After Effects CS3 pulldown removal automation

[DaFireMedic]

I have a question regarding removing the pulldown in After Effects. I capture in HDVSplit, import into After Effects, and click Interpret/Main/Guess 3:2 Pulldown. I then create a new composition that is 1440 x 1080 with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.33 and a framerate of 23.976.

The problem is that the video is now squished width-wise. I remember reading somewhere about the video needing to be 1920 x 1080 to be seen properly but that involves stretching the video files to fit the composition, resulting in a loss of quality. I know I'm probably missing something simple, but I'm at a loss where to go from here. I just want to edit the footage in After Effects while seeing it the same way it is supposed to look. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Normally, you would just keep it 1440x1080 (HDV resolution) until the final render, then render it at the resolution that you want your final video to be. I know it doesn't look normal, but it shouldn't hurt anything either. You could also proxy edit in AE, if you really want it to look correct in the display window while you work with the file.

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial...workflow_tips/

[Frank]

The problem is that the video is now squished width-wise. I remember reading somewhere about the video needing to be 1920 x 1080 to be seen properly but that involves stretching the video files to fit the composition, resulting in a loss of quality. I know I'm probably missing something simple, but I'm at a loss where to go from here. I just want to edit the footage in After Effects while seeing it the same way it is supposed to look. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

From Adobe Help:
"To preview non-square pixels on a computer monitor, click the Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction button at the bottom of the Composition panel."

[wkalkhof]

I am assuming this thread is for those who have After Effects CS3, but do NOT have Premiere CS3. Is that correct?

Because if you want to remove pulldown in Premiere, my experience is that it is quite simple, assuming you recorded your video using the HV20/30's HDV24 mode. Here's what you do:

Step 1: Start a new HDV 1080p24 project.

Done.

When I export to H.264 format (for web delivery), I see no interlacing artifacts whatsoever.

FYI, when I go to Project-->Project Settings-->General-->Playback settings..., it indicates that Premiere is using an "interlaced frame (2:3:3:2)" 24p conversion method. That seems to be the default. You have the option to change it to "Repeat Frame (ABBCD)."

Is this method not sufficient for some reason? It looks great to me.

If you have Premiere CS3, this seems lots easier than going through so many steps, such as those outlined in the famous "Eugenia's" article.

[Frank]

wkalkhof,

That has been tried before; it doesn't work.

The reason: The pulldown cadence differs for different HV20 clips. Your NLE needs to know the cadence in order to throw away the correct fields; otherwise you will see interlacing (unless you are REALLY REALLY lucky).
After Effects has a feature which looks at the clip and "guesses" the cadence, based on field motion analysis. Premiere does not have this feature.

[DaFireMedic]

I am assuming this thread is for those who have After Effects CS3, but do NOT have Premiere CS3. Is that correct?

One more clarification, this also works in AE 6.5 and AE 7.0, not just CS3. And as Frank said, Premiere will not work for this.

[wkalkhof]

One more clarification, this also works in AE 6.5 and AE 7.0, not just CS3. And as Frank said, Premiere will not work for this.

Thanks to you and Frank for the clarification. Indeed, I must have gotten really lucky. I tried this with two clips, and it seemed to work well in both instances.

The reason I tried this was because I had become annoyed with the procedure for removing pulldown in AE and then exporting for editing in Premiere. The clips look fine UNrendered in the editing window/monitor in Premiere, but as soon as I add them to a sequence and they undergo rendering in Premiere (whether you import files rendered from AE or export them directly to Premiere), their size shrinks in the editing window. I've tried different composition settings in AE, but the clips always "shrink" in size in the editing window. I'm not sure if this is having negative consequences for what I export from Premiere (it doesn't appear to), but I'd like to see what I'm editing.

[Frank]

If you have the same version of PPRO and AE, you might be able to import the PPRO project into AE after it is edited and remove pulldown as your last step, instead of your first.
Go to File / Import / Import PPRO project (or words to that effect). It will ask if you want the audio or not (I say no because I handle audio through a separate workflow).
The only downside is:
PPRO titles will not import. You will end up with placeholders which must be replaced with AE titles.
Also, fades (opacity changes) will not import. They must be recreated in AE.
Other transforms such as scaling appear to translate correctly.
The process is described in this thread:
http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=14476

[Frank]

Actually, I need to amend my previous post: PPRO opacity changes DO import correctly, as long as you set them manually, instead of using the preset transition effects.

[zzddevilzz]

hey im such a noob hyou cant even belive what does this do whats a pulldown thanks!

