Search results matching tag 'Boris Continuum Complete'

Expanding Library of Media Composer Tutorials

drbgaijin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:40:12 GMT

I am a relative newcomer to Media Composer (early 2008) and as I began to feel my way around I got the idea of documenting my adventures by creating short video tutorials,
Avid had already a large number of excellent, professionally produced tutorials online.
I learned very much from watching them. However I sometimes felt that newcomers like myself needed a much more basic approach to many of the things that were being taken for granted.

The first 20 or so tutorials were specifically made to help migrants from Avid/Pinnacle Liquid. However, many of those contain tips that can be useful to any newcomers.

The two main points that I have learned since arriving here are:

1. Media Composer has many, many ways of achieving a given result. My tutorials usually show only 1 of them. Be flexible and experiment for yourself. Nothing is set in stone.

2. If you are coming from a different NLE family, try and leave your old workflows behind you.
Don't try and figure out how to emulate them in MC.
The sooner you begin to accept the MC way, the sooner you will get up to speed and discover its flexibility.
It took me only 14 days before I completely stopped using Liquid.

SEE ALL THE TUTORIALS HERE on the MEDIA COMPOSER - PC FORUM

The tutorial page is, as the title above says, "Expanding".
Please drop in every now and then to see what has been added!

Hope you find something useful.

Regards,
Douglas

Remove Moving Foreground Objects with Boris Continuum Complete AVX

Rich DAngelo — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:39:09 GMT

In this tutorial, you will use BCC AVX's Motion Key filter to successfully remove a moving foreground object from a clip. In this particular case, the moving object that you want to remove is the silver car.

Click the following links to download the media necessary for this tutorial.
(Clips provided courtesy of Artbeats.)
• remove_auto_before.mov
• remove_auto_after.mov

1. Import the clip "remove_auto_before.mov" into a bin. Splice "remove_auto_before.mov" into the Avid timeline.

2. Play the clip. It is a locked down shot with a silver car passing through an intersection. You will remove the silver car from this clip.

3. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

4. Click to select the BCC Keys & Matte effect category on the left. Drag the icon for the BCC Motion Key effect onto the "remove_auto_before.mov" clip.

5. Enter Effects mode.

6. The Mode menu defaults to Setup Region, which allows you to define a region or shape that contains the moving object to remove. In this case you want to remove the silver car so the car should always remain within the region box. To achieve this, you have to keyframe the position of the region box.

7. Press the Area Selection menu and choose Rectangle.

8. Adjust the Area Scale and the Area Aspect controls to position the rectangle at the start of the clip so that it encompasses the car that you want to remove.

9. Add a new keyframe by clicking the Add Keyframe icon in the timeline.

10. Move a few frames forward, add a new keyframe and reposition the rectangle so that it surrounds the car.

11. Continue to follow this method of moving forward a few frames, adding a keyframe and repositioning the rectangle until you have completed the entire clip.

12. Set the Area Selection menu to Show Mask. The colors that display in the mask region let you determine the filter's confidence of removing the object. A clear area means that the filter cannot remove the object. Red areas will be successfully removed. Blue areas indicate a good chance of removing most pixels (but not as good as red areas). Increasing Replacement Range can sometimes provide a better result depending on the speed of the moving object and the number of frames in the clip.

13. To view the final result, set the Area Selection menu to remove foreground. The filter needs to process the clip, which can be fairly render-intensive. No on-screen controls indicate that this is happening.

14. When the filter finishes processing the image, scrub the timeline to ensure that the foreground object has been removed to your satisfaction.

How to avoid getting dropped frames during real-time playback of BCC RT filters in Avid Media Composer

Johnla — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:24:42 GMT

To achieve real-time playback of BCC AVX RT plug-ins without dropped frames, make sure your Avid project meets the following criteria:

- Use BCC filters from the BCC Real Time and BCC RT Static Textures categories in your Effect Palette.

- Select a lower playback quality from the 'Video Quality Menu' at the bottom of the Timeline window. Right click and select Draft Quality (yellow-green mode). This will also enable 8-bit processing during playback, which is faster than 10-bit processing (Full Quality).

- Make sure 'Real Time Update' is selected inside your Effect Editor settings.

- Open your Video Display settings and reduce the 'Stream Limit' value in Maximum Real Time Streams.

- Use the 'Expert Render' command on parts of the sequence where the system has difficulties during playback. The system marks these sections of the sequence in the Timeline. For more information, see the section in your Avid Help called "Using the ExpertRender Command After a Real-Time Playback Attempt".

- If possible, start playback earlier in the sequence, before the effects that cause difficulties. This allows the system to process some of the effect frames before displaying them, decreasing the chance of playback difficulties.

- If you still experience dropped frames, open your project's Video Display settings and set the 'Pre-Filled Frames' amount to a few seconds. This preloads the specified amount of video and can help if the system has trouble maintaining real-time playback.

- Use the Submaster Effect or Perform a Video Mixdown.

When should you preview BCC RT Effects in Full Quality
Some aspects of BCC AVX RT effects appear a bit different during real-time preview than non-real-time preview and final render. This is particularly true of effects using geometric distortions (Scale, Tumble, Spin, Rotate) and effects that blur and choke edges. While fine-tuning these parameters, it is recommended to change the Video Quality Menu to 'Full' (green-green) to check the quality before final rendering.

