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Sleepwave1992
Sleepwave1992
Participant
January 19, 2019
Question

Trouble with imported clip lagging and distorting

  • January 19, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 1426 views

I have seen similar topics on the subject but none of them seemed to address my specific problem.  I am fairly new to After Effects and am in the process of importing a handful of clips into a project.  All of the clips are from the same source and of the same format however, a few of them bug out when I import them and attempt to view.  I have attached a video as that seems to be the best way to describe my problem.  Any help is greatly appreciated.

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    2 replies

    Sleepwave1992
    Sleepwave1992Author
    Participant
    January 20, 2019

    I have viewed the original clip which plays back fine outside of after effects.  I then ran it through the media encoder and converted it to the codecs you reccomended(Prores & cineform). However, the converted clips wont play back correctly inside after effects or even on their own outside of after effects.  It is strange that it is just this one clip out of several that is behaving this way. 

    R
    Community Expert
    Rick GerardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 20, 2019

    Production formats like CineForm and Pro Rez may not playback in a media player in real time. There is nothing wrong or unpredictable about that. After Effects may not play any comp in real time unless you make sure that the preview has rendered. The length of the preview that will playback in real time depends on system resources. You can increase the length of a preview by setting comp resolution to auto and magnification ratio to 50% or less. You can also have the preview engine skip some frames so you can evaluate the motion in the frame.

      R
      Community Expert
      Rick GerardCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 20, 2019

      Some screen capture programs record to a very odd custom format that can be difficult for AE to decode. I would strongly suggest that you transcode the footage to a suitable production format. MP4, H.264, and similar formats are not suitable for production. Use the Adobe Media Encoder.

      imeilfx
      imeilfx
      Inspiring
      January 20, 2019

      I would also add that some free screen capture programs have not to many codecs to chose from and also beginner even does not know how to change codec in screencap software. So sometimes it is raw uncompressed file and if tjat is the case - HDD is to slow (to slow because in the same time is running os etc.) to play it back without lags.
      So first thing would be to check if those lags are only on playback side of things or clip was recorded that way. If it was recorded that way - there is nothing you can do besides rerecording. But if it is playback issue - do as Rick said:
      a) import your video clip into AME
      b) chose good intermediate codec (prores, animation, cineform)
      c) convert to that codec
      And after that import that newly converted file into AE

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