best way to shot slow motion.

W

watson

Well-known member
okay i searched for this topic but didnt find anything (i must have done somethign wrong). but here is my question. If i plan on shooting knowing that i want to slow down the shot later, what is the best way to shot it if i'm editing a 24p project in a 29.97 timeline? what about if i'm editing in a 24fps timeline?

from what i remeber 24p is hard to slow down so is it better to shot in 30p or 60i? any help would be great.

ps- sorry if this question was asked a million times
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

For 24p timeline, shoot 60i with shutter set to 120 and slow it down in your NLE to 40%

Not sure what the formula is for a 29.97 timeline though...
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

In a 29.97 timeline, slow down by 50%.

If you only want mild slow motion, shoot 30P and play it back at 80% speed on a 24P timeline.
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

berry -thanks, so in a 29.97 you would shot 60i and slow it down by 50, or 24p?

disjecta - thanks that makes sense, i didnt even take shutter speeds into consideration. thanks again
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

In a 29.97 timeline, you must not try to slow down 24P footage, it would look horrible (because of the pulldown). You'd use 60i and play it back at 50% speed for quality slow-mo.
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

How do plug-ins like Retimer and Twixtor fit into this slow motion scenario?

If either one is used, what implications will that have relative to shooting ... the timeline ... and other technical issues?

Also, any opinions on which of the two plug-ins (Twixtor or Retimer) is better?
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

Some people swear by them. I've seen amazing results by Stephen Van Vuuren using (I think) Twixtor.

I've tried them repeatedly, and can never get satisfactory results. In my experience they behave unpredictably, sometimes creating very odd artifacts in the video.
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

Thanks for the insight, Barry.

Does that mean you won't be buying stocks in either one of these plug-ins?

Btw, what is the nature of these artifacts and are they a pain to clean up?
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

In my experience the plug-ins seem to rely on motion prediction, and sometimes they just predict WRONG, so objects leap around the screen or tear vertically or some other glaring error. I tried a few different times, and couldn't get satisfactory results, but some people swear by 'em, so I guess I just don't know how to use 'em. If anybody has a foolproof formula, I might take a look at it again, but as of right now I'm not convinced.
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

You can download a trial version of Twixtor and give it a try. I've had similair experience as Barry with Twixtor but I've had good results too.
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

If I shoot a scene at 60i and a shutter of 120 and then slow mo it in the edit, do I also need to adjust my other camera setting to match footage shot at 24p?
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

OK.  Just tried an experiment here.  I shot a bit in 24pa, then exported the individual frames as PNGs.

Then copied & renamed the images*, doubling (and trippling) the number of frames.

Ex: Image_000a.png, Image_000b.png...Image_366a.png, Image_366b.png

Then I sewed them back together as an AVI and dropped them on my 24 fps Vegas timeline.

Here's the result:  http://www.changedcrocodile.com/Films/SloMo.wmv

If your slomo sequence is short, or you're very patient, this might be a way to go.

Nice thing is, you can decide after-the-fact to slow something down.  No need to change camera settings or anything.

Dan

*pain in the butt, actually.  Commandline time  :)  ren image_*.png image_*a.png sort of works.
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

[quote author=GenJerDan link=board=Events;num=1100024635;start=0#12 date=11/23/04 at 16:57:17]OK. Just tried an experiment here. I shot a bit in 24pa, then exported the individual frames as PNGs.[/quote]

I think also shows that you can't juggle! :D
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

Great footage...that really proves it can be done and excellent way to double/tripple the frames.

So if i'm shooting in 25p normally at a shutter speed of 50 right? - then I should set the shutter speed at 100 to do slow-mo?
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

Wait a minute, let me get this straight GenJerDan, you actually hand renamed all the frames? that sounds like a lot of work, and I feel like a dog for telling you this, but it can be done exactly the same way within vegas :-/. Just use a velocity envelope and set it it 75% or 50%, then just right click on the video event and click on the properties tab. Then just check the box that says "disable resample" and viola, you have doubled and trippled frames. Sorry you had to go through all that work.
There is a big difference, however between the smoothness of 60i slowed down 50% and 24P slowed down 50%. Truthfully I would rather work with 60i as slowmo as it gives a much smoother and less (tv movie of the week) look to it.
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

Well, I don't have a life, so doing it the hard way isn't so bad. :)

Renaming wasn't difficult, anyway. Just used the DOS ren command and it renamed them all at once.

The difficult part was resisting the temptation to mess with the individual frames in PaintShop. ;D
 
Re: best way to shot slow motion.

Hello Barry,

I'm a little confused.

If I'm shooting my whole movie in 24P and then I want a section to be in slo mo, won't suddenly shooting at 30P for that make things inconsistent? Won't I lose my 24P film look by shooting at 30P?

Thanks.

Joseph Kell
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top