I'm Missing Something..... Twixtor w/ FCP 7

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I'm Missing Something..... Twixtor w/ FCP 7
by Josh Winstead on Mar 15, 2012 at 10:10:24 pm

I don't know if I'm just missing something or that stupid (probably the latter) but at any rate, I bought the standard Twixtor plug-in this morning and here I am 6 hours later... ready to throw the computer out the window.

I can not, for the life of me, figure out how people create these stunning, smooth, perfect slo-mos. Is there a COMPLETE tutorial or instruction somewhere? I know you have to be shooting in 60p, shutter on, etc. the raw material was shot correctly and I am working with it in FCP 7 correctly (ProRess422, 60fps). I followed the tutorial vids that are on the company's site but all of my slo-mos are ghosting badly, choppy and look like crap.

What am I doing wrong?

I create the "work sequence" that holds the clip
Nest that into my main sequence
Add Twixtor
Adjust the parameters to the appropriate settings:
- Motion Vectors: Best
- Image Prep: Enhance Contrast/Edge
- Motion Sensitivity: Tested on everything from 10 to 100
- Frame Interp: Motion Weighted Blend
- Smart Blend: ON

But the video is still ghosting, warping, etc. There are some panning shots, still shots, wide shots with a fisheye, so I have a lot of different visual elements.

I've read about people creating Mattes and stuff, but I can not find anything that demonstrates or talks about what needs to actually be done to make these work with Twixtor.

Thanks for your help

Pic 1: Obviously the skis are completely messed up

Pic 2: This is a VERY simple, stable shot and he snaps his fingers... his fingers are blurry like the skis in pic 1.

Pic 3: The bottom of the flag is doing the same as the skis in pic 1

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Re: I'm Missing Something..... Twixtor w/ FCP 7
by Peter Litwinowicz on Mar 16, 2012 at 1:07:39 am

When there is a lot of motion, or things coming in from off screen, Twixtor can have a very difficult time tracking. I don't think you are doing anything "wrong" per se but have shots that are problematic for Twixtor.

I believe the pictures above demonstrate 3 differing problems:
1) the skis are probably moving very fast and Twixtor is having trouble figure out where the are from frame to frame
2) You have two problems potentially here: black finger on black background/jacket (very difficult) OR you have something behind the fingers become visible (or being obscured) that makes it very difficult to figure out where those pixels are supposed to go between two frames (if some part of something disappears, or appears, from frame to frame, it's very difficult to figure out where those pixels are supposed to go!)
3) I presume this came from offscreen, or is moving fast. And this is very hard to track. Even if it's neither, you still have the obscured (or appearing) background issue, causing Twixtor to have a difficult time.

We highly suggest you read this to understand more: http://www.revisionfx.com/support/faqs/generalfaqs/how_do_I_get_the_most_ou...

The complete manual was installed upon your disk when you installed the product (and we open the Finder location where the manual is installed). If you can't find the manual, reinstall (no need to uninstall first).

Our tutorial on mattes is located on our help site... did you not see it? We don't describe how to make the mattes, just how to use them in Twixtor. They are here on the COW too: http://library.creativecow.net/tutorials/revisionfx

Pete Litwinowicz
RE:Vision Effects, Inc.

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Re: I'm Missing Something..... Twixtor w/ FCP 7
by Josh Winstead on Mar 16, 2012 at 2:23:11 am

Pete,

Thanks but I the matte vid didn't help me one bit. I've handled a lot of Mattes in the past and I've used them a good deal but I can not figure out how they work WITH Twixtor... Where do you put them? Are they a separate file I have to render out to use as source files? Do I have to go through and map the motion in the shot of the skis moving across the shot, frame by frame?

And if I am understanding what you are saying correctly, the Regular version is pretty much useless for any decent amount of movement where slow motion is required? Unfortunately I am not a big post-house, I'm one guy who works full time... so I can't afford to drop more cash on the Pro version at this time, plus all of the other little extras that it requires to make this thing work.

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Re: I'm Missing Something..... Twixtor w/ FCP 7
by Peter Litwinowicz on Mar 16, 2012 at 7:57:11 pm

[Josh Winstead] "Thanks but I the matte vid didn't help me one bit. I've handled a lot of Mattes in the past and I've used them a good deal but I can not figure out how they work WITH Twixtor... Where do you put them? "

Put them in the clip for FG1 Matte in the Twixtor Pro settings (not Twixtor). And I presume you read about how they are used from the Twixtor Pro manual that I pointed you to yesterday (even if the tutorial didn't help you out).

[Josh Winstead] "Are they a separate file I have to render out to use as source files? Do I have to go through and map the motion in the shot of the skis moving across the shot, frame by frame? "

yes, the are a separate file that you have the make yourself (frame by frame) and render. This is one of the reasons we offer the cheaper "regular" version of Twixtor, in case you will never use those features.

[Josh Winstead] "And if I am understanding what you are saying correctly, the Regular version is pretty much useless for any decent amount of movement where slow motion is required?"

No, I'm not saying that at all. People use regular Twixtor all the time for very good slow mo. However, knowing when Twixtor will work well is why I provided the other link yesterday on "how to get the most of Twixtor."

Pete Litwinowicz

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Re: I'm Missing Something..... Twixtor w/ FCP 7
by Pierre Jasmin on Mar 17, 2012 at 12:05:20 am

In case make sure if you have 60P to watch this tutorial:

http://library.creativecow.net/freitag_lori/twixtor-fcp-frc/1

it makes a huge difference

And avoid fast motion near the camera

Pierre

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