[Peter Litwinowicz]

Yes, you are correct. You could drop your 30p (which I presume is really 29.97 fps) into a 24p (really: 23.976 comp), then Add Twixtor and set Twixtor’s Input: Frame Rate to 29.97. Then you can have AE render-out 29.97 footage with pulldown to get the “film look.”

However, that introduces a world of studder, and opens you up to having artifacts (Twixtor will undoubtedly have some artifacts, like every other retiming software out there). I would instead simply add motion blur using ReelSmart Motion Blur to compensate for the difference in shutter speeds between video and film. Of course, many people think you must go to 24p to get the “film look”, and I disagree.

You can read more about our suggestions here: https://www.revisionfx.com/support/faqs/generalfaqs/video_like_film/ The solution I propose is in step 4 (you can ignore the part that describes deinterlacing the footage since you already have 30p footage).

Cheers,
pete Litwinowicz
RE:Vision Effects, Inc.

[Peter Litwinowicz]

I think I misunderstood your problem.

I though you were just trying to go to film. And shooting 60p to get 24p is not the best way.

However, if you need to retime in the middle of that process, then I would suggest you shoot 60p. And shoot with a decently high shutter speed as well (Twixtor does much better if objects aren’t motion blurred). You can always add motion blur with ReelSmart Motion Blur as a post process if your images are too sharp after Twixtor-izing.

Also note; if you need to change frame rates we only support frame rate changes in After Effects and combusion. Note you can perform a frame rate change with FCP and Twixtor, but it involves writing out each frame one-by-one with QT Player and then reading them back into QT PLayer with a different frame rate. This involves quite a bit of time and disk space.

You should try out the demo of Twixtor, and do a comparison test with Twixtor using 60p and 24p shoots. But as you suggested, as a general rule: more frames and less motion blur will give better results.

Pete

[Peter Litwinowicz]

I think I misunderstood your problem.

I though you were just trying to go to film. And shooting 60p to get 24p is not the best way.

However, if you need to retime in the middle of that process, then I would suggest you shoot 60p. And shoot with a decently high shutter speed as well (Twixtor does much better if objects aren’t motion blurred). You can always add motion blur with ReelSmart Motion Blur as a post process if your images are too sharp after Twixtor-izing.

Also note; if you need to change frame rates we only support frame rate changes in After Effects and combusion. Note you can perform a frame rate change with FCP and Twixtor, but it involves writing out each frame one-by-one with QT Player and then reading them back into QT PLayer with a different frame rate. This involves quite a bit of time and disk space.

You should try out the demo of Twixtor, and do a comparison test with Twixtor using 60p and 24p shoots. But as you suggested, as a general rule: more frames and less motion blur will give better results.

Pete

[Peter Litwinowicz]

My main question would be this: If you can shoot 1080 60p, doesn’t your camera also have a 24p option? Then you wouldn’t need Twixtor at all.

I like selling Twixtor :-), but if you can control the shoot, then you should plan for film at the get-go.

Or do you need to deliver in multiple media?

Pete

[Peter Litwinowicz]

My main question would be this: If you can shoot 1080 60p, doesn’t your camera also have a 24p option? Then you wouldn’t need Twixtor at all.

I like selling Twixtor :-), but if you can control the shoot, then you should plan for film at the get-go.

Or do you need to deliver in multiple media?

Pete

[Peter Litwinowicz]

Are you trying to use the Pro or Vectors version of ReelSmart Motion Blur. If so, that’s the problem.

What you have there is a registration for ReelSmart Motion Blur, regular, which only unlocks the plugin labeled RSMB 3.x in the Effects menu.

If you need to use the RSMB Pro 3.x or RSMB Vectors 3.x plugins, you can upgrade to the Pro version by purchasing the regular to Pro upgrade.

Pete

[Peter Litwinowicz]

Are you trying to use the Pro or Vectors version of ReelSmart Motion Blur. If so, that’s the problem.

What you have there is a registration for ReelSmart Motion Blur, regular, which only unlocks the plugin labeled RSMB 3.x in the Effects menu.

If you need to use the RSMB Pro 3.x or RSMB Vectors 3.x plugins, you can upgrade to the Pro version by purchasing the regular to Pro upgrade.

Pete

[Peter Litwinowicz]

Thanks for sending the project + footage.

There are two problems:

1) One problem is that you are working in less than 100% resolution for your main comp.
There is a way around this:
Make sure when you import your footage that the AE’s Interpret Footage->Separate Fields is set to Upper.
Set AE to work at 100% resolution (and make sure to set resolution AE is using to actually calculate the images… Not the viewing display resolution).

2) It looks like getting random frames from the HDV codec you are using causes AE to go a bit crazy and will not allow us to get the frames/fields properly. So you are doing nothing wrong. It is just that AE and HDV do not play nicely together.

Here is a “Creative Cow” forum post, by someone who really knows these issues: https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/942432

The main info is this:

Dave’s Stock Answer #1:

If the footage you imported into AE is any kind of the following — Native HDV, MPEG1, MPEG2, mp4, m2t, H.261 or H.264 — you need to convert it to a different codec.

These kinds of footage use temporal, or interframe compression. They have keyframes at regular intervals, containing complete frame information. However, the frames in between do NOT have complete information. Interframe codecs toss out duplicated information.

In order to maintain peak rendering efficiency, AE needs complete information for each and every frame. But because these kinds of footage contain only partial information, AE freaks out, resulting in a wide variety of problems.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer

You are using one of the formats AE does not play nice with, so you’ll need to recompress to another format before trying what you are trying in AE.

Pete

[Peter Litwinowicz]

Thanks for sending the project + footage.

There are two problems:

1) One problem is that you are working in less than 100% resolution for your main comp.
There is a way around this:
Make sure when you import your footage that the AE’s Interpret Footage->Separate Fields is set to Upper.
Set AE to work at 100% resolution (and make sure to set resolution AE is using to actually calculate the images… Not the viewing display resolution).

2) It looks like getting random frames from the HDV codec you are using causes AE to go a bit crazy and will not allow us to get the frames/fields properly. So you are doing nothing wrong. It is just that AE and HDV do not play nicely together.

Here is a “Creative Cow” forum post, by someone who really knows these issues: https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/942432

The main info is this:

Dave’s Stock Answer #1:

If the footage you imported into AE is any kind of the following — Native HDV, MPEG1, MPEG2, mp4, m2t, H.261 or H.264 — you need to convert it to a different codec.

These kinds of footage use temporal, or interframe compression. They have keyframes at regular intervals, containing complete frame information. However, the frames in between do NOT have complete information. Interframe codecs toss out duplicated information.

In order to maintain peak rendering efficiency, AE needs complete information for each and every frame. But because these kinds of footage contain only partial information, AE freaks out, resulting in a wide variety of problems.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer

You are using one of the formats AE does not play nice with, so you’ll need to recompress to another format before trying what you are trying in AE.

Pete

[Peter Litwinowicz]

The workaround is easy… hopefully you found our short manual… at the beginning is a “make sure you read this” set of links. The help doc you are looking for is this one:

https://www.revisionfx.com/support/faqs/generalfaqs/sequences_longer/#After%20Effects%20(Adobe)

Pete
RE:Vision Effects, Inc.