CS5 - out of my depth!

T

the doc

Well-known member
Search function on the forum is crap - I can't seem to find a way to search only in the GH1 section?

My problem is that I have my shiny new CS5 installed on my shiny new PC. Loving the mercury playback engine - everything is working fast and no crashes - yeah!

But - this whole timeline business is doing my head in. Can someone make it easy for me and just tell me what to do?

I am in pal land - so shooting 25fps 1080 and 50fps 720. What sequence should I drop these files into? Can I just use one sequence or do I need to use seperate sequences then join them together?

I have read a lot of people talking about dropping 720p footage into a 1080 timeline for slow mo - does that happen automatically? When I tried that here it seemed to play just normally.

I have ordered the cs5 'classroom in a book' - quite resentful that adobe charge you for a flippin instruction manual when it comes with no documentation at all... but they have me over a barrel I guess.
 
Well - I have the production suite so have both.

It is premiere that i am trying to grapple with just now.... will no doubt have to pay adobe for another instruction manual when I get to that! Grrrr.
 
the doc said:
Search function on the forum is crap - I can't seem to find a way to search only in the GH1 section?

My problem is that I have my shiny new CS5 installed on my shiny new PC. Loving the mercury playback engine - everything is working fast and no crashes - yeah!

But - this whole timeline business is doing my head in. Can someone make it easy for me and just tell me what to do?

I am in pal land - so shooting 25fps 1080 and 50fps 720. What sequence should I drop these files into? Can I just use one sequence or do I need to use seperate sequences then join them together?

I have read a lot of people talking about dropping 720p footage into a 1080 timeline for slow mo - does that happen automatically? When I tried that here it seemed to play just normally.

I have ordered the cs5 'classroom in a book' - quite resentful that adobe charge you for a flippin instruction manual when it comes with no documentation at all... but they have me over a barrel I guess.
Click to expand...

Have you used any NLE... you create sequences, then drop clips into the sequneces... double click the clips in the project window, and they open up in the source window, set the in and out points, that is
move the play head to where you want the 'in' point, press the 'i' key, move the playhead to later set the outpoint with the key 'o'... drag the clip with in and out point set into the sequence time line.

Repeat until film is done... well, perhaps more than that...

When you create a sequence CS5 Premiere Pro will as what 'format', select a format that is 'close' to your camera's, or if you have somehow managed to transcode to an intermediate format, chose a format
that is close to that...

There is a PDF of the 'help' file which is the manual for the product.

The Classroom in a Book series is more than 'just a manual'... but they are not necessarily the best thing for someone who has no knowledge of the product... they are more for those who are looking to
do the Adobe certified programs.
 
Thanks clark - but yeah I know in general how to use an NLE - been using them for years.. just 'amateur' versions. My specific questions were relating to how these sequences work / so many options! See my original post for what I want to know.

I have looked at the help files... but thats what they look like - help files. Npt that useful when you are starting from scratch.

Hope I havent wasted cash on the classroom in a book. I did ask in the CS5 forum what a good book would be - and no fecker took the time to reply. :)
 
If you tell us what kind of camera you're using, we can probably tell you what kind of sequence presets you should be using.

To get your slow motion footage working, right click on the clip in the bin (top left) and select 'Interpret Footage...' Set the frame rate to 25 fps. This will tell the software that the clip is not 50p but 25p so when it goes to play it back, it will be half as fast as it was. If you're doing this in a 1080p sequence, you'll have to right click on the clip on the timeline and select 'Scale to Frame Size' to make it fit the 1080p window.
 
the doc said:
Thanks clark - but yeah I know in general how to use an NLE - been using them for years.. just 'amateur' versions. My specific questions were relating to how these sequences work / so many options! See my original post for what I want to know.

I have looked at the help files... but thats what they look like - help files. Npt that useful when you are starting from scratch.

Hope I havent wasted cash on the classroom in a book. I did ask in the CS5 forum what a good book would be - and no fecker took the time to reply. :)
Click to expand...


Well there are on-line resources for learning.

www.Lynda.com -- I've not used this site too much, but it is frequently mentioned in the same breath as 'what sites have tutorials'...
www.creativecow.net -- I've used this a lot for After Effects and when I was using Final Cut Express. I sort of 'picked' up Premiere by applying FC
understanding to go through the manual when I needed something.
http://www.videocopilot.net/ -- for After Effects tutorials.

