[Martin Langenegger]

Thanks for the tips, Jon. I’ll try that (never thought of taking the clip into After Effects for denoising – allthough I know AE much better than FCP!).

Martin

[Martin Langenegger]

[jon smitherton] “Ok. You still haven’t said how this image was created. What camera? I have seen this type of compression artifacts with DVCPro50 cams. Is it just this shot? You need to tell us your source and whole workflow.”

That’s what we’d like to know too …! The production company don’t tell us. That is our problem with the workflow: Somebody films, somebody edits – we don’t know how. All we get are finished files that we encode for Watchout. The client sees the final result and is not happy. The client chose the production company for the filming and us for the Watchout stuff.

It’s only in this shot which is by far the most complex: fast, lots of light reflecting on the water …

All I wanted to know is if you can tell from the kind of artifacts if it is a problem of the camera or of editing. You and Steve point to camera related problems which would mean that the client either has to accept it as it is or try to find somebody with a better camera to film it again.

Sorry, all this is difficult for me to explain in english …

[Martin Langenegger]

Hi Jon

Watchout now works with H.264 QT movie files or even with ProRes Files. Our client thought it was a Watchout related problem and so thought our technicians. But we then tried to run the show with the original ProRes files we got from the production company. It did run and showed the exact same problems (blocks of pixels).

We don’t normally use ProRes for Watchout because the file sizes are so large but it works if the machines are fast enough.

We at first missed the artifacts on the material because it is a fast sequence and the computer screens are so small … Seeing it projected on the big screens makes the artifacts really pop out (those blocks are big!).

Martin

[Martin Langenegger]

[Rafael Amador] “Please, let be professionals. We are not judging the YouTube clips of our friend.”

YouTube? I don’t understand what you’re talking about, Rafael.

[Rafael Amador] “Without having a look to the original footage, and knowing every single detail about the systems and processes applied, nobody should dare to advance any hypothesis.
On those circumstances, the picture you linked means nothing.
the only thing we know is that you are not happy with the job, but if you want us to help you where the, artifacts comes from, please give as all the elements.”

Well, I don’t have the original footage and I don’t no anything about the systems and processes applied – that’s the problem (and it’s always a problem if you’re somewhere between the production company and the client). All I wanted to know is this:
– Is it possible to tell where artifacts like these come from (Camera, working in FinalCut, Output)
– Is there a way to remove these kind of artifacts digitally

Martin

[Martin Langenegger]

Thanks for the response. It’s always good to have a second opinion.

Now we can go and try to bargain with the production company …!