PDA

View Full Version : Slowing things down



tylerr
22-08-2007, 04:49 AM
I often have a problem when i want to trim the speed of a movie. is there a way to smooth out the steppyness that i cant think of?

emilianomorgia
22-08-2007, 11:49 AM
I often have a problem when i want to trim the speed of a movie. is there a way to smooth out the steppyness that i cant think of?

What problems ?

What Codec are you using ?

If you want to slowdown a 25fps movie to 50% You will have 13fps and It will not look very good .

If you really need to slow things down I'll suggest to think about using all the incredible features of Final Cut Studio suite

tylerr
23-08-2007, 01:55 AM
I would rather not have to edit my whole library to have slow versions. This is a feature of another media server that is lacking is this wonderful one. What they do in that other one that i wont mention is cactually play the movies at 60fps and the server generates the half frames. So when slowed it still looks great!

rolfwenzel
24-08-2007, 09:48 PM
Tyler,

you can do the same with Catalyst and playback the movies @ much higher speed than it was produced but:
You can't go below 22 frames per second without seeing a studder.
That means if you produce your movies in 60 fps and play them back in single speed you have enough headroom to slow it down to 25 fps

We're talking about physics, not about software features.

Best

Rolf

tylerr
30-09-2007, 10:29 PM
I totally agree. But i believe the hypo and maxeda can do this and they do it by calculating the video inbetween the frames and sort of crossfade from frame to frame.

I am allways looking for a software solution to make things happen as most of the media server shows i do are not allways totally thought out and planned. i end up doing lots of things on the fly and frame crossfade mode would be awsome.

Besides Richard needs more to do. Right?

Spam Butterfly
30-09-2007, 10:56 PM
Hippo and MBox do this. I have never seen Maxedia do it. A real must...

Hugh

jasonrudolph
01-10-2007, 12:32 PM
Hippo does this, but only with Mpeg2 all-i frame movies. They actually do some interframe interpolation. Maxxedia does this, but not with quicktime files. Mbox does this with quicktime files (frame blended playback). They all work quite well.
The hippo and Maxxedia do it better, but you have to have very specific file types. The Mbox might not be as good, but it is normally enough to get you where you need to be, and it works with all videos that the mbox can play back.
As a side note, this would be extremely useful in pixelmapping applications, as getting slow enough movement when your pixels are as big as 1 foot is very difficult.

clyde
04-10-2007, 01:45 PM
The maxedia was the first to implement "frame blending" and can do it with nearly all formats except quicktime which they are working on I´ve been told

proudlight
17-07-2010, 02:11 PM
Resurrecting an old thread with my first post!

But have to ask!
Any plans on adding frameblend to the feature list??
Having used hippos this really makes the difference in my choice. Too many corporate clients that just wants slow and nice backgrounds.
Would really like it if Cat had this, this way I could get my "all mac" FOH running Jands Vista as my light desk!

Best regards/Björn Stolt
Sweden

Mtomarob
26-07-2010, 09:18 PM
I agree this would be a great feature upgrade for Catalyst. Would use it all the time...

NevBull
26-07-2010, 10:12 PM
one of the Holy Grails of media servers - only Richard can answer this one

Marty Postma
27-07-2010, 03:32 PM
Hippo does this, but only with Mpeg2 all-i frame movies. They actually do some interframe interpolation. Maxxedia does this, but not with quicktime files. Mbox does this with quicktime files (frame blended playback). They all work quite well.

The AXON, DL.2, and DL.3 units also do "frame blending" as of software v1.5.0(April 2009).

Mr_P
27-07-2010, 03:43 PM
It would be extremely usefull to have frame blending available in catalyst when you slow down a movie

The question keeps cropping up and many many clients and users keep asking if it is possible...

SO
Richard:

Will frame blending ever be available in catalyst?

Simon

samsc
28-07-2010, 12:00 AM
It would be extremely usefull to have frame blending available in catalyst when you slow down a movie

Simon

slowing a movie down takes a lot more than frame blending - if you have not used something like twixtor - i suggest you give it a go - to see what is really involved in "slowing things down" - its a little more tricky than dissolving...
http://www.revisionfx.com/products/twixtor/overview/

---

sure- its not particularily difficult to do frame blending but it has to fit in with the other things i do and not kill performance

i have concentrated on many different things in the last couple of years - 32 layers and 32 mixes and 12 video inputs in current preview software and current computers can do 8 layers of hi-def 1080p without problems- with real world colour correction type things

features have to be performance neutral - because a lot of users push things very hard and the computer is already at its limits

SourceChild
28-07-2010, 11:37 AM
This is not the direction that many of you want to hear but going back to re-redering content is the best way to handle slower speeds. I have some suggestions for those of you more familiar with networking, After Effects, and/or Final Cut Pro.

