Magic Bullet-Looks at DVinfo.net

John Moon · October 29th, 2007, 04:28 PM

We have tried unsuccessfully to write an 8 min video. Used MB Looks for large portion of the video. Batch monitor indicates about 5 hours to write, which seem like alot of time for an 8 min SD video. We are trying to write a web video at 800kbs. We are operating a Mac G5 Power PC with a total of 2.5 GB Ram. The card is a GeForce 6600 and the VRAM is 256MB. The host application is FCP 5.1.4. Is this a RAM issue? FCP stalls out at about 45% of the write.

Appreciate any help...need to get this video out.
Thanks,
John

James Brill · October 30th, 2007, 12:28 AM

I know, MB takes forever to render. I do it with uncompressed hdv and it takes awhile and I have a mac pro. Why your computer stalls though could maybe due to it wanting to go to sleep or something. How long did you wait till you decided it had stopped?

Gareth Watkins · October 30th, 2007, 02:31 AM

Hi there

Yes I've found that as with all rendering and encoding you must deactivate any form of screen saver or sleep function, or you'll just end up having to start the render again.

Also you need enough hard drive space for the render to take place... I've had renders stall when it's used up all the available hard drive space for the temp rendering files... After Effects and especially MB seems to use huge amounts of HD space. I find the 'Looks' render out much faster than the Deinterlace that does take for ever.

Finally to make the projects more manageable I tend to add the effects to small sequences at a time. For an 8 minute clip I'd usually divide it up into 30 second chunks. Once all the MB effects have been applied I usually reimport the sequences into PPro and render out the project for encoding. For DVD's etc I usually downscale the HDV footage in After Effects at the same time as I apply the 'Look'.

Regards
Gareth

John Moon · October 30th, 2007, 09:39 AM

I will try turning off the sleep mode to see if that works. It would process for a couple hours and then stop responding. It just seems like over 4 hours for SD footage is a lot of time. Maybe I need to beef up the RAM.

Thanks,
John

Giroud Francois · October 30th, 2007, 10:13 AM

MB benefits of a good graphic card. If you take a look at their recommendation, you will see that realtime is possible with some Nvidia or ATI cards.

John Moon · October 30th, 2007, 10:42 AM

I have an Nvidia 6600 series card.

John Moon · October 30th, 2007, 06:52 PM

Compressor still stalls out at about 48%....we ran it through as a quicktime movie and it took about 15 min but the file size is huge...too big for web delivery. Not sure why compressor cant complete the task. ????

Stu Maschwitz · October 31st, 2007, 12:25 AM

That 15 min render time seems a lot more reasonable—seems like maybe your problem lies more with compressor than with MB Looks, or maybe there's some weird way that they don't play nice together that we didn't discover during the beta. Have you contacted Red Giant about this problem?

-Stu

John Moon · October 31st, 2007, 03:29 AM

I contacted Red Giant a few days ago and no word yet from them.
Thanks,
John

Craig Irving · October 31st, 2007, 08:20 AM

I'd love to read an instruction manual on the new Magic Bullet Looks application. Is one available to download online, or can someone post it? I couldn't find anything on the Red Giant website.

John Moon · October 31st, 2007, 11:42 AM

The manual comes with the software purchase as part of the installation software. I can't figure out a way to copy and post it. It is in html format.

John Moon · October 31st, 2007, 05:36 PM

Thanks to John K at Redgiant Software for his quick response today. Here is what he suggested and it worked. Exporting the project from FCP into Compressor created the issue. We created an external project file and closed FCP and imported the external project file directly into Compressor. It took about 20-30min to compress the 8 min video but it was very heavy with MB use, primarily some film effects.

Thanks John for your attention to this today.

John

Jack Cook · February 23rd, 2008, 11:49 PM

I just rendered an 8 minute video, it took roughly 4 hours.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-gk__0-xptU

Anyone want to take a look.

It was shot on a really crappy JVC Everio (to get a documentary look).

Nathan Petersen · March 17th, 2008, 08:43 AM

Yeah, it does take forever when rendering any video with MB looks applied. Anyway I like to render as I go, as I get done with a days work, (few min) I just render that, then I'm ready for the next day. If time is really a problem just do it over night, should be ready in the morning for you. Just my two cents... Nice video "the cellar" by the way, how did you achieve the film look?

Cameron Naghibi · April 9th, 2008, 05:10 PM

Magic bullet takes a long time yes, but try Andrew Kramers Film Magic Pro, its like magic bullet but renders way faster

October 29th, 2007, 04:28 PM	#1
John Moon Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Posts: 446	Magic Bullet-Looks We have tried unsuccessfully to write an 8 min video. Used MB Looks for large portion of the video. Batch monitor indicates about 5 hours to write, which seem like alot of time for an 8 min SD video. We are trying to write a web video at 800kbs. We are operating a Mac G5 Power PC with a total of 2.5 GB Ram. The card is a GeForce 6600 and the VRAM is 256MB. The host application is FCP 5.1.4. Is this a RAM issue? FCP stalls out at about 45% of the write. Appreciate any help...need to get this video out. Thanks, John __________________ John J. Moon www.northernlightfilmworks.com - Event DV Top 25 Recipient