There are also some tutorials on youtube as well.
 
the doc said:
Search function on the forum is crap - I can't seem to find a way to search only in the GH1 section?
Click to expand...

No it's not. Just go into the gh1 forum from the main menu and then enter what you want in the "forum search". This will filter out all the other forums. Just tested it and it worked fine.

Create an AVCHD 25P 1920 X 1080 project. Import your footage. The 1080P files will be fine, but your 720P footage will be small - just select the footage, right click and select "scale to comp size". It will be scaled up to 1080.

The beauty about Premiere CS5 is it can play all different file sizes and frame rates together easily.

Watch these tutorials and stop your bitchin':happy::

http://vimeo.com/11369451

http://vimeo.com/13764135
 
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LOL OK - thanks re the sequence tips.

I may be dense but I still can't get the search to work - I see no "forum search" option. Just search... and advanced search. I tried ticking the forum box if that is what you mean - but didn't help.

If you try and do a search for GH1 and CS5 the search engine says the words are to common and refuses to list any pages :)

Will look at the vimeo vids cheers.

Lynda.com has good stuff - I have watched a few of them on adobe TV - but if you want to see them all you need to pay.

I still maintain that supplying a basic quick start guide with software that costs so much money is pretty mandatory. Is that controversial?
 
hey doc

i import the RAW MTS files directly into prem/after effects and drag and drop onto these timelines...

when shooting FHD - AVCHD 25p 1080p timeline

when shooting SH - AVCHD 25p 720p timeline


creating the over cranked slow motion with 50fps footage...
(if you drag 50fps clip into the timeline it will play normal speed)

when you import a clip you are going to slow down, import it and right click on it when its in the top left window (the one with all your clips) and select... "modify/interpret footage"

a window pops up where you can change the frame rates, you will see it say 50.0000 (this is the frame rate or the footage you right clicked)
below that it says "assume new frame rate" click that and enter 25 (just below you will see the current length of the clip, when you enter 25fps ul see the length double) then click ok.

now when you drag that clip onto your 25p timeline ul see it plays back at half the speed, true over cranked slow motion.

im still not sure if the timelines i use are correct but it still seems to work :smile:

once you have footage dragged onto a timeline and it appears in the timeline playback window (the one on the right of the screen, the left playback window is the preview window where you can set in and out points from the original clip so you can take the parts you want from a single clip.)

you can right click the clip in the timeline and it gives you some good options, eg: if uve got a 1080 timeline and drag 720 footage onto it you can right click and select "scale to fit window" to upscale it to 1080.

hope this helps a bit, i find adobe a treat to use once you figure out its logic, don't give up cause it will come and when it does ul love it.
 
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Thanks terra that is a really good wee overview there.

One thing springs to mind - I already found the upscale option. What benefit is there in mixing different timelines? Why not just just use 25p 1080 all the time for both types of footage and upscale the 720 stuff as needed? Is there any advantage of using the 25p 720 sequence for 720p footage?
 
good point doc i hadn't thought about that, id guess that it could be something to do with the final output of your project... dvd, web, cinema, sorta thing. thats purely a guess tho.

i prefer to shoot in 720 so i always have the slow motion option and i also find 720 a more pleasing look and motion. altho i've been liking 1080 more than i had.

just had a second thought regarding the 720p timeline... if the GH1 didn't shoot 1080 id not want to be forced to upscale all my footage just to edit it.

id want a 720 option to match the native cameras max resolution, could be just as simple as providing for as many different camera resolutions/users as possible. :smile:
 
Cool - just tried the 25fps thing... very nice.

Is it just me or does that look better than just using the speed slider to slow things down? If so why is that exactly?
 
yeah the over cranked footage works great slow-motion :smile:

yeah it will look better as its "real slow-motion" (1 second of 50fps stretched to 2 seconds and you still have 25frames per 1 second)

where as "fake slow motion" il call it (1 second of 25fps stretched to 2 seconds and you half the frames per second, i think that CS5 creates doubled frames to make up for it and thats why it doesn't look as good.)

i think thats how it works, theres a frame blending option too that might make the "fake" way look a bit better too :smile:
 
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