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I produce animations that are edited in Edius as HQ files. I have been running into a couple of situations that make me think I am not doing something correctly in my process.
First let me describe the process:
1. I render frames from my 3D animation app to a particular bitmap format such as 24bit RGB TGAs. These are rendered as frames, not fields. I am fully aware of the differences and rendered to fields for many years but changed to full frames with motion blur applied instead a while back because it simplifies the process. (Wouldn't these full frames be considered progressive?).
2. These frames are not finished because they are just components of finished frames. They have to be comped together using a compositor such as After Effects or Combustion, etc. So I might have 10000 frames showing an airport runway and then 10000 frames of an aircraft only and these are composited together to form the finished TGA frames which show an aircraft on the runway. In Combustion, I can set it to process frames, upper or lower fields. I set it to frames since I render to frames.
3. These finished frames are then assembled into a single HQ AVI file using one of several apps.
(I could and would use a Grass Valley app for this assembly such as my Procoder3 or Edius but frankly they are inadequate at this function compared to other apps which I have expressed before. I have and still encourage Grass Valley to improve their products as used by animators - such as give me a timeline that shows more than just timecode on the timeline but also can show 'frames' and when I tell you to encode 10000 frames into an HQ, do it now instead of thinking about it for 15 minutes before you start work... these kinds of things. I don't have time to waste).
So anyway... I use another app to assemble the frames into HQs and for this discussion, the app I use currently is Combustion.
4. The HQs are then edited in Edius and then WMVs or MPEG2s for DVDs are produced for final playback.
My first questions revolve around assembling the frames into HQs. In Combustion, I can set that the comp is processed on frames, upper field, or lower field. I choose frames since my animation frames were rendered with no fields.
1. Is this the correct setting when assembling the HQ file?
In most cases, the resulting HQ looks fine. But I recently have had some situations where I question if something is wrong. For example, I have an animation where the aircraft is on the runway and it starts from a stop on the left side of the screen and then starts rolling and goes off the right side of the screen. The camera is locked down so the background is static and only the aircraft moves. As the plane is moving at it's fastest as it nears the right side of the screen, I can see the aircraft looks like it has fields problems. I can see the fields. (I have been doing this so long that I can see fields and sometimes this causes me problems because I can see them and think something is wrong when others, such as my wife, can't see what I'm talking about). Anyway, it appears there is some fields problem. If I pause the Edius playback, the fields problem disappears and the image is a nice still frame with no fields showing. I have tried setting the properties of the clip to bottom field or progressive but it doesn't make the aircraft move without fields showing. (Isn't there a setting in Edius for what to show when paused... frames or fields? I can't find it anymore).
(During the Combustion HQ assembly, I tried setting it to process Upper fields instead of Frames but the result was still the same... I could see the fields of the aircraft as it moved across the screen).
2. HQ color considerations. The animation frames are RGB files. When the HQ is created, it's YUV isn't it? If so, then I have a YUV edit in Edius.
So then when I go to output from the edit the finished WMV or MPEG2 files via Procoder3, is there a particular color correction that should always be used when going from HQs to these formats for maximum quality?
Thanks!
First let me describe the process:
1. I render frames from my 3D animation app to a particular bitmap format such as 24bit RGB TGAs. These are rendered as frames, not fields. I am fully aware of the differences and rendered to fields for many years but changed to full frames with motion blur applied instead a while back because it simplifies the process. (Wouldn't these full frames be considered progressive?).
2. These frames are not finished because they are just components of finished frames. They have to be comped together using a compositor such as After Effects or Combustion, etc. So I might have 10000 frames showing an airport runway and then 10000 frames of an aircraft only and these are composited together to form the finished TGA frames which show an aircraft on the runway. In Combustion, I can set it to process frames, upper or lower fields. I set it to frames since I render to frames.
3. These finished frames are then assembled into a single HQ AVI file using one of several apps.
(I could and would use a Grass Valley app for this assembly such as my Procoder3 or Edius but frankly they are inadequate at this function compared to other apps which I have expressed before. I have and still encourage Grass Valley to improve their products as used by animators - such as give me a timeline that shows more than just timecode on the timeline but also can show 'frames' and when I tell you to encode 10000 frames into an HQ, do it now instead of thinking about it for 15 minutes before you start work... these kinds of things. I don't have time to waste).
So anyway... I use another app to assemble the frames into HQs and for this discussion, the app I use currently is Combustion.
4. The HQs are then edited in Edius and then WMVs or MPEG2s for DVDs are produced for final playback.
My first questions revolve around assembling the frames into HQs. In Combustion, I can set that the comp is processed on frames, upper field, or lower field. I choose frames since my animation frames were rendered with no fields.
1. Is this the correct setting when assembling the HQ file?
In most cases, the resulting HQ looks fine. But I recently have had some situations where I question if something is wrong. For example, I have an animation where the aircraft is on the runway and it starts from a stop on the left side of the screen and then starts rolling and goes off the right side of the screen. The camera is locked down so the background is static and only the aircraft moves. As the plane is moving at it's fastest as it nears the right side of the screen, I can see the aircraft looks like it has fields problems. I can see the fields. (I have been doing this so long that I can see fields and sometimes this causes me problems because I can see them and think something is wrong when others, such as my wife, can't see what I'm talking about). Anyway, it appears there is some fields problem. If I pause the Edius playback, the fields problem disappears and the image is a nice still frame with no fields showing. I have tried setting the properties of the clip to bottom field or progressive but it doesn't make the aircraft move without fields showing. (Isn't there a setting in Edius for what to show when paused... frames or fields? I can't find it anymore).
(During the Combustion HQ assembly, I tried setting it to process Upper fields instead of Frames but the result was still the same... I could see the fields of the aircraft as it moved across the screen).
2. HQ color considerations. The animation frames are RGB files. When the HQ is created, it's YUV isn't it? If so, then I have a YUV edit in Edius.
So then when I go to output from the edit the finished WMV or MPEG2 files via Procoder3, is there a particular color correction that should always be used when going from HQs to these formats for maximum quality?
Thanks!
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