October 30th, 2007, 09:39 AM	#4
John Moon Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Posts: 446	I will try turning off the sleep mode to see if that works. It would process for a couple hours and then stop responding. It just seems like over 4 hours for SD footage is a lot of time. Maybe I need to beef up the RAM. Thanks, John __________________ John J. Moon www.northernlightfilmworks.com - Event DV Top 25 Recipient

October 30th, 2007, 10:42 AM	#6
John Moon Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Posts: 446	I have an Nvidia 6600 series card. __________________ John J. Moon www.northernlightfilmworks.com - Event DV Top 25 Recipient

October 30th, 2007, 06:52 PM	#7
John Moon Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Posts: 446	Compressor still stalls out at about 48%....we ran it through as a quicktime movie and it took about 15 min but the file size is huge...too big for web delivery. Not sure why compressor cant complete the task. ???? __________________ John J. Moon www.northernlightfilmworks.com - Event DV Top 25 Recipient

October 31st, 2007, 12:25 AM	#8
Stu Maschwitz DV Rebel Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 19	That 15 min render time seems a lot more reasonable—seems like maybe your problem lies more with compressor than with MB Looks, or maybe there's some weird way that they don't play nice together that we didn't discover during the beta. Have you contacted Red Giant about this problem? -Stu __________________ theorphanage.com prolost.com

October 30th, 2007, 12:28 AM	#2
James Brill Major Player Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Goleta, CA Posts: 299	I know, MB takes forever to render. I do it with uncompressed hdv and it takes awhile and I have a mac pro. Why your computer stalls though could maybe due to it wanting to go to sleep or something. How long did you wait till you decided it had stopped?

October 30th, 2007, 02:31 AM	#3
Gareth Watkins Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: France Posts: 578	Hi there Yes I've found that as with all rendering and encoding you must deactivate any form of screen saver or sleep function, or you'll just end up having to start the render again. Also you need enough hard drive space for the render to take place... I've had renders stall when it's used up all the available hard drive space for the temp rendering files... After Effects and especially MB seems to use huge amounts of HD space. I find the 'Looks' render out much faster than the Deinterlace that does take for ever. Finally to make the projects more manageable I tend to add the effects to small sequences at a time. For an 8 minute clip I'd usually divide it up into 30 second chunks. Once all the MB effects have been applied I usually reimport the sequences into PPro and render out the project for encoding. For DVD's etc I usually downscale the HDV footage in After Effects at the same time as I apply the 'Look'. Regards Gareth

October 30th, 2007, 10:13 AM	#5
Giroud Francois Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: switzerland Posts: 2,133	MB benefits of a good graphic card. If you take a look at their recommendation, you will see that realtime is possible with some Nvidia or ATI cards.

October 31st, 2007, 03:29 AM	#9
John Moon Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Posts: 446	I contacted Red Giant a few days ago and no word yet from them. Thanks, John __________________ John J. Moon www.northernlightfilmworks.com - Event DV Top 25 Recipient

October 31st, 2007, 08:20 AM	#10
Craig Irving Major Player Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Toronto Posts: 539	I'd love to read an instruction manual on the new Magic Bullet Looks application. Is one available to download online, or can someone post it? I couldn't find anything on the Red Giant website.

October 31st, 2007, 11:42 AM	#11
John Moon Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Posts: 446	The manual comes with the software purchase as part of the installation software. I can't figure out a way to copy and post it. It is in html format. __________________ John J. Moon www.northernlightfilmworks.com - Event DV Top 25 Recipient

October 31st, 2007, 05:36 PM	#12
John Moon Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Indianapolis, IN Posts: 446	Thanks to John K at Redgiant Software for his quick response today. Here is what he suggested and it worked. Exporting the project from FCP into Compressor created the issue. We created an external project file and closed FCP and imported the external project file directly into Compressor. It took about 20-30min to compress the 8 min video but it was very heavy with MB use, primarily some film effects. Thanks John for your attention to this today. John __________________ John J. Moon www.northernlightfilmworks.com - Event DV Top 25 Recipient

February 23rd, 2008, 11:49 PM	#13
Jack Cook New Boot Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 10	I just rendered an 8 minute video, it took roughly 4 hours. http://youtube.com/watch?v=-gk__0-xptU Anyone want to take a look. It was shot on a really crappy JVC Everio (to get a documentary look).

March 17th, 2008, 08:43 AM	#14
Nathan Petersen Regular Crew Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 95	Yeah, it does take forever when rendering any video with MB looks applied. Anyway I like to render as I go, as I get done with a days work, (few min) I just render that, then I'm ready for the next day. If time is really a problem just do it over night, should be ready in the morning for you. Just my two cents... Nice video "the cellar" by the way, how did you achieve the film look?

April 9th, 2008, 05:10 PM	#15
Cameron Naghibi Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Glen Allen, VA Posts: 59	Magic bullet takes a long time yes, but try Andrew Kramers Film Magic Pro, its like magic bullet but renders way faster