Help me be AWESOME

R

Redshinobi

Hey All,
So I bought a 60D and need some friends to help me make my videos be awesome. I'm overwell with all these lenses and then on the post production side all these plugins for AE. Its nuts. Anyways, if you know of any 60D communities, or would like to drop hints, let me know. I'll send you some links to my work on vimeo. I welcome all feedback.

I guess some of my most pressing request for help on would be video stabilization and noise reduction. Again, I just started and all these tutorials and online videos are leading in circles. haha, so if you want to be my friend holler!

My Gear Consist of: Canon 60D, Tamron 17-50mm VC lens, and Sennheiser Lavier.
Computer: I have a core i7 with adobe CS4 suite. I'm also building HackinTosh for Final Cut, because I saw the demo of their video stabilization, and wow, that would save me a heck of a lot of time!
 
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Buying a Mac just for stabilization? :S
I hope you know anything you can do on a mac you can do on a PC and vice versa.

Here's a list of camera tracking/stabilizing plugins I know of:

Boujou - helps with 3D tracking and encorporating 3D art into your footage
Mocha (Comes with AAE) - Plane tracking, really clean, fast and awesome for tracking effects, text, and other 3D elements
Mercalli - AEE plugin Video Stabalizer with many settings to tweak and play with, takes some getting used to
Foundry Camera Tracker - AAE plugin for camera tracking again for incorporating 3D elements
Built in stabilizer in AAE itself - Comes with AE, basic stabilization can be pulled off with this tool

Save your money.
 
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sina12345 said:
Buying a Mac just for stabilization? :S
I hope you know anything you can do on a mac you can do on a PC and vice versa.

Here's a list of camera tracking/stabilizing plugins I know of:

Boujou - helps with 3D tracking and encorporating 3D art into your footage
Mocha (Comes with AAE) - Plane tracking, really clean, fast and awesome for tracking effects, text, and other 3D elements
Mercalli - AEE plugin Video Stabalizer with many settings to tweak and play with, takes some getting used to
Foundry Camera Tracker - AAE plugin for camera tracking again for incorporating 3D elements
Built in stabilizer in AAE itself - Comes with AE, basic stabilization can be pulled off with this tool

Save your money.
Click to expand...

I would point out that he said he's building a Hackintosh, so he's just reformatting his PC to use Mac applications rather than buying a whole other Mac...

But on the whole I would agree. If you can do it on a PC, what's the point of going to the bother of converting over to a Mac?
 
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I work in a computer related field so there's an abuntance of computer lying around at work that i can turn into a HackinTOSH. :D

You know thought that to. But im finding it hard to stabilize with AE. you have to mount a point and that point has to be in the video the whole time.

I saw this vid online where final cut shows you the shake parts of the video and then you just click stabilize... sigh... believe, i dont want to use a mac.

anyways if you guys know or have links on a good way to do stabilization i take it! haha. i've been google searching and its giving me a headache. So much info out there... i wish BING could solve my problems like the commercials portrays but sadly....
 
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You know thought that to. But im finding it hard to stabilize with AE. you have to mount a point and that point has to be in the video the whole time.
Click to expand...

The point doesnt have to be in the shot the whole time. you can track multiple points and parent them together. Refer to this tutorial. It can explain it much better than i can. I find AE amazingly easy to track in.

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/set_extensions/
 
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I just recently invested in a 60D as well, and don't regret it. I'd suggest the 50mm prime 1.8, it's only about $100, and while it's not perfect, it's a good jumping off point
 
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Goobs, thanks for the link to the tutorial. I will be using it.

To back up the OP, I have a friend who is primarily a PC guy, and he told me he was absolutely floored by the ease and effectiveness of image stabilization in FCP.
 
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Hackintosh is a bad idea for final cut. Expect lots and LOTS of crashes...

I used The Foundry's tracker for the first time today and its amazing. Made my set extensions a breeze. 15 day demo, then if you don't want to buy you can rent a license for a few bucks a day, sweet!

Any info you find on the t2i, 7d and is most cases 5d will apply to your camera. It's all pretty close, very few differences. Since the 60 is still new, chances are you won't find quite as big a community around it yet.

