the “After” image is indeed from Vimeo. I tried compressing a file with the specifications that you mentioned and got mediocre results, but that’s not the first H.264 file I’ve tried to do. I’ve just gotten the best results with x264. Everything still looks like absolute garbage when I upload to Vimeo.

Also, I downloaded MediaInfo and here are the results from the video I downloaded from Vimeo.

[Marius Crowne]

– When you say “animation file” do you mean a video that includes animation, or are you referring to the QuickTime animation codec (lossless RGB)?

Sorry for not being clear, I mean the QT animation codec.

– What export settings were used to create the “Before” video? Please post a screen capture of all the video settings.

The “Before” image is simply the lossless animation file exported directly from AE.


The “After” image is compressors 1080p Video Sharing preset, but tweaked. I use x264 instead of H.264 and tweak Gamma Correction and Color Correct Midtones.

– Download the transcoded Vimeo file (“After”). Does it look any better when played locally?

It does. Interestingly enough, the section containing the previously uploaded images (before and after pics) always looks worse than everything else. I should also mention that there’s a lot of movement in this video, which I understand can affect compression.

-Analyze the downloaded Vimeo file using MediaTools or similar app. It will tell you all the x264 settings that Vimeo used to transcode the file. What are the average and maximum bitrates, H.264 profile and level, and GOP M and N values of the encoded file?

Sorry, I’ve never heard of MediaTools (or a similar app before) and when I Google it, I get an endless list of unrelated stuff. Sorry to be a bother, but could you send me a link to a website for MediaTools or a comparable product? Thanks.

– How long is the video and what is the frame rate? Alternatively, how many frames are there in total?

TRT on the video is 0:00:52:20 and the frame rate is 23.976.

– What type of Vimeo account do you have? (i.e. What is your maximum allowed file size?)

I have a Vimeo plus account, so my maximum file upload size is 5GB.

[Marius Crowne]

Just to clarify, I am talking about the camera window in the canvas with the top, bottom, left, and right views. Once you zoom out to 1.5% and hit the proverbial wall, the camera’s got no where to go. Tried grabbing by holding down the space bar and all that jazz.

(help, losing it)

[Marius Crowne]

This worked! Still find the initial problem perplexing. Haven’t experienced it before or since.

//M