HDV and AE

Robbie Comeau

Robbie Comeau

Como's back. back again
Hey guys,

HDV footage is 1440 x 1080, and I now understand that.

I'll drag that footage into my FCP timeline, and I'll choose to make it fit the footage.

I'll go into my FCP sequence and here are the following settings:

1226010548.png


Now, here's my problem.

In AE, when I make special effects, or bring footage into AE, I have a problem.

First problem. Here is what happens when I bring HDV RAW footage, into AE, and I drop it into the make new composition so it makes it the same size:

1226010564.jpg


Why is it square? Here are the settings:

1226010682.png


The weird thing is, is when I render that out, and bring it into the timeline in FCP, it fits nicely into my footage's timeline. Why is that?

My main question here, is why does it look like that in AE, and how can I export something in AE, without having to render it in FCP?

Thanks,

Robbie
 
I can't say for sure since I haven't really dealt with HDV, but 1440x1080 is closer to square than 16x9. 16x9 would be 1920x1080, so the HDV footage is getting unsqueezed in FCP to the proper ratio. In AE, it isn't. Right below your viewer window, try turning on the aspect ratio correction checkbox. It will probably look correct now in terms of aspect because it's getting unsqueezed (like anamorphic film footage), even though it looks all blocky and terrible in the preview. Seems like you're doing things right, and FCP is just automatically correcting the ratio.
 
No no, this isn't right. In my FCP sequence, my anamorphic is turned OFF.

When I import footage into AE, I def. shouldn't get that square look (as seen in that image up there)

Robbie
 
You need to check your Interrupt Footage settings in AE, make sure it's correct there. If I were you, and the best workflow for these types of things, would be to work in square pixels throughout. Drop you HDV footage into a ProRes square timeline, then export out a 1920x1080 QT for AE. It's easier that way and you work in a more robust codec vs. the crap color space of HDV.
 
Your comp settings looks correct, and there's really no reason to work in any other aspect ratio, than your base materiale. Try clicking the button, as show on my image. Should fix you right up in the preview.

Remember to set the correct aspect ratio of 1.33 when you export as well. Otherwise you might get a square output (which really isn't a problem if you bring it back into FCP, where you can force it to fit the frame).
 

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gi-jones said:
and there's really no reason to work in any other aspect ratio, than your base materiale.
Click to expand...

There's plenty of reason to work in a different aspect ratio. As a rule of thumb you should always work for your intended output, not necessarily in the source format. Unless you're laying back to HDV tape there is no need to work in non-square pixels, and most of the time people never go back to tape. If it's going to be SD/DVD then you conform to .9 at the end. If it's web, Blu Ray, iPod, etc, it's all square pixels.

Also, you should also not do any compositing/VFX work on footage with fields. And, why would want to work with a crap codec in AE? I'd rather work with a 10 bit 4:2:2 intra frame codec over HDV compression and it's Long GOP I frame nonsense anyday.
 
oneinfiniteloop said:
Also, you should also not do any compositing/VFX work on footage with fields. And, why would want to work with a crap codec in AE? I'd rather work with a 10 bit 4:2:2 intra frame codec over HDV compression and it's Long GOP I frame nonsense anyday.
Click to expand...

Certainly. But HDV doesn't get better because you decide to export uncompressed. It just gets bigger. Just as you footage won't be of higher quality by being interpolated to a square aspect. Whatever you put on top of it, however will be of a distinguishably better quality than the original footage and as such you might have a harder time making your effects match the footage. I just don't see a reason to work in a higher-than-aquisition-res in post. You might as well bring it back into FCP (via an uncompressed codec of course) in the original resolution.
 
And I never implied that it got better. There is a lot of technical stuff that I can't fully explain, but for the math that takes place, it's better to have some latitude in the codec rather than being stifled. Also, it doesn't make it any harder to match effects with a different codec. It's actually harder to composite on footage with fields, no professional does that. HDV is also an unnecessary strain on your processor due to it's interframe compression, whereas most intraframe codecs don't require as much load, with the exception of more bandwidth, and it AE it's all about processor and RAM so disk speed is a moot point.

This is how we work in a professional workflow for film and TV. We primarily work with DVCPROHD in ProRes timelines at square pixels. More latitude for color correction, etc. Plus, the golden rule is to always work for your intended output, so unless you're laying back to HDV what's the point of keeping up with all that extra info and steps to keep it coformed. I'd suggest testing out the workflow before you pan it, you'll quicky realize the benenfits if you know where to look.
 
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