Liquid - Share your experience - Tips & Tricks

Why AVCHD?

moodman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:49:30 GMT

I am at a loss to explain it, so maybe the combined wisdom here can help me with this question:

Why is it that almost all the consumer and prosumer cameras have gone to the AVCHD format? I know it looks better in the specs (because it presumably has more pixels than HDV), but it also has less Mbps, yielding, on average, a lesser picture quality than HDV. In addition, HDV uses the MPEG2 codec, so it is more natively compatible with DVDs.

So other than a marketing ploy, what's behind all the camera makers lining up and supporting AVCHD as the supposedly de facto standard for the next generation camcorders?

In a related question, why has firewire gone away? I saw nothing wrong with it, and many reasons to keep it around. But trying to find an AVCHD camera with firewire is impossible. I have looked, they just don't exist.But why?

Any tips from Liquid users on how best to convert 1920x1080i AVCHD to intermediate formats?

JKoch — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:46:10 GMT

I have posted a thread in the Studio forum relating to material image quality loss I encountered when, using Studio and no other tool, I exported 1920x1080i AVCHD to a 1440x1080i HDV2 file, edited that, and then exported to a Blu-ray image. Since Liquid users must convert AVCHD to HDV or HDV2 in order to edit, perhaps they have encountered problems like I did and might offer advice about how to transcode with minimum loss. I know that one technique is to convert to the Panasonic P2, as an intermediate codec, but might that result in exactly the same problem?

Thanks for any comments or experiences.

No 1920 x 1080 picture on Second Monitor

Seamus Byrne — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:08:44 GMT

Currently, I'm working on two projects in AL 7.2.

Project 1 is HDV 720p 25fps which shows a picture on my second monitor.

Project 2 is 1920 x 1080 50i which does not show a picture on my second monitor. It was shot on a PAL Panasonic HDC HS300 in AVCHD 1920 x 1080 50i mode (HA quality). Files were transcoded from AVCHD to MPEG2 using AVS Video Converter. AL 7.2 opens the files perfectly, but can't seem to display them on my second 19" VGA Screen (1440 x 900).

I've set the Video Output to display according to the Screen's resolution, but no joy. Also according to the Video resolution - no joy.

I can't use Main Concept's AVCHD Transcoder for Panasonic because it requires the Camcorder's AVCHD file structure. This does not exist anymore because the files are on my computer (captured with Panasonic's own software) and gone from the camcorder's hard drive.

Interestingly, the Video Properties of the footage on the timeline says that the video is not interlaced, though the Timeline Properties are set to interlaced.

Any suggestions how to show the picture on second VGA screen are very welcome!

Seamus.

Son of Show your Liquid Stuff...

LewS — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:19:23 GMT

One of the most popular threads on the old Avid forum was Show your Liquid stuff. That thread had almost two million views. So, knowing a good thing when we see it, let's do it again. Post you latest, greatest Liquid creations here for the world to see. You will need a server to link to as before. Let the posts begin....

Lesson Learned--MultiCam Synch

FIMoore — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:25:44 GMT

OK--Another learning experience on my part that I'll journal and hopefully save someone the pain I experienced.

I recently did a series of 2 camera recordings for promotional/instructional videos. Each of the 3 videos were to be about 20 minutes long, and ultimately distributed together on a DVD. The speaker had asked that I do what I could to remove stutters, repeats, uhhh, umms, and the hard swallows and coughs that come after 20 minutes of speaking. No problem said I.

Since they were 2 camera sessions, my intent was to log them as camera 1 (audio) and camera 2 (no audio) and use Liquid's excellent multicam feature to edit it down. I began using multicam as usual, but found that the number of clean-ups was more that I had expected, and it became clear that it was going to be easier just to use timeline cuts instead of multicam (you would have to see it to fully grasp the challenge). I abandoned multicam.

So I got it all edited, everything rendered, applied a de-esser on the audio, created titles, reviewed the videos on a TV via BOB and thought I was done. That's when I found that the sequence would not export in any way--Liquid would consistently return an error that it was "missing media." These errors were captured in the error log too. Through experimentation, I found that the errors were related to the fact that the video captured as camera 2 (no audio) was the culprit. There was nothing that I could do to get it to export--no changes of audio presence in the properties, no setting of mark-in and mark-out to avoid the suspect video, no toggling of the track audio icon--nothing.....well, nothing except logging the tape again to include audio. With the refreshed video, I had to replace all camera 2 slices.

The lesson learned--once you start down the multicam path, designating which camera has the audio during logging, you must stay the course. Make your decision early as you are bound to it. This cost me about 3.5 hours. My error.

