FS7: What format should I export from Resolve for keying inside After Effects?

P

Parabola

Member
Hi all! Because my current version of Creative Suite (CS6) cannot natively work with the XAVC-I files from the FS7, I'm forced to bring them into Resolve first. So I'm applying my LUT to the SLOG3 footage and doing a slight grade, but I want to do the keying inside After Effects because I'm much more familiar with Keylight and general green screen work therein.

So my question is: what would you recommend exporting from Resolve to provide the best footage to key (and possibly do some additional grading on)? I'm on a PC, so ProRes is not an option. I also don't have the CineForm codec from the Pro version of GoPro Studio (yet, it's on my radar to get it sometime soon).

I will likely have to use this workflow for another month or two until I can get Adobe CC (which I understand will be able to edit these files natively). My system specs are below, in case that's a factor in your recommendation:
Dual Xeon 8-core
128GB RAM
Quadro 6000
4 Samsung 850 Pro's (HW RAID0 / RAID1 mix)

Thanks guys, I appreciate your help.
 
On a PC I've used H.264 on "best" quality settings and it's been pretty good to work with, both for composting/FX as well as projection in movie theatres.

I also have a MAC which I will use Resolve or FCP X to create ProRes files with, so if you'd rather have high quality prores maybe you know someone with a MAC you can use.

Cheers,
 
Thanks Dennis. I never would have thought to try H.264, since I've always considered it to be more of a distribution codec than something you'd actually choose to take into an edit. But I'm also much less experienced than many users here, so maybe I'm a little off-base there.

Before I got the FS7, I was doing ok keying 24Mbps Nikon D800 footage with inadequate GS lighting, so I'm sure I'll notice a significant upgrade with the H.264 "best" compression as suggested :) Thanks.
 
Yeah it s probably not the best choice but I've used it and it's worked out ok.

What i should have also posted in my previous post is that the best format you can use for compositing or FX work would be DPX and you can get this format on a PC or MAC no problem. Note however each frame will be quite big and the disk space needed quickly adds up.
 
16bit DPX - with everything else you loose a ton of image information and resolution, especially with a delivery long GOP codec like H264
 
Postmaster said:
16bit DPX - with everything else you loose a ton of image information and resolution, especially with a delivery long GOP codec like H264
Click to expand...
Thanks for your recommendation, Postmaster. I'm still learning about some of these higher-end formats, so I appreciate having a starting point to test out.

Unfortunately, I couldn't bring the 16bit DPX files into AE, however it looks like that capability was added to AE CC v12, so I will hopefully have that soon-ish. That said, even the 10bit DPX images seem easier to key already, and they also seem to hold up pretty well to a bit of additional grading when compositing on plates. The best part of all is the speed at which these image sequences render at: 65+ FPS nearly blew my mind. No idea how the computer is able to process multi-node corrections, do a bit of compression, and save all that to an 8MB file 65x times a second. Even if it's pulling a lot of the data from cache, that's still quite impressive to me.

Anyway, now I just need to find out how to deal with the audio. I know it's not Resolve's schtick, but Resolve is all I have for now to handle the FS7's files. I don't seem to see any options for exporting audio-only, but perhaps I'm not looking in the right place. Anyone?
 
I dont know how to export audio only on DResolve.

You could do a timeline, delink the image, and export a black movie file which might be smaller - you can also in the colour tab add TC and filename which might be more handy than a black file.

If you really wanted just audio you could take that black file and sound to aif it in QT7pro
 
If you intend to shoot greenscreens I would go for uncompressed RAW. In descending order:


1) Uncompressed RAW

2) Unompressed 10bit RGB 444 HD sLOG.
Uncompressed HD is often as sharp or sharper than compressed 4k so a blow up is not a problem.

3) Unompressed 10bit RGB 422 HD in sLOG.
Half the color information of 444 but at least no compression artifacts.

Any compressed format is a compromise for greenscreen work resulting in a loss of edge detail, motionblur etc.
In my experience Prores444 keys better than H264.


Contrary to internet lore a lack of compression and wide color latitude is far more important to pulling a good key than pixel resolution.
 
I've personally used ProRes 422 HQ to handle keys a number of times. It works fine and the files aren't too big. I'd stay away from H.264.
 
starcentral said:
On a PC I've used H.264 on "best" quality settings and it's been pretty good to work with, both for composting/FX as well as projection in movie theatres.
Click to expand...

Hmm. You might be getting what looks like a good picture, especially for delivery, but remember that H264 is a lossy codec. Even on "best" it's going to be throwing out info to compress the file size. Repeated compressing amplifies this. I wouldn't use it as an editing format or really anything other than final delivery when you need to bring the file size down.
 
Yes, later I elaborated:

starcentral said:
Yeah it s probably not the best choice but I've used it and it's worked out ok.

What i should have also posted in my previous post is that the best format you can use for compositing or FX work would be DPX and you can get this format on a PC or MAC no problem. Note however each frame will be quite big and the disk space needed quickly adds up.
Click to expand...

But having said that countless videos shot on Canon DSLR's have been keyed, and/or had visual effects work done to them. A lot is possible when video is shot "right".

If you're really worried about post it's best to shoot RAW. :)
 
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