–joe

If you have examples of how you’ve used Joe’s Filters please send links.

• There is some wonkiness in the small next/previous links at the top of each page.

Design

• Lists could use some work
• The metatext in the grey bar at the bottom of the page should be vertically centered (only happens when there are no prev/next links).
• Increase margin-top on bodytext h3’s

The interface is similar to After Effects time-mapping functions, the vertical keyframe axis represents the frame to display while the horizontal axis is the current moment in time. Normal speed playback is a straight diagonal line from 0 at the in point to 100 at the out point.

Example Images

Start fast and slow down at the end

FCP Keyframe Graph

Start Slow and speed up towards the end

FCP Keyframe Graph

Start fast and end fast, slowing down in the middle

FCP Keyframe Graph

Start normal, slow in middle, reverse fast back to start

FCP Keyframe Graph

Start fast, slow and reverse in middle, finish fast

FCP Keyframe Graph

Keyframing

To make keyframing easier, I recommend expanding the Viewer keyframe area. Dragging the bottom line of the Frame slider’s keyframe space towards the bottom of the window will stretch it vertically.

To set up the filter for re-mapping time, do the following:

1. Press Shift-I to go to the In Point
2. Click the Keyframe button to add a keyframe here with a value of 0
3. Press Shift-O to go to the Out Point.
4. Drag the Frame slider to 100.

Now the effect is set up for normal speed playback. This line is important because whatever pitch (steepness) it is will be 100% playback speed. Making the line flatter (less steep) will slow playback, increasing it’s pitch (steeper) will cause the clip to playback faster.

Control clicking on the keyframe points allows them to be changed to Smooth points, which adds control handles for bending the curve between points. Below are some examples of what is possible with a few simple curves.

Field Separation

Time Bender can also be used to separate fields, essentially playing back each field as a frame while reducing the apparent speed to 50%. To playback fields as frames, turn off Frame Blending and set the inpoint to 0% and the outpoint to 50% (or any combination which results in 50% between keyframes)

Controls

Frame (1 - 100)

Sets the position of the current frame as a percentage of the complete clip. Zero is the first frame and 100 is the last frame. Keyframing this value results in the specified frame showing at position of the keyframe.

Frame Blending

Blends frames for smoother output motion. Frame Blending is weighted so inbetween frames will lean towards or away from whichever frame it’s closer to.

Reverse Fields

Reverses the default field order when frame blending. The default is lower field first.

Show Timecode

Shows the actual timecode of the currently visible frame.

Timecode Format (Clip Default, 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps-drop frame, 30 fps, 60 fps-drop frame, 60 fps, 16mm, 35mm)

Setting to override the default timecode format and report the virtual frame position in a user specified format.

Additionally this plugin includes two motion differencing options to reduce artifacts from changing areas in a clip. The motion differencing options can be used to isolate and mark moving areas.

Example Images

Original Image

Past Frames: 5 Future Frames: 0 Mask Highlights: No

Past Frames: 5 Future Frames: 0 Mask Highlights: No Motion Difference: All Frames Threshold: 154 View: Colorize Motion

Original Image

Past Frames: 5 Future Frames: 5 Motion Difference: 3 Frame Threshold: 234

Multi-Frame Blending to lighten images

Combining multiple frames of video can also be used to bring out detail from extremely dark clips. Because images are combined from different points in time, this process works best on clips shot with a static camera.

Original Image

Blend Method: Add Past Frames: 4 Future Frames: 4

Blend Method: Screen Past Frames: 8 Future Frames: 8

Multi-Frame Blending and Levels

Another method is to combine Multi-Frame Blending and Levels to lighten the image. Combining multiple frames using the Matte blending method will smooth out the image without changing the lightness values. Using Levels on this smoothed image produces much better results than trying to use Levels on a single frame.

