Always Grainy and Blurry

FilmMagic

FilmMagic

Active member
Hey guys,
I've imported some of my XL2 footage into AE and have done some motion tracking with it. It seems to be fine in AE but every time I export the video, it's a little grainy and it even has a litte blurriness to it. I put it in Vegas to add it with some other footage and then I burned it to a DVD in Encore. The outcome was rather disappointing. The footage that's just edited in Vegas looks like a store bought DVD compared the AE footage. The footage is 24p so the export/make movie settings should agree with that. Any help would really be appreciated. If I can help by putting grabs or video somewhere online, let me know. Thanks in advance.


EDIT: I'm sorry I didn't explain what kind of help I'm looking for. If anyone has suggestions on import/export/make movie settings, that would we great. On my site www.blsmagic.com/random.html , the Hp Second Try is done in AE and it has the same problem. The clip is compressed down to about 4MB though, so it's bound to look grainy.
 
Surf,
No I know it's motion tracks fault. A friend of mine told me to do "make movie" instead of export. However I tried them both and it always looks the same except for when I do a "text project."
The export settings I tried using almost every AVI setting including 24 frames, progressive, and no compression at all.
I got the best setting out of Quicktime movie and it was H.264 compression, 24fps, and full quality. It was still a bit grainy.
I rarely do anything with video in AE but when I do, it would be nice if it was good quality. Thanks for your help surf.
 
If you want the best quaility make movie with Animation codec set to best quality.
H.264 compresses.
Make sure if you're viewing in QT player you go into the settings and set it to display high quality. By default the player shows DV at low res so it can playback in real time.
Make sure to set all layers to best quality in AE.
When motion tracking you should make sure to set to best quality anyway or the trackign may not be good.
 
Surf,
It's grainy and blury when I export video without doing a thing to it. It almost appears to be grainy and blury in AE itself even though settings are set to highest quality.

Scott,
Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately it didn't work. Let me make sure I did it right. I did Make Movie (Quicktime.) The only place I saw Animation was in the Compresseor. I used that and it still came out the same way.

Here's something else I noticed. The video is also a bit darker than the original footage. The footage is 24p so I'm wondering if there's a special way to handle that? I have the timecode base to 24fps and the Comp Settings frame rate at 24 as well. I made all of my export settings 24 frames and progressive any time I could. I can't export 24p at anything interlaced without it being really choppy. Correct me on anything. Please write back if you think I'm worth the cause. Thanks guys.
 
Yes, set the output module to render animation, millions, max quality.
I don't deal with the XL2. Is it true 24fps or 23.98 (like DVX and any other video camera in 24 mode)
Did you already remove the pulldown in Vegas? (sounds like it)
The first post you said it liked fine in AE, just not after saving. Last post seems to imply that it looks bad even when in AE. Compare the rendered movie with the clip loaded in AE. Are they the same or different.
Compare the orginal clip in Vegas next to your reendered clip.
 
Depending on the length of the clip, I wold export if from vegas with no compression at all. Open it in After Effects, make changes, and again render uncompressed. YOu will have some truly huge files, but sometimes that is necessary. I know some people will call a DV or other codec as "uncompressed" but they actually are not. THey do pick up compression artifacts after as few as two encodings. I have specifically tested this with the Microsoft DV codec, and at three "clean" decodes and encodes, artifacts begin to appear, usually subtle verticle lines, depenging on movement.

Haven't worked with the H.264 compressor for multiple rencodes, and it may be that it fares better. Personally though, if the clip is short enough, I do the entire thing uncompressed.
 
Scott,
I searched the internet and found that the XL2 is 23.976 like all the other 24p cameras. When I import clips in AE, I do it directly after I capture in Vegas. I don't do any exporting from there so the 2:3 pulldown should still be lingering in the clip.
My saying that the footage didn't look all that great in AE was something that I noticed after what I said in the first post. Sorry to be contradicting myself. The footage doesn't look up to par in AE to begin with.
I'm guessing you use the DVX so if I may ask, what is your Timecode Base in the Comp Settings when you import 24p? Export settings? Thanks. Just Curious.

Rapier,
I have noticed as well that after a few uncompressed renders, "uncompressed" doesn't really live up to it's definition. I appreciate the advice and although I did what you suggested, still didn't work. I didn't download my AE :) so my best guess is, I'm only good at getting into the program and working but I'm horrible at getting out of it. I'm hoping this will soon be behind me. Thanks for the advice.

Here is a clip of the same footage played twice. The first one is just in Vegas and the second one is in AE and unfortunately it's obvious. This is generally what's going on no matter what I do. http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2HJU5JLCMZU751JXCZJYF0FHPF Let me know if you get anything out of this, "heads or tales".

Before anything else, let me say "Thanks!!!" to everyone for all your help. I really appreciate everything.
 
If you didn't have Vegas remove the pulldown then you need to remove the pulldown in AE if you want to work with it at 23.976 fps
Select the clip in the AE bin. Go to File -> Interpret footage. Click on guess 2:3 pulldown.
Create the comp for 23.976
Make sure comp size is set same as the clip.

Just watched the video.
You're definetly doing something odd. The quality should be identical.
Double check best quality, no compression, same size, same fps, etc.
Uncompressed is uncompressed. There will be no quality loss for any 'lossless' format. Somewhere in your process you're doing some type of processing (changing size, changing to low quaility codec, etc)
 
Scott,
I couldn't agree with you more; it should be the same quality. I'll go remove the pulldown and let you know how that comes out. Thanks again.
 
Scott!
You seriously rock! Somehow, it was all in getting the right frame rate/timecode. The footage looks wonderfuland uncompressed. The only thing is that the footage plays in slow motion but I'm guessing that's normal? In any event, the quality IS normal. Thank you so much!!!

~Bryan
 
It should play normal speed when rendered (assumign comp is set to 29.976)
It may not play in real time on your machine when viewing the comp window.
Briing it into Vegas and check it in context.
 
Oh, should it be rendered at 29.976? I assumed that if it came in at 23.976, it should leave at 23.976. I will try it now......Ahh! It works. Thank you so much. You've really been a big help and I really appreciate it.
 
Sorry, typo on my part. If you're doing pulldown removal on 24p footage then comp shoudl be 23.976.
AE also has an advanced pulldown option these days.
It's unfortunate that AE doesn't signal when it's having to adjust things such as FCP does with the render lines. Tah tway you know when things are matching or not.
You say 29.97 is looking ok but I'd render that and then change the comp to 23.976 and compare the end results.
 
Sorry, I had a typo as well. The comp settings were 23.976 and I had the export settings to do "comps frame rate." The only thing that was 29.97 was in the "Interpret Footage" because it said under frame rate "conform to" and it was set to 29.97. It was so much easier in the days with my Sony Digital 8 and Pinnacle Studio. :)
 
I said that it is going to be the export settings...
but I couldn't help in that because I use PAL 25
 
ok I think I've lost you. you have to set the aspect ratio & frame rate in the export and copmposite settings, haven't you?
 
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