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View Full Version : Achieving a very CRISP picture AVID + AFTEREFFECTS + QUICKTIME

nabsteryo
03-22-2005, 02:20 PM
Hello all,
I am partner in a small post production house, and some times we recieve rushes from various bigger post houses. When we watch them, the picture seems much CLEANER and CRISPER than ours. The colors are very vibrant and clean.
I am worried that I might be loosing quality while EXPORTING from our AVID ADRENALINE suite...we work as follows:...

-EDIT on the AVID ADRENALINE
-DO an ONLINE
-EXPORT from AVID ADRENALINE as quicktime NONE
-IMPORT the files on After effects,
-DO the graphics effects
-RENDER as quicktime NONE compressed
-RE-IMPORT into AVID,
-DUMP to DIGI BETA TAPE

(our cabling is good)

when ever we do this i feel that whenever we save as quicktime we:
-loose the exact colors
-the picture seems a bit grainy and dull

why?
I know that on inferno, they digitize directly on to the inferno, hence loosing the whole quicktime import export etc. is that how they get that amazing crispness?

and now the biggest question of it all!!!
if shake was used in lord of the rings, how did they get the shots that they need to work on?? was it done this way?? AVID -> EXPORT QT -> IMPORT into shake -> do effects -> EXPORT QUICKTIME -> IMPORT AVID???

anybody know of any good courses that teach how to work properly in a postproduction environment?

milllllllliiiooon thaaaaaanks!
beaker
03-23-2005, 09:08 AM
It sounds like your comparing material that is shot on film with material that is shot on beta/digibeta or telecine from film to beta/digibeta. Most of the big houses work with film and get it scanned and recieve cineon files, skipping the generation loss that occurs from going through a tape format that is interlaced.

Super35 is 2048x1556, so when you work at that resolution and then downrez it to ntsc or pal at the end of your pipeline, the effects are much higher quality. Actually even getting cineons and resizing them yourself rather than telecine and then capture is higher quality.
beaker
03-23-2005, 09:11 AM
I forgot to add another thing. When you get cineons from the scan, they are 10 bit logrithmic files which expand out to 32 bit linear. That is much more color information then the 8-10 bit linear files you are getting from the original digi beta.
nabsteryo
03-23-2005, 10:52 AM
does shake import cineon files?

how can we work on cineon files on desktop programmes or do we have to invest into our own telecine machines and inferno`s etc...?
thanks, i`m starting to understand now :)
beaker
03-23-2005, 10:59 AM
does shake import cineon files?Most compositors do: Shake, AE, Combustion, Digital Fusion, etc...
nabsteryo
03-23-2005, 11:38 AM
so once the director has done his edit on the adrenaline we have to ask the folks over at the telecine house to send us the files in cineon format, we supply them with the edls for the shots that we want?

do all telecine machines support this?
even the older ones like URSA gold?

...and one more last question.. thanks a lot really...anyway..
when doing tv graphics straight from the computer in say after effects or combustion, do you usually send files to the avid, oversized (cineon size, and let avid resize them) or just normal PAL 720 x 576 d1/dv pixel quicktimes...
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03-23-2005, 11:38 AM
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