Technology Sneek Peek: Adobe® Mercury Playback Engine

[dradeke]

Hi guys,

Been working on this blog post for what seems like forever.  I hope you enjoy it.  Please be sure to post comments there and not here...or at least if appropriate post in both places. 😉

http://blogs.adobe.com/genesisproject/2009/11/technology_sneek_peek_adobe_me.html#more

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Dennis

[Harm_Millaard]

Yeah, those were the days with Dennis, Karl and Mark and numerous others to help us out on that great forum. Let's hope it will be an integral part of PR, like Encore. And let's hope the MSL's (1 thru 4, and possibly 5) will be included as well.

[tclark513]

Chuck A. McIntyre wrote:

I took a closer look at the video and noticed that "Ultra" is built into Premiere CS5. That is great news. Formerly Serious Magic's product, Ultra is simply the best keying program I have ever used.

Really?  Even better then Keylight?

[Harm_Millaard]

I would not say better, but different. Ultra gives you fabulous results with little effort. In difficult circunstances Keylight may even be better but much more time consuming with a far steeper learning curve.

[Chuck_A__McIntyre]

Just to be fair, I just tried Keylight again on one of our new systems. Keylight drags along a lot of extra baggage as a plug-in in After Effects. Although it is easier to use than before on our new high-end systems, I'm still unable to get as clean of a key as I can with Ultra on a less than optimal green screen test file. When I get some time, I will check out a keylight tutorial. That may hold the key to a better result. no pun intended.

[tclark513]

Chuck A. McIntyre wrote:

Just to be fair, I just tried Keylight again on one of our new systems. Keylight drags along a lot of extra baggage as a plug-in in After Effects. Although it is easier to use than before on our new high-end systems, I'm still unable to get as clean of a key as I can with Ultra on a less than optimal green screen test file. When I get some time, I will check out a keylight tutorial. That may hold the key to a better result. no pun intended.

videocopilot.net will give you one of the better tutorials...

[Chuck_A__McIntyre]

We have two interns at work. One is a SCAD graduate and the other is attending SCAD. The one who is currently attending SCAD finished a two year college related to film and video production. He said that he learned more about After Effects from the videocopilot.net tutorials than he did during his entire time at this two year college (before attending the Savannah College of Art and Design).

The other night, my wife and I were watching a show on DVD where a blue sky with white clouds was placed behind a woman with light colored hair. The show was put together in late 97' and the green tint around her hair was obvious. I pointed it out to my wife, and told her that it would bother me personally to let something like that go out the door.

I was able to get a result with Keylight in After Effects comparable in quality to Ultra by using Pre-Blur, clip black and white and bouncing back between the different views. It really helps that our new machines can now run After Effects so it provides a decent preview without the lag.

[Powered_by_Design]

even when watching TV news you can see how good or bad the keying is when watching.

I havent played with ULTRA for awhile but I got my copy back when Serious Magic still owned it.

I wonder if they will bring back the Virtual Sets.

I cant wait to see how it is inside of premiere.

I always loved how easy it was to key in ultra when you took the extra time and shoot a total blank screen that could then be keyed before the talent came on.

Maybe they added more functions too.

We can only dream.    not to much longer.

Enjoy:  Glenn

[Curt Wrigley]

Keylight requires a complete understanding of AE matte techniques; which is its strength.  With the AE mattes and keyframing you can pull off keys Ultra cannot do as Ultra's matting capability is very basic.

Keylight: Powerful, flexible, capable; but complex, steep learning curve, very slow to render

Ultra: Easy to use, forgiving of bad light and operator, FAST to render; but limited in matting/keyframing abilities.

[dradeke]

You've summed it up nicely.