I have recently developed workflows with AE and FCP along with Chronosync to create modified content on the fly.

In short, I have started installing Qmaster and AE Render engine on all my Catalyst machines. I use either my MBP or an additional MacPro as a master repository for all content and Chronosync to sync to the Catalyst Machines.

The chronoscript is a push only script which targets a second SSD in the machines. I started using 64Gb SSDs. I graduated to 250Gb and now 512Gb. The larger drives work well for the majority of the show content. It's only the revised files I change on site that go to the 64s so I never have space issues with having multiple versions of a piece of content and never overwrite anything.

Most of my machines have 8GB of RAM and the rest have 16Gb. With proper CPU and Memory allocations setup in AE and Qmaster I have been able to keep Catalyst running simultaneously. I also use the smaller SSDs as a RAM disk which helps.

In the worst case scenario, I am down for 10-15 minutes waiting for render and copying but most of the time I keep right on cranking.

I don't recommend this process to those of you who are not quite as familiar with Catalyst or render clustering but for those of you who are, I'm sure speed changes aren't the only content modifications you make on site.

If you try this, it will speed up your time but if you don't know what you're doing, make sure to experiment extensively before going to show site so that you don't get hit with something overwhelming or unfamiliar.

Spam Butterfly
28-07-2010, 01:21 PM
I look back the to comments I made a few years ago.
Mbox, Hippo and Maxxedia have done this for years.

In certain markets, such as TV, Catalyst has lost a lot of ground to these servers because it doesn't do frame blending. This has now become a requirement of media servers operating in this environment. A lot of us have been grumbling about this for years - I have been for nearly 5-6 years.

I don't have the time to wait for clips to render, nor do my client, and unless our graphics department are involved in the show, the client ain't going to pay for an HD edit suite either - most rental companies, ours included, do not supply Catalyst machines with anything other than the standard RAM and without AE and FCP.

It's a long overdue feature. Maxxedia will soon be able to do this for video input too.

Hugh

samsc
30-07-2010, 08:03 AM
I look back the to comments I made a few years ago.
Mbox, Hippo and Maxxedia have done this for years.

In certain markets, such as TV, Catalyst has lost a lot of ground to these servers because it doesn't do frame blending. This has now become a requirement of media servers operating in this environment. A lot of us have been grumbling about this for years - I have been for nearly 5-6 years.

I don't have the time to wait for clips to render, nor do my client, and unless our graphics department are involved in the show, the client ain't going to pay for an HD edit suite either - most rental companies, ours included, do not supply Catalyst machines with anything other than the standard RAM and without AE and FCP.

It's a long overdue feature. Maxxedia will soon be able to do this for video input too.

Hugh

so i got it working after a couple of days - its not that hard -

works at all movie resolutions and integrates into all other colour fx

Mr_P
30-07-2010, 09:38 AM
Great!
Can you post a download?

ajmaudio
30-07-2010, 10:07 AM
NICE! I would love to test this as well! I actually have machines and time available for once.

ajmaudio
01-08-2010, 02:16 AM
I am hoping this is available before the 17th... I have a show that this feature would benefit me greatly on.... I have come to the realization that I am not good at waiting :)

Gian
01-08-2010, 04:53 PM
We love to be on that test list also.... Thanks

Gian

Peter
02-08-2010, 01:44 PM
Count me in, just done a project where lots of movies needed 50% speed and it would have been so much easier to have done it directly into cat

Mtomarob
02-08-2010, 09:03 PM
look forward to using this feature with Catalyst

Mr_P
03-08-2010, 08:30 PM
Any update on a downloadable version?

S

adam
05-08-2010, 03:45 AM
Bump

_SUPER_ interested!

samsc
05-08-2010, 07:27 PM
i have lots to do before it gets out

proudlight
06-08-2010, 12:17 AM
Great to hear that it's on it's way!
Looking forward to see it in action when you are ready Richard!
Best regards from a happy Swede!
/Björn

ajmaudio
06-08-2010, 08:53 AM
I figured you might.... will be worth the wait I am certain