View Full Version : 60p with an XL1s


Cole McDonald
May 29th, 2006, 05:28 PM
I've posted on this technique in the past, but this time I shot footage specifically to show it off. This works by deinterlacing evens and odds separately and putting them back together like shuffling a deck of cards. Turns 60i into 60p so each frame is a discreet timeslice.

http://www.yafiunderground.com/Video/shutter_test.mov

This is shot with a shutter of 1/120 to get a nice image in each frame.

I export the even and odds as image sequences and have written an applescript that renames the files in the correct order to reimport to the NLE.

If anyone wants to, my server is pretty slow, go ahead and mirror this.

Nicholas Foster
July 28th, 2006, 08:27 PM
Cool shot. Like it. Any more information on how you acheived that?

Cole McDonald
July 28th, 2006, 11:32 PM
I deinterlaced in Final Cut Odd fields and exported as an image sequence...then repeated with even fields. I wrote an applescript which moves the images from the two sequences into a single sequence like shuffling a deck of cards.

Since the two fields are 1/60th of a second apart (hence the 1/120th shutter), when deinterlaced, the resulting clip played back at 30p results in true 50% footage. Basically, you trade physical resolution for temporal resolution...but since most folks de-interlace anyway to acheive a nearer approximation of film, I don't see this as that bad a trade.

The same offer for this applescript is still on the table...it's available in exchange for screen credit (read: free).

Djee Smit
July 29th, 2006, 04:20 AM
Looks good, would love to try it out. While exporting as image sequence, wat format images do you export? And can I try the script out, to try it for my self and use it in the future if it works for me. (with proper credit offcourse ;-)

Cole McDonald
July 30th, 2006, 10:55 AM
any image format...the script works on the filenames (mac only...I'm sure someone could write a batch script or a VB script that coulsd run on the PC). Shoot me an e-mail: knightscape at charter dot net

I'll sling you a copy of the applescript.

Harrison Freedman
July 30th, 2006, 10:16 PM
I would love the applescript for this! Truley amazing quality. Screen credit? Pfftt...if I could I'd pay you :P I'll send you an e-mail.

Cole McDonald
July 30th, 2006, 11:33 PM
...if I could I'd pay you :P

I wouldn't stop you from doing so. ;)

Greg Boston
July 31st, 2006, 12:55 AM
Hey Cole, in the spirit of sharing that we have here at DVINFO, why not place your Applescript droplet in a ZIP file and attach it here. Please? I would like to try it on the 1080 60i from the Sony.

Or, you could email it to me. Just click my name at left to send an email.

-gb-

Andy Gordon
July 31st, 2006, 05:44 AM
Maybe I'm missing something in your method, but Vegas does this automatically when you set playback rate to 50% and render an interlaced clip as progressive. It interpolates the missing set of lines for each frame.

Cole McDonald
July 31st, 2006, 08:38 AM
I've tested the same footage in Final Cut and the script renders better 50% than setting the speed and rendering out. I have no idea wat methodology Final Cut uses, but this works. This script wouldn't apply to the PC as it's a mac only solution being an applescript.

Cole McDonald
July 31st, 2006, 08:41 AM
Here is the script for sharing... I'll reiterate that I won't turn down money, but it's not at all necessary. I would like screen credit of some sort if you use it for a project though. :)

Harrison Freedman
July 31st, 2006, 09:10 AM
Your test footage link seems to be down for me, anyway you could post that again or possible put up some more of your results? Thanks.

Cole McDonald
July 31st, 2006, 10:06 AM
We're currently having server issues...I'll try to trrack that down locally...here's some instructions I've written up by request:

In Final Cut (only thing I've tested with):

1. Place your clip on a timeline (I like to make a new sequence to work with clips).
2. Double click the clip to bring it up in the viewer window
3. Apply the deinterlace filter (I think it's in the Video filter/Video subfolders)
4. Click the filters tab in the viewer window
5. Pull the Field pull-down Menu to Upper(Odd)
6. Render the clip (select and hit apple(command)-R)
7. Pull down the File > Export > Using Quicktime Conversion...
8. Pull down the Format pull-down menu to Image Sequence
9. Under options... right next to it, select an image format (prefereably something that doesn't compress in a lossy manner - TIFF is a good choice)
10. Under the Options in there, Best depth and none for compression.
11. Fit the naming to the convention called for in the script (when you start up the script, it'll show you the naming convention)
12. save the sequence to a new folder on the desktop
13. repeat steps 5-11 with Lower(Even) fields selected saving to the same folder as before
14. Hide Final Cut (under the final cut menu)
15. find the folder you've created on the desktop and duplicate it (cmd-d - always work on a backup)
16. run the script and select the backup folder you've just created (for real fun, keep the folder window open while you run it :) )
17. when the script stops, go back into final cut
18. Under Final Cut > User Preferences > Editing > Still/Freeze Duration = 00:00:00:01
19. Create a new sequence (or just delete the clip from the timeline and use the one you were using before)
20. In the project window, ctrl-click (right-click) and import > folders
21. Select the duplicate folder and let FC do its thing.
22. open the new bin (folder) that is created and select all (cmd-a)
23. drag the series of pix to the timeline...they should propogate in order
24. Export again as Quicktime so you can have a clip that doesn't have to re-render 1000 images with every change
25. Import the resulting QT file and use as you would any other movie clip.