Post is the wrong place to be doing stabilization. Sure, you need to fox a shot now and then, but it's like 102892 times better to shoot it right. Spend our money on physical "stabilizers" like tripods, sliders, shoulder mounts, jibs, dollies etc.
 
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@goober thanks for link. i've been doing some of those tutorials. I guess i haven't got to that one yet haha.

@paulgriffith Thanks for the tips. yeah i'm going to have to invest in some stabilizing equip. The stuff is so expensive tho X_x But then the tracker license is just as bad.

@alcove for sound i have a buddy that helps out.. he went to school and uses pro-tools. Right its just on me to have some decent videos for him to post process. :P
 
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Redshinobi said:
What about noise reduction pluggins? Anything that you guys could suggest?
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I'm assuming you mean audio NR? All of the below come in various flavor$:

Cedar

Waves

iZotope RX

BIAS SoundSoap Pro

Digidesign DINR

Sonic Solutions NoNOISE

WaveArts Restoration Suite

TC Electronic Restoration Suite


They're all pretty good. iZotope RX 2 is currently the low budget favorite, RX 2 Advanced is AWESOME for it's mid-range price. Waves is the big budget favorite and Cedar is the forensic audio favorite.
 
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I endow thee with awesomeness, there will be a small fee.

But seriously, practice practice practice practice...

Right now, if you have your camera handy. Shoot the BEST footage you can of your computers mouse.

Make me laugh at your mouse, make me fear it, make me want to touch its smooth .. whops.. going to far there.. you get the idea. Its like any skill\art, you have to work at it, there is no "awesome movie" plugin' (though some come pretty close!)
 
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Thanks yall!
@alcove actually i was talking about video noise... I am messing around with the ISO so that it doesn't get so grainy but sometimes wish there was just a little more

@wheatgrinder i did feel a little more awesome after lunch but that could the chipotle chicken sandwich haha

and sorry, i can't post pictures of my mouse. It's shy. haha
 
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Redshinobi said:
Thanks yall!
@alcove actually i was talking about video noise... I am messing around with the ISO so that it doesn't get so grainy but sometimes wish there was just a little more

@wheatgrinder i did feel a little more awesome after lunch but that could the chipotle chicken sandwich haha

and sorry, i can't post pictures of my mouse. It's shy. haha
Click to expand...

Video noise can be reduced to some extent with the built-in noise reduction, but it is preeeety CPU intensive, so fix it, pick a handful of frames through out the footage, make sure its all right, then turn it off until you're preview render or final render.

Also Mercalli as I mentioned before is a very good stabilizer for shaky footage, so check that out.

You don't really need a plug-in for every effect/proccessing you'd like to achieve, built-in noise reduction I find is more than enough to get the job done.
 
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wheatgrinder said:
.................
Its like any skill\art, you have to work at it, there is no "awesome movie" plugin' (though some come pretty close!)
Click to expand...

Haha, you got it wrong: it's called 'Make Cool Movie' ;)

There's a Magic Bullet noise reducer. (Check the Red Giant Software website.)
I don't have it, but I think Magic Bullet Looks and Colorista are good plugins, so I would guess their noise-reduction should be good as well.....
(They also have a tracker to stabalise footage.)

My question is: why is your footage shaky?
You can render forever to try and fix it, but maybe you should try to shoot steady instead. (It will save you a lot of time and frustration.)
Get a good tripod and/or a camera-shoulder-support, if you just can't shoot steady from the hand. Practising a lot will probably inprove you steadyskills. Training your arm, shoulder, belly and backmuscles will increase the load you can carry (and reduce the 'tension-vibrations'). Breathing with your belly instead of your chest will decrease breath-movement of your hands.

About the noise:
at what ISO do you shoot?
More ISO = more noise.
Lighting up underexposed footage in post = more noise
Good (enough) light = less noise.
Fast lense = less light is needed (but you'll have less DOF as well.)

Maybe this helps you on your quest for awesomeness :cool:
 
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Oh. So like I said, i have a 60D with the Tamron 17-50mm lens.. ok so here's the question, i bought the VC version which is stabilization. Now the non VC version is $200 less. Does the VC do anything for video? bc that is all i use it for, videos.
 
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