View Full Version : Cineform and After Effects CS3
Douglas Turner May 9th, 2007, 11:28 PM Righty-ho,
Before I download (1GB!) and install the latest and greatest AE CS3 Beta, I was wondering if anyone's tried loading up their Premiere Pro CS3 project (cineform presets) into it?
I'll be colour-correcting and adding filmic looks in After Effects using Magic Bullet Colorista and Looks.
Would I just need to copy the Cineform presents to the new AE CS3 folders like I did to get PPRO CS3 working?
Cheers, Doug.
Peter Ferling May 10th, 2007, 07:54 AM Doug,
BTW, You'll need a AECS2 license in order to demo the AECS3.
I downloaded and tried AECS3, I did not copy the plugin's, the app was crashing and having issues upon startup. I also tried using the dynamic link feature between PPro3, and was given notice that I needed the production studio in order to use that feature. So be warned if you want dynamic link, you'll have to purchase the studio package.
Importing a vfw 444 CFHD avi into AECS3 turned out to be garbage. I didn't go any further, as I was too busy testing PPro3, and on real work. So I used AECS2.
I'm too busy with work at the present to do anymore testing, if you have the time, we (I) sure would like to hear about your findings.
David Newman May 10th, 2007, 09:10 AM AE-CS3 has issues with our IO module, they upgrade a importer mechanism without telling us. :( To make it work you need to remove two new components from AE located in the "(media core..)" directory (something like that.) Find the *DirectShow*.prm and *AVI*.prm importer modules andmove them to your desktop. Now our CFHDIO.aex module will be used, and work correctly. This is the main CS3 issue we have, was we would prefer not to remove components to make ours work.
Douglas Turner May 11th, 2007, 07:07 AM Wow - sounds like it's all a bit too Beta for me at the moment.
-I'll stick to PPRO CS3 and do all my FX work there...
Peter Ferling May 11th, 2007, 02:49 PM OK. I might have some reasons to be using AECS3, if I'm going to upgrade anyway... no surprises... I'll sleep later.
Peter Ferling May 14th, 2007, 08:40 PM AE CS3 is working with 444 p2k media. Not much to it, I just opened my AE 7.0 project with it, about 11 layers, 3 of them are CFHDs with keys, pretty basic AE stuff and it works fine.
Now, according to the warning message on the CFHD importer, it reads that some avi's might not work with that importer. (Though I can't see why I wouldn't just pre-render everything to CFHD prior to import). However, without the standard AE avi importer loaded (which was removed to the desktop to get the CFHD importer working), I can't bring in non cineform avi's.
Someone's gotta get that fixed.
Douglas Turner May 17th, 2007, 04:49 AM Aha, so now I have a reason to use the AE CS3 beta trial!
- lucky enough to get some pro sound mixing on our feature for free, and they've asked for an OMF2 file. I'm not about to tell them that they should really be happy with my AAF, as they're already do us a favour...
Premiere Pro SHOULD be able to export this, surely, but hey, it doesn't, and I doubt any number of emails to "suggestTHIS@adobe.com" will help. (oh, and Automatic Duck have decided to scrap Pro Export Ppro?!)
So, AE CS3 to the rescue... I know AE7 can do it (almost there, but my PPRO CS3 project doesn't open in AE7).
Is there any trick to open a PPRO CS3 project in AE CS3? I've tried importing the pproj file, no luck - crashes. Anything to be copied over from Plug-ins or Settings folders to make it work?
Cheers, Doug.
Douglas Turner May 17th, 2007, 06:34 AM Right, I'm stumbling at the first hurdle.
I can't import CFHD avis into AE CS3! File imports, but I get an upside-down image with vertical yellow, green, red lines - very messy.
I've just installed the Aspect v5 trial (I'm a paid-up v4 user), and that didn't help either - is there anything fancy I have to do just to edit CFHD avi's in AE CS3?!
PS - my AE 7 works just fine :)
David Newman May 17th, 2007, 08:58 AM Fro compatibility with CS3 AE, you need to remove components.
Find the media core plugins folder (it is new.)
For Aspect HD remove the DirectShow importer .prm.