BCC RT Effects and Avid Titles
Note: BCC AVX RT filters are not fast enough to apply to Avid titles and play back in real-time. Therefore, the real-time version of BCC AVX filters do not include a Title Matte parameter group. Use the non-real-time version to apply to a title or matte.

Supported Real-Time Systems
The filters in the BCC AVX RT category play back in real-time on Avid systems with Adrenaline or Mojo hardware. BCC AVX RT filters apply, render and use presets the same way that BCC AVX filters do. The real-time filters are a subset of the existing filters.

Supported Real-Time Avid Hosts
Supported real-time systems include Xpress Pro 5.1.4 or later, and systems with Adrenaline hardware. Real-time playback is largely determined by the speed of the system hardware. These filters are intended to provide real-time Draft-Quality previews. You should render these filters before outputting to tape, even on systems with Mojo or Adrenaline hardware. You do not have to replace the real-time filters with the corresponding non-real-time filter. Simply render the real-time filter.

Supported Operating Systems and Hardware
The BCC AVX RT filters requires the following operating systems and hardware:

Windows

The BCC AVX RT plug-ins require a Pentium 3 or Pentium 4 processor running Windows XP® as well as Avid Adrenaline or Mojo hardware.

Macintosh

The BCC AVX RT plug-ins requires a Macintosh system running a minimum of Mac OS™ X 10.4.0 or above as well as Avid Adrenaline or Mojo hardware.

Important Notes on the BCC Real-time Effects
The real-time effect playback is largely determined by the speed of the system hardware.
Additionally, real-time playback depends on the settings you adjust in the effect. If you adjust multiple parameters, it is likely the effect will not play back in real-time. For example, if you apply blur and choke to a PixelChooser matte, the filter may require rendering. When you work with the real-time filters, the Fields menu only applies when you render the effect. It does not affect previews and playback. Although some real-time filters may include the Motion Tracker parameter groups, you should not use the real-time version of a filter to motion track. Use the non-real-time version.

Post by John Lafauce, Avid Customer Support Representative

Reluctant to upgrade

brettedits — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:20:49 GMT

I'm happily cutting away with 2.8.x installed on a MBP and a G5 Dual 2.0 GHz Power Mac, both running 10.4.11. Everything runs fine on both machines, I can cut shows, use BCC fx no problem and everything shows up just dandy when it coms time to online in the office (on aging PC Adrenalines running 2.1.x). My instinct tells me not to mess with something that works, but a few things are pulling me to upgrade, namely, I want to live 24/7 in Leopard, right now its just Avid that still keeps me in 10.4.11, I want to see if BCC5 is worth it, and the new features I see in the Timecode effect make me wonder what other niceities are hiding under the hood. But I'm not totally convinced its worth my $500. Is there a comprehensive list of "what's new" anywhere? I keep getting dribs and drabs of new features but I want to know, for instance, if they put the "Zoom to curve Height" button in the Timewarp effect editor (for one thing)!

Brett

Edit: OK I just found the 3.0 Read Me file...

Unable to Add 3rd Party AVX Plug-Ins to Clips in Sequence

Assistant_Editor — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:16:35 GMT

I have MCA 2.8.0 on a MacPro Quad 3 GHz, 5 GB RAM, QT 7.2.

I've installed a couple different 3rd Party Plug-Ins that we use quite regularly in our house, Boris Continuum Complete 4.2.2 and Sapphire 2.052-UB, both of which are supposed to be compatible with my Intel Mac.

Upon using any of the effects from either of the two plug-ins, including older effects from BCC, BCC3, and Sapphire avx1, I recieve an error "Exception: AParamItem::ParamIDToUniqueIdentifier - unable to convert paramID to UID." The seqeunce is then useless, it is impossible to delete the effect, as doing so crashes MCA out to the desktop.

I've installed, and re-installed, uninstalled, re-installed both of these plug-ins numerous times and still get the same result when I place any of the effects on a clip in my sequence, trying different media, differnent projects, etc.

Has anyone else had this issue or is there a compatibility issue I'm not seeing?

Grain Matching in Avid using Boris Continuum Complete Match Grain

Avid Community Team — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:19:34 GMT

John Lafauce shares his technique to match and apply authentic film grain to your Avid media using Boris Continuum Complete (BCC) AVX MatchGrain.

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/lafauce_john/corner_pin.php

Grain Matching in Avid using BCC Match Grain

Avid Community Team — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:15:39 GMT

Grain Matching in Avid using BCC Match Grain

Match and apply authentic film grain to your Avid media using BCC AVX MatchGrain

By John Lafauce

Boris Continuum Complete AVX 4.2’s Match Grain filter takes a snapshot of film-to-video (“telecined”) media and generates a grain signature which is than applied to a destination clip that has very little or no grain. A common application of this filter is adding grain to computer-generated imagery to lend to a more realistic composite. Match Grain can also be used to grain footage shot on video so it edits more seamlessly into a sequence with telecined media.

