Comments on: After Effects: Rotoscoping fields

By: 40 great AE tutorials | Detroit Digital Media

40 great AE tutorials | Detroit Digital Media — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:41:46 +0000

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By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:36:25 +0000

Thanks Topher, it’s one of those things that can stump you unless you know the steps for sure. Best, John.

By: Topher Welsh

Topher Welsh — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:06:02 +0000

Good stuff man, as always… this has always been a frustrating task for me…

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:39:47 +0000

Hey Jim, how did you manage to get away from your machine? Mine is like an anchor… though a very powerful anchor that can connect to the web ;o)

By: Jim Hines

Jim Hines — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:36:12 +0000

I was away from the machine for a few days but happy to come back and find this. Thanks!

By: Robert Kreuz

Robert Kreuz — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:59:48 +0000

Thanks John, I can see clearly now, the rain is gone……..

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:26:56 +0000

Hi Robert, that’s the difference between “separating” fields and “deinterlacing”. Deinterlacing removes them permanently where as separating only temporarily.
Best wishes, John.

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:34:47 +0000

Thanks Todd, I keep meaning to update the Adobe Help! Best, John.

By: Todd Kopriva

Todd Kopriva — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:46:42 +0000

Well done, John. I just added some links to this tip:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f3ea.html

By: Robert Kreuz

Robert Kreuz — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:47:24 +0000

Losing vertical resolution, yes it`s a good argument.
I thought, if you let AE to interpret the fields of your footage, than you have ever a loosing of vertical resolution, whatever kind of movie you want to render out fields or progressive. Thought the only way to keep the fields is to don`t interpret and than render out as upper or lower field.

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:11:07 +0000

Hi Robert, I’m glad you are finding value in Motionworks. The workflow you mention has a flaw; separating the fields then rendering without fields (progressive) means you are losing half the vertical resolution of each frame. Remember that when you separate fields, After Effects is interpreting the pixels that have been “removed”. If you render this out the information is gone completely. Does that make sense? Best wishes, John.

By: Robert Kreuz

Robert Kreuz — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:06:15 +0000

Hi John,

first – thanks for hosting this site, it`s a very impressive source for my work.

second – is following workaround for fields also possible ?

Step one, do rotoscoping like ever, render out as progressive.
Step two, take the progressive movie and put it into a encoder or After Effects and render out as a movie with fields ?

By: illd

illd — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:07:19 +0000

“By gone era” – I wish you where right. But when I see some “new” HDV-Formats like 1080i(nterlaced, aaaargghh). The same trouble starts again – just in better resolution, which is ridicolous

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:25:36 +0000

Hey Brian, that’s funny, I learned the exact same way! Best, John.

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:25:03 +0000

Thanks Ahme, I learned this technique some years ago reading Trish and Chris Meyer’s book “Creating Motion Graphics for After Effects”. All the best, John.

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:24:10 +0000

Hey Ryan, remember to only roto the extra frames that need it. Best wishes, John.

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:23:16 +0000

Hi illd, fields are the unfortunate legacy of a by-gone era for sure! Best, John.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Unfortunately I had to learn this trick the hard way. Lots of frustration and hair pulling. Hope no one has to go through that now. Thanks, John.

By: ahme dzeeny

ahme dzeeny — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:47:41 +0000

always awesome JD.

By: Ryan Ragle

Ryan Ragle — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:20:30 +0000

I agree illd, fields should be banned. This is a great tip for roto work, except you just doubled the workload Then again, without a handy tip like this, we would probably spend more time trying to guess how to fix it.

By: illd

illd — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:10:24 +0000

Thank you JD for solvin another mystery. Is there any Motiondesigner/Effects Artist out there who doesnt hate fields? To me fields make no sense at all – nice to have this workaround.