Couldn't find enough in archives about TWIXTOR. at DVinfo.net

Matt Gettemeier · September 26th, 2003, 09:07 AM

Any of you guys have extensive experience with Twixtor? I bought the deinterlacer plug-in a couple years ago and I thought it was pretty good value for the dollar... the reviews I've read about Twixtor have been mixed, and since it's over $300 I'd like some real world input.

I think Premiere has an "interpolate" in it, but I guess I need to experiment with what it does... I expect to edit this paragraph from this post in a day or so... unless you guys answer this also.

From what I understand Twixtor can slow your footage down as far as you like.

The best example I have of what I want is at the opening of "Momento" where you'll see SUPER slow-motion AND video playing backwards.

I've noticed that when I edit video for negative 100% speed in Premiere it sometimes looks a bit shakey... if you've seen what I mean then you understand. It's clearly software/video induced anomaly. I expect that Twixtor will fix this?

I read the post from the other guy about slo-mo, but I think we need to steer this in the direction of Twixtor, specifically.

Jeff Donald · September 26th, 2003, 09:27 AM

What platform are you on, Matt?

Jake Rheinfrank · September 26th, 2003, 12:40 PM

yes i do have the same question, and i would be interested in both platforms, both mac and pc...
if there is any freeware or shareware that would acheive a similar effect?
i mainly use fcp, but i treid something in premeire and it just got too choppy... all of the built in speed modifiers seem to have some sort of limit...
any help would be help to me...
matt what are you trying to slow down? (im just curious)
thanx,
-jake

Matt Gettemeier · September 26th, 2003, 02:20 PM

I'm on PC. This is my umpteenth pc and I've had mac before. Mac is good, but not enough software support and pricey in comparison. I do think macs are worth the price, I just couldn't afford it over my (second) custom pc.

My system is no longer state of the art, but it's decent. P4 2.0 with 400fsb and 400rambus (512mb)... it's an ultra-clean system dedicated to video so it's pretty darn stable. I built this one with an absolutely BARE Asus board... no on-board ANYTHING and I had to pay a bit EXTRA to find this board! Even though most of you guys have me beat at this point, this one was (and still is) my baby... down to the classic Lian-Li case. Finishing out the important details is a Canopus RaptorRT for capture, Matrox dual-head for monitors, Premiere 6.02 (upgrades)...

Anyway, slowing video down works pretty good. It's still not perfect, but not bad. I want it to be perfect. Playing video backwards creates a (minor, but noticeable) jerkiness that bugs me. I shoot with a dvx so my video is progressive, which helps, but I'm hoping I could perfect all speeds with something such as TWIXTOR. If you have a better idea, then I'm ALL EARS.

I shoot a lot of sports, but I also like to do dramatic shorts and "thrillers". All of these genres benefit LARGELY from butter smooth slow-motion.

So what do you guys recommend?

Bram Corstjens · September 27th, 2003, 07:06 AM

Twixtor 3 can slo-mo video decently to about 50% of it's original speed. Please note that fast moving images or a shaky camera are fatal for Twixtor.

I taped my mom a few days ago who was cooking. This clip had no fast motion. Just my mom walking back and forth, getting the shuggar and opening the freezer etc. Slowing this down to 50% gave me reasonable to average results.

By creating a copy of this clip that had extreme sharpness and had the "find edges" effect applied I could crank up the quality of the slow motion a little bit up (the second clip is used to "read" the motion by Twixtor)

Using keypoints can get you around difficult objects (like a a low contrast object moving fast).

Just remember it's far from perfect. You will always see small anomalies at the edges...

Matt, i'll think you'll get a hard time slowing down fast movement like sports... byt you can always give it a try with the demo version of Twixtor 3

/edit

Ted Springer · September 27th, 2003, 04:27 PM

I used the demo version of Twixtor (which puts a nice big red "X" over your screen) just to see what it could do (this was a year ago). I took some 30fps footage from the XL1 and boosted it up to 60 fields per second, giving it that video look. I was really impressed with the result... looked completely natural. Of course some other things I tried did confuse Twixtor and the screen shook like crazy or things bent or warped wrong. Try before you buy. I can't even remember where I downloaded the demo version.

Matt Gettemeier · September 28th, 2003, 08:37 AM

I feel sorry for RevisionFX on this one. From what I've read there's NO way I'd get it. I guess I'll try the demo and see what I think... but I want to slow motion down to 25% on occasion.

Again, if you see Momento (which I didn't like, but this example is perfect) then you'll see at the beginning of the movie the main character shoots a guy and then they have this backward super slow motion of the shell casing and blood dripping UP and stuff like that... basically the whole scene would have been worthless if it hadn't been for the perfection of the backwards slo-mo... the perfection of the motion made it especially unnerving, which is what they obviously wanted...

In my case I don't have anything quite so dramatic, but there has already been a lot of video I've slowed, accepting the fact that I'm trading stuttering video for drama... I started this post because it would be WONDERFUL to be able to have butter smooth video SUPPORTING THE DRAMA rather then having to accept flaws to make a point.

