dont edit in hdv?

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Eric Gulbransen

But I have to say, "Noodles, Nodes, Squiggles, Knots," and no more timeline....?

Well you actually have a timeline in Shake, the nodes and noodles replace the layers or tracks of other systems, like AE. The great advantage of the node system is that it allows you to immediately see the relationship of each node. As with everything, it takes time to get used to it.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Amos, my understanding of the YCbCr is that it's an efficient way of encoding the same values that we have in 8-bit RGB. Given that most of post work will be done in RGB land I usually set the codec to RGB. it's my understanding that Sheer can map use either YCbCr and RGB without data loss.

[Robert Bale]

Paolo

I have captured all ok

I have a test.mov using sheer as the compressor, it plays fine in QTPlayer.

My question is when i open FCP and setup a new seq. I can not see sheer compressor under any of the settings.

How di i set up the seq.

Rob.

[Robert Bale]

Sorry mate found it.

It hepls to read the install nots. LOL.

ROB

[Greg Corke]

Hi Guys,

Hope this doesn't seem like a hijack but if I'm importing into premiere can I import as m2ts files straight from tape? I already have some footage from my firestore these are obviously m2ts but I'm wondering If this is the same from tape, I'm guessing it is. Also have my doubts about Premiere as in another posts I read it clips super blacks and whites. What and how much, in terms of digital info, is this effecting.

Also can anyone advise me of the best possible workflow using Premiere. I also have about 30 hours of footage I need to edit. Would it be advantages when digitising this footage to digitise this with sheer and then import into Premiere or would this be better done post edit?

Greg

[Maat Vansloot]

Originally Posted by Paolo Ciccone

That's right. In fact the idea is to use the NLE to just do cuts, for which there is no need for high-precision calculations. Once you have locked your cuts you use your method of choice to export your timeline to a compositing program.

Regarding Paolo's post: I have an important project I am working on now and I could use a little advice about many things but pertaining to this thread I am wondering how I can best handle my color correction for this project.

I shot on a HD100 in 720p and captured into and edited on a FCP 5 timeline with HDV 720p presets. This is a project that I thought was dead but it somehow got chosen for a film festival so I need to polish it up and output it at as high of a level that I can manage taking into account my equipment/software, my knowledge/comfort zone and the amount of time I have (about a week.) (BTW, the festival wants it in Beta SP or SX)

I have already done a basic color correction in FCP 5 but after reading your thoughts in this thread I am prepared to redo the CC elsewhere. Problem is I only have access to the FCP coloring or perhaps Motion. For me, the coloring in Motion seems very primitive although it looks like you could get a decent result given enough time, so I would rather use FCP. I don't really have time to learn a new coloring system, but I'd like to get the coloring in a 16 or 32-bit place. I have had some banding issues with my current sequence.

Couldn't I just transcode my HDV sequence to a "better" codec (maybe DVC50 HD? ProRes is not an option--I don't have FCP 6) and color correct in that? Wouldn't that be in a better color space and not have any graphics or color correcting moved down to 8-bit with the whole HDV "rendering" for output? Maybe I'm kind of using the wrong terms here. I admit I don't fully understand colorspaces and what is in 8-bit and what is in 16 or 32.

Also, in the sequence settings couldn't I just check the box for "high-precision YUV" instead of "8-bit YUV" and have this keep everything in 32-Bit? (Keeping in mind that the HDV clips started in 8-bit and won't improve) Can I change this after I have captured the clips and edited the timeline? Would this be just as good as outputting to a 32-bit compositing program?

I must admit some fear of compositors. The only one I have is Motion and I have never used it as anything but a place to make my CG screens and simple GFX. Because I need to get this done and get it right I don't know how many new workflows I can experiment with in the time remaining.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Matt, since you are in neighboring SFO, send me an email to phciccone@gmail.com, let's talk a bit more about this via PM

[John Vanderpoel]

Just wanted to add a thanks to Paolo and Steve. You've both been very educational for me. I now better understand why Black Magic was telling me to avoid capturing in HDV....and why there were advantages even after the footage is laid to HDV tape. Thanks!!!

