[Mike Browning]

I have previously used an HV20 via FireWire for my XH-A1 tapes – so I’m considering HDMI capture with the Decklink, but I’ve heard that it doesn’t preserve timecode? What’s the deal and is there a work around?

Thanks
Mike Browning
Vision Quest Media

[Mike Browning]

Same here, I’d like to know another work around – the biggest reason being particle interaction as well.

Good luck.

Mike Browning
Vision Quest Media

[Mike Browning]

I think (correct me if this doesn’t get your result) what you want to do is parent the camera’s position and point of interest properties to a null layer. I know A.Kramer does this a lot to make camera movement more efficient. It lets you animate the null and the camera will always face that layer. I’m sure you can do this same with any other layer.

Mike Browning
Vision Quest Media

Mike Browning
VisionQuest Media Solutions

[Mike Browning]

Howdy Mike,

Okay find the largest TV screens you can find and… just kidding

If you’re dealing with a flat surface, then blue screen and add tape markers strategically around the screen. I’ve done this in the past (on green screen) when I’ve had to use camera movements (to simulate handheld or dolly). The set was not 3D – actually had props and such on the set, much like your production – just needed a background. Put the tape in spots where actors won’t cover up often but the camera will see, that way it will be easier to track and roto out later.

Now if you’ve got curves in your screen, you might be in trouble and need to do some 3D compositing, but you can probably get by with the above method if you have a two or multi camera set-up (though it might be more tracking and chroma-keying than you initially wanted).

Also… try compositing the background layer far back in z-space and add a camera in AE… makes for a little more believable background than one that’s just sitting right up there with the actor.

But please experiment before you do this so you can see where your problem spots are going to be and how much work you’re looking at doing – if you’re doing this all yourself, it’s going to be ALOT of work.

Hope this helps

Mike Browning
Vision Quest Media

[Mike Browning]

I’ve found that even though layers can be composited in 3D, layer order in the composition panel still comes in to play (for whatever reason). Make sure your sky layer is at the bottom of the stack. That’s all I can think at the moment. I ran into this when compositing a cartoony jungle scene… even though some text was, in z-space, in the back, it would still be on top of every thing when it was on top of the layer stack.

[Mike Browning]

Thanks for the input, all.

Mike Browning
VisionQuest Media Solutions

[Mike Browning]

Might just be that your record monitor is set to “automatic quality” – look at the bottom of the viewer and click on the button with the three circles (red, green, blue) and at the bottom of the drop down menu, there are options for preview quality. You can set it to highest. I leave it on automatic, because it adapts to when my system is running low on resources. It does not reflect the quality of the final render and is really only for preview purposes.

Mike Browning
VisionQuest Media Solutions

[Mike Browning]

Also there is another method but not as effective. This might not completely solve your problem but it’s a step in the right direction. It won’t be as render intensive anyway.

Assuming you are staying on that frame and not having to move every couple of seconds to a different frame (for roto work, etc.), you can use the “snapshot” feature. Down at the bottom of the composition window is a button that looks like a camera (right next to the timecode and the little man). You can press it and it will take a snapshot of that frame.

Then go to View –> New Viewer. You can undock the new viewer and use it to display the snapshot. To display the snapshot, you have to hold down the little man button (or F5). Unfortunately, you can’t toggle it on/off – you have to physically hold it down. That’s the biggest drawback. The other drawback is that it doesn’t update – it’s in memory so it doesn’t re-render when there are changes.

Also you can take more than one by holding down Shift+F5, F6, F7, or F8. Then recall them by pressing the corresponding F5, F6, F7, or F8. But as far as displaying two at the same time and having them update, you’re out of luck.

Maybe not the most useful tool in AE, but certainly gets overlooked some times.

Also, could you create two new viewers (as mentioned above), pre-compose your composition twice and then open each up in a different viewer? I think you can lock the frame on each viewer somehow. Not sure though.

Mike Browning
VisionQuest Media Solutions

[Mike Browning]

Yes, monitoring is the primary use.

As for capture, I figured it would be worth it for the future if, for instance, I had to use a different tape format (DVCPro / DigiBeta) and needed to rent a deck. Clients in the past wanted me to use their cameras to shoot with, but of course I edited on their Avid systems, so having the capability to work with those formats wasn’t an issue. But I would like the possible expandability for my own system, even if it is Premiere. Can’t afford a Symphony system, so I’m pioneering these less expensive solutions.

Now as far as monitoring, I’ve heard that the Intensity won’t output 23.976 timelines. I’m not quite clear on whether it’s that it just adds pulldown or whether it just won’t play period. Maybe it’s because of the HDMI? Hopefully you can shed some light on this.

Thanks

[Mike Browning]

Beautiful, thank you Joey. I will have to try this script out for a future project. It looks very promising

And like I said, the frame rate and plug-in is irrelevant to the question, it was just to explain where I got the question from. I was testing out a plug-in that uses pixel motion frame interpolation (sorry if I confused you by calling it frame blending – I have been corrected). I just had questions about getting around the crazy warps at the edit points in a sequence. Thank you for your replies.