September 26th, 2003, 09:07 AM	#1
Matt Gettemeier Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: St. Louis, Missouri Posts: 936	Couldn't find enough in archives about TWIXTOR. Any of you guys have extensive experience with Twixtor? I bought the deinterlacer plug-in a couple years ago and I thought it was pretty good value for the dollar... the reviews I've read about Twixtor have been mixed, and since it's over $300 I'd like some real world input. I think Premiere has an "interpolate" in it, but I guess I need to experiment with what it does... I expect to edit this paragraph from this post in a day or so... unless you guys answer this also. From what I understand Twixtor can slow your footage down as far as you like. The best example I have of what I want is at the opening of "Momento" where you'll see SUPER slow-motion AND video playing backwards. I've noticed that when I edit video for negative 100% speed in Premiere it sometimes looks a bit shakey... if you've seen what I mean then you understand. It's clearly software/video induced anomaly. I expect that Twixtor will fix this? I read the post from the other guy about slo-mo, but I think we need to steer this in the direction of Twixtor, specifically.

September 26th, 2003, 09:27 AM	#2
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	What platform are you on, Matt? __________________ Jeff Donald Carpe Diem Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Where to Buy? From the best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

September 26th, 2003, 12:40 PM	#3
Jake Rheinfrank New Boot Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: santa fe, new mexico Posts: 24	i have the same question... yes i do have the same question, and i would be interested in both platforms, both mac and pc... if there is any freeware or shareware that would acheive a similar effect? i mainly use fcp, but i treid something in premeire and it just got too choppy... all of the built in speed modifiers seem to have some sort of limit... any help would be help to me... matt what are you trying to slow down? (im just curious) thanx, -jake __________________ jake rheinfrank xl-1 mac g4 sony 866 desktop student

September 26th, 2003, 02:20 PM	#4
Matt Gettemeier Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: St. Louis, Missouri Posts: 936	I'm on PC. This is my umpteenth pc and I've had mac before. Mac is good, but not enough software support and pricey in comparison. I do think macs are worth the price, I just couldn't afford it over my (second) custom pc. My system is no longer state of the art, but it's decent. P4 2.0 with 400fsb and 400rambus (512mb)... it's an ultra-clean system dedicated to video so it's pretty darn stable. I built this one with an absolutely BARE Asus board... no on-board ANYTHING and I had to pay a bit EXTRA to find this board! Even though most of you guys have me beat at this point, this one was (and still is) my baby... down to the classic Lian-Li case. Finishing out the important details is a Canopus RaptorRT for capture, Matrox dual-head for monitors, Premiere 6.02 (upgrades)... Anyway, slowing video down works pretty good. It's still not perfect, but not bad. I want it to be perfect. Playing video backwards creates a (minor, but noticeable) jerkiness that bugs me. I shoot with a dvx so my video is progressive, which helps, but I'm hoping I could perfect all speeds with something such as TWIXTOR. If you have a better idea, then I'm ALL EARS. I shoot a lot of sports, but I also like to do dramatic shorts and "thrillers". All of these genres benefit LARGELY from butter smooth slow-motion. So what do you guys recommend?

September 27th, 2003, 07:06 AM	#5
Bram Corstjens Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Netherlands Posts: 126	Twixtor 3 can slo-mo video decently to about 50% of it's original speed. Please note that fast moving images or a shaky camera are fatal for Twixtor. I taped my mom a few days ago who was cooking. This clip had no fast motion. Just my mom walking back and forth, getting the shuggar and opening the freezer etc. Slowing this down to 50% gave me reasonable to average results. By creating a copy of this clip that had extreme sharpness and had the "find edges" effect applied I could crank up the quality of the slow motion a little bit up (the second clip is used to "read" the motion by Twixtor) Using keypoints can get you around difficult objects (like a a low contrast object moving fast). Just remember it's far from perfect. You will always see small anomalies at the edges... Matt, i'll think you'll get a hard time slowing down fast movement like sports... byt you can always give it a try with the demo version of Twixtor 3 /edit

September 27th, 2003, 04:27 PM	#6
Ted Springer Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Glendale CA Posts: 328	I used the demo version of Twixtor (which puts a nice big red "X" over your screen) just to see what it could do (this was a year ago). I took some 30fps footage from the XL1 and boosted it up to 60 fields per second, giving it that video look. I was really impressed with the result... looked completely natural. Of course some other things I tried did confuse Twixtor and the screen shook like crazy or things bent or warped wrong. Try before you buy. I can't even remember where I downloaded the demo version.

September 28th, 2003, 08:37 AM	#7
Matt Gettemeier Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: St. Louis, Missouri Posts: 936	I feel sorry for RevisionFX on this one. From what I've read there's NO way I'd get it. I guess I'll try the demo and see what I think... but I want to slow motion down to 25% on occasion. Again, if you see Momento (which I didn't like, but this example is perfect) then you'll see at the beginning of the movie the main character shoots a guy and then they have this backward super slow motion of the shell casing and blood dripping UP and stuff like that... basically the whole scene would have been worthless if it hadn't been for the perfection of the backwards slo-mo... the perfection of the motion made it especially unnerving, which is what they obviously wanted... In my case I don't have anything quite so dramatic, but there has already been a lot of video I've slowed, accepting the fact that I'm trading stuttering video for drama... I started this post because it would be WONDERFUL to be able to have butter smooth video SUPPORTING THE DRAMA rather then having to accept flaws to make a point.