I tried making a plug in that would do this automagically, but it needed to be a double pass operation, and I couldn't figure that part out...so this clunky process is what I have to offer.

I'll try to trackdown the two tests I've done so far and post them here.

Harrison Freedman
August 3rd, 2006, 11:11 AM
The process worked incredible. Thank you so much once again. Any word on your test footage, or even your website so I can take a look. It'd be great to compare results.

Cole McDonald
August 3rd, 2006, 03:37 PM
would you be willing to post yours? I'd love to see what's being done with it :) My server should be back up sometime today hopefully...if not, I'll track down the original media and make a file to post up here.

Harrison Freedman
August 3rd, 2006, 03:56 PM
I'll post mine as soon as I can. Didn't get a chance to edit it at home but I'm going to do some much better tests to get the exact style I'm looking for.

Greg Boston
August 3rd, 2006, 04:00 PM
Here is the script for sharing... I'll reiterate that I won't turn down money, but it's not at all necessary. I would like screen credit of some sort if you use it for a project though. :)

Cole, thanks for sharing. As I said, I want to try this with the Sony. It would be cool to have 60P HD footage while maintaining the higher bit rate and resolution. Otherwise, I can do in camera overcrank to 60P.

I want to see if there is a visible difference by using your method with 60i HD footage.

regards,

-gb-

Harrison Freedman
August 3rd, 2006, 04:10 PM
Greg, I would love to see the difference between the 60i HD and the 60p HD that would be really interesting to see. Please post your test :D

Cole McDonald
August 3rd, 2006, 08:38 PM
I found the movie, but it's too large to post directly (20Mb). Any thoughts?

also have a 68.9Mb dv file 640 x 480...with a slow upload from here.

Greg Boston
August 3rd, 2006, 09:39 PM
I found the movie, but it's too large to post directly (20Mb). Any thoughts?

also have a 68.9Mb dv file 640 x 480...with a slow upload from here.

Do you have a Dot Mac account? You can put the files on your public folder and allow folks to download them from there.

-gb-

Cole McDonald
August 4th, 2006, 07:32 AM
no .mac ... I've always had an unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage option that made .mac worthless to me.

Djee Smit
August 5th, 2006, 05:20 AM
I did some small tests and it allready looks good. But I have one problem, if I import the final image folder in FCP, it's not all in the right order. It goes wel up to image 00099 but then it goes like
image 00100
image 001000
(up till)
image 001009
(then back to)
image 00101
image 001001

So the footage got mixed up. Anyone an idea what I did wrong or how I can get this straight. If i got this fixed I'll try to upload some progressive footage as well

Cole McDonald
August 6th, 2006, 02:27 AM
I did some small tests and it allready looks good. But I have one problem, if I import the final image folder in FCP, it's not all in the right order. It goes wel up to image 00099 but then it goes like
image 00100
image 001000
(up till)
image 001009
(then back to)
image 00101
image 001001

So the footage got mixed up. Anyone an idea what I did wrong or how I can get this straight. If i got this fixed I'll try to upload some progressive footage as well

PITA...the images should all have filenames the same length...I'll modify it to handle larger chunks of footage...I think I only wrote it to handle 5 digit names...I'll look and verify later today.

Cole McDonald
August 6th, 2006, 02:59 PM
Missed a zero in the code...here is the fixed version...and I've bumped it up to 9 digit numbers...that should handle just about anything you throw at it.

Djee Smit
August 6th, 2006, 03:27 PM
Great man, i'll try it out tomorrow

thanks

Xavier Etown
August 6th, 2006, 11:07 PM
So can anyone share their footage? I'm anxiously awaiting the results.

Cole McDonald
August 7th, 2006, 07:51 AM
My site is back up so you can see the footage at:

http://www.yafiunderground.com/Video/shutter_test.mov

60i 1/120 shutter Canon XL1s

Cole McDonald
August 7th, 2006, 08:37 AM
Here's my original test...not specifically shot for this application...watch the blades:

http://www.yafiunderground.com/Video/slomo.mov

I'm the one in the gray.

Cole McDonald
August 19th, 2006, 06:04 PM
Do any of you have any footage to post...if you need a place to post it, I will arrange it.

Sharyn Ferrick
August 19th, 2006, 09:41 PM
Can we get a comparison on how Andy Gordon's method in Vegas looks in comparison Cole McDonalds in FCP?
Maybe share a small original clip and test side be side in the two methods?
Sharyn

Cole McDonald
May 14th, 2007, 07:04 PM
Have any of the folks in this thread produced footage to share? I Still haven't seen anthing else made with my script.

Andy Gordon
May 14th, 2007, 07:11 PM
This doesn't use your method, it uses the Vegas method I mentioned but still may be of interest, and also some twixtor to go super slow. I think it produces excellent results. Soon I will be slowing HD clips to 50% speed then downressing to SD using Vegas, hopefully get no visible res loss.

http://www.savefile.com/files/500351

Cole McDonald
May 14th, 2007, 08:26 PM
I'm going to do some tests with Shake to see what kind of results I can get from the "Optical Flow" stuff from apple.