Editing HD footage in AFX

[scrimski]

I'd really love a solution to this
Do not use After Effects for editing. Get Avid or FCP.

[mackdadd]

i agree, AE is not a real-time program. RAM preview is just that - a preview, not a realtime player.

however, I would suggest making 1/2 or 1/4 resolution proxies. That way, you'll at least be able to load alot more up in your RAM previews. If you're not sure how to make and set a proxy, check out the help files. it's really easy.

[Skywalkerplanet]

OKay, I'll try the proxy, and I'll try avid.

is it more likely that avid will allow a real time preview?

[MrWilde]

Do not use After Effects for editing. Get Avid or FCP.
What about Adobe Premiere? Can it handle HD footage well?

[Skywalkerplanet]

I actually used to use premiere because it played real-time, even though it's considered a more "primitave" program.

I could never understand how they could possible try to pass off AFX as superiour, while premiere is the only one of the two that actually displays the product right.

Unfounded anger rises within me when I consider these things... all that time wasted...



P.S. I'm on windows... no FCP available unfortunately.

[mackdadd]

justin, i think you're a bit confused as to what these programs are designed to do. they are NOT comparable products, AE and premiere. Premiere is DESIGNED to play things at real time. AE is NOT. NOT at all, in any way shape or form. It's not something they are working on, trying to get right. If you want real time visual effects work, you need an Inferno, which I think costs in the $500,000 range. NO compositing/visual effects piece of software is designed to run footage at real time - not shake, not nuke, not fusion, not AE, not combustion, not any of them, excpet for super high-end autodesk stuff, inferno, flame, things like that.

and premiere isn't "primitive" anymore. it can do anything FCP or a desktop Avid system can.

AE is superior to premiere in it's effects capabilities. you CANNOT produce a flawless greenscreen composite in Premiere, nor can you motion track, or do 3d effects, or do countless visual effects tasks. AE however, is used on motion pictures everyday.

Here is a video of Industrial Light & Magic using After Effects to do effects for Van Helsing.
Premiere absolutely CANNOT do anything in this video.

http://www.vfxhq.com/overflow/vanhelsinginterview.mov

So, please understand that when you compare AE to premiere and expect them to do the same thing, that's like buying a cat for a pet and then wondering why it doesn't bark like the last dog you had. They are COMPLETELY different. You are never, ever going to get real time playing ability in AE like you get in premiere.

[Skywalkerplanet]

so, what your saying, is that my original theory was correct, in that I am supposed to do large scale editing of a project in Premiere, but only the FX in AFX. This makes absolute sense to me, but I'm hard pressed to convince my boss that premiere is a worthwhile program to buy. Perhaps I can use this convo to convince him further of it's worth as a periphery. Especially, since most of our effects are coming from the Maya files themselves.

You'll have to forgive my marginal ignorance, since I am a 3D animator, not usually an editor.

Considering my hardware:

2 Dual Xeon 3GHz (quad) /3G ram / GeForce7900GTX...

Should Premiere be able to handle at lease close to real time editing with 1920x1080 HD tga sequences?


THANKS SO MUCH for your help!
Justin

[mackdadd]

Should Premiere be able to handle at lease close to real time editing with 1920x1080 HD tga sequences?

i'm honestly not sure, since I've never edited HD in it. I don't see why it wouldn't, but i'm not a premiere expert.

I am supposed to do large scale editing of a project in Premiere, but only the FX in AFX

yes. and with the dynamic link between premiere and After effects, it would be super easy to jump back and forth.

check out this book:
http://rebelsguide.com/DV%20Rebel%27s%20Guide/The%20Guide.html

that book should be the only argument you need to convince your boss. Stu Maschwitz explains the perfect desktop film and video workflow pipeline in that book. It's absolutely amazing! (Stu is one of the founders of the Orphanage fx facility, and worked at ILM for years)
Also, being a Maya user, you should be aware that it's perfectly possible to import Maya cameras into after effects. :)

[beaker]

One trouble with HD is you need a raid of 4 drives ore more in order to play back 1080p. A single drive is not fast enough even with Premiere.

[mackdadd]

Deke! whats up dude!?

(i know, thats off topic...)

[scrimski]

This makes absolute sense to me, but I'm hard pressed to convince my boss that premiere is a worthwhile program to buy.
If money is the issue, then edit lowres proxies of your material in Avid FreeDV. It's the freeware version of the 'big' Avid NLE software with limited functions(that's why you need lowres proxies).
Once you are done editing render out and put the HD and FX stuff together in After Effects according to the timing(which is the only thing that matters in this approach) of the lowres edit which you can put in the background of your composition.

http://www.avid.com/products/freedv/index.asp

[Skywalkerplanet]

Mackdadd (http://forums.cgsociety.org/member.php?u=223971):
Thanks for the excellent response (and response time) to my questions, and for the ref to the book, which I may be getting soon, and the clip of afx... (more proof to show to the "budget dept" [bossman])

Combining a low res proxy (possibly a pain...) with the avid system should solve the problem.

If what your talking about, Beeker, is Raid drives... We should be getting 2 soon... that should speed up the process a bit at least.


You rock.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.