Steve Roberts
Forum Replies Created
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1. As Lars wrote, DF for broadcast, NDF for other situations.
2. If you’re just capturing in FCP, just capture. The material will be 29.97 on the tape. When you import into AE, let AE interpret the footage as 29.97 lower field first if you shot it 29.97 interlaced (60i). However, if you shot 24P, you need to remove pulldown in AE, since the camera took 24fps and added pulldown to make it 29.97. This would result in 23.976fps footage. FCP calls it 23.98, but you should call it 23.976 in AE.
Once you import and interpret, drag the footage onto the “new comp” button at the bottom of the project window to make sure the comp settings match the footage.
3. No no no. Just interpret the footage properly: if it was shot 24P, interpret lower field first (LFF) and remove pulldown, then drag onto the button as I wrote — you’ll have a 23.976 comp with no fields, if it was shot 24p.
There’s no need to use fieldskit for this. I’ve used Fieldskit before in odd situations, but I can’t remember when. Just interpret.
If however, the footage is 29.97 interlaced (60i), consider making a 59.94 fps comp, interpret the footage as LFF, and drag into this comp. This is what you do when you’re rotoscoping.
4. The PD150 shoots to the DV codec, no? Just capture in FCP, cut out the waste in a DV sequence if you want, then export the sequence with current settings. The footage will not have changed. Import into AE, do your magic, then render to the DV codec again if you expect to go back into FCP and export a complete timeline from there with no FCP effects.
However, if you’re not going back to FCP, then you should use AE to render to the Animation codec or 8-bit (or 10-bit) uncompressed, or Photo-JPEG before compressing to MPEG-2 in your compression app. ProRES and AE may still be dodgy together, but you may want to do some tests.
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You should know that AE is limited regarding realism. If you have a specific look in mind, you might have to compromise that if you want to use AE.
For example, if you want to do the same kind of camera moves and character movement that we saw in Spider-man 3, you’re out of luck. That requires a 3D app or two, and a fair bit of time.
Anyway, check out the sand tutorial.
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You’re trying to make a “walk cycle”.
Could you be more specific regarding the problem?1. do you have the 6 frames, but don’t know how to loop them?
To solve that, render them as a 6-frame movie, then import and interpret the footage so it loops. Look in the Help under “interpretation”. If you don’t want to render it now, precompose the animation, apply Time remapping, then use a loop (“cycle”) expression to loop the precomp.2. do you have the baby as a series of mage layers, one for each limb/body part, but don’t know how to animate them?
Search the COW for “IK” and “ebberts”. This isn’t easy, but it can be done with a bit of patience.3. if those don’t solve the problem, let us know exactly what you have, and what you need to do.
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Sorry, I left something out. If your AE frame size is the DV preset (720×480, non-square pixels) then your PSD image size can be one of two sizes to best fill the frame:
– 720×480 non-square pixels
– 720×540 square pixels
Check the PS help for more info.regarding quality, you cannot compare print with video. The DVD NTSC frame size must be 720×480. You have no choice, and making an image bigger won’t help — everything has to be reduced to 720×480 eventually. Even if it’s going onto a really big screen, it has to be 720×480 for NTSC DVD. Them’s the breaks.
To try to maintain quality, you should render your AE comp to something like a Quicktime movie in the Animation codec to reduce compression loss, then compress that movie to MPEG-2 (necessary for DVD!), then author the DVD using that MPEG-2 movie.
In Windows, if using Encore DVD, you might have to make an Uncompressed AVI, then compress (using a two-pass VBR process) using something like Sorenson Squeeze, then author in Encore.
On Mac, you could render to QT as stated, compress (2-pass VBR) in Compressor, then author in DVD Studio Pro.DVDs do not look as good as uncompressed movies. Then again, you can’t play back uncompressed movies on a DVD. It’s a compromise. You maintain quality by keeping the movie as uncompressed as possible before you compress it to MPEG-2 for DVD.
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Like all AE 3D effects, Particular essentially creates a movie of a 3D event (the effect) that plays on a flat screen (the 2D layer). This is why 2D layer order is relevant when 3D effects are involved.
These effects include tricks to maintain the 3D illusion. One is to make the effect’s camera, explicitly or implicitly, follow the exact movements of the AE comp camera. In Particular’s case, one of the tricks allows the particles to be obscured by a layer. To use this, set that layer as the Obscuration layer under Visibility in the Particular settings.
If you have a bunch of layers you want to work this way, you might have to use multiple Particular layers, each with its own Obscuration layer.
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DPI is irrelevant. What matters is image size in pixels (X pixels wide by Y pixels tall).
Decide on a frame size for your video.
-320×240?
-720×480?
-1920×1080?
Then shrink your PS images to the right size to avoid unnecessary delays due to large files. If your images will fill your frame size above, then make them that size. If they will be zoomed into or scaled up as part of your plan, then make sure they can handle that zoom in — don’t shrink them so much.To import PSDs with layers, import as Composition. For more, check the help on Importing.
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I don’t think AE can figure out the relationship between 3D layers used as footage and 3D layers used as maps for effects.
I’d precomp the gradient and the footage, making the precomp 3D in the main comp, but leaving the footage & gradient layers 2D inside the precomp.
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AE can render in just about any digital image or video format. Out of the box, it generally defaults to some kind of uncompressed render.
It’s good to read up on the Render Queue and take advantage of the options available there, similar to those suggested by Muhaned.
Look in the AE Help under “rendering”.
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Try MPEG Streamclip.