Interlacing/fields driving me mental....

[raw-m]

I have a broadcast project to do. I have my LW animation which I'm rendering out with field Even/Upper first (as set in Camera properties). I then bring my animation into After Effects. I can see that every other line has that interlaced look so I choose "Separate Fields: Upper Field First" but instead of getting a beautifully crisp render it looks like I separated fields out of an image that doesn't have any - I get wonky edges (see attached). I'm confused 'cause my LW renders do have fields!!! I've not had a problem like this in After Effects before so I'm guessing it's a Lightwave issue(?) which is why I've posted here.

Has anyone else had this problem, is there some secret LW setting I've missed!?

[CC Rider]

I personally have never had any luck rendering fields out of LW. I normally render out full frames (image sequences, not animations...never animations!) then import to AE. If I need interlaced frames for the final project I'll let AE take care of exporting final interlaced frames.

Works for me anyway...

:)

[raw-m]

Thanks CC Rider, yes I'm using image sequences. I started to do that but I'm getting weird results when comp'd with other qt elements. When checking back a render in Premiere, for instance, the qt footage is fine but the LW stuff looks like it has fields. I swop the Field Options "Processing Options" to None and I get the reverse effect. grrrr

[raw-m]

Update, I think I'm happy! I've found that in Premiere, under Field Options>Processing Options, if you choose "Flicker Removal" then everything seems to play nicely with eachother - I hope there's a similar setting in FCP as that is what it'll end up on :-)

My conclusion is don't bother wasting your time rendering fields from Lightwave - it's pants!

[CC Rider]

What a pain!
Are you saying you have quicktime components within the same comp as the LW components that look okay where the LW stuff looks bad or are these separate clips? How is the Quicktime footage "interpreted" in AE?
Walk us through your pipeline for the quicktime clips. Did they go through AE using the same export settings as the LW sequence? Did they come from another source?

[CC Rider]

My conclusion is don't bother wasting your time rendering fields from Lightwave - it's pants!

True dat!!
:D

Also, check out the "Anti-Flicker" adjustment in the Effects Settings palette under Motion. I sometimes have to use a setting of 0.4-0.5 to smooth things out that come from LW. Using this setting will give you a little more control...

[raw-m]

Ah, great tip, thank you!

If it's any use (this is all mac based which may eliminate a couple of issues (or add considerably more in LWs case!!)), an edit is exported from FCP, I pick it up and put it in AE setting it to Upper Field First. Looks good. I work my occasional magic in LW, exporting a psd seq (no fields) and add that to AE (no need to separate fields here). All looks good. Comp LW on top of QT, add additional and colour grading bits. All still looking good. Render a QT from AE using Upper Field First in the Render Settings Module. Open it up in Premiere for inspection - looks a bit interlacey on the QT elements, OK on the LW stuff..... after trying all options under Field Options>Processing Options.... happyness!! I'm no expert on this matter but I would have expected it to either all look interlaced (rather than the odd element), or not(?).