Twixtor Premiere Pro Examples.

NOTE: You need Twixtor 4.0 for these examples. You will also need Premiere Pro.

Important: These tutorials assume you have read the manual that was put on your disk with the plugin upon installation.

Before opening the project examples, make sure to move the movies from the SourceMovies folder into this folder (make sure the movies are in the same directory with the Premiere projects, otherwise Premiere may not find them).

General Notes for Premiere:

For any Premiere projects using Twixtor:

- If using interlaced material (either as input or output or both), please see our FAQ on setting up Premiere projects: How to set up host applications for RE:Vision Effects products that work with fields.
- If you are planning on slowing down footage, please see our FAQ on how to set up Premiere projects that will be extending the duration of an input clip: How to set up host applications for RE:Vision Effects products that make sequences longer.
  To summarize:
- Make sure the Field Options for the clip (within Premiere Pro settings) for the clip to be processed is set to "None."
- Twixtor 4 now pays attention to Premiere Pro's project settings with respect to fields. Twixtor creates interlaced material in a Premiere Pro interlaced project and creates progressive material in a Premiere Pro project set to create progressive material (to pre-Twixtor 4 users: no longer do you have to create all Twixtored material in a Premiere Pro progressive project).
- If working with interlaced materia (either as input or output), make sure the Monitor window of Premiere Pro is set to view at 100%.
- IMPORTANT: A plugin by itself cannot extend the duration of a layer or sequence it is applied to. If you are making the duration of a piece of footage longer you will first need to put your footage in a sequence that is the correct final duration. Makes sure this intermediate sequence is extended to the correct final duration with valid frames (To "trick" the Plugin into producing a frame for ALL of the extended sequence). This is a necessary Premiere Pro workaround. Each frame must be unique, or Premiere Pro will not rerun the plugin on each frame. As such you cannot use the Black Video video generator. We suggest you use the built in Universal Counting Lead (see the Premiere Pro manual) , which will create a new and different frame at each point in time (although you can use any piece of footage that changes every frame to pad out the sequence) Now apply the plugin to this intermediate extended sequence inside of another sequence. Having different input and output frame rates using the plugin is not supported by Premiere Pro.

1_Make4xInDurationInterlaced
2_Make4xInDurationProgressive

Shows you how to take footage and make the footage four times as long. Note that you need to set Twixtor's Input:Fields setting to "Lower Field First" as well. Also note that we've created an interim sequence that is extended to the final duration sing the Universal Counting Lead. 1_Make4xInDurationInterlaced is a Premiero Pro project set to create interlaced material, so interlaced material is created using Twixtor's interpolation methods to create each field. Similarly 2_Make4xInDurationProgressive is a Premiere Pro project set to create progressive material, so progressive material is created.

3_KeyFrameRemap

This sample project shows how you might keyframe the time remapping for a more dynamic effect. Note that in the comp DynamicRemapSpeed that the Time Remap Mode setting is set to Speed and we animate the Speed% setting. In the comp DynamicRemapFrameNum note that the Time Remap Mode setting is sett to Frame Number and that the FrameNum setting has been animated.

4_WorkingWithEdits

This sample project has a piece of footage that is being slowed down by a factor of 5. Note that there is a hard cut in the source footage and a dissolve transition. In the comp ProblemShown you can see the problem of interpolating between the frames of the hard cut. You can also see tracking problems in the retiming of the dissolve (you can see flickering movement that shouldn't occur). It's "obvious" that these transitions should be marked so that Twixtor does not interpolate inappropriately across the transitions.

In the comp MarkSegments you'll see that we've marked the start of the first cut by setting Twixtor's Src: Mark Segments to Cut A. Then we've animated the Src: Mark Segments menu setting and set it to Cut B at the start of the cut between the first and second segments. No motion interpolation or color blending between frames is used when Twixtor creates a retimed output frame that is between Cut A and Cut B. For the dissolve transition we'd like Twixtor to create dissolved (blended color) inbetween frames, but with no motion interpolation. Retimed output frames created from dissolve transition can be created this way by setting Src: Mark Segments to No MV: Frame Blend.

Note: To reinforce that Src: Mark Segmentsshould be set and animated in the original timing of the clip or composition being retimed, Src: Mark Segments can only be set when Twixtor's Display setting is set to Source.

5_TrackingProblem

This sample project shows how you might provide keyframes for the Motion Vectors parameter when there problematic frames for Twixtor. We apply Twixtor to a sequence and time stretch it by a factor of 3. In "Problem Shown" you can see that the hand coming across the face drags around parts of the face that shouldn't be warped. Also, the hand is not tracked properly because of the face behind it and inappropriately stutters upon retiming. So we demonstrate how to fix the problem using 2 different methods:

1. In the comp "Key Motion Vector Quality":The sequence starts with Motion Vectors set to Best, but there is a section where the hand comes across the face that is problematic for Twixtor. We have set Motion Vectors to No Motion Vectors for the problematic area, keeping Frame Interp set to Blend. This effectively turns off motion tracking and warping and produces results that defaults to simple frame blending (just like AE does by default). We set Motion Vectors back to Best when the problematic area is exited.
2. In the comp "Lower Motion Sensitivity": Instead of explicitly turning off the motion estimation as we did in example 1, we adjust it down by setting Motion Sensitivity to 20 (down from 70). This reduces the amount of movement each pixel can make (and it's influence on surrounding pixels), effectively eliminating the "gloop" (however, the background face and head does not track nearly as well).

