Moho Forum

Gorgeous. Can't wait to see the full version.

beautiful work, and really interesting insight on the animations page.

You should be able to just convert your final NTSC export down to PAL couldnt you? using sorenson squeeze maybe, or just creating a comp out of your final NTSC export and exporting that from AE using PAL settings?
I've never had work broadcast on tv commercially so i dont know how necessary testing etc is, but i've made stuff that i've played on my own tv with a DVD and its worked fine...

Good luck with the project!

jwlane wrote:I've wrapped on a 5:00 min. short produced at 29.97 fps and composited in After Effects. I'm interested in a US post house doing standards conversions and film fest screeners in PAL format. I'm in Knoxville TN and no local facilities can deal with this. Do any ASP users have good recommendations; NY, LA, etc. Since I don't own PAL equipment, I'd be depending on the facility for quality control - completely. The AE comps are very deep and the idea of completely re-rendering is a bit upsetting. Characters and many props are produced in ASP.

Due to music rights issues, a trailer for the short will come out at a later date. An example of some recent work can be viewed at my new site-in-progress: animatedlane.com If the link below is problematic, go to animations and click on Saltmarsh.

http://animatedlane.com/index.php?optio ... &Itemid=38

Wonderful work!
Truly inspiring.
Love you website and how you shared your technique.
Can't wait to see more.
Cheers,

Gustavo

I'd like to thank everyone in this thread for the positive feedback. All honest criticism is welcome. However, I'm really glad my peers found satisfaction.

On topic: I just found something at Apple's download section for video that I plan to try in the near future. It's called MovieConverter. Other tools I've tried like JES (primarily for deinterlacing) didn't produce great results. So, I have high hopes for MovieConverter. There is a lot of interesting animation going on in Europe, as ASP users know from contacts with Greykid. I'd like to in some way be part of that scene, and that means converting work to PAL.

Currently I'm re-rendering sections of a projects Called Near. AfterEffects CS3 has better tools for in-virtual-camera motion blur, more so than my old v6.5. While the project does use ASP, the re-renders are mixed media shots that don't involve ASP animation. I'll upload a trailer for Near as soon as I get some additional music. The sound track for the film is licensed just for film festival screenings. I'm new to this and found out late that promotional use is not included - per music biz attorneys in Nashville. I'm hoping a friend can lay down a short track for a trailer I can post at my site and Withoutabox, the festival facilitation website.

Thank you all again for the responses.

John

I think I've found a solution. There isn't a PAL playback DVD or tape machine in Knoxville. However, the playback in the computer shows the elimination of jerky frames particularly in dolly-type moves.

First, I tried a number of third party applications; Twixter, MovieConverter, and JES. What put me on the right path was a link in the AE user group at Adobe.
http://forums.creativecow.net/articles/ ... /index.htm

Andrew Kramer's frame rate tutorial uses some Java presets that you can download. But, after playing with it I just used the Time Warper from the Effects Menu that is part of Kramer's tutorial. Here are the tweeks I needed to apply in Time Warper:

Clean cel or vector image composited over black area, or near frame edge - it tends to warp wildly (could be a useful future effect): in those areas the Error Threshold needed to be keyframed to a value of around 14 - 18. Warning, it looks like Error Threshold can create a total frame shift. So, key frame ease in and out.

Dissolves with fluctuating pixels: same as above, or change the block setting to as high as 39. Normally I've been keeping this at the lowest value of 4.

Well lit scenes needing sharp line quality: Error Threshold value around .99.

I modified some other settings and applied Motion Blur within Time Warper when rendering; shutter angle default 180, repetition 20 to 60 (this is necessarily higher than default).

THAT'S IT! Now it looks not only like I've got my conversion going, I've created decent looking motion blur in the cel animation that originally had none. I also left in some aberrations because they actually enhanced some effects or transitions. I'm currently re-rendering 14 sections, mostly transitions of one kind or another. When that's done I'll report the total results. I'm not re-rendering the whole piece. That would take about 162 hours instead of 6.