AL7.2 to BluRay - Any updates?

steamage — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:24:10 GMT

Hi Chaps,

I've not been around much recently, so when the question of what software to use for making BluRay discs came up the other day, I thought I'd better search the archives first. I found several threads on the subject, but all a year old, or more. Most people at that stage were recommending DVDit Pro HD, though there were one or two mentions of Adobe Encore and one recommendation for the TMpgEnc authoring program. Surprisingly, I didn't find any mention of Studio as an alternative for BluRay production.

Anyway, my question is, how have things moved on in the mean time? What new programs, or new versions, have appeared in the last year or so and are they recommended?

(I was hoping that Media Chance, the makers of DVD-Lab which I've used for DVDs for several years, would come up with a BluRay offering, but no sign of such a thing yet.)

Thanks in advance.

Are You Using Vista 64? Read this!

moodman — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:41:34 GMT

I have been using Vista 64 business for some time now, and from time to time my optical drives would disappear. I read the article in this forum detailing the reasons for this, and Microsoft even tells how to fix the problem. Something about upper and lower filters in the registry, etc.

But the bottom line is that this issue is only one of many in Vista that need to be "fixed" Therefore, Microsoft, without much fanfare, decided to release a program that takes care of all the little "problems" that are in Vista. The program's name is Called Microsoft Fixit, and you can read about it and download it here:

http://support.microsoft.com/fixit?fi=50027#tab0

I can nl longer fix my optical drive problems with the upper and lower filter fix (why I cannot say) However, whenever the problem pops up (which is every time I burn a DVD), I run Fixit again, and the drives come back.

This problem has something to do with SATA drives and Roxio, Nero, and various other DVD burning softwares that use the "Rapid" software at the core of Liquid's DVd burning engine.

8mm or 16mm Film Capture

SanD — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:29:48 GMT

Okay, this may seem like an odd question to some of you, but here goes....

Would anyone know what equipment I would need to capture or transfer 8mm and 16mm film to Avid Liquid Pro? I have the capture box for Avid Liquid Pro. I also have a Dazzle Video Creator 150 capture box. In this high tech world it would seem that somewhere on this planet there is a devise that I can pop the film reel into and connect to either of these capture boxes and caputure the film. I can transfer from VHS really easily. Is there such a beast?

How can I do this in liquid?

Supermeatball — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:00:47 GMT

If I put some text on timeline white letters and a black background.

Then put a lens flare underneath.

How do I make the lens flare light pear though only the letters.

As if I take a black piece a paper and cut out the letters in the middle and shine a flash light behind the paper.

Thanks Mike

tip - stretching the luminance

yon — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:44:46 GMT

This may be obvious, but maybe someone will find it useful

While trying to improve the image quality of a clip, I found that simply by stretching the luminance of an image I could vastly improve the way it looks

I did use the color correction editor here and there, but most of the correction was with the base color correction playing with the luminance - pushing the black down and the gamma up.

here is the original (posted previously in another thread)

http://www.vimeo.com/5428910

and here is the fixed version

http://www.vimeo.com/5628916

Do you see an improvement, or did I over do it ?

Balloon Ride

DStone — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:07:51 GMT

A couple of weeks ago, they were doing tethered balloon rides at a local farm with the Re/Max balloon for a charity event for the schools. I was planning to doing just the home-video shoot for the family, but while there I got into a conversation with on of the real estate folks running the event. The result being that the video may end up on their website (and It may lead to some future jobs). So here it is; single camera, no tripod/monopod/steadycam/script/preplanning. Still, I think it's a pretty decent result. Shaky scenes (lots) were post-processed with Deshaker.

Re/Max Ballon Ride (720x480, 64Mb WMV)

Re/Max Ballon Ride (320x240, 24Mb WMV)

SD to HD for Multicam

fidel47 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:30:34 GMT

We videotaped a show using 3 HD camcorders (M2V files) and 1 SD (AVI files) for backup purposes. Now that we want to use Multicam with the 3 HD tapes, we found out that the SD video tape has good footage, and we want to use it as the 4th camera in multicam.

Multicam option in Liquid does works only with one format.

First question: Is any option or any way to convert the SD tape to HD in order to use it in Liquid with multicam?

Second question: after Multicam is completed how can I save this final file in order to be burned on a BD disc on another video editor. (Liquid does not have this option)

Thank you

When downconverting HD/HDV to SD, use DVCPro50!

DStone — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:16:28 GMT

I just finished up a major project that mixed HDV and SD onto a SD timeline for DVD production. And I was very unhappy with the downconvert from HD to SD from within Liquid. I didn't have the time to play around with it, so I had to use the default settings. I'm now seriously considering re-doing the entire project.

What's happening is that when downcoverting from HD to SD, you end up with a rather pixelated result. This is very obvious when looking at colors that tend to bleed (e.g. birhgt red). This is a combination of CODEC, bitrate, and color space. Sometimes it's not obvious at all, and sometime it's extremely distracting. I'll post comparison shots tomorrow so you can see a clear example. This has been reported by several other users recently as well.