6_SmartBlend

This sample project shows the difference of using Smart Blend on a sequence with significant movement at the edges of a moving sequence. With Smart Blend turned off we see significant smearing at the edges when one of the frames is warped to match the other. With Smart Blend turned on we see this problem disappear.

Rule of thumb: turn Smart Blend on when there is significant motion at the edge of the frame.

Twixtor PRO examples

7_LayersExample

This sample project shows how, with Twixtor Pro, you can use a layer mask to separate foreground and background for even better results when an object in front passes other objects in the background through the use of a layer mask.

Note that in the sequence "3x, FG matte used with Twixtor Pro" that Twixtor's FG1 setting points to Video 2 (where the foreground separation matte that is to be used to tell Twixtor Pro where the foreground layer). Note that the visibility icon for Video 2 in Premiere has been turned off, so that it doesn't obscure the Video 1 track, but that the FG1 and source sequences for Twixtor Pro are aligned in time. Even though Premiere isn't displaying Video 2, Twixtor Pro can see it internally for its calculations.

8_ThreeLayersExample

This sample project shows how, with Twixtor Pro, you can use multiple layer mattes to separate several foreground elements for even better results when an objects pass over each other.

The composition "Problem Shown" exhibits what happens with regular Twixtor with no layer separation. Note that objects passing each other tend to gloop against each other.

The composition "Multiple Layers with Twixtor" exhibits how a better result can be obtained by supplying mattes for the two foreground objects.

For you to do and notice:

- Because we've separated the footage into layers, we get better results by expanding the default motion sensitivites of the layers from 70 to 100 (which lets the motion estimator search for greater movement).
- Switch the Display setting to FG1 Twixtored or FG2 Twixtored or BG Twixtored to see each layer Twixtored by itself.
- Note that the matte for FG2 is created for the whole object (the cat head) whether or not it is obscured, and not just for the part that is visible.

9_TrackPointExample

This sample project show how, with Twixtor Pro, you can get better results by guiding Twixtor the use of a few judicial Track Points.

The composition "Problem Shown" exhibits what happens with regular Twixtor with no manual tracking guidance. Note that the object on the left is ghosted in the Twixtored result.

The composition "Twixtor Pro w Tracking Pts" shows how you can guide Twixtor. in this case with 3 tracking points.

For you to do and notice:

- Note that the Use menu for for Track Points 1, 2 and 3 have been set to "Main_BG"
- Note that the bad tracking has been greatly enhanced
- To see the Twixtor's track points, set Display to Source. When in this mode you can see that Twixtor draws all of the points being used. Make sure to animate Track Points when Display is set to Source.
- Note that we've changed the Warping setting to Forward. We've done this because we've added tracking guidance, and Twixtor's retiming generally works better with this setting when tracking guidances has been given.
- Because we've helped with tracking guidance, we've set the Motion Sensitivities to 100.

10_TrackPointsAndLayerExample

This sample project show how, with Twixtor Pro, you can get better results by guiding Twixtor the use of a few judicial Track Points used in tandem with Twixtor's layer separation feature.

The composition "Problem Shown" exhibits what happens with regular Twixtor with no layer separation. Note that the result is very unsatisfactory.

The composition "Twixtor Pro w Tracking Pts" shows how you can guide Twixtor. in this case with 1 tracking point per layer.

For you to do and notice:

- Note that the Use menu for for Track Point 1 is set to "FG1"
- Note that the Use menu for for Track Points 2 and 3 is set to "Main_BG"
- Note that the "glooping" has been removed
- To see (or animate) the Twixtor's track points, set Display to Source. When in this mode you can see that Twixtor draws the mask being used to guide Twixtor.
- Note that we've changed the Warping setting to Forward. We've done this because we've added tracking guidance, and Twixtor's retiming generally works better with this setting when tracking guidances has been given.
- Because we've separated the image into layers, and because we've helped with tracking guidance, we've set all layers' Motion Sensitivities to 100.
- Is really important is to note the track point guiding the background: it guides the background movement while the foreground obscures it (particularly note where the track point is for the second source frame of the sequence). thus guiding the motion estimator through motion that is hidden.
- Note that the FG1 Inv Matte Choke has been set to 1. Set it to 0 and RAM preview the sequence; notice when set to 0 that a ring of the foreground is left on the background as it is Twixtored.

Copyright 2000-2005 RE:Vision Effects, Inc.