Edited it H.264 and now I'm in trouble

C

ChristianMazza

New member
I didn't realize I had to convert all my footage to ProRes before editing. So I edited at h.264 and color corrected my project.. Now when I export, it looks terrible. What can I do at this point? I've spent so much time on this and I would hate to have to start ALL OVER. Is there a solution? Any advice would be great.
 
Umm, if you edited the original H.264 and your exports are looking horrible, switching to a ProRes intermediate won't help. There's either something else wrong with your workflow or what you perceive to be "terrible" is actually what you're supposed to get.
 
Tom Shortridge said:
Not necessarily. Color correction/filters used on H.264 will apparently not hold up nearly as well as it will on ProRes or similar codec.

As for the original question, it's been discussed here: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=201710
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I didn't know that the input codec mattered. As far as the NLE, compositor is concerned, its the decoded image and project bit depth that counts, right? I should be able to feed something like After Effects both the original H.264 and its ProRes intermediate and as long as the projects have the same bit depth set, any color work or transitions should look identical.
 
From the other thread:

djkarn105 said:
When you post process the image you are effectively creating a new image. 32bit is going to have a wider gamut than 8bit so you are going to have more intermediary tones which will prevent posterizing etc.
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I'm not claiming to know exactly how it works. In my experience, I've attempted to color-correct H.264 files in FCP, and the same files converted to ProRes do hold up better.
 
Oh, and the answer to the original question of the thread:

jaydigges said:
just transcode your clips, reconnect the media in final cut. There will be an error message saying that the start and end times dont match... reconnect anyway. Should work, but the reconnecting process might be a little bit of a ***** since all the files will have different names.
Click to expand...

EDIT: Ah, just assumed that FCP was being used, due to the mention of ProRes...
 
ChristianMazza said:
I didn't realize I had to convert all my footage to ProRes before editing. So I edited at h.264 and color corrected my project.. Now when I export, it looks terrible. What can I do at this point? I've spent so much time on this and I would hate to have to start ALL OVER. Is there a solution? Any advice would be great.
Click to expand...

1. What NLE are you editing in?
2. Once the footage was edited and graded, how did you export it? Incorrect export settings can make pristine footage look awful.
 
Using a 32bit intermediate based on a 8bit source is the same as having a 32bit project with 8bit sources.
 
I edited it FCP. Footage is H.264, 720p, 59.94fps. I made all my edits, corrected with MBL and then exported at H.264, 1280x720 @ 59.94fps. The footage looks good in my canvas, but after I export, it gets really noisy.
 
Stupid question but what would be a good ProRes codec to use? I understand they differ for different frame sizes and frame rates but there's all these different bit depths and color sampling settings that I am not getting. Btw I shoot off a T2i.
 
the original files from the camera encode to prores... then go to the files in FCP... right click and relink them to the new files.
 
RODFinch said:
the original files from the camera encode to prores... then go to the files in FCP... right click and relink them to the new files.
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Ohh ok.. I understand. Before I read this though, I highlighted my clips in the timeline and am having them recompressed via the Media Manager to ProRes 422. Should I stop this process and just encode the the original footage and reconnect it? Btw, THANK YOU!
 
Are you using FCP? if so ...

the fast fix.
hilight the timeline pane and hit command 0 to bring up timeline preferences
under the quicktime compressor settings switch it to prores but don't change anything else
then press ok. A red bar will appear over all your clips. Then without anything highlighted hit command R. This will render everything on your timeline to prores and store them on your scratch. You then need to go and redo the color correction of every clip (assuming you are using fcp 3-way color corrector)

the slow fix
transcode all your media to another drive into prores but keep the same filenames. from the h264 project export an EDL (edit decisions list) then import it again on the new fcp project that uses the prores media.
 
andythefilmer said:
Stupid question but what would be a good ProRes codec to use? I understand they differ for different frame sizes and frame rates but there's all these different bit depths and color sampling settings that I am not getting. Btw I shoot off a T2i.
Click to expand...

the types of prores are
prores422
prores422HQ

then with fcp7 came additions
prores proxy
prores LT
prores 4444

the version I recommend is the first one - prores422
 
J Davis said:
Are you using FCP? if so ...

the fast fix.
hilight the timeline pane and hit command 0 to bring up timeline preferences
under the quicktime compressor settings switch it to prores but don't change anything else
then press ok. A red bar will appear over all your clips. Then without anything highlighted hit command R. This will render everything on your timeline to prores and store them on your scratch. You then need to go and redo the color correction of every clip (assuming you are using fcp 3-way color corrector)

the slow fix
transcode all your media to another drive into prores but keep the same filenames. from the h264 project export an EDL (edit decisions list) then import it again on the new fcp project that uses the prores media.
Click to expand...
Will attempt the Fast way first. Thank you!
 
andythefilmer said:
What do the FCP7 ones do because I just got 7...
Click to expand...

prores proxy is for editing with proxies

prores LT is a good delivery codec if you want something a little better than h264 or
you want to avoid long gop compression also I use LT for offline edits

prores4444 is the new heavyweight that offers no chroma subsampling, an alpha channel
but be aware it does not support sub zero blacks or super whites

ChristianMazza said:
Will attempt the Fast way first. Thank you!
Click to expand...

no problem
 
I just shot a quick test so I can try editing it. I will do prores 422. Any recommended export settings? I shot 1920x1080 @ 24p
 
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