T2i Slo mo check

Chris Johnston

Chris Johnston

Veteran
I was goofin and shot a small clip to try some slomo checks (720p60)
in PPro CS4 timeline it wasn't all that impressive. I think I just dont have the right settings, so let me ask....

Shooting with the camera....Are these right or more importantly, what is more important?

Light it up good

Shutter speed set as high as possible (in a multiples of 60?) ie 60 , 120, 180,240 etc)

iso as low as possible

open the lens as far as possible

Once the footy is in the comp should I use a 720p60 timeline and then set the footage to 50% (turning off frame blending) or should it be in a 720p30 timeline and the set it to 50% (using all 60 frames of the clip, I assume?)

Am I missing something?
 
videohog said:
I was goofin and shot a small clip to try some slomo checks (720p60)
in PPro CS4 timeline it wasn't all that impressive. I think I just dont have the right settings, so let me ask....

Shooting with the camera....Are these right or more importantly, what is more important?

Light it up good

Shutter speed set as high as possible (in a multiples of 60?) ie 60 , 120, 180,240 etc)

iso as low as possible

open the lens as far as possible

Once the footy is in the comp should I use a 720p60 timeline and then set the footage to 50% (turning off frame blending) or should it be in a 720p30 timeline and the set it to 50% (using all 60 frames of the clip, I assume?)

Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

I would try shooing at 60p and drop it in a 24p timeline at 40% which will slow you footage down more.
The shutter speed should be 2x the frame rate to be at a 180 shutter but other speeds will work. That you will have to test to see what works for you.
Another thing to consider is what action will benefit from show motion. Try some tests of very fast human actions where you will see the difference. Some subjects you won't even notice a difference.
A good test for slow motion is drop an object in water and shoot with all different settings.
 
So I was just trying this slow motion effect using my t2i and the kit lens. My settings: 20(ish)mm, 1/125, f3.5, ISO200. When I pull it in and render it, it looks like I just shot in 24p and slowed it down.

I shot it in 720p 60p with the above settings. I tried it with frame blending on and off and it all just looks choppy or blurry.

Am I doing something wrong here? It's incredibly frustrating.
 
AllAroundFilmLV said:
So I was just trying this slow motion effect using my t2i and the kit lens. My settings: 20(ish)mm, 1/125, f3.5, ISO200. When I pull it in and render it, it looks like I just shot in 24p and slowed it down.

I shot it in 720p 60p with the above settings. I tried it with frame blending on and off and it all just looks choppy or blurry.

Am I doing something wrong here? It's incredibly frustrating.
Click to expand...

Need more details. What are you editing in? What are your NLE settings?
 
AllAroundFilmLV said:
So I was just trying this slow motion effect using my t2i and the kit lens. My settings: 20(ish)mm, 1/125, f3.5, ISO200. When I pull it in and render it, it looks like I just shot in 24p and slowed it down.

I shot it in 720p 60p with the above settings. I tried it with frame blending on and off and it all just looks choppy or blurry.

Am I doing something wrong here? It's incredibly frustrating.
Click to expand...


I found it looks a little better shot at 720p60 but dumped into a 720p 30fps timeline and slowed to 50% (without frame blending)

If you tab one frame at a time you'll see this is about the best you can get from non interlaced footy. (at least for me)

Looks like AE and twixtor might be a better option.
 
AllAroundFilmLV said:
I'm using FCP and I don't have an option for interpret footage.
Click to expand...

You should just be able to drop your 60p footage in a 24fps or 30fps timeline, then playback at 50%.

But if you have FCP, then you should also have cinema tools. So try conforming your footage in there. That will definitely do the trick.
 
AllAroundFilmLV said:
So I was just trying this slow motion effect using my t2i and the kit lens. My settings: 20(ish)mm, 1/125, f3.5, ISO200. When I pull it in and render it, it looks like I just shot in 24p and slowed it down.

I shot it in 720p 60p with the above settings. I tried it with frame blending on and off and it all just looks choppy or blurry.

Am I doing something wrong here? It's incredibly frustrating.
Click to expand...

You are doing it wrong my friend. If you have FCP then more than likely you have cinema tools. Take your clip and open it up in Cinema Tools, then you conform it from 60fps to 24fps and that's it.

Be warned though that once you do this the original clip is lost ( unless you make a copy ) as it is basically converting the original file. This is very easy to do and takes less than a minute to achieve such great results. You can thank me later

peace
 
handsome pete said:
You should just be able to drop your 60p footage in a 24fps or 30fps timeline, then playback at 50%.

But if you have FCP, then you should also have cinema tools. So try conforming your footage in there. That will definitely do the trick.
Click to expand...

FCP really doesn't seem to give a clean speed change on those clips. Not sure why. Try to avoid the "speed 40%" option if you can.

I'll +1 the Cinema Tools option. Just make sure you have a copy of the file, because as soon as you click "convert" it changes the framerate of the file. Then just reload the footage, and you're set!

EDIT: Well, that's what I get for clicking "reply" and then leaving the room for a while before actually replying. What Cieloent said.
 
Cinema Tools

Cinema Tools

Easiest way is to open a 720 60p clip in 'Viewer', go to 'View' and click 'Open in Cinema Tools', then click 'Conform' and select 30 or 24 fps and you've got the cleanest slow-mo without having to mess with speed or frame blending.

Like Hawk and Cieloent said, be sure to work on a duplicate file. That way, if you want, you can still use the audio from the original file.

There is a more complicated way using Apple 'Dumpster' to change entire files to 30p but Cinema Tools is quickest.
 
Absolutely, Cinema Tools is what you need to be using.

When you change speed in Final Cut, what you're actually doing is frame interpolation –*in other words the program removes frames and adds a motion blur (optionally) when slowing down, or "mixes" multiple frames to create an intermediate when speeding up.

Cinema Tools conforms a clip to a different timebase. It changes the framerate data, but does not mess with the actual image of a frame.

FCP Speed Change = video interpolation, editing frame contents
Cinema Tools Conform = video conformation, editing framerate data with no change to frame data
 
Man I'm glad to find this thread. Didn't realize how easy it was to slow things down a bit with a T2i and FCP. My previous camera was an HV30 and getting good slow motion was confusing for me, this whole conforming in Cinema Tools approach just seems too damn easy. Feels like I must be missing something.

Anyway, here's a sample of my first test, naked footage conformed in Cinema Tools to 24p.


Thanks for the tip everyone.
 
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