Dennis

[Chuck_A__McIntyre]

Curt:

I visited The Foundry Website. The Keylight page offers some great information about properly using the Plug-in for After Effects. I was able to get a good key on a clip that was not lit well at all. To me, Keylight seems easy to use. The fact that it's used in motion picture production inspires confidence. In After Effects, I was able to divide this particular clip into two layers. Applying different settings to the two layers improved the final result. As a linked comp, I applied a lighting effect in Premiere. The result was really very clean and nice. The render time was slow though.

If the Mercury preview gives an accurate look at CS5, and Ultra is included within Premiere, I think that including Ultra is the right decision. Ultra is fast and provides a perfectly acceptable result for corporate video projects. In Ultra CS3, I like the "Enable" check box, where you can toggle back and forth between the original green screen appearance and the result. I found that within Ultra, I usually need to slightly shrink the Matte. This toggle helps in checking that I am not shrinking the talent. When working in Ultra in the past, we will sometimes have one editor working on the editing with the non-keyed footage.  I take copies of his greenscreen files and run them through Ultra, get a great key that holds up with either a black or white background and export them as 32 bit Keyed Source. When the editor gets a break, I move his greenscreen files into a folder labeled "unkeyed footage" I copy the keyed files (using the same name as the originals) into the folder where his unkeyed greenscreen files were. This way Premiere automatically uses the keyed files in the project when it is re-opened. All of the edits are there. Using the keyed files on the Premiere timeline offers the flexibility to change backgrounds.

We had a situation at a live show earlier this year where a moving background I placed in a 14 minute presentation was too distracting on a large projection screen in the opinion of the client and the producer. This decision to change the background occured on show location, so I only had about an hour to make changes. if I had married the talent to the background, I would not have been able to make the changes in time. Since I used 32 bit keyed source footage on the timeline, all I had to do was place a "hold on in point" on all of the backgrounds.

So where the greenscreen shot is well lit and deadlines are tight, I favor Ultra.

[RDA972]

Dennis

I have been asking myself the following question quite a lot lately : who or what is behind Adobe's newly found openness?

I find this new open (to a degree that is) policy simply amazing considering the fact that Adobe used to be one of the most tight-lipped companies in the industry on a par with Apple, which is saying a great deal.

I, for one, applaud the move and hope that you guys will keep up the good work.

[dradeke]

RDA,

Thank you very much for your kind words.  There is no doubt that Adobe is more open and forthcoming than in times past.  I think there's a couple of contributing factors to this.  First, the management in our group believes in letting customers know about the cool stuff we're often working on - Adobe Story and the Mercury Engine being the two most recent examples.  We feel that we are clearly out innovating the competition and we want to enable anyone who wants to hear it and come to their own conclusions.  Second, being open allows for us to collect important feedback from our customers... If we make a cool feature that no one cares about except us, then we've failed.  Putting things out there in the public forum allows us to get your feedback and to vette things to make sure they are right.  Lastly, I think the contributions from field people like myself and many others are important in terms of staying in touch.  I act as a conduit to give feedback to our group about what customers are saying and I also have the privilige of meeting and engaging with many of you.  Because of this, people have a face to the name 'Adobe'.  That's important no matter how 'advanced' business gets...

Again thank you for your comments - it's nice to know that its appreciated!

Dennis

[RDA972]

Thank you very much indeed, Dennis, for a most interesting and entertaining explanation. As I suspected, it's a combination of factors that brought about what a fellow forum user referred to as a paradigm shift. I have been using Premiere and Premiere Pro since 1996 and it has never, ever, occurred to me to switch to another NLE. Not only that, I have persuaded many people (hobbyists and professionals alike) to adopt the whole Creative Suite because it makes so much economic sense. I have always had faith in Premiere (Pro) and the latest features will make many Premiere sceptics sit up and take notice. Hopefully, it won't be long before they jump ship and join the Adobe family and its new flagship product Premiere Pro CS5.

PS. Why not call a spade a spade? You guys keep referring to the next version of Premiere and are careful not to utter the words CS5.

      But, what's in a name? CS5 by any other name would smell just as sweet.