For Prospect HD also remove the AVI importer.
Douglas Turner May 17th, 2007, 09:13 AM I need an OMF now - and AE CS3 isn't liking my CFHD avi files... so I'm having to resort to...
OMF Workaround #1295829:
1) Open my original CFHD PPRO CS3 project
2) Render out a DV PAL avi (cos their Pro Tools suite prefers DV PAL)
3) Create DV PAL PPRO CS3 project
4) Import CFHD PPRO CS3 project and above DV PAL avi
5) Open the CFHD sequence
6) Place DV PAL PPRO CS3 avi over (now no video should need rendering)
7) Unlink and delete from the timeline all the video now not used (not sure if required, but pretty sure it'll make for simpler OMF file)
7) Save the PPRO project, then import into AE CS3
8) Then open the main sequence (Composition)
9) CTL-M, Format: OMF, Format Options PAL etc.
10) Render out.
Has it worked? Dunno, cos this AE CS3 doesn't want to import it... I'll have to wait and see I guess. "After Effects:AEGP Plugin OMF: OMF file is corrupt or missing data"
Hmmm... bit crazy, and only just cos a) PPRO CS3 doesn't export to OMF, b) I can't get Cineform avi's to behave in AE CS3 and c) Automatic Duck have discontinued their Pro Export PPro plug-in! ...and d) it's 1am, and I have to have this done by the morning, so no time to work out why stuff isn't working that should.
Dontcha just love technology!
Update: unlinking and deleting other video doesn't look like it changes anything - the OMF files looks like it's just the main DV PAL video plus the sep audio tracks with handles etc.
Douglas Turner May 17th, 2007, 09:27 AM Hi David,
I wrote my long post before reading your reply.
I rename ImporterDirectShow.prm to .bak and it refused to even import one CFHD avi file... "After Effects error: The selected file cannot be opened, it may be in the wrong format (86:25)" - the file opens fine in every other application.
I renamed it back to prm, and it allows the import, but the image is screwed up still.
Any other thoughts?
David Newman May 17th, 2007, 09:35 AM You might need to active the CFHD AEIO module that we use in Prospect -- this requires the removal of the second prm. Yes the attached registry control to enable the CFHD importer.
Douglas Turner May 17th, 2007, 10:17 AM Thanks David,
That helped somewhat - I renamed both of those .prm files, and used AspectHD_AEImporterOn.reg - this allowed me to import individual CFHD avi files -and add them to compositions etc...
But, when I open a PPROJ project in AE CS3 - it adds all the media fine and the main sequence looks good on the composition timeline, BUT I don't seem to be seeing any video while scrubbing or on rendering out I get neither video or audio.
Something's definitely wrong still! :(
EDIT! Scrap that - it could well have been a cropped title I was using to 2.35:1 letterbox the image - I've removed that from the PPRO proj and the import looks healthy now.
Douglas Turner May 17th, 2007, 11:10 AM OK - all sorted now with that regs hack and prm removal!! Thanks.
But I'm not impressed by the OMF format - a 3.2GB file for a 2 1/2 minute clip (and only DV PAL at that) - ridiculous!
So now my OMF workflow is:
1) Import my CFHD PPRO CS3 project into AE CS3
2) Render as OMF
3) Be amazed at the size of the file for just a 2 1/2 min clip (and having read somewhere about a 2GB file limit, I'm getting worried about giving the full 90 min project to the post house)
Douglas Turner May 17th, 2007, 10:32 PM Right, so I failed to realise that AE would not be able to export an OMF file with audio embedded - so this is useless to me for our export to a ProTools environment.
Has anyone out there had joy with exporting audio (including tracks, embedded audio and volume, fx handles etc) to a ProTools or similar post production audio editing environment? I'm stuck... and I don't feel like asking them to injest 10 separate .wav tracks, as this would make their job harder.
Mike Morrell May 18th, 2007, 07:41 AM What is the little "fix AE" utility that comes with the latest version? I thought that was supposed to remove the files for me?
Anyway, I get garbage when I export in a Cineform.avi file when I have AE3's new render multiprocessor checked. The files are 10 times as big and look like garbage. Turn off this feature and they render OK.
