codec for editing

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

i recently undertook a personal project of transfering old super 8mm video footage to DVD format. i wound up editing everything down to a 36 minute video, which i edited and dropped a soundtrack into. it turned out perfect, and my family loved it.

 

...but to the point, i captured this footage using a Canon XL cam. the camera was plugged directly into my computer, and the footage was captured using Premiere. i had 40 4 minute films to edit. i was able to preview the video and audio realtime, scrub back and forth easily, etc.. it was really a refreshing experience.

 

the captured footage was compressed with a Dv-AVI codec. it made the footage easy to work with, and kept file sizes small.

 

so now my question. i am editing footage for an animation i am working on. i am rendering out of 3dsmax/vray and saving as an RPF file with z-depth information. those files are then linked into AfterEffects for post depth blur work, and other adjustments that need made. that file is then linked into Priemere for video editing.

 

Premiere can not edit this information realtime. it lags, and makes the process painful. my solution will probably be to write out video footage from AfterEffects, then link the footage into Premiere.

 

this leads to the question... what codec do i use for writng out of AE to edit in Priemere? AVI uncompressed files are to large for me to edit realtime. DV-AVi interlaces the footage.

 

the footage will be for harddrive playback, so interlacing is not something i will need to do.

 

video codec and compression is something that has always frustrated me. my experience with DV-AVI was so easy i couldn't beleive it. now i am loking for something that will make my life just as easy, but does not require interlacing. suggestions?

[Brian Smith]

Sorry...you lost me at hello

[manta]

Well the problem is that you don't want to compress it twice, but since you did that in your first project, and the results were acceptable, then maybe it will be ok if you compress it in AE...

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Well the problem is that you don't want to compress it twice, but since you did that in your first project, and the results were acceptable, then maybe it will be ok if you compress it in AE...

 

the footage coming off the camera on my first project was already written into DV-AVI. i am not sure i could have avoided that.

 

right now i am experimenting with the Quicktime Animation codec at 100%, which is a lossless codec. the file sizes are more managable than a straight AVI.

 

i am going to experiment with proxies in AfterEffects. basically, ...proxies will allow me to create a higher compression representation of the file for editing, then when i want to wright out the final, i turn off the proxy.

 

proxies are designed for AfterEffects since it has to process all the pixels of apiece of footgae before it plays it back. unlike Premiere, which simply plays back the footage in whatever format it is encoded in.

 

hopefully, if i link a AfterEffects file into Premiere with proxies representing the true footage, then premiere will process the proxies, and allow me to edit realtime, until i need to wright out the final, then i will turn off the proxies.

 

when i compressed the first project twice, i kept my subsiquent copies at as high of settings as i could. i used uncompressed AVI's after the camera wrote the footage into DV-AVI's. the only time it was re-compressed is when i wrote the file to DVD. there may have been a camera setting that allowed me to turn off the DV-AVI compression, but it was a borrowed camera, and i ddin't have the manual.

 

i will post how the proxies work. the Quicktime Animation format is a lot better, but will still has some lag, and the alpha channels are useless.

 

i really don't want to compress the video twice.

[manta]

Ya, I doubt you would be able to turn off the compression on the camera, doesn't premiere have something like AE, in AE you can set the size and resolution to your scene, as you're working on it, it doesn't have anything to do with the final output, sometimes I set it to quarter res, and half size so it will play back smoothly...

[signet]

I hope this helps

 

and also It is along the right lines.

 

We render the same way you do...to RPF and do allot of compositing and retouching in Combustion.

 

All of our Combustion files Are network rendered to png sequences At 1024x576 square pixels. This is quick and that resoultion allows us to create DVDs for TV viewing and also produce great MOVs for computer screen viewing. You have to realise what your end product is and what the end user will be viewing it on.

 

We do our editing in premeire also.

 

Now if you render all of you files out of your 3D program at PAL or in your case NTSC resoultions and do your composting in in those formats.

For Me

Thats 720x576 with a pixel aspect of 1.067 for 4:3

or 720x576 with a pixel aspect of 1.422 for 16:9

 

Premiere will read these files these png file sequences and play therm back real time.

Internally premeire has two ways of playing back your file sequences Video for windows (for when you not doing standard PAL/NTSC or DV playback)

 

DV play back is really quick and real time (sort of) this is what you have been using which is a joy for those TV or DVD products Generally though there no good for viewing those out puts on computers etc.

 

 

We do everything progressive, rarley do we interlace anything. And we have the CANON XL2 which shoots 16:9 progressive And when we do HD it is HD CAM 1920x1080 progressive

 

ALL OF THE ABOVE IS SQUARE PIXELS.

 

We never Render out or Max, Combustion or AE to Files like MOVs or AVIs then take those into our edit suite

 

We only edit with sequnces of frames. And out put uncompressed AVI whic get transcoded for DVD or we soreneson squeeze to make MOVs, WMVs etc for computer viewing.

 

It all depends of the deliverables.

 

 

If you are editing with footage like we do that is 1024x576 square pixels and using premieres Video for windows playback you will notice you cannot edit or play back files comfortabley as it is all to much.

 

And when you editing you need to be able to scrub etc to make decisions.

 

My advice to sum up is render frames sequnces to avoid recompressing and to make sure you r woking with the highest quality you can.

 

Network render you frames from AE or combustion and use those to make you final out put

 

And most importantly and something i have not mentioned is look in to using EDLs in premiere

 

Thess will allow you to make an entire edit with "proxy footage" low quality footage and allow you to use the DV-playback (the quick one ) in the edit and once your done you export the EDL and use that to call back the high quality frame in a new edit composition for your final out put

 

I know this repy is all over the place but there are a few nuggets of gold in there some where. Its hard replying in depth and also working on 3 projects and numerous edits all at the same time

 

Hope it helped

 

Cheers

 

Mike