Robert Morris
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I’m using Windows 7, and I noticed this start to happen when I upgraded to Creative Cloud. The render error is “The file [path/filename] cannot be overwritten as it will be used for rendering.” It seems to be this is a new dialogue that has been added to After Effects in recent upgrades. Not necessarily an issue with the OS. Unless the OP was having a different issue. But I haven’t found a workaround for this particular dialogue box (other than to not overwrite a file that After Effects is currently using in the composition being rendered, turned off or not). But I do really wish Adobe would add some sort of option to turn this feature off and allow the files to be overwritten. It makes updating/overwriting proxies and pre-rendered comps difficult, as extra steps now need to be taken. OP, I feel your pain.
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Thank you SO much, Dan! That did the trick. Now, I’m also looking to make it move in a figure 8 in Z-space as well at the same time. Perhaps I can figure that out based on your expression…
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Any plugin like that is good is you want plastic, slick looking skin. Seems to be the trend these days in pop music videos. But most commercials that advertise skin or hair products won’t want things to be THAT obviously effected. It should still look natural with texture. That’s the art and skill of any kind of facial retouching. There’s no real push-button solution. It takes a combination of techniques. And I’d still love to hear other people’s solutions.
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With each successive year of newer and better technology, these parameters continue to change. But I can say that right now, with CS5.5, I have 3000 layers in a composition (not all being displayed at the same time). AE will “black out” when scrolling down through the layer list when it hits around layer number 1918. The way to see more layers beyond that, is to “shy” the top layers as you work (or precompose). But it seems as if AE is not truly unlimited when it comes to showing and working with your layers in the timeline. This does not effect their render or display in the composition window, however. So that aspect may still be unlimited. But if you can’t work with more than 1918 layers at a time, it’s hard to call it unlimited. Hopefully this limitation will be improved in future releases, as I can see people needing more layers.
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That’s EXACTLY what I’ve been playing with now. I had thought I wouldn’t be able to get the global position value of the null if I did that, but thanks to another of your expressions:
L = thisComp.layer(“Null 1”);
L.toWorld(L.anchorPoint)…I was able to! Now I’m just creating a set of sliders so I can adjust the value of the radius and various properties.
I thought there might be a way to just do all of this without parenting, only using expressions. But parenting a null to a “Center” null with rotation definitely seems to give me the control I wanted. It doesn’t quite move in a gyroscope-ish way, but that might be a matter of me tweaking the values more. Thank you for your help!
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Andrei, thanks for your response. But I have to say… you must not have seen a lot of serious post houses. I know of several big post houses in NYC that use After Effects for cleanup right alongside Flame systems. It’s all about the talented people behind the tools and what the studio is most comfortable using with their given workflow. It’s also about being open to doing things quicker and better, with technology and techniques being introduced all the time. You might want to remain a bit more open-minded.
Planar tracking works in some situations, just like any sort of tracking helps. I’m glad that you mentioned stabilization. Because stabilizing a shot will let you clean an area much easier when things aren’t moving all over the screen. Great technique! I cleaned up an actress’s eye recently, who was stung by a bee. Her eye was inflamed and red, so I stabilized her eye, then reconstructed it on the more or less static area, then re-introduced the movement of the shot to bring it back to its original state. All of this was done on 1080p DPX files. Very clean and efficient workflow that got it done very quickly. The client was pleased.
I’ve also dealt with cellulite before. The area was a leg with lots of age spots, pores, and wrinkles. You have to address each shot differently, depending on what you can remove and the methods you can use to remove it, while still keeping the skin looking natural. I tracked the leg, then used a series of masks on the skin area. It was a while ago, but I do believe I used two copies of a colored solid tinted with a medium skin color, with blending modes applied to lighten the shadows and darken the highlights. This diminished the artifacts that the client did not want to see in the shot. Then I added back a little grain. This gave the impression that the skin was not so plastic. The important thing is to keep the shape and major defining features in there, while removing only the things that are distracting. It is truly an art. I hope that you found your solution.
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Exactly, Juan… I think the techniques you are using are the core of where a lot of the “Hollywood secrets” originate. But of course, certain other techniques have been refined and developed to be more effective, especially as footage becomes of higher and higher quality. I’m glad I started this thread, because I think it is something that hasn’t been touched on too much at these tutorial/discussion sites. There’s a lot of students trying to get help learning motion graphics, but some of these more high end real-world production techniques are kinda left as “secrets”.
I, too, worked on a Pantene commercial where the client was VERY picky about the hair and skin. Most of the backgrounds in the beauty shots were also blurry, so I was able to experiment with similar techniques to what you were describing, Juan. I only blur enough to remove the flyaways. And a lot of times, I would clone a clean background plate, then mask it back in around the hairline. I found that each shot would require addressing things in a different way, but there were certain things that remained consistent… like the all-important tracking data.
Thanks for your input!
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That’s valid, and perhaps Dave doesn’t know other ways to fix grainy footage. Perhaps his tone and wording could be a little less condescending so that his helpfulness comes through a bit more. Having years and years of experience myself, I’m also aware that it is best to avoid problems when you can by planning ahead. That being said, I’m also aware of how valuable it is to know how to solve problems once you are in the midst of them. And that’s more along the lines of what the OP was asking. He wanted to know what the options were with his current camera.
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Because I believe help can be offered in a variety of ways. To me, saying “avoid low light” or “get a new camera” is being dismissive and not really offering a solution to the OP or to anyone else searching for similar advice. The original poster clearly stated he already HAS this camera and wants to know what his options are for working with footage shot in low light. And now it seems I’m getting some mild flaming for… you know what, never mind.
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If you already have the footage, and don’t care about spending the time fixing it, your idea of removing the noise from the darker areas might help. You could use a luma inverted matte, consisting of a copy of your footage with levels applied to control what areas are effected. Then apply the “remove noise” filter to just that layer with the matte on it. Also, you may want to use another copy of your footage laid on top with a “Screen” blending mode. I’ve used this to brighten up footage and minimize the noise.
Dave, I’ve read a lot of your posts, and they haven’t seemed all that helpful. I really think the forum here should be for offering solutions. Everyone has different situations and different challenges and different skill levels.
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