David Newman May 18th, 2007, 09:12 AM Remember AE CS3 is beta, officially we don't support it yet. There are a few manual hacks to gain support, but the CineForm installer will not include them until the Adobe target has stopped moving. Only last week Adobe change broke our installers.
Mike Morrell May 18th, 2007, 10:43 AM Yes, I realize that CS3 is still a beta and Cineform has a moving target until things are locked down. And I appreciate you guys being on top of it. But I would like to know if you are aware of the rendering issue with multi processor turned on and if is something that adobe needs to address or something that you guys will need to change before the final release.
I am guessing that it is Adobe's issue and that other codecs might be affected too since Nucleo pro worked fine with the Cineform Codec on AE7. Adobe's attempt at multi-threading appears to have similar results to Nucleo, except that it breaks when used with the Cineform codec. If it is something that Cineform cannot fix and it is a bug with CS3, then I would like to post this properly over in the Adobe Labs forum.
David Newman May 18th, 2007, 10:55 AM Have you removed the CS3 AE AVI and DirectShow importers from "(mediacore)". These are not compatible (CineForm issue) or they are broken (Adobe issue) -- I can't tell which. I believe the CFHDIO.aex module works fine without them.
Mike Morrell May 22nd, 2007, 09:16 AM Does the workaround still apply to the AECS3 beta release posted by Adobe labs last week? Has anything been updated in the newest build of Prospect to help with CS3? How does one get the newest update? I filled out the web form last night and I have not received the download link. I thought that this was automated?
David Newman May 22nd, 2007, 09:24 AM All the manual patches for AE CS3 still apply. The download link are automated, but our server have been overwhelmed with download requested since the new updated, the server as crashed every few days -- you will get a email response when it is restarted this morning.
Mike Morrell May 22nd, 2007, 09:28 AM Great, I'll wait for the e-mail. I used to run a data center with over 30 servers. So I know what happens when they get overtaxed with requests!
Christopher Glaeser July 21st, 2007, 11:26 PM Fro compatibility with CS3 AE, you need to remove components.
Find the media core plugins folder (it is new.)
For Aspect HD remove the DirectShow importer .prm.
For Prospect HD also remove the AVI importer.
I'm trying to use Aspect HD 5.0 with AE CS3. I can't find the DirectShow importer .prm file. What directory is it located in?
Best,
Christopher
Christopher Glaeser July 22nd, 2007, 01:51 PM I upgraded to Adobe Master Collection CS3 and Aspect HD 5.0 and am having problems importing Cineform AVI files into AE CS3. I deleted the files ImporterDirectShow.prm and ImporterAVI.prm from the AE CS3 Media Core Plugins directory. AE CS3 generates the error message above when attempting to import a Cineform AVI file. Windows XP SP2. Any suggestions?
Best,
Christopher
David Newman July 22nd, 2007, 02:36 PM Post #12 (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?p=681044&postcount=12) will explain the step you missed.
Christopher Glaeser July 22nd, 2007, 02:45 PM I originally purchased Aspect HD because Premiere and After Effects did not support the Canon XL H1. I'm having problems with Aspect HD and CS3. I purchased the upgrade for Aspect HD 5.0, but that did not seem to help. So, I tried capturing an XL H1 tape directly into Premiere CS3 without the Cineform HD codec, and that works fine. AE CS3 works too. Would like to use Aspect HD if and when it gets fixed, but at least I have a workable solution.
Best,
Christopher
Christopher Glaeser July 22nd, 2007, 02:46 PM Post #12 (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?p=681044&postcount=12) will explain the step you missed.
Thanks, I appreciate the quick Sunday response. I'll give it a try.
Best,
Christopher
David Newman July 22nd, 2007, 02:47 PM The fix is in post #12, that attached registry control turns on the CFHD importer for AE, as it defaults to off. You don't need to go native, particularly in AE which is quite painful.
Christopher Glaeser July 22nd, 2007, 04:26 PM The fix is in post #12
Thanks, the import is working.
Best,
Christopher
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