Multi-Frame Blender and Levels Past Frames: 8 Future Frames: 8 Blend Method: Matte Levels: 6, 0.4, 165

Levels only Levels: 6, 0.4, 165

Controls

Frame Blending

Blend Method (Matte, Screen, Add)

The blending method to use for combining multiple frames.

Past & Future Frames (0 - 10)

Sets how many additional frames will be combined into the final image.

PreMultiply (Straight, Black, White)

Straight is a passthrough setting. When combined with Mask Highlights, white or black PreMultiplication will flatten the transparent image onto white or black. This can cause tremendous differences in the blending results.

Mask Highlights

Uses a clip’s averaged lightness as an alpha mask to reduce excessive glowing of bright areas.

Motion Differencing

Motion Difference (None (off), 3 Frame, All Frames)

Chooses whether to generate a motion difference mask for moving areas of the image. Three Frames uses only the current, previous and next frames to generate the mask, All Frames combines all the blended frames together for a more comprehensive motion mask. Note that these settings will significantly increase rendering time, especially the All Frames setting.

Difference Using (RGB, YUV)

Selects which color space to use for motion differencing.

Threshold (128 - 254)

Determines the sensitivity of motion differencing. Higher numbers select more pixels as moving, lower numbers select fewer pixels as moving. Setting the threshold to 254 is very similar to disabling motion differencing. Note that selecting RGB differencing may result in a slightly different colors due to the colorspace conversion.

Soften (0 - 10)

Softens the motion mask to reduce motion artifacting.

Motion Check

View (Merged Output, Motion Mask, Colorize Motion)

These settings are used to preview the motion differencing mask. Selecting Motion Mask will show the current motion mask as a grayscale image, white pixels represent moving areas. Colorize Motion will mark the clip’s moving areas with the mask color. Both of these options require Motion Differencing to be turned on to show any results.

Mask Color, Color Opacity

Used to specify how motion is represented when Colorize Motion is selected in the Motion Check View setting.

Fade With Original

Opacity (0 - 100)

Blends the final image back onto the original. This can be used to fade effects on and off using keyframes.

This effect works by translating a clip’s default playback framerate to a virtual framerate and then resampling fields and frames for playback. Duration is calculated to the field playback rate for smoother motion. De-Interlacing is automatic when the framerate causes fields to stretch across multiple frames.

Example Images

Click to open movies in new windows:

Original NTSC Clip

Frame Rate 24fps

Frame Rate 50fps

Frame Rate 12fps

Note that these preview movies are encoded at 60fps to attempt to preserve their original motion. Because this plugin is made to work with interlaced video, the best way to preview the effect is to download the demo and see them on an external video monitor.

Standards Conversion: NTSC < -> PAL

Some users have reported success using Joe’s Frame Rate Adjuster for translating between PAL and NTSC video in Final Cut Pro. To change from NTSC to PAL, try setting the fps to 50 or 25. Because the filter is field-based, 50fps should result in smoother motion. To change PAL to NTSC, set fps to 29.97.

Interlacing and Still Frames

To create the virtual playback framerate, Joe’s Frame Rate Adjuster makes optimum use of the timeline’s field playback rate. Because of this some virutal frames may exist across more than one field. This results in what is referred to as a ‘judder frame’. These frames are normal and will not be seen during playback.

Mixing Actual Frame Rates

Final Cut Pro’s default behavior regarding unmatched actual framerates may cause unexpected results with Frame Rate Adjuster. When clips with non-matched framerates are inserted into a timeline, FCP automatically interpolates the clips to match the timeline’s framerate. This means that a true 12fps clip placed into a 29.97fps timeline will be processed as if it’s framerate were 29.97. Unfortunately FCP doesn’t do a particularly good job of interpolating these new frame rates. At first I thought this might be a bug, but it’s consistant with other FXScript effects behavior. I’m continuing to look for workarounds and options for standards conversion, feedback is welcomed.

Controls

Frame Rate (1 - 60)

Sets the virual playback framerate for the filtered clip. This value is field-based so interlaced clips can be played back at any value up to their actual field rate. NTSC can playback at anything up to 60fps and PAL playback at anything up to 50fps.

