[Vincent Strader]

I CHEATED!!!! 🙂

I disconnected my deck.

Hooked up my camera to the apple.

Opened up Imovie and capture it from there with no problems.

Then imported the file into my HDV project.

Thank GOD for the simple things of Apple.

But if anybody has a fix for the issue (if I didn’t have Imovie) I would still appreciate suggestions.

Sorry for my irritation,
Vinnie

[Vincent Strader]

When I mean limited I mean sometimes I work with FD, sometimes PD, and projects constantly change with different video needs. I don’t always get to work on one program, and am also hurried a lot with other projects to where I don’t get a lot of time for each one (or for each learning experience). Sorry, my OCD causes me to feel like I have to explain things that people wouldn’t normally care about 🙂 Thanks for the response now I can save time watching that and learning 🙂

Vinnie

[Vincent Strader]

I don’t know if this is what you all are talking about when referring to the errors with HDV footage inside of AE.
But the same thing happened when I expored a QT movie, however I think the format I changed it to when I exported was still HDV 🙂 Woops.

When I took it into AE the other day ( I work for the city fire department which is why I post randomly and at later times). Nothing worked right.

I followed directions on a video tutorial step by step.

But the issue might not have even been with the HDV footage, it might have been with the color background I used.

Instead trying to type my confusing experience I’ll post a screen grab of the raw footage, the footage keyed inside of FCP7, and the footage I (only started) keyed inside of Keylight.

If you wonder why I chose this color of a backdrop… look closely at the subject I was trying to key 🙂 Every freakin’ color of the rainbow.

I could only think of this magneta-neon purple color as opposite of every color on the puppet.

Dusty the Fire Safety Dragon before keyed
https://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g143/avguy75/DustyNotKeyedFCP7.png

Dusty the Fire Safety Dragon keyed inside FCP7
https://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g143/avguy75/DustyKeyedFCP7.png

Dusty attempted inside of KeyLight, it only got worse even when I followed step by step.
https://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g143/avguy75/DustyKeylightKey.png

It’s as if the matte could not make the screen or the subject a trule and separate black or white. It all just meshed together.

I started wondering if it was because of the blue color Dusty was being too close to the purple screen.

We got it figured out to where it looked OK inside of FCP and just went with it.

There might not be an answer for this, I’m just sharing the experience.

[Vincent Strader]

That’s awesome. Thanks to both of you two. I’m not in the office at the moment, but I’ll give it a try when I get back in.

Thanks again!
Vinnie

[Vincent Strader]

Is this the type of error/problems that happen with AE when working with HDV footage?

I imported some footage (different effect now) to add a particle effect.

The footage in the preview window was all there. I mean all the footage displayed.

But in the project time line only a portion of it would display.

I figured out how to get the portion I wanted to work with though by sliding the video time line for a while. I wish there was a simple in and out point you could do on the upper preview window to select though.

As I was previwing ram so I could hear the audio I need to hear I kept getting these errors:

After Effects Can’t continue” An Input Contract Violation has occured

After Effects: AEGP Plugin Premiere Pro Import: Unknown Error.
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[Vincent Strader]

Mr. LaRonde,
You Almost have it figured out about where I work. I can tell you’ve worked around the block once or twice. The bosses here are really cool though and I don’t think I’d like any other. They’re just not video types that understand how difficult things can get when they say, “Make it happen make it happen.”

About the keying issue…I was assuming from past videos other departments handed me that keying would be a struggle inside FCP. But this time I did it myself.

I’ve lucked out, I lit this backdrop so well, along with the subject sitting in front of the green screen really good, I don’t need Keylight. The chroma keys inside FCP are working perfectly for me. I don’t have Adbobe Premiere in this version of CS4, it had everything BUT Premiere. I was crossing my fingers we’d get that package.
I’ll definitely save the link you provided and also keep in mind what you said about capturing in a different codec inside FCP7.

Thanks!

[Vincent Strader]

Thanks. I’m not an FCP guy. I’ve been forced into it where I work. I had a Discreet Edit a few years back and was happy on a Windows platform. I go away for vacation, and come back to an Apple system I have to learn. Then pile on how hard it is to get anything (budgetwise) where I work, years go by, and I finally get this huge CS4 package (before I only had FCP3 to work with).

You said do it all in AE. I’m not sure what you mean. I get that HDV is awful now, and that I need to take it to a QT file first. Read both posts, thank you both. But I still don’t follow what Mr. LaRonde said,

here:
“…when you could do THE WHOLE SHOT — foreground and background — in AE, then render in the codec of your FCP edit timeline.”

and

“By doing the entire shot in AE, you can do tricks that are really tough, if not impossible to pull off in FCP.”

How do I do anything in AE first? I still have to tape it with the camera in SD or HDV and import it into one of the 2 programs.

I’ve already done what I’ve done (taped in HDV), but I’d like to keep all of what you say in mind for future projects.

Thanks,
Vinnie

[Vincent Strader]

Mr. Gissing
I’m referring to the purple martin that is stationary in the video.

It’s just a graphic. We’ve tried in several different formats and each time the edges get rastered like that around the wings.

I’m scaling it down inside of FCP.

What I will try next is having different sized logos made inside photoshop , then import them into FCP without having to scale anything.

I just hate to have to take those extra steps. I can’t tell what the dimensions of the logo should be before taking it into the video.

So I’ll have to make a few of them to make sure it fits in place.

[Vincent Strader]

Here it is.

It’s the purple martin logo below the video

You’ll see the wings are a little jaggedy.

It looks worse on a larger monitor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGWd4Jd5-lI

[Vincent Strader]

Yes, starting out with an .eps file

In photoshop I change it to pixels since I’ll be importing the final file into FCP.

The project I start in photoshop is 720×480

The file I save it as is a .psd that I am importing.

But I’ve saved it as a .JPG, a .tiff , a .bmp , a .png , and an egg.

just kidding

All files look great at first, even when we shrink it just a little. But we have to scale it down quite a bit.

I’ll youtube the original PSA and show you the purple martin logo we’re working with.