#Broadcast animations
13 messages in this thread
I have a 26 sec. animation that I did in Animator Pro. The client
requested it on videotape, so I recorded it through an NTSC converter
box to VHS tape. The client loved it, but it turns out now that the
animation is part of a 7 minute segment for broadcast on TV in
December. I was not told this initially. The studio the client is
using said that they can't use the VHS tape, and they want the me to
provide them with Betacam. The client called me, and I gave her some
references that can do an SP dub. (Why the studio can't do the dub
themselves is beyond me). I now have concerns about the quality of
this piece when broadcast. I wonder if it would be better to send
Targa frames out to a studio and have them layed out directly on
Betacam instead of getting a dub of the VHS tape. The studio the
client is using says that they think the dub will be fine. This is a
640 x 480 x 256 animation. My questions are as follows:
(1) can a Betacam SP dub of a VHS tape be good enough for broadcast?
(2) if the client should call in a few days and ask me to try the
Targa idea, I'll have to back the 366 animation frames out of Pro
using Numpic. I assume this will create 256 color .TGAs. Is 256
colors good enough for broadcast quality? Is the idea of laying the
individual .TGA frames down direct to Betacam worth doing? Is this,
in fact, how I should proceed if the client wants better quality than
the SP dub?
(3) is the 640×480 size a problem for broadcast? I know there is an
NTSC "safe zone". The VHS tape I made does not get clipped off
anywhere when played on both 19" and 26" TV sets — even though the
client's logo does stretch all the way across the screen. When doing
an animation for broadcast TV, what is the best size to use in order
to stay in this "safe zone"? Even though my VHS tape seems fine, will
the full screen size be a problem when it goes to TV?
As you all may have guessed by now, the client wants to incur as
little expense as possible. I have never prepared an animation for
actual TV broadcast before, and would like to know what the general
guidelines are, etc. I understand there are NTSC "forbidden" colors,
and I did run the NTSC filter over the background in Photoshop before
I composited it into the animation. I would appreciate any help ASAP.
Thanks!
I thought that I would share a few thoughts that I had regarding you
message. I am an Architect doing modeling, rendering and animation
and have been in a similar ( yet different ) situation with a client
wanting to broadcast an animation. Unfortunately, I couldn't even get
to VHS then, so it became a moot point. But now, I can, and have
learned that I really wish I could do even better, but oh well…
Anyway. I digress.
>I have a 26 sec. animation…
I also wonder why the studio can't do the dub.
>(1) can a Betacam SP dub of a VHS tape…
The dub will will indeed be "broadcastable", but the real issue is
whether or not the client ( and equally as important, you ) will be
happy with the final result. I would guess that the dub will show
little generational loss if it is played on a high quality source
deck when recorded to SP – a higher quality format anyway.
>(2) if the client should call …
Again, its as much a matter of what you will be pleased with. If you
had originally rendered to TGA files, it would be an easy thing to
do; but if you're like me, its a FLC from the very beginning. So, the
question might be, would it get any better in 24 bit color? You could
render a few widely spaced frames, compare them, and perhaps it will
still look as good as intended. I would definitely compare the two
before comitting to re-rendering.
>(3) is the 640×480 size a problem …
You might check it on a 13" TV as well, just to see what a smaller
screen is going to crop. If it is ok on the VHS tape, it shouldn't
change when it gets dubbed. The "safe zone" can be considered to be
about 10% fo the screen area – which didn't mean a thing to me when I
read that. But, I have been ultra-conservative and limited it to
about 25 to 30 pixels all the way around. So, say 580 x 420 as the
smallest working area.
>As you all may have guessed …
There is a color palette for NTSC in AniPro in the asoft forum, it
should be a good starting point. Finally, I would at least try to
mention to the client that the SP format is an additional service,
and try to encourage them to spend a little more _if_ it is in their
best interests – the quality of single frame recording to an SP deck
is undeniably better, but it is an excessive (+-) cost.
I wish you the very best and hope that it opens up avenues to more
exciting work!
Thanks for your reply. I looked at the tape over again on a 19" square
TV, and the only part that even gets closed to being clipped off is
the far right edge of the client's logo. It's all there, but is right
to the limit on that side. Other than that, everything looks fairly
centered. I usually record to this 19" square screen TV and as I'm
working on things that go to videotape, I try to make sure that
everything is centered properly by having the image on the screen as
I'm working. That way I can also check for weird colors, etc. You
mention a 13" TV — gee, can't find one of those around anywhere! I'm
going to have to trust that the client's studio will indeed let me
know if the Targa thing should be done, but I was quite thrown off by
the fact that they can't do the dub themselves. This sent up a red
flag. This animation, although very short, will make a nice portfolio
piece when recorded off the TV program. I hope it doesn't end up on
the cutting room floor, although the client told me that they
definitely want to use it. So we'll see. My concerns are that when
broadcast, something will get clipped off, or the quality will be poor
and grainy. I only wish I had been told at the get-go that this was
going to be part of a TV segment.
Well, best of luck, and keep me informed fo what you learn, if you don't mind.
Don
Hi Maura,
Gee, who are those TV people. Yes, they will look down their noses at VHS, but
we do this all the time.
They need to put the VHS machine through a "frame-shaker", a TBC, or in
layman's terms, a Time Base Corrector. Then they need to put the signal from
the TBC through a DVE (Digital Video Effects machine) or an ADO (Ampex's
version of a DVE) and pull it up just a bit to get rid of any head switching
and abnormal horizontal blanking. If they have none of the above, they have an
interesting low-rent post house and shouldn't be looking down their noses.