[Amos Kim]

So Paolo, if I'm understanding all this correctly, I should basic edit in hdv in final cut and then export to after effects using sheer and do all the transitions/color grade/compositing/titling in after effects and lastly export from after effects using sheer? And do I need a third party program to go from final cut to AE?

BTW, do you know if apple color is compatible with sheer ?

thanks

[Paolo Ciccone]

Amos, I just finished a quick CC/grading job for a short and that's how it was performed:

- The video was delivered to me as an FCP project shot with the HD100. Sequence was edited in HDV.
- I exported the project from FCP using XML
- Imported the project using the excellent FCPtoAE script, Google it.
- Importing the project means that I don't need to render and that AE is referencing the files from the original HDV clips, no transcoding.
- Set your AE project to use 32 bits processing.
- Do all the CC/Grading
- Precompose all the scenes that need to have transitions like crossfade
- Add transitions.
- Add the comp to your render queue, select TIFF sequence, add an "Output target", select sheer and render

The reason for the last step is to render your final comp to a lossless master, Sheer, that you can then drop into Compressor and use to create your high-quality deliverable. The TIFF sequence allows you to do "surgical" updates so that if the client requires a change in the a scene you can update that scene and then render only the necessary frames without rendering the unchanged parts. After rendering the modifications you can simply import the sequence of TIFFs back into AE, add the soundtrack and the export the video without the need to re-compute all the effects. At the same time the TIFF format guarantees that you'll be working on pristine frames.

Hope this helps.

[Jack Walker]

Paolo,
Is this type of work flow available to people who use Avid Liquid to edit the original HDV?

If Avid Liquid won't work, how about Edius?

What is the editing program on the PC that would work for your work flow to be able to color grade and add effects in AE without first transcoding the edited video to another format (e.g. "raw RGB avi uncompressed" is recommended to me out of Liquid, is this the same as the work flow you outline for FCP?)

[Paolo Ciccone]

Hi Jack.
I don't know either Avid or Edius so I can't give you the steps involved but I would be surprised if there wasn't way a way to move media back and forth those applications. After all editors and compositors are used in different situations all the time. Automatic Duck has a plugin that moves projects from Avid to AE. This would be the optimal solution since you skip the export to any codec altogether. Also, SheerVideo works on Windows as well, it's a QuickTime plugin and the company makes it for both platforms. You can also check Black Magic Design, they have their uncompressed codecs for Quicktime/Windows: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/support/software/

Don't know about avi, being I generally stick with technologies that work across platforms, just to keep my options open. Don't wan to get in a situation where I paint myself in a corner :)

Good luck.

[Tup Wright]

This post has been excellent to me. I found a little more info for premiere pro users.

You can stay in the 32bit realm with premiere and after effects.

I can either do color correction in after effects right from my timeline or import my project into AE. I like and have been using color finesse as a color correction tool in AE.

Based on a previous post by Paolo, I became a beta tester for sheer's .avi codecs. I think Sheer would be a great direct replacement for the black magic codec.

good stuff, thanks

[Marcelo Mazzariol]

I've been using AspectHD since version 4, and it's a fine code, but since version 5 I've been experiencing som wrong frame rates interpretation, ans it didn't used to happened.

When I import a m2t file into premiere (shot with HD110 24p) it assumes the file as 29,97fps. Does any one is having this problem?

In AE it is not a problem because it is possible to correct te fps interpretation with out messing the audio, but in Premiere if I try to make it assume the file as 23,976fps, the audio gets messy.

When I convet to AVI the files using HDlink the imported file is corectelly read as 24p.

[Tup Wright]

Originally Posted by Marcelo Mazzariol

When I import a m2t file into premiere (shot with HD110 24p) it assumes the file as 29,97fps. Does any one is having this problem?

When I convet to AVI the files using HDlink the imported file is corectelly read as 24p.

Did you try the CS3 update (3.1.1)? I think it addresses it. I use the JVC presets and CS2 so I haven't had these issues...yet