S8 can look pretty stunning from a film look perspective, but otherwise all the extra complications of shooting film.

Twixtor is the best software for generating slo-mo from regular video footage, but it needs to run as a plug-in in Combustion, AE, etc. See Twixtor.

I have a Canon 814 XL Super 8 camera that can shoot at 54 fps. If the normal projection speed is 24 fps, that's 'overcranking' at twice the normal speed.

So, given that equipment, would Twixtor and my Sony Mini DV provide a better slo-mo?

Thanks,

Matt

Dynapel's "Motionperfect" will synthesize intermediate frames, which under certain conditions can produce amazing, fluid slow motion. Unfortunately, it doesn't work well under many conditions.

Before I was drawn away from video two months ago, I was working on a way to do the same thing with motion estimation software used with AVISynth. Using my home-brew techniques, II created some slow motion of a volleyball player hitting the floor and tumbling that I actually used in a production piece. Nothing beats overcranking, of course, but the results using this technique were pretty darn good. It also worked well on slowing down the ball in flight.

I don't have time, unfortunately, to explain much these days. Here's the AVISynth script. It REQUIRES mvtools version 0.9.6.1 which can be downloaded from:

http:/ /jourdan.madism.org/~manao/

It also requires kerneldeinterlace. Can't remember where to download it. The Changespeed line is where you determine how slow to make the result. In this case the "2.372" in the Changespeed makes the motion 1/2.372 of the original speed. I just test this on some basketball video (since I hadn't used the script in a few months) and it worked perfectly.

Here's the AVISynth script:

loadplugin("c:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\kerneldeint140.dll")

loadplugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\MVTools\mvtools.dll") #this script REQUIRES mvtools version 0.9.6.1



AVISource("H:\Anzar\Anzar0001.avi")



assumebff()

changespeed(2.732, 8)



function changespeed(clip a, float factor, int th)

{



  ord = getparity(a) ? 1 : 0

  f=a.kerneldeint(order=ord, sharp=false, twoway=false, threshold=th) 

  e=a.separatefields.trim(1,0).weave.kerneldeint(order=1-ord, sharp=false, twoway=false, threshold=th)

  g=interleave(f,e).assumeframebased

  h=converttoyv12(g)





  vec_back = h.MVAnalyse(fth=30, isb=true)

  vec_forw = h.MVAnalyse(fth=30, isb=false)

  MVConvertFPS(h, vec_back, vec_forw, fps=h.framerate*factor, fbw=2, thSCD2=255, thSCD1=200)

  converttoyuy2()

  assumefps(a.framerate*2,true)

  separatefields()

  (ord==0) ? selectevery(4,0,3) : selectevery(4,1,2)

  weave()

}

Twixtor is absolutely amazing, used for Hollywood features.

S8 will give you a very different film look that may be better or worse depending on your project.

I used to shoot with a Beaulieu 5008S, but I never transferred to video.

Well if you;re shooting NTSC at 60i you can (I guess) effectively get 2x overcranking by converting fields to frames, assuming you can cope with the loss of vertical res.
Now if you shoot 1080i HDV at 60i to deliver SD you're still ahead in vertical res so that maybe a way to go.
Bob.

Folks, I love Vegas, but it's capability with slow motion is limited by the fact that video cameras (at least the ones I can afford) cannot shoot other than the normal 30 fps.
You mean you can't see the bullet go through the apple? How exactly is this a fault of Vegas?

Film cameras that do good overcranking are pretty pricey too. And, of course, they go through film stock pretty quickly.

Do you know of a good super 8 lab? They are kind of hard to find these days. You also may need to get more lights depending on the scene as over-cranking twice as much would require twice as much light. You may be able to get by just changing the aperture, but in certain cases it won't be enough. If I were you I would check out the whole logistics and the total cost of working with 8mm and then compare that to renting a video cam that can do good slow mo. (You would also have to look at what format the slomo cam would use, because you probably would need a transfer to miniDV on that too.)

I'm kind of interested in this as well as I might need to do some serious slo mo work shortly. One possibility is to use the Varicam, it seems I can get that into Vegas by having it transferred by a post house to s still sequence. Other ways are also possible but that's sure fire.

Kodak has put S8 back into production, guess they saw a demand for it and you get a good choice of stock. My main concern though is that you're not getting such a big steup up in fps anyway.

Just becuase cameras are expensive though doesn't mean you cannot afford them, if it's something you're staging and can do it at anytime you might be able to get a good deal on a standby hire if you only need the camera for a few hours.

Bob.

Actually there's more labs available than I thought. Here's a worldwide list
USA

Also it appears that A-1 Labs in NY is still open, I thought they had closed. I used them years ago.

I don't see any listed in Australia, but Fuji in Japan will develop.