Compositing in HD?

[Dan Measel]

OK went to VASST and made the move to HD. I use a fair amount of 2d & 3d animation and compositing in my Standard def projects. Will I be able to continue doing this in HD? Has anyone done this sucessfully?

[Steve Crisdale]

Originally Posted by Dan Measel

OK went to VASST and made the move to HD. I use a fair amount of 2d & 3d animation and compositing in my Standard def projects. Will I be able to continue doing this in HD? Has anyone done this sucessfully?

I'm sure there are...

There's a few posts from folks who've been doing stuff in After Affects, and those who've done green screen clips with added 3D backgrounds.

I've done some test stuff with the Cineform CFHD avi format within Lightwave 3D, and it works fine. Mind you, for a clip of about 30sec. the render times (depending on whether stuff like radiosity, ray tracing, antialiasing etc. were used) ended up at around 1-2hrs on a P-IV 3.2Ghz HT machine.

Just be prepared for your render times to go UP... If you're really serious about 3D with HD/HDV material, I'd suggest having a fully realized work-flow, with every aspect thought through 100%, because any fiddling around to try and experiment with combinations will add serious extra production time to your project.

[Dan Measel]

I'm glad to hear that you could use the Cineform format. I use Lightwave 3d too. Did you render the final as SD or were you able to replace the avi with the original mt2 and get a good HD result? That to me is where it seems it would start to get tricky. I'm just trying to do everything right so that when HD DVD players are readily my movies will be ready for them.

[Steve Crisdale]

Originally Posted by Dan Measel

I'm glad to hear that you could use the Cineform format. I use Lightwave 3d too. Did you render the final as SD or were you able to replace the avi with the original mt2 and get a good HD result? That to me is where it seems it would start to get tricky. I'm just trying to do everything right so that when HD DVD players are readily my movies will be ready for them.

For using my FX-1e clips in Lightwave I've:

1. Converted during capture to Cineform CFHD avi (with save m2t also selected) using ConnectHD's HD Link tool.

2. In LW, go to Compositing options and for Background image select the desired avi (all files as type).

3. Under Display options, set camera view Background to Background Image.

4. Change the camera properties to 1440x1080 with Pixel Aspect Ratio set to 1.3333.

The avi will now be correctly proportioned in the layout window in camera view. Load models, etc. etc...

5. In Render Options, Output Files tab - select *.avi as the animation type, then under Options button select Cineform HD as the codec (or uncompressed if you don't have AspectHD/ConnectHD) click Save Animation, name the file and render....

Of course you'll need to check the avi for frame numbers (in Vegas or Premiere or whatever) to work out the number of frames to set LW too, but I'm sure all that is logical.

CFHD isn't a 'proxy' format. It is essentially a means to enhance editing performance without using proxies, whilst maintaining quality as close as possible to the original footage. Once all editing, compositing work has been done, CFHD (avi) projects can be rendered back to m2t for recording back to the camera or DVHS deck - or any HD or SD format you may desire...

[Dan Measel]

Wow, that seems so simple! I guess I thought the Cineform was a proxy.

Thanks so much for the info.