Motion Trail (0 - 100)

Blends the current virtual frame with the next actual frame to help ease strobing and smooth out motion information lost between virtual frames. Setting Motion Trail to zero shows only the current virtual frame.

Without Joe’s Field Fixer many field-order problems had to be fixed in After Effects or corrected with a de-interlace filter. For mis-matched and out of order fields, re-ordering is a better solution than de-interlacing because the video data is fine, it’s just slightly out of order by being offset in time.

Example Images

Reversed Field Order

Upper Field: Lower Field Lower Field: Upper Field

Analog dubs

Occasionally when analog sources are dubbed with non-pro equipment the normal field sequence can spill across frames. Instead of reversed field order, the frames break across fields resulting in mis-matched fields. The following example frame was dubbed from VHS to DV and shows a cut between two cameras existing in a single frame.

Analog Dub Original

Upper Field: Upper Field Lower Field: Lower Field (Next Frame)

When correcting slipped fields, notice the effect of diagonals and curves. Make sure you’re not outputting the same field twice (once for the top and once for the bottom). If there is motion in the frame, the amount of interlace ‘tearing’ may also be a helpful indicator of which fields belong together. While there is a definite set of matching frames, whether you push the fields forward or backwards in time is up to you.

Other Uses

Joe’s Field Fixer can also quickly correct field-order problems resulting from processes which up-res DV to a Kona SDI card, which occasionally result in flopped fields.

Controls

Upper Field, Lower Field (upper/lower field, previous/current/next frame)

Determines the sources for each of the two fields making up the resulting frame.

Important Note about field-based effect previews

All of Final Cut Pro’s field-based effects need to be rendered for an accurate preview. At zoom values below 100%, the FCP desktop preview only shows the lower field of an interlaced video frame and pre-rendered effects use this scaled down, single-field image to preview before rendering.

The controls for Joe’s Field Blender are deliberately simple. The single slider moves from the lower field on the left to the upper field on the right. In DV the lower field comes first, so the slider acts a selector of time, moving between two instants with a fraction of a second between them. On a fast computer, moving the slider back and forth will make moving objects in a frame appear to shift forward and backward in time.

This filter provides results similar to Joel Peregrine’s adaptation of Shawn Bockoven’s Film Look technique. Because this effect uses a significantly faster de-interlace routine than Final Cut Pro’s De-Interlace filter, the same effect can be created in less than half the time. (In preliminary testing, Joe’s Field Blender was consistently 230% faster than the twin de-interlacing technique.)

Example Images

Original Interlaced Image

Blend: 0 Lower Field

Blend: 100 Upper Field

Blend: 30

Blend: 50

Blend: 70

The two interlaced fields of video are either 1/60 (NTSC) or 1/50 (PAL) of a second apart in time. Setting the blend value towards the second field (above 50) creates a motion trail following the direction of motion, blending towards the preceding frame (below 50) results in a motion trail before the image, backwards from how we tend to see and understand motion.

DV vs. non-DV Field Order

DV’s field order is the opposite of most other video standards. The orientation of the Field Blender slider definitions is basically arbitrary so if you are working with non-DV source just reverse the slider’s behavior for the same results.

Controls

Blend (0 - 100)

Determines balance of the two fields in the resulting image. Setting Blend to 0 (right side) it results in 100% of the lower/first field, 100 (left) results in 100% of the upper/second field. Moving the slider adds opacity of one field while subtracting the opacity of the other. A setting of 70 means 70% upper field and 30% lower field. 50% is an even mix of both fields.

Method

Sets the de-interlacing method for the pre-blended fields.

Important Note about field-based effect previews

All of Final Cut Pro’s field-based effects need to be rendered for an accurate preview. At zoom values below 100%, the FCP desktop preview only shows the lower field of an interlaced video frame and pre-rendered effects use this scaled down, single-field image to preview before rendering.