Video editing

Rocketdork · Post by **Rocketdork** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:55 pm

OK, a guy here at work is looking for some video editing software where he can capture video at a higher frame rate than normal. The camera he is using will film at 1000fps, but the editing software takes it back down to 30fps...he needs to be able to keep the video at the 1000fps rate and then make a super slow motion of the events he is filming, but because the frame rate is only captured at 30fps, he can't. The software just dup's the frames when he slows it down, ie, when he wants to play at 1/4 speed, he gets each frame duped four times...

Any body know any software the will do the trick?

Encap · Post by **Encap** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:03 pm

Has he tried Premiere? Adobe programs are usually pretty good about not having built in restrictions.

Rocketdork · Post by **Rocketdork** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:40 pm

No he hasn't, but since it is for work, we can't go the "archive" route of obtaining it...it would have to be a purchase. The cost of playing is just too high without knowing for sure.

Post by **miftah** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 5:10 pm

Since this is a big part of what I do, what I can tell you is that I don't know of anything over the counter for his needs. Editing is another matter - apps-a-plenty there (expecially AfterEffects) will allow you to plug in your own specific framerate. But as for capturing it from the camera to the computer that's another, more complicated matter. Its only compounded by the 24/30 frame rate standards that TV and films use. Not a lot of uses for higher frame rates than those. I wish I knew what to tell you. Other than that, I'd call an equipment vendor and put them on the task of finding a solution for him (which most will do joyously when they have a product that will do it).

bugfreezer · Post by **bugfreezer** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 6:35 pm

I probably won't be of much help, but what sort of camera is it, and is it film or digital?

What if you can somehow suspend the whole timestamp thingy altogether and just focus on frame-by frame capture - you say that he runs the cam @ quarter speed (I assume that it is the slowest that it goes?), can anything else run the media? It would depend on the media the frames are captured on, but its a thought.

Rocketdork · Post by **Rocketdork** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:59 pm

Thanks Miftah, I'll have him call the vendor of the camera and ask them about software that will keep the frames...I suspect that they have an idea, even if it is their software, I mean why put the capability into the camera if there isn't anything out there that will let you use it?

Bugz, I guess I wasn't very descriptive, its not the camera playing at 1/4 speed but the edited video. It does it the same way that most apps do it when they only have 30 fps, it just dupes each frame so that he video slows down...if you slow it down to 1/4 speed, it puts 4 of each frame in succession and things slow down, but if you go to far it gets choppy. The problem is that the camera shoots much faster than 30fps, but on import into Pinacle software it just grabs at 30fps...he even called pinacle...

I'm not sure of the exact model of the camera, but its a digital Cannon. He records onto a monstor Mini type card (the events he is getting are short lived) then just puts the card into his PC and reads it directly, much faster than the real time capture through a firewire port.

Post by **miftah** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:22 pm

Ugh, Rocket, I misunderstood.

If he can get to the raw files from the camera on the card, and provided they come in as a DV format, then they can be directly output as .mov files (saving with dependencies) and then directly imported into AfterEffects. He'll set the new composition with the original framerate and AfterEffects *should* respect the original framerate. However, somewhere along the way, he's going to have to downconvert the framerate anyway. Whether he does that in his editing software of otherwise, and the reason is simple: The means he has to show his video work is limited to devices that display video, at the most, at 30fps. So getting, editing and massaging clips in a higher framerate is all well and good, but if they are to have a more practical application, then he really ought to just convert them anyway. HD probably has more complicated formulas I haven't gotten into yet, but broadcast standard anywhere else is 29.96. Max.

Hell, it's still 24 in the EU.

If he's working in slow motion, or time lapse somehow, then the higher frame rate is to be preserved prior to editing. If not, then give up the extra frames when you start to edit. They're just more data anyway (and more than likely imperceptable to the eye). Old school photography-based animators work in 12 fps. Mickey never seemed choppy when we were kids and there was a reason for that.

Of course, this is all theoretical as he'd made his first mistake little further upstream. He's editing on a Windows box. This is all much easier on a mac.

Rocketdork · Post by **Rocketdork** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:21 pm

Thanks again Miftah.

I'll give him the info.

He wants to do slow motion on the events, so he wants to preserve the high frame rate until its time to put the movie to a viewable format. That way he can go really slow to show the event and its still smooth. Currently it gets choppy around 1/4 speed.

I know it would work better on a Mac, but well, they don't give us those at work. The guys in the graphics dept have some nice ones, but this guy is just doing testing...so he doesn't rate high enough to have one...