Ha, sorry about that. I'm always doing so many things at once. Fixed it.

To create video like this: http://www.vimeo.com/16340475, you'd need a higher framerate than 60fps.... OR Twixtor.

This video was created with a T2i shooting 720p at 60fps and edited in After Effects with the Twixtor plugin.

Personally, I'm excited that they are working on a Twixtor plugin for Vegas.

Michael

I contacted Twixtor today and they told me they are working on it, but other than that they had no details. Are you sure that was filmed in 720fps? Um....what camera does that?
I can slow down my footage and achieve the same effect just using velocity curves, it might not be exactly the same effect, but it looks pretty dam close.

> Are you sure that was filmed in 720fps? Um....what camera does that?

Read Michael's post again. He said it was 720p at 60fps. Twixtor makes very smooth slow motion. I don't think you can get it that smooth by just frame blending in Vegas but Vegas does do a nice job, I agree.

~jr

Here's what Twixtor said:

We are trying to get some of our plugins to work within Sony Vegas. No schedule as of today.

Make sure to request to Sony that you would like to see our plugins working in Vegas (it helps when they hear from customers!)
Pete Litwinowicz

Twixtor does seem to be a plugin looking for something to plug into. Pretty well everything apart from Vegas does such a good job of slomo without the need for Twixtor that the market for Twixtor has diminished. Even iMovie does a better job than Vegas.
it's really SCS that should be knocking on Twixtor's door. They'll wait forever waiting for their users to demand this, those users left the building long ago.

Bob.

Exactly, just like the stabilizer... Final Cut Pro got a good stabilizer back in 2007. Avid already had it. Twixtor is a brand name over "Optical Flow" technology. This same technology is built into FCP as well as Avid. And Boris Effects has it as well which is available TODAY as a plug-in for Vegas. No need to wait for Twixtor to do anything.

I've been using Optical Flow all year for my video projects where I needed to provide slo-mo footage for sports teams and individuals. We are doing motion analysis studies. Works great for that.

Does Boris do the same as Twixtor? And what is optical flow?

"what is optical flow"

Google is pretty easy to use :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_flow

Really the issue today is that for not much more than the price of the plugin you could just buy a different NLE.

Bob.

I did Google it actually (and yes it's pretty easy to use, even for someone like me!) and I found that Wiki page, but I thought the name was referring to a brand, not a concept, so I thought the product was obscure and hence the reason why Google gave me results that didn't link to a product. But that's for getting me up to speed!

No,

Optical Flow is the technology. Twixtor is a brand name. Boris uses optical flow technology to do the same thing. So does FInal Cut Pro, so does Avid, so does After Effects, and so do other programs.

There is nothing special or unique to Twixtor. So if you want access in Vegas to what Twixtor does, you can buy the Boris Continuum Complete product. As Farss said, by the time you buy Vegas, and BCC, you've essentially nearly paid the cost for CS5 which has capabilities well beyond those of Vegas.

Perrone,
does that mean Pemiere is the better NLE?

Better for some things, absolutely. I think Vegas is still a lot easier to use, and is probably a better choice for those doing solo, end-to-end production. But then, CS5 is nearly 3 times the price of Vegas. You'd EXPECT it to be quite a lot more fully featured. And it is.

Bob and PerroneFord,

If CS5 already has great interpolation capabilities on it's own, why were people on the Vimeo forums going gaga over the slomo video that was posted with someone using Twixtor in After Effects (which is part of CS5 I thought)?

Why would people even need Twixtor?

Doesn't make sense that Twixtor would make a plugin with features for a program that already has those features. I think there must be some exaggeration to your statements that CS5 already has what Twixtor offers..... or the people making Twixtor have a serious problem with their business.

snip.

[why were people on the Vimeo forums...]


Done.

Sorry, don't understand your point. Please elaborate for my ignorant self.

PerroneFord,

Were you inferring that people shouldn't waste their time on the Vimeo forums? I didn't think that's what you meant because I've seen you post there many times.

No, I am not saying that. I am saying that people on the Vimeo forums *in my general experience* tend to be quite new with the exception of a few folks. Given that, many might be unaware of some of the powerful features in something like After Effects. That's my point.

I could be wrong, but having been there several years, that's my general take.

Here`s the email I sent them today, and their response after.

Hi
Just curious, is it Sony that needs to do something to make it work in their software or you guys? If I were you (and I'm not...ehehehe, so just my opinion here) I'd think it worth while investing in Vegas. Their new pro 10 version gives top dogs like Avid a serious run for their money. That combined with the fact that Sony video Cameras, and increasingly their DSRLS are highly rated and popular will only further cement Vegas as a popular platform for consumers and professionals alike.

I'm also curious about one thing, how is your software different from just speeding up or slowing down clips using velocity curves in Vegas? When I shoot at 60p, I have amazing control and can easily get great slow motion effects in Vegas. Any thoughts? Thanks for the communicating, I'll post your answer to this email (if that's ok with you) on the Sony forum to let people know about your product and explain to them why it does more than just slowing and speeding clips up (assuming it does do more than that). Cheers

Here`s another email the company sent me today:

Well there are just a few things in their OFX plugin implementation that we need fixed. As with all engineering problems, I believe it’s just a matter of time. But hearing from customers may help them change priorities. Just saying that you want Twixtor (and our some of our other plugins) is probably enough!

As far as what Twixtor does, it creates inbetweens by using motion estimation. What that means is that we can create inbetweens that are smoother because we can actually calculate where a pixel might go in an inbetween frame. Look here for how we differ from Final Cut Pro’s retiming (which I believe is similar, or exactly, what Sony Vegas does). http://help.revisionfx.com/album/19/#/tutorial-39 . All FCP (and I believe Sony Vegas) does is blend adjacent frames. We actually calculate where pixels might move in the newly inserted frames.

Cheers,
Pete

Does Premiere Pro have as good a slomo capability as After Effects? (I seem to recall they improved it somewhere around CS2)

And would Twixtor be an improvement upon it?

I really don't know and I tend to think of them as a package since that is typically how they are sold.

Both AE and Twixtor use the same technology, pixel tracking. Re:Vision claim what is done in Twixtor provides better and longer motion estimation. This is claimed to better deal with the problems that can arise using AE's built in retiming. These problems can arise for example when one object passes another.
These problems were discussed in some detail here recently with John Meyer posting some great examples. The technology works very well when it works and goes badly wrong when it breaks.

A single seat license for Twixtor Pro is US $599.
There's nothing wrong with Re:vision's business plan, time has simply caught up with them. Twixtor has been around for a long time. I believe when it came out it was the only way to do what it does. Today I guess if you want the best money can buy you spend the extra dollars. Just remember though there is no fool proof solution to doing slomo in post. I think one could say the situation with Twixtor is similar to what has happened with image stabilizers. We got one in V10, the market for 3rd party stabilizers to Vegas users has to have shrunk as a result.

Twixtor is not the only plugin that Re:vision has on offer. I'm more interested ReelSmart Motion Blur. The MB in AE and Vegas is pretty sad and optically correct motion blur is not an easy thing to do. This plugin also uses pixel tracking to create motion blur.

Bob.