5 replies to this topic

[mattzart30]

Hi -- this isn't really specifically an Adobe Premiere Pro issue, but that is the package I am using.  It is really more of a workflow question, I think, or a conceptual approach.

 

I am rendering a multi-layered file of about 60 MovieStorm movies, using greenscreening to create a large, individually unique crowd.  I usually do not have any issues exporting this.   If I export it with all my Moviestorm puppets being largely still, there are no problems, but when I individually animated each one, and there is LOTS of motion in the export, you can see entire blocks being jerky in the final render -- for example, you might see an entire square of about about 20 soldiers jerking back and forth (the source there is one moviestorm movie, the entire track jerks back and forth in the final render).

 

Here's what I'm seeing.  For best reaults, please download the file if you can, instead of viewing it in the dropbox previewer.   

 

 

https://dl.dropboxus... - Level2_3.mp4

 

I have tried the following things in my export settings to address the issue:

 

- Turned on smooth frame blending

-  Decreased keyframe from 72 to 10

- Made sure all my native exports from MS were the same frame rate (24fps -- I also tried them all at 30, and given the number of exports, that rendering takes literally days)

- made sure export fps matched input fps

- Owing to the decrease in keyframes, I increased the variable bit to 51 target, 60 max

- turned on macroblock adaptive frame-field coding

- output profile set to highest (5.1), maximum depth render

 

The inputs are all 1080p, as is the output -- rendered using 2-pass VBR (though I've also tried constant bit rates.  I've read that decreasing keyframes helps remove jerkiness in high-motion renders, but that a large increase in the bit rate is required to take advantage.  i don't fully understand why, so I may not be doing this portion correctly, but can't find information to the contrary).

 

Can anyone give any hints based on what you're seeing in the example file in my link?

 

[Ben_S]

Does the issue with the feet moving in and out happen with the original footage, prior to the compositing?

 

Does it happen in Moviestorm when playing back in the Cutting Room, prior to rendering?

[mattzart30]

It doesn't appear so in the MS renders -- but I admit it is hard to tell as there is no ground or visual reference points as every group of soldiers is just in a floating greenscreen in the individual layers.   The whole set gets hidden (or removed, as the poly count is very high, so even the set had to be rendered in chunks).

 

My new working hypothesis is that the camera angle changed slightly in some layers after I added some body movements to the general on the white horse.   None of his navmesh or actual paths changed, just his hands and head direction.    The Camera is mostly all target shots on him, he is in every layer, just hidden -- I added some hand gestures to his speech and I suspect that the target got moved ever so slightly, and the result I see in this blend is the to-ing and fro-ing of the original shots of the soldiers against the modified frames.  Does that sound plausible to you, Ben?

[Ben_S]

If your cameras use target shots, or one shots, then they will move when they things they target move. Free shots (with no lines or crosshairs) do not do this.

 

You might be able to convert your camerawork to free shots, and copy it to your other movie versions, and have it be the same across all of them.

[mattzart30]

I tried that, Ben, and I get "cannot setup scene" errors when I open the modified MSCOPE file.  I copied over everything between <cameras> to just before <marks> (including cameras in the copy/paste, excluding marks) from the master file to the new target file and it doesn't seem to work, but as you said, this is with target shots not converting everything to free shots.

 

I can't really convert them to free shots and keep all of the same 360 degree camera effects, where the camera circles around it's target, without making a bunch of frequent free shots and resulting in jerky, uneven camera motions.

 

I guess I will start over.   Well there goes about 80 hours of my life!

[mattzart30]

.... I solved the problem. The problem was, as it turns out, that I am a big fat idiot.

 

When trimming some of my video sequences (the layers), they weren't aligned using the grid snapping, so they were off by 1-2 (or some fraction of) frames.   I somehow toggled snapping off at one point and the affected layers were not aligned so the camera motions didn't line up. While one sequence was moving in one direction, a neighboring sequence was a frame or two behind.