I just got my hands on the latest release of Adobe Creative Studio.

Basically, I'm working on an indie Star Wars rip-off, with light-sabers that need to be rotoscoped. Back in another thread (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=55562) a very helpful forum member gave me some pointers. However, I am still a bit petulant on one point: I do not want to deinterlace by throwing-out half of the data from each frame and 'interpolating'!

Now, AfterEffects claims to do this: it says it will convert the fields to frames for editing within that software. I think I've figured that part out. Keep in mind: I now have a total of 2 hours of experience with AE.

I hope to cut my scenes together, without special effects, then run a field double in AE before I start rotoscoping. Two questions arise from this:

Can I do the rotoscoping in AE, or is PhotoShop (via a filmstrip file) the way to go on that?

and/or:

Is there a way to get AfterEffects to export field-doubled video (made from 29.97i) to a new clip at 59.94fps(progressive)?

Hi Andrew,
I would say that AE is the way to go to make rotoscopy specially because you dont have to rotoscope each frame (you work one frame, jump some frames foeward or back, tweak your mask and AE makes the interpolation on the inbetween frames) but AE also have many other advantages over photoshop to do rotoscoping.
About the second question I dont understand what do you want. 29, 97i means that you have 59,94 fields per second (not full frames). In fact you can make 59,94 frames but you will loose half of the vertical resolution. It could be a good solution to make slo mo. Please explain why do you want to double the frame rate.

Martin,

Thanks for the input-- I had hoped that AE had an easier way. The PS method involves a LOT of work.

...Please explain why do you want to double the frame rate.

I don't really want the framerate higher (since any final-output will be between 24 & 30 fps anyway). I just want to have the most flexibility when I'm doing all the digital visual effects that are needed to make my 'jedi' character appear to be doing impossible feats. I also need to compensate (as much as possible) for the low quality of the miniDV image format.

What I need is:
1.) Minimal or no losses during processing: with my miniDV footage, any losses are major hits against image quality.
2.) the ability to speed up motion in my fight scenes by a fractional amount (that is, not simply double-speed), which in my mind requires as many fps as possible for the software to work with when scaling the speed
3.) Green-screen chroma-key smoothing: combing on the interlaced frames causes the chroma-smoothing to wipe out my edges. With the miniDV color-compression, I have keyed-image (green-removed) problems right from the start and field interpolation seems to make that worse. If necessary I could accept just doubling the A-field: it might be that the Premiere de-interlace-interpolations have given me the bad results I've gotten so far.

I suppose I'd better post an image. Here it goes:
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o136/andrewjmorin/JumpOverDeadGuy.jpg

That's my jedi about to spring into the air (I will manipulate the jump to make it travel much further than is humanly possible). I "could" just de-interlace this image, but then half of the motion that is there in my raw footage is lost, which will degrade the appearance of the digital effect.

-andy

Andrew,
try a good deinterlacer like Magic Bullets. That should do.