MAH VIDS AT www.youtube.com/zzddevilzz

[khaga]

hey all... I am just now trying the AE3 to PP3 workflow for 3:2 pulldown removal. I created a comp in AE3, did the pulldown removal, dragged it into a 24p timeline in PP3 - beautiful!! Video is perfect...

but I got no audio for some reason when I playback in the PP3 timeline... there is an audio track associated with the Comp but there is no visible wave info in the audio clip - properties of the Comp in PP3 say (1440 x 1080, 23.976 fps, 48000 Hz - 32-bit Float - Stereo).

I am new to AE3, but very experienced with PP3, so this I'm not sure where the problemo is... I tried rendering the timeline in PP3, but no change on the audio.

Any suggestions? I'm assuming based on the comments in this thread that I should have audio and be able to edit it, using the flowing of bringing AE3 comps into PP3...

Also, when I add a portion of the clip to the timeline from the source monitor, the timeline clip has a pink hue over it - never seen this... video plays beautifully and is correct, but again - no audio.

Thank you for any help!

[khaga]

Also, when I add a portion of the clip to the timeline from the source monitor, the timeline clip has a pink hue over it - never seen this...

Nevermind on the "pink" comment - figured out that the coloring of the clip on the PP3 timeline just indicates its being referenced through Dynamic Link.

Other info - I can play the audio for the Composition in AE3 (RAM preview), so the audio is there... I also did the 3:2 pulldown removal manually (not the script referenced in this thread), since I have 1 clip. The "Guess 3:2 pulldown" worked fine and the video looks perfect in PP3.

I can also Render the composition from AE3 (just did 1 minute) and import the AVI (Lagarith lossless) into PP3 24p and everything is fine with the audio - I get the Wave (Peak) info in the timeline. However, I don't want to use this approach because of the file sizes - I have 4 - 60 minute files being used to edit down and I need the contiguous timecode info for editing (notes from client...).

I just don't know why the audio isn't coming over through the Dynamic Link... I've read this thread 5 times and it seems like it should be working... I notice that a Peak file is not being created for the imported compositions.

help!

Thank you

[soliton]

I figured out how to remove pulldown without any intermediate files.

1. Capture footage into individual clips, (e.g., with HDVSplit)

2. Import all those clips into a new After Effects project.

3. Use homomech's script to "Guess Pulldown" on each clip. (Thanks homomech!)

4. Create a new composition for each clip, so that only one clip resides in each composition. (Maybe someone could create a script to do this too?)

5. Save and Close.

6. Create a new HDV 24p Project in Premiere Pro.

7. Open the After Effects Project in Premiere Pro, and import each Composition as an individual clip.

8. Edit away, with precise frame accuracy. And export directly from Premiere.

Thanks! I tried this and it worked without a hitch until I tried to render from Premiere. No matter what my render settings, rendering with the AE composition resulted in sound with no video. To rule out any problems with my render settings in Premiere, I rendered AE composition (in AE) to a small .mov file, put it into the same Premiere project, and it rendered out just fine.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I'm a noob concerning all matters video, so there may be something very basic that I'm missing.

[BMXDIVR25]

Hi, i had a few issues/questions about this process. Everything seems to work fine, but i keep running into one issue or another.

1) In After Effects, in the "render queue" page, under "output module" im not sure what to specify. There's "comp name" "comp and project" and a couple others. What i did, was create a separate folder on my desktop and called it "processed AE clips" and designated the 24p pulldown clips to go there was they're done rendering, and then import into Premiere from out of this folder. It seems to work ok, but not sure if this is the most effective idea.

2) Within the aforementioned desktop folder, which is the destination of the rendered AE clips, each clip, even if its only a few seconds in length, is HUGE!! A 38 second clip was 6.1 gigs! What happened!?

3) Even after following the process step-by-step, and importing the newly processed 24p clips into Premiere, NONE of the clips have audio. Please help.

4) Lets pretend everything has gone perfectly fine all the way through editing, now im ready to export, what would you suggest is the most appropriate export settings?
I set it as a quicktime, using MPEG-4 video, 1280x720, framerate @ 23.976, no fields (progressive scan), and maximum bit depth. However, once i go to watch the newly created quicktime video, it seems to play perfectly smooth, but then if within the footage itself, there is a cut, the footage is now saturated with horizontal lines. All the interlaced lines are now visible.

I really appreciate your help, the forum has been a great tool and resource so far, but i need just a bit more detailed info. -thanks

[JD_Roland]

I have a Canon HV20, and I use an Intel-Based MacBook Pro Core Duo.

I tried this method, but After Effects crashes while trying to render the file. It crashed three times, and was successful on the fourth. However, the quicktime file looked horrible (and not just the incorrect aspect ratio), it had interlacing problems, etc.

I could be doing something wrong, but to me: 24p is more hassle than it's worth. I suppose if you get a camera that shoots it native, then you won't have this problem. Oh well, it was worth a shot.