Step-by-step slow-motion tutorial - The 60i to 60p to 24p method

[Shawn Murphy]

Hey Marc, thanks for all the effort to simplify this process, do you happen to have any end result footage?

~Shawn

[Marc Kurtz]

Originally Posted by DJ Kinney

You know, I just get an AVI import error. Never could make this work.

DJ Kinney, you need to install the Panasonic DV codec... See the previous replies for (slightly more) detailed instructions...

[Marc Kurtz]

Originally Posted by James Llewellyn

Okay, if you use separatefields, that'll make the picture have it's vertical resolution cut if half right? From x480 to x240 (using NTSC) So if you upscale it back to 480, how will you keep the image from becoming pixilated (jagged lines), unless there's something around that, that I'm not thinking about or reading correctly?

You use deinterlacing techniques to "approximate" the missing pixels during step 6 (adding the "Field Bob" filter). Yes, there is definitely quality loss - in essence it's not a 50%, half quality, loss though. I believe it is most noticable when there are vertical lines and fast motion. Most likely the quality will be acceptable, but try it for yourself and see what you get!

[Jim Rog]

Can someone post there footage results please I would like to see how well this works.

Thanks

[Evan Donn]

Originally Posted by Jon Laing

This is great and everything, but can anyone translate this so it can be done on a mac? Forinstance, can anyone mimic this in say... after effects or anything like that?

In After Effects, select the shot you want to slow down in the project window and from the menu bar choose File>Interpret Footage>Main...

Under "Fields and Pulldown" change the "Separate Fields" option from "Off" to either "Lower Field First" for DV or "Upper Field First" for HDV - this separates the fields and treats the clip like a 60fps progressive source. Check the "Motion Detect - Best Quality Only" to do a "smart deinterlace" which will attempt to maintain vertical resolution when/where there isn't any motion.

Edit: almost forgot, under "Frame Rate" check off "Conform to frame rate:" and change from 29.97 to 30. (This lets the slowdown to 24 later be an even, easy percentage)

Click OK to apply the changes.

Now create a new composition with a frame rate of 24 fps. Add your clip to the composition, select it, and from the menu select Layer>Time Stretch...

Set the stretch factor to 250%. Render. Admire silky smooth slow motion goodness...

If you are doing this with SD source material you get some vertical softening from the deinterlacing. If you use 1080 60i HDV source material you'll end up with a full resolution SD final comp which looks much better.

Edit: I just posted a sample clip here:

http://www.divergentshadows.com/hdv/slow_motion.html

Not a great shot, just some footage of my dog running which I shot yesterday. 17 second Quicktime, H.264, 3mbps, ~6.3MBs

[Christopher Thompson]

Nifty little camera trick!! it works like a charm and I dig it.

http://www.amfmstudios.com/mejumpingslowmo.wmv

This is the only copy I have, sorry it's not full resolution so you can get a comparison but I thought I'd share the result for all to see (and I hope I don't get sued for the music either ieee)