Detail preserve or other solution?

[stefanocps]

hello everybody

first thing i would like to say that ae is 95%unknow to me!

I always wanted to learn but i never get the chance to start to div ein

Now i have a problem that require AE to save me other then reshoot a scene!

i have this clip

where the detail of the card are not clearly readable even at full screen. I tried somne uspcaling but till 130% not very good

So i have been told to try Detail preserve or may be play with VFX

I am trying the first ..i don t see real improve actually. Someone can suggest me some good settings?

Also i am trying to understand how to render as the clip is really choppy with effect on

Other solution, which could be the best is VFX..

I know is something much deeper..does anyone feel like drive me thorugh?

thanks a lot!

[Rick Gerard]

If you want to be able to read the card the actor is holding then your best option is to reshoot the card being held in his hand. The original footage simply does not have enough detail to get a really readable card. Even though this is only a close up of your screenshot I can tell that the footage is not very sharp to begin with.

Transferring that shot into AE and using detail preserving upscale may help a bit but the upper limit is probably about 150% and it doesn't do very well when there is very little detail to work with in the first place.

[Roei Tzoref]

can you show us high quality still frame of this shot? or maybe the whole shot? how good is good enough? you can probably improve this shot in post by placing a new card on top with some compositing work but we need to see the shot. if you enlarge the footage 120%, but make the card with bigger more readable fonts, I think this could work. it all depends in the story of course.

[stefanocps]

well this must be read clearly!

tell me exactly what shall i post please. this is a shot detail that last around 10 seconds

i can post either amge or the high resolution video!

[stefanocps]

also..i forgot to say..the card is present in other scene..so the card cannot be changed!

[Roei Tzoref]

well this must be read clearly!

zooming in the shot above 120% will look bad. as for the card, if you have it in high quality from another shot, you cut it out in photoshop, and place in Ae on top of the original instead and that's the most you will get. if that's good enough, then share your shot - produce a high quality H264 and share it here, also share the card in the best quality you can find. we can see if with some compositing magic this shot could be saved. if nothing works, there's always subtitles

[stefanocps]

of course you cannot rely on the image aboce as it was low quality...i am going to post the clip in a while

[stefanocps]

here it is..i put the link to the file so i bypass the compression of youtube

www.counseloraroma.net/giulia.mp4

[Roei Tzoref]

o.k here it goes.

I tried using mask tracker to track the box. you can do this with premiere too BTW. after the mask was on the box roughly, I added an unsharp mask filter

then on top of that I used detail preserve upscaling and scaled the whole shot 180%.

this requires trial and error. could be decent, could be not. you decide. if re-shoot is really a problem, I would try and save this shot or pay someone who will. it looks fine to me but with compositing it could look better. all depends on how critical you are about this.

test #1:

giuliatest1.mp4 - Google Drive

test #2:

giuliatest2.mp4 - Google Drive

Project File:

ScaleDetail.aep - Google Drive

[stefanocps]

great! this can be enough

i don t un derstand the difference bewtween test1 and test2..can you explain me?

so in order to get good in this method i ask you to explain me better the workflow

i sustitute the clip in ae

THEN I create a mask for the part i need

then add unsharp mask filter

now the unsharp mask filter apply only to the mask ..is that correct?

eventually the detail preserve

so if i need to upscale w ahole part of clip i can apply the unsharp mask filter to the whole image before adding the detail preserve..is that correct?

anyway the work for this issue is good enough for me and it is a great learning!

thanks a lot!

what i would like to start with VFX (and possibile if you vcan drive me thrugh the learning  )is for this

the image on the right has a clock stating 6:59

i would like to set it at 7:00 to match it withthe mobile phone on the bed

As you see on the left image 7:00 appear after a little while..

you feel like to guide me?

thanks a lot indeed!

[stefanocps]

i am trying to work on the preserve detail following your project

i don t know why in your project i cannot see on the clip the mask point

in my project after creating a mask around the card, and having it moving along the clip

i added a unsharp mask effect then the preserve detail

but now when i scale...the mask i created is not anymore in the card..being affected frome te scale

[stefanocps]

ok for the latest issue solved..the mask visibility was disable..now i can see your mask and i see the same thing..with upsaling the mask is not anymore on the card..but it doesnt matter then..it will affect the card  anyway..so good

i start to understand properly this procedure

i d like to know if i use it the same for the whole clip

..also i see you have set a lot of trackin point..one for frame..did you set it manually??long job!

[Roei Tzoref]

don t understand the difference between test1 and test2..can you explain me?

just tried different noise reduction method. probably not noticeable due to the H.264 second compression. you will see the difference in full quality in your monitor.

you do have the project file, remember?

about the mask on the card workflow:

forgot to mention I set up the compositing options for unsharp mask effect so it will use the mask. this way the effect is only applied in the masked area.

its even more straightforward in premiere. add an unsharp mask filter and draw a mask and the effect automatically attaches to just the mask part

then you can track the mask. in premiere the controls are right in the effect controls, in Ae - you can right click on the mask and choose track mask

and a track window will open up for the mask tracker

after you track successfully the effect will follow the card. now you can add an additional filter on top of that with the preserve detail up-scaling. 

mask tracker in Ae: Using the After Effects Mask Tracker

mask tracking in premiere: Masking and Tracking in Premiere Pro

detail preserve upscaling: Using the Detail-preserving Upscale effect in After Effects

as for the watch switching, this could be easy to pull off in Ae. but we need to see the shot - new thread!

[stefanocps]

ok great few more questions

you suggest yo mask and use the unsharp effect in premiere instead of ae? what are the advante/disadvantage?

i see you track frame by frame..do you adjust the mask on each frame individually?

last

if i want to upscale the whole image do i still need to use the unsharp mask before?

thanks a lot!

[Roei Tzoref · Accepted solution]

you suggest yo mask and use the unsharp effect in premiere instead of ae? what are the advante/disadvantage?

I just feel more comfortable in Ae, but the main reason is I wanted to use also the preserve upscale all in one setup. if I did this in premiere, I would have to jump to a few hoops to make both apps work on the same footage each with its own effect .

i see you track frame by frame..do you adjust the mask on each frame individually?

absolutely not, what you see there are baked kayframes of the tracker. the tracker does this automatically when it tracks and creates a keyframe every frame.

if i want to upscale the whole image do i still need to use the unsharp mask before?

you don't have too, I just wanted to use two filters since upscaling effect wasn't enough. so the first effect is the unsharp mask applied to a moving mask on the card, the seconds takes this whole things and scales it using the preserve detail feature of the detail preserve effect.

[stefanocps]

great

sorry i don t understand properly the 2 answer

how the automatical key frame work

my procedure was this

i set at starting point..create a mask and the key frame

then move forward adjust the mask then again move forward and adjust..

so is not this the correct way?

[johnb52243184]

The Detail-preserving Upscale effect in After Effects does a great job at scaling up footage without losing too much quality.

You can use it in Premiere pro via Dynamic Link.

There's a short tutorial here on how to do this:

Premiere Pro - Detail-preserving Upscale - YouTube