Quick Start for After Effects


This section will power through the creation of a Magic Bullet Suite 2007 project from scratch. You may be thinking, wait a minute, I bought Magic Bullet Frames. If you just using the Magic Bullet Frames product then you can skip the addition of the Looks plug-in in the steps below. We recognize that a lot of folks will have bought Frames as part of the new Magic Bullet Suite 2007 product and thus we have included this set of steps which includes all of the products in the Suite to create true 24p output plus a look.

If you have NTSC footage, the first section is for you. If you have PAL footage, skip ahead to one of the other two Quick Start sections below; one is for rendering PAL footage to an NTSC environment, the other is for bulleting PAL footage for PAL output. If you are just using the Frames product, you can simply skip the addition of the Looks preset in the steps below. Let's get started.

SETTING UP A SIMPLE NTSC MAGIC BULLET SUITE 2007 PROJECT

You’ll need After Effects 7.0 or CS3, a properly installed Magic Bullet Suite 2007, and a piece of interlaced NTSC footage originating from a digital source. We recommend either DV/HDV footage captured via FireWire, or higher bandwidth digital footage captured through SDI using a capture card such as Aja Kona, IO, Xena, or Blackmagic Decklink series cards. You’ll also need either FireWire video out or a video output card in order to view the results of your Magic Bullet footage.

Create a new, empty Project and import your footage. Hit command+f [control+f] to open the Interpret Footage Window.

If your footage is widescreen, make the correct adjustment in the Pixel Aspect Ratio menu.

Click OK to close the Interpret Footage Window.

Now drag your footage to the Create Comp button, found between the folder icon and the trash can in the Project Window.

Hit command+k [control+k] to access the Comp Settings Window for this new comp. Set the Frame Rate to 23.976 frames per second.

If your footage is widescreen, but you do not desire widescreen output, you may switch your Pixel Aspect Ratio to D1/DV NTSC (0.9) now.

Click OK to close the Comp Settings Window.

If you changed your Pixel Aspect Ratio, make sure your footage layer is selected and hit command+shift+option+h [control+shift+alt+h] now. This will conform footage to fit in the screen.

With the footage layer selected, find Frames Plus under the Magic Bullet sub-menu in the Effects menu.

Click on the Auto Setup button that appears in the Effect Controls Window, the dialog that appears should let you know how the project is set up.

With the Effect Controls Window still up, apply the Looks effect from the Magic Bullet sub-menu of the Effects menu.

Hit the Edit button the Looks controls to open the LooksBuilder user interface.

Select the Basic Warm from the Preset quickdrawer and click OK to apply it.

Now apply the Letterboxer effect. Set it to the 1.85:1 preset. If your footage is already widescreen, you can skip this step.

Finally, apply Broadcast Spec. Make sure the Component preset is selected.

Quick Start
The final set of Effects in the Effects Controls window

With your comp active, hit command+m [control+m] to create an item in your Render Queue.

Set the Render Settings to the Best Settings preset. Set the Field Render option in the Render Queue to the field order that matches your video card, and select the last choice from the 3:2 Pulldown menu (WWSSW) in the Render Settings dialog.

Configure the Output Module for the NTSC QuickTime Codec that matches your video card or your final destination, and select a file name and path for your movie.

Click on Render.

When your render is done, view your results through your video card on an NTSC-interlaced monitor.

QUICK START: SETTING UP A SIMPLE PAL-to-NTSC MAGIC BULLET SUITE 2007 PROJECT

This section is for those anxious to get started with their interlaced PAL footage, and for whom NTSC video output is the primary desire.

As with the above instructions, you will need After Effects 7.0 or CS3, a properly installed Magic Bullet Suite 2007, and a piece of interlaced PAL footage originating from a digital source. We recommend either DV/HDV footage captured via FireWire, or higher bandwidth digital footage captured through SDI using a capture card such as Aja Kona, IO, Xena, or Blackmagic Decklink series cards. You’ll also need either FireWire video out or a video output card in order to view the results of your Magic Bullet footage.

Create a new, empty Project and import your footage. Hit command+f [control+f] to open the Interpret Footage Window.

If your footage is widescreen, make the correct adjustment in the Pixel Aspect Ratio menu.

Where it says Conform to Frame Rate, enter 23.976 as the new Frames per Second value.

Click OK to close the Interpret Footage Window.

Now drag your footage to the Create Comp button, found between the folder icon and the trash can in the Project Window.

Hit command+k [control+k] to bring up the Composition Settings Window. Change the resolution of the comp to the NTSC resolution of your choice— probably either 720x