[tclark513]

Did you guys notice some of the new features?  He was exporting straight from Premiere.  There is a button at the bottom if you want to send it to the render que.

[RDA972]

tclark513 wrote:

Did you guys notice some of the new features?  He was exporting straight from Premiere.  There is a button at the bottom if you want to send it to the render que.

There are also new presets for DSLR cameras and Sony XDCAM HD 4.2.2, not to mention Export to FCP.

Wow, this looks very, very promising. Dennis, this is not so much a sneak peek as an eye-opener.

PS. I have my credit card ready.

[PaulieDC]

YAHOO!!!

FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!

For pete's sake, why didn't somebody tell me about this sooner!! lol!!

ahem... ok... settling down...

Hey Harm/Jim/Hunt, aren't us DSLR newcomers just weird?   I'm one happy weirdo though! Fine, $400 for a GTX285, no big deal, what's another few hundred bucks, that's not even half of a 24-70mm lens. I tell ya, if it works like dave showed in that demo, I'm ready.

Dennis, thanks for the sneak peek!

Paulie

[medeamajic]

I hope Adobe will let out a little information about when CS5 will be ready. I woud like to know if Cuda will work with an Nvidia 9400GT?

More info is weclomed.

[dradeke]

Outside of the cards I've mentioned in the blog post, you should expect nothing older than those cards to be supported.  Newer cards will be announced as we get closer to something definite.

Dennis

[pebalsamo]

Thanks for the sneak peak...  This is great news.  I posted about it in a HMC-150 forum.  My fellow AVCHD editors will be happy to see this...

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?p=1828789#post1828789

Phil

[medeamajic]

Thanks for the info.

Is it safe to assume the staff from Adobe, Nvidia and the Red One camera will be putting on one hell of a show at NAB 2010?

Is CS5 comming soon?

Just curious.

[tclark513]

I went back to watch the video again and noticed that Dave was getting a yellow render bar above the clips he was inserting into the sequence.  Shouldn't there be no color bar at all if he is using the correct sequence preset?  I thought you only get the color render bars if effects are added or something changed the original clip.  Maybe the new engine works differently.

[Colin_Brougham]

A yellow bar (at least in CS4) means that a clip in a timeline probably doesn't need to be rendered to play back smoothly and in real time, but it will need to be rendered on export to a device or file. I don't think you're seeing anything different here, at least in general practice--even with all those clips stacked, you still get real-time performance, but on export to any type of destination, the sequence will have to be "cooked". If there was only one clip in the timeline, there probably wouldn't be a colored bar at all, but since he created a multiple-clip composite, that has to be rendered at some point in the process.

[tclark513]

Colin Brougham wrote:

A yellow bar (at least in CS4) means that a clip in a timeline probably doesn't need to be rendered to play back smoothly and in real time, but it will need to be rendered on export to a device or file. I don't think you're seeing anything different here, at least in general practice--even with all those clips stacked, you still get real-time performance, but on export to any type of destination, the sequence will have to be "cooked". If there was only one clip in the timeline, there probably wouldn't be a colored bar at all, but since he created a multiple-clip composite, that has to be rendered at some point in the process.

There were a few times where he only used one clip and it was still yellow.  I know that is not how it works in CS4 with just adding a clip to a sequence with the right preset.  No bar at all until something changes.

[Powered_by_Design]

WOW

That video was great.

I noticed 16 cores when he pulled up the CPU

Is he using a Dual Quad Core with hyperthreading ?

Does anyone know the exact RIG that they are using for the preview ?

Im sure glad they are showing these previews of the Mercury Playback Engine.

Im about 2 months away from building a new system and this changes everything.

Thanks for the preview:  Glenn

[dradeke]

Glenn,

Dave is using an HP Z800 box.  They're really one of our favorites and the design of it is superb.  You are correct - it is a dual-quad with hyper threading with a Quadro 4800.