Output format for RAW timelapse in CS4

kidwoo

kidwoo

Well-known member
Anybody got a favorite output format for image sequences in CS4?


I want full resolution (5184 x 3486 in my case), with plans to drop clips into premiere to edit.

Most of the standard broadcast formats keep giving me broadcast sizes, even when I check stretch/resize bit.


I stopped an avi encode at about 15gig halfway through.


Any preferences?


Thanks
 
Why do you have any desire to output in 5184x3486? There's no computer that could edit anything in that resolution in realtime, and if 15 GB at halfway scares you, then you might as well give up because there isn't much that will make it smaller.

I don't see any reason why you'd need to work in that res, but if you do need to finish in that resolution you better adopt an offline/online workflow. Use a low-res, scaled down proxy to edit with then reconform and output from AE. I'm pretty sure Premiere won't even accept that resolution. Only a handful of apps can work in that res.
 
oneinfiniteloop said:
Why do you have any desire to output in 5184x3486? There's no computer that could edit anything in that resolution in realtime, and if 15 GB at halfway scares you, then you might as well give up because there isn't much that will make it smaller.

I don't see any reason why you'd need to work in that res, but if you do need to finish in that resolution you better adopt an offline/online workflow. Use a low-res, scaled down proxy to edit with then reconform and output from AE. I'm pretty sure Premiere won't even accept that resolution. Only a handful of apps can work in that res.
Click to expand...





Working in a large resolution gives the freedom to do false pans and zooms.

It's been done for years. I'm not trying to output a timeline at that res, just a few <10sec clips. Adobe products since cs3 have sucked at creating avi files of a size known to this universe but there's no reason a better codec can't be used.



Just tried to output a TIFF sequence and PP gives an error message that the dimensions are too big. So, okay......maybe not THAT resolution :D
 
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You should use After Effects to do your virtual pans/zooms. Then you could output at standard 1080. That's what I do. I liked the idea of having the full res copy but it isn't necessary. Just keep your work files and export in 10 years when we have higher res capabilities.

Hope my response is helpful. Does it address your question? I am curious why you want to stay full res? Because for the first year I was doing time lapses I wanted to also but have since went to 1080 for that very reason of file size.
 
In most instances that's in fact what I'm doing.


There are some cases though when I don't know exactly how I want to move within a frame (or even how long the clip is going to be exactly) until I'm editing. So it's nice to be able to do it in premiere.

This half res tiff solution is fine though. I mostly just wanted something 'bigger than 1080' to do some cropping with a few clips I've got. Half of 5184 x 3486 is sufficient. I do think it's funny that I found the frame size limit on premiere though. :D
 
oneinfiniteloop said:
I'm well aware of this, you're just doing it wrong.
Click to expand...


Thanks! :D


I'm under the impression that I'm now doing it 'correctly' with a tiff sequence because I got exactly what I was after. No?


edit: How's the surf at the poles by mayport these days? I miss that place.
 
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It's just a waste to spend all that time rendering and pushing such a high bandwidth TIFF sequence through Premiere. You could easily edit to 1920x1080 proxys rendered from your full res files, then send the timeline to AE via Dynamic Link and then just switch out the proxy's with the full res files by selecting the layer in the timeline and option dragging your original onto it. Should preserve the edit just fine, etc.

Yes, you'll have to scale the hell out of the 1080 files in Premiere, but you'll be replacing those anyways so it doesn't matter. Obviously if half the full res files work for you and they don't choke your computer, then I guess all is well and good, but if you find yourself getting bogged down by such large files then an offline is probably far quicker.

Obviously this depends if you have deadlines or not, everything's different without them.

Haven't been to the poles in a while. Gonna pick up surfing this summer though, so I'm sure I'll be out there. You know how the waves are here, hit and miss. From Jax Beach?
 
Actually premiere has been ripping through these tiff sequences just fine. Like real time playback with no problems fine.

I'm actually really pleasantly surprised. I'm not a fan of proxy editing if I don't have to do it. I've been working on this enough today and it doesn't seem necessary. At least not with the short little clips I'm dealing with. I'm kind of old fashioned in that I like my editing to look as much like the final product as possible. Helps my brain work with deciding where to do cuts with the sports stuff I do.

But yeah I grew up in jax, and went to UF for grad school after a stint at georgia tech. We used to pre-class drives back to the poles from gainesville in the morning. I know it sounds stupid living in california but I miss surfing in florida. Way more chill. Tropical storm season is key........big offshore systems bringing in the ground swell. I romanticize about it now but I do know how rare good surf is there. Plus the actual 'poles' themselves were gone last time I was in town. Not sure what that did to the sandbar that made that place which is kind of why I asked.

Thanks for the input! Your understanding of AE is something I aspire to based on some of the stuff you've put up.
 
I agree about proxy editing, I avoid it at all costs. I guess I've just had efficiency beaten into me by the daily grind of deadlines, limitations, etc. I love finishing in super high resolutions, but it's such a pain sometimes. The last two spots we did on RED, shot at 4K, we just finished in 1080, didn't need any more and the workflow was too complicated. With something like you're doing I thought it wouldn't be that much trouble, but if it's working in that res, more power to you.

Yeah, I grew up here as well. Unfortunately never got into surfing, but I'm going to have a go at this summer. Used to mess around a bit back in the day, skated a lot, and my wife wakeboards/wakeskates, so we both want to get back into being active and thought surfing would be good. Did you go to school out at the beach?
 
Yeah like I said, I'm kind of surprised that PP is handling too. :D I just built up an editing tower not too long ago so my computer is pretty current for video cutting.


So you skated? We might actually know each other, or at the very least have some friends in common. I went to school at Epsicopal and graduated in '93. I pretty much lived at kona until I went away to college. You remember Neil Mimbs, Bear Hughes, Steve Heise, Caine Gayle (famous guy now), Todd Johnson or pretty much anyone who skated vert back then? If so we may have actually met.

I ought to give you some of my old surfboards. They're sitting in a friend's house collecting dust.
 
I graduated Fletcher in '00, so a little later. Names ring a bell though. When I was skating it was all Flatline crew around here. I skated mostly street, never got into vert much.

Definitely interested in the surfboards, the guy at Sunrise was telling me that the used stuff picks up as it gets warmer so I was going to check them out.
 
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