Aftereffects Keying problem
 

Ok, shot some footage with the some relatives on a greenscreen.
Did a quick matte around her and then keyed out the light.
Every so often I loose the footage, just turns black. And this happens without the key or matte... is there something up with footage in aftereffects?

I export from FCP to prores 422 HQ, then work in After Effect. Tried once working with the MPEG4 file without any problem but I don't think it is reliable.
Your problem may be somewhere else.
What is your plateform ? Versions ?

This sounds like an issue (ongoing) that I have with some plug-ins and the GPU. Maybe a lack of VRAM, maybe a quirk of the software. I see this with a couple of keying plug-ins for Final Cut Pro.

I'm using DVmatte Pro at the moment, just rounding off a job with 40 mins chromakey from XDCAM-EX 1080p25 - nary a problem there. Try the same thing in Zmatte, I get the exact same thing you report.

I've done lots of re-interlacing work in AfterEffects (admittedly version 6) on my XDCAM-EX 720p50 footage - again with nary a problem. Methinks the sudden blackness is ever so slightly plug-in/VRAM/hardware GPU related (in my humble and uninformed opinion).

I re-imported the footage... same black screen about 2-3 frames randomly *but as high frequency as each second*

I rendered out a couple seconds of where it was on the screen and everything was fine on the render... so I guess it's a gpu problem... can't imagine it being a RAM issue *have 8gig in there*

show off ;)

yes, this is a known issue. After effects and XDCAM MPEG GOP footage just dont work together. There does not appear to be a fix. I didnt realize this until after I had color corrected my last short in AE only to find i couldnt render without black frames. I ended up having to do CC in Premiere which is not ideal. There are posts on various forums about it, and adobe has not addressed it yet. I imagine it will likely be fixed in AE CS4. too bad though, means we need to transcode any XDCAM footage before bringing it into after effects.

ive asked convergent design if they will have the same problem with the Sony MPEG GOP footage recorded by their XDR/nanoflash. they are getting back to me.

My trouble with EX1 footage in AE only happens on my Mac, go figure.

I don't get black frames, my video actually jumps frames. It does it both on my Mac Book Pro and my Mac Pro.

On my PC, it renders fine.

Hopefully AE CS4 will fix that.

If I render out in uncompressed QT out of Premiere first, it works fine on Mac and PC. However, it's a pain because I can't use my typical workflow to color correct stuff in AE.

AE and EX1&3
 

We've shot a half dozen green screen shows and the key in After Effects is fast and clean and painless. H.264 is the key to the universe, guys.

I do a lot of green screen with EX1 footage, and I'm using the footage that is used in FCP from the camera.

I'll set up the basics elements in FCP for timing, then media manage to get rid of any unwanted footage. I keep it in the same format and codec as the original files that are imported from the camera.

It's then exported to AE via Automatic Duck.

Import into AE, then use Primatte to do the keying. Haven't had any problems and AE is using the same XDCam EX format files as in FCP. No conversions.

I have even mixed background plates shot with a Panasonic HVX with EX1 footage, and the key came out just fine. A fan is used to blow the model's hair to add to the illusion of her being outdoors, and Primatte is capable of holding the fine stray hairs for a perfectly natural look.

I'm working with After Effects CS3. Mac Pro 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core) with 10 GB RAM. ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB RAM.