There's an easy solution for this. Use the DVCPro50 CODEC instead of DV for the SD timeline. This eliminates the pixelation at the expense that the final video is twice the size of DV video.

Hope this helps.

Changing the real-time effects to use Linear interpolation by default

DStone — Sun, 24 May 2009 00:40:31 GMT

There have been a number of requests for a way to make Liquid use Linear interpolation rather than Bezier interpolation for the RT effects editors. Here's a way accomplish this.

Double click on a RT effect editor in the library (for example the 2D Editor CPU effect). This will open the effects editor with the default A and B "V" image in the monitor. Collapse all of the parameter blocks and then expand a parameter block for which you want to use Linear interpolation by default. The reason for collapsing all of the panels is to simply the keyframe graph. Let's say you want to make the position use Linear by default. Expand the Position block. This will display the X and Y position lines in the graph. Because they both start at 0, you can't select both lines in the graph. Change the X and Y positions to different values so that you can see the separate lines. Right-click each line and choose Interpolation->Linear. Set the values back to 0. Close this parameter bock and repeat for each other parameter you want to change.

Now click on Exit. This will pop up a question asking if you want to save the edited effect in your project. Choose Yes. This will place the effect in your bin under the New FX rack. I suggest renaming the effects in this rack to reflect the changes (e.g. 2D Editor CPU - Linear). When you want to use linear by default, drag this effect to your clip instead of the one in the library.

Hope this helps.

Lesson Learned--Color Correction Editor

FIMoore — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:31:27 GMT

I was handed a DVD with an hour-long .WMV file of a teacher working in front of a white-board, and was asked to create an introduction and titles. No problem said I. I imported the .WMV into Liquid, and found that if I created an .AVI file, imported it, and edited it rather than the .WMV file, things went much faster. No loss of quality was perceived.

This was obviously shot on a consumer grade camera by someone with only rudimentary skills. At least it was on a tripod--but the zooming made me seasick! Something did not look right on the color, and all the tweaking I could do with the color editors just did not seem to make things right. I knew that Liquid had a powerful tool in the Color Correction Editor, but it sure would have been nice to have a reference clip to match hues against. That's when I had an epiphany! Make one!

I created a color clip--a circular gradient with the 1st color being black, and the 2nd color as white. After importing it, I opened the color correction editor, set the gradient clip as the reference, and using the 3 point hue tool, referenced the white papers she was holding to the white center of the reference clip, the black frame around the white-board to the edge of the reference, and the gray--well I got lucky as the wallpaper was gray--so I selected a gray between black and white (center and edge) and adjusted it more to the center or to the edge of the reference clip till the color was just right.

While not spectacular (it was a consumer camera), the color are greatly improved. Another lesson learned--don't doubt liquid!

HDV Tapes or AVCHD cards or P2 cards or SxS cards?

Laffal — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:27:10 GMT

Hello Everybody,

I would start working with HD codecs and I should change my actual Camera (Canon XL2).

Which one described in subject you would advice me to buy? And my actual setup could work well with HD files?

Thx a lot & Best Regards

SD Motion Backgrounds to HD

flip1943 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:54:49 GMT

I have an extensive collection of motion backgrounds I bought a few years back from a designer called Anthony Hottle. They are PAL SD .mov files. I've tried importing them into an HD timeline but they don't size up in 2D sufficiently to be able to go full screen. My query is whether I'm missing someing in Liquid or if there's another way around the problem. The loss of quality wouldn't be a problem for me because frankly they're too sharp for my use and I always had to blur the backgrounds.

If the answer's a fat No then I'll sell them on eBay to someone who's still working in SD. They're useful backgrounds so that would be the last resort.

Perhaps someone could remind me, If I have to sell them I know I can't place a link here to an eBay lot but can I mention here that they're there without breaking the rules?

Wedding Party Video

evangary — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 06:23:10 GMT

OK folks, here is a video of the wedding party intro for a friend's wedding that I shot. I normally do NOT do weddings (or shooting in general), but I did this since the bride is a friend.

I used After Effects for the video and Liquid for the opening screen. The bride loved it - and we all know that is what matters the most.

http://www.digitalmemoriestn.com/credits/

evangary

Your workflow experience

flip1943 — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:32:09 GMT

I was talking by phone with another forum member who's in the same line of work about the way we organise our workflow, specifically the organisation of imported/digitised files/material.

It turns out we both do roughly the same thing, namely create a folder on a non-OS drive with the name of the client and endeavour to store all relevant files (other than renders which go to a third dedicated hard drive) in this folder. The idea is that when the commission is completed and we've archived the files we want to keep, we can delete the folder or even re-format the entire disk as appopriate.