To demonstrate how BCC Match Grain’s automatic grain sampling is used, I will borrow grain from a clip of a surfboard surfacing from the ocean depths. Then, I will apply that
grain to a computer-generated sphere I composited onto the tip of the surfboard.

Click here to view the ungrained video
(Please allow a moment for the movie to load)

Media

Beauty Sphere.mov – A 3D sphere rendered as a premultiplied, processed foreground that has been tracked and color balanced using BCC AVX Match Move and BCC AVX Color Match respectively.

Frames Size – NTSC 720x486 @ 30fps
Format – Apple Quicktime
Compression – Apple Animation
Field Rendering – Progressive
Duration – 8;21

SUR135.mov – Provided by Artbeats - Underwater footage of a surfer on his surfboard.

Frame Size – NTSC 720x486 @ 30fps
Format – Apple Quicktime
Compression – Photo JPEG, high quality setting
Field Rendering – Progressive
Source – 16mm Film
Video Source – Phillips Spirit Datacine to D1
Duration – 8;21

Host Application

Avid Xpress Pro 5.7 running on Windows XP Pro.

Plug-in

Boris Continuum Complete AVX 4.2 – BCC Match Grain filter

Getting right to it

Import SUR135.mov followed by Beauty Sphere.mov and add them to your Sequence in the Timeline - with the Beauty Sphere clip above the SUR135 clip.

Advance to 2 secs. in the Timeline so the sphere is lit and plainly visible.

In the Avid Effect Palette, navigate to the BCC Effects category, select BCC Match Grain and drag it to the Beauty Sphere.mov clip in your timeline to apply it. BCC 4.2 supports AVX 1.5 and AVX 2.0 on Windows, so either version of the plug-in can be used. (This tutorial was written using AVX 1.5)

You should see the alpha channel of the image. (Note: If your Alpha Import Image Settings’ preferences was set to ‘Invert Existing’, you should see a black sphere on white)

Under the Title/Matte parameter group of your BCC Match Grain controls (located in your Avid Effect Editor), select ‘Apply to Title-Matte’ to allow the effect to be applied to the sphere only.

* Don’t be alarmed by the appearance of the sphere at this point. The grain hasn’t been applied yet.

Working with BCC Match Grain

In the BCC Match Grain parameters, set ‘Grain’ to RGB (if we were matching to black and white film, we would choose Monochrome).

Make sure ‘Match Contrast’ is checked so you can generate grain with the same contrast as the source image.

In the Sample Controls parameter group, change ‘Sample Layer’ to 1st Below so the SUR135.mov clip gets sampled.

You should see grain appear on the sphere.

More about Sample Controls

To capture the most convincing grain match that will “sell your shot”, finesse the
‘Sample Controls’ explained below:

Sample Frame # - Sets the frame from the sample layer that is used to create the grain. The default is frame 0.
Sample Size – Controls the size or region of the sampled area in pixels. The default is an area 32 pixels wide.
Sample Center – Position control sets the center point for the sample area on the X and Y axis

Generally, the larger the sample region = better results.

How accurate is the grain match?

Once the Sample Layer is assigned, BCC AVX Match Grain conveniently copies the grain pattern from that clip, creates a grain signature and automatically applies it to your ungrained image. To show you the power and accuracy of the match grain algorithm, I’ve provided screen shots of the grain when viewed through each color channel.

The Red and Green Channels contain fine grain that is not so obvious. Notice how the grain on the sphere matches the background grain pretty well.

Even the very grainy Blue Channel is accurately mirrored on the sphere.

Why so grainy?

CCDs used in scanners are famous for being noisier in the blue channel when scanning color negative film. This is because the transmittance through the film is lowest in that channel. For an explanation see: http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/technology/sensitometry/

Viewing the grain

To view the grain that was generated from your sample, go to the View menu and change it to ‘Generated Grain’.

Loading and saving Grain Presets is easy

Just say you have a whole edit sequence that needed this fabulous grain you just sampled. You can save your generated grain as a preset that can be loaded and used on your other clips.

Go to the Grain Presets pull down menu and load or save as you wish.

Kodak 35mm Film Stock presets

Since our Artbeats media was shot in 16mm, we couldn’t take advantage of the many 35mm motion picture stock presets that come standard with the BCC AVX Match Grain filter. Each preset was designed to emulate the grain found in processed 35 mm color negative film.

The finished result

Click here to view the rendered composite with the grain applied.
(Please allow a moment for the movie to load)

About the author

John Lafauce is a visual effects artist and lead compositor who has worked on over thirty feature films in Hollywood for such companies as Sony Pictures Imageworks, Rhythm & Hues and Pacific Title. He currently works in software quality assurance for Boris FX in Massachusetts. Away from work, John writes about digital effects and compositing for various online communities, and spends time with his wife, twin sons and parrot, Layla.

Look for BCC AVX 5 in Summer 2007

BCC Match Grain will also be included in soon-to-be released version 5 of BCC AVX.

To get your free upgrade to BCC AVX 5, click here: http://artel-software.stores.yahoo.net/concomavx1.html

If you are interested in a Trial Version, click here: http://www.borisfx.com/downloads/