[Ty Audronis]

And here is the tutorial…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3azcZf57da4

Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium

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[Ty Audronis]

Ok… kinda cludgy, but I got it…

First, track your point that you want the flare to be on
Next, create a shape layer with a tiny white dot on it
Apply the track to a null layer
parent the white dot to the null
Precomp this stuff

Then, in the main comp, when you apply knoll, use the precomp as the location layer, and you’re in like flint… all the optics stay realistic.

Hope this helps future googlers… as I couldn’t find this anywhere, and it took some digging just to find out what the hell the location layer is for…

I think I’ll do a tutorial on youtube for this.

Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium

[Ty Audronis]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you parent the null that the flare is parented to, the lense reflections don’t change position accurately. I tried applying tracking from a null to the light source location via expression,( effect(” Light Factory”)(“Light Source Location”) = thisComp.layer(“Null 1”).transform.position; ). but appearantly that property is read only :(. How would I get the lense reflections to be at the right angles for the position with tracking?

Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium

[Ty Audronis]

Thank you! This is the exact information I was looking for!

Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium

[Ty Audronis]

For quicktimes, I rarely use the actual “mpeg4”. I usually use H.264 instead. True, it is also a flavor of mpeg4, but I get better results with it. Also, it depends on your target player. Mpegs (although very space efficient) are also GPU intensive. So, say for instance you’re outputting a 720p 30, and you want a decent quality. You’d better be sure that the player has a decent video card. Otherwise, you’ll want to use prores 422. 422 uses a bigger file (by about 20%… eek!), but instead of the GPU, it uses the CPU to uncompress, so most CPUs made in the last 5 years can play it no problem.

Good luck!

Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium

[Ty Audronis]

Ah, ok… useful to know. However, it still freaks me out letting the least advanced out of all the technology being used do the conversion. Although the DVD player may play the DVD, it will convert it to 25fps for the TV. I still say do it in your edit suite. The plugin Dave is suggesting is a great idea…

Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium

[Ty Audronis]

Update… just tried the 24p tutorial I included. Works famously… enjoy!

Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium

[Ty Audronis]

Hello? Hello? Hello?

(Sounds of crickets)

Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium

[Ty Audronis]

Ok, here’s a crash coarse in greenscreening:

1) if you’re not using a reflecmedia screen, then you MUST backlight your talent with a violet light (violet is opposite from green, and will create halos on your subjects that are polar opposites on contrast… basically, defines your subjects when you try to key them easier.

2) NO HOT SPOTS OR COLD SPOTS ON THE GREENSCREEN!!!!! — how can you tell? turn on the zebra on the PD-150, and adjust your iris until you see the squiggles on the screen, and adjust your lights so you see even maggots (what I like to call the zebras) crawling on the greenscreen!

3) NO SHADOWS ON THE GREENSCREEN. Believe me, you care more about a clean key than you do shadows. You can always create the shadows in post… and really that’s where you should create them. (the best way to light especially for a music video is to try to emulate a ring light by placing your lights around the camera… it’s a delicate balance… just keep the maggots even on the greenscreen!

4) Turn up your shutter speed. motion blur = fuzzy key = lots of nasty halos.

Once in aftereffects:

1) key it out. Get the key as good as possible using a key effect. I usually use color range (since no matter how even the maggots are, there is still a variance).

2) Remove the halos. – Use matte choker to choke the matte in on the subjects, and feather it a bit…

3) EASY ON THE FEATHERING!!! Do us all favor and don’t recreate the crappy keying in Phantom Menace!

4) Get the green out. Use spill suppressor to get the green out.

Now, for the film look:

Forget 24p for a sec… that’s the easy part. You really want to recreate a film look, right?

Here’s how:

1) Do your keying FIRST because this is a good way to blend the footage together to make it look more realistic too.

2) Increase contrast. Make the whites white, and the blacks black. Don’t go all Jerry Bruckheimer on it or anything… but get that contrast up a bit (10-15).

3) Add some grain… you can use “add grain”, but turn down the intensity to like .25…

4) Now give it 24p… Please don’t attempt this in aftereffects. At least not unless you do it with cinelook. Other than that… here’s a tutorial for it: https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/frame_rate_converter/

Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium

[Ty Audronis]

Ugh, I hate when that happens. It really depends on how big they are and how many of them there are. Sometimes you can duplicate the layer, mask off an area just to the side of the spot, feather it and move it over the spot. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Another option is to mask off the spot on a duplicate layer, and adjust the brightness / contrast on the spot (since spots usually show up as dark). – again, feather the mask so it blends.

Unfortunately though, there is no way to just get rid of the spots… garbage in, garbage out. Good luck!

Ty Audronis
Supervising Editor, California Academy of Sciences/Morrison Planetarium