This seems to be at variance with the way Liquid encourages us to work which appears to be that we put all imported/digitised material into a media folder/disk and only keep the renders separate.

Assuming I've understood correctly I can see advantages in doing this, except when it comes to deleting material ready for the next job/season.

May I ask what other people, especially wedding people (who probably have similar business patterns as me/us), do in this respect and what their views are?

Music copyright question

arkansasdude — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:41:02 GMT

What do any of you do when it comes to obtaining permission to use a particular artist's music in creating a video for a client?

Lesson Learned--Save the Sequence!

FIMoore — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:40:38 GMT

I was editing a video that had 7 seperate sequences. Somehow, one of the sequences became corrupted and while it would open, anything done on the timeline would cause AL7.2 to freeze, requiring me to dump the application via the Task Manager. All other sequences were fine, and there were no other indicators that there was a problem other than with this one sequence. Experience tells me that the 1st step to recovery is to delete the render files, but how do you do that when any activity on the timeline causes the freeze-up?

The answer my friend, is not blowing in the wind, but is in the trash can. Right-Click on this baby and you get a couple important and useful utilities, including one that deletes all the render files in a project. This saved the project, and the time to rerender all the sequences was miniscule to the time it would have taken to rebuild the sequence.

"I love trash!" Oscar the grouch.

Importing frapsed video into Avid Liquid.

Redbanshee — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:16:24 GMT

greetings, everybody. I am an addicted World of Warcraft fan and a video editor at local TV studio. I used to make in-game movies using Adobe Premiere but now i desided to try Avid Liquid 7.2. The problem is - fraps footage isnt inporting correctly as it used to do in Adobe. All i see in Avid is good old green screen. I got K-lite codec pac installed (if its important), so i came here for some advice and help. Thanks in advance and sorry for rusty english, I am from Moscow )

Video editing side business - advice sought

arkansasdude — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:46:34 GMT

I have been editing with pinnacle studio (and now liquid) for a total of about eight years and am thinking about doing some video editing on the side. I plan to only offer editing services for video shot by the client. I will not being shooting any of the video myself.

I would love to gain from the wisdom of others who have been down this road. Specifically in the following areas:

Contract - does anyone have a sample contract for editing-only services that they would be willing to share?

Original footage - are there any video formats that I should NOT agree to attempt to transfer and edit?

Pricing - what is a good rule of thumb to determine how long it will take me to edit the raw footage into a unique video (ex. three minutes of editing for every one minute of raw footage received)?

Website - I have nearly finished work on a website that will have information about me, the process, basic cost structure, contact info. and video samples covering several different categories (wedding, group highlights, individual highlights, photo montage, etc.). Any words to the wise here?

Client Review - would it be wisest to meet with the client in person to review & discuss possible changes before producing a final product, or is there a safe way to allow them to view a draft online (without fearing that my work with be "stolen" from me before final payment is made)?

Final product delivery - I was thinking of delivering the finished product on DVD and also providing an avi file which the client could upload to Youtube, Vimeo, etc. should they choose to do so. Thoughts?

I'm sure there are other issues that I have not yet thought of - any and all advice given will be appreciated! Thanks.

Hobby Money?

irishdigitaldiver — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:32:39 GMT

Still believing that capitalism will be ok and wanting to make some extra money, I was thinking of offering my video services to other people. I have done a few jobs, shooting, editing and authoring the footage but this has been just people I know asking me to do it, rather than me advertising it. But I am wondering what do you offer, as in editing, video production start to finish etc etc. Just to get some ideas myself.

Many thanks

Daniel

Nice realtime tiled background

Smetvid — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:25:14 GMT

The other day I finally found a decent use for the replicate gpu filter. This filter used with video is pretty cheesy and useless but I finally found a perfect use for it. I should have thought of this before since I do this all the time when I texture 3D models.

1. Load a tileable image. You can make your own in Photoshop or Gimp. You can also search the internet for tiled textures. They used to be used a lot in web pages and you should be able to find thousands of them on the internet.

2. Scale to fit your project settings.

3. Add the replicate gpu filter and choose your desired tile amount.

This gives you a nice tiled background to use in your video or DVD menus. You can build up a nice library of images to use and it is a very fast way to quickly make a nice background. Better yet you can load images and designs with alpha channels to overlay over another background image. This will create a nice pattern overlay and you will be able to very quickly create some neat design patterns for backgrounds. You could also use video clips but they must be tileable or animated objects with an alpha channel for an animated pattern.

The best part of all of this is that even bad small images could be used for even HD projects.

Example:

1. Create a nice title in TDK Pro. Make it very large. I used a company name with a logo.

2. Add replicate and tile it 10 times.

3. Drop a nice color background below that title layer.