If they are really low-rent and you have to solve the problem, you need to fine
someone with a PAR and 3D Studio, which will be you next lowest cost solution.
In the future, it is not particular colors that are the problem in NTSC, but
saturation and luminance. For reds and blues you want no more than 70%
saturation (75% on the outside) and for whites, yellows and cyans you want no
more than 90% luminance. As a general rule you want no more than 70% saturate
for all colors and you should be fine.
The TBC also fixes the color problem. It can adjust blacks (7.5 IRE), overall
video level and color saturation and hue.
Now let's discuss the issue of safe action and safe title area. Safe action is
the center 90% of the screen and safe title is the center 80% of the screen.
The example for safe title is as follows:
640 x .20 / 2 = 64 pixels of border on each side of the horizontal
480 x .20 / 2 = 48 pixels of border on top and bottom of the vertical
resolution
—
|
48
|
|-64-+——512——-+-64-|
|
|
|
384
|
|
|
+
|
48
|
—
This holds true for any resolution, 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768. I naturally mean
that you will be changing out the 640 and the 480 in the formula.
And, and, and for horizontal lines, you want to make them as absolutely three
pixels thick at least and preferably antialiased.
Bryce Whiteside
CF/X Image, Inc. at the big red stick animation outpost down south
Thanks so much for the info. It really helps. The client had the VHS tape
output to Betacam SP. The studio told them it would be fine. I have my doubts,
but… The client's logo takes up most of the 640 horizontal area of the screen
in the final shot, but when I played the VHS tape back on both a 19" and 26"
TV, it wasn't cut off. Hope that holds true for the final version when
broadcast. The client is on a very cheap budget. Since I would like to use this
as a portfolio piece and tape it as it's broadcast, I hope they don't botch it
up totally!
Bryce,
Please note that a "Frame Shaker" is a Frame Synchronizer — not a Time Base
Correcter (TBC).
Modern Frame Sync's incorporate TBC's and Processing Amplifiers (Proc Amps)
into the same units.
A device labeled a TBC is not a full fledged frame sync. Most modern TBC's also
incorporate Proc Amps .
Bruce N. Goren
Bruce,
Well spoken and leave it to a broadcast engineer to make the distinction. I
know you are trying to keep everything absolutely accurate here on ASOFT.
Like you said, modern Frame Sync's incorporate TBC's and Proc Amps. We often
call the same unit a Frame Sync or a TBC depending on what we are primarily
using it for a the moment. But yes I stand corrected on the finer points of a
modern "Frame Shaker".
So what is next on your review plate?
Bryce W.
The November issue of TV Technology should be out any day now, my
review of TMorph3 was scheduled to be in there. Beyond that there's a
stack of stuff circling my computers in a holding pattern, but I'm
not certain when or what will be next.
If you have access to 3DS/PAR?Beta, the flic and be used as a
background in 3DS and rerendered directly to Beta very quickly. You
might do a test to see what distortion is introduced when you render
to 752×480, which is the full frame PAR resolution. You can also
render to 640×480 and have black edges.
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I don't have 3DS. I'm using
Caligari Truespace as my modeler and 3D animator, in conjunction with
AA Pro. Truespace is very affordable and powerful for the $$$. Maybe
some day I'll be able to afford something like 3DS…
Hi Maura.
safe zone
there are 2 "legal" def of safe [SMPTE recommended practices RP
273 – iff you realy care!<g>]
90% for action –
80% for text
I made some pencil marks on computer monitors bezel
draw diagonal lines from corners
make 2 squares 80 & 90 % of your 640×480 pixels (you do the math <g>)
get the corners on the diagonal lines
stay inside boxes!
hot colors/illegal
they may not look bad on preview first copy – but bleed in later
generations or thru editing
go to color palette
switch to HLS
saturation is last
all colors shoud be less than about 75% (of 255 – you do more
math!)
I think there is a poco program on libray that helps make
wholesale desaturation of pallets – DESAT.POC, but may be more trouble than you
need.
Whites to greys aren't realy saturated.
if you ran NTSC check – you're probly ok
dubbing studio should have waveform/vector scope to check – ask
any time a copy is made of tape it goes down in quality. even going to "better"
type.
however if dub studio has TBD and cares they may be able to tweek
things so its ok
most Broadcast houses don't have any thing as low as VHS – many reasons – but
it just is.
If your FLC is in good shape and you have machine that it plays smoothly on
[in AAPLAYHI]
then all you need is "good" video card
best is one that puts out component (vs NTSC) so can
get dumped real time to BETA SP like some targa cards
one of the service bureaus should help
if it plays unevenly – motion is jerky then frame accurate is help
You don't have to go to sequential tgas!
there is utility called FLITAPE comes with anipro
should work with at your service bureau
Your client may need education in cost vs value.
If client wants stuff on TV , and wants it to look good – then needs to pay
price for all your work.
generaly due to lack of experence
I have had clients that knew difference, but were trying to get me to pay for
it (in work)
if you find your customer doesn't appreciate the value, and refuses to
accept education then find new customer.
dave
Thanks for the info. I stayed away from reds — the one area that has a little
red in it, I used a dark red brown. When I played the VHS tape back on my TV,
the dark red brown looked like a nice red, but didn't appear to bleed. I wish
the client had told me from the outset that this was going to be broadcast…
oh well, maybe next time. Their budget is almost nonexistent for this. I guess
I will find out on Dec. 4 how it all comes out…