importing from Premiere, formats

[alaskavideoguy]

I've been using Premiere to edit DV footage for some time now. I'd like to start trying some video effects. I have a version 4.0 of After Effects and if I like it I'll upgrade to the newest version. My question is probably basic. I capture to Premiere thru firewire and edit totally in DV. After Effects doesn't support DV. Do I have to convert my footage to something like Windows avi files to work with them in AE? If so, are they of the same quality as the original DV files? When I export them back to my Premiere project, they will have to be reformated back to DV for export to tape. Does this constant conversion degrade the original file footage or is AE like Premiere in that it doesn't touch your original footage, it just makes a file with a "place holder" for all of the editing you do on it?

 

[fox6design]

When using after effects, I capture video (usually) as .avi... although ALL final renders turn out as .mov (Quicktime). Dont ever compress video too much in the beginning... use "Animation" or no compression at all. It takes up more room, but minimal compression is a must at first. AE will take the footage no matter what, and while pre rendering or "test rendering" with sorenson compression saves time, render your final product to .mov (Quicktime) with Animation compression at best quality. This is tough for most computers to play, but primo for DVD. Its also broadcast quality.

 

[johnnytheboy]

After effects will accept certain types of DV. what codec are you using to capture? I use a card called Canopus DVStorm which captures DV footage as .avi so dv can be natively .avi format.

It isn't true that ALL final renders from AE end up as .mov files. It depends on what settings you specify at the output render settings stage and poosibly what operating system you are on. I'm on Windows 2000 and have the ability to output anything from DVStorm codec through to Animation or Sorenson, filmstrips, image sequence or, and often most usefull for 'nesting', uncompressed with alpha. I could go on but won't - I think you get the idea.

In other words you should be able to import your DV footage into AE. Check a couple of things though - are you capturing as 'reference avi' - that is when you capture to a file that refers to other smaller files which are seemlessly pieced togather allowing for much larger than the 2 gig limit, and check what Codec you are using (right click and go to properties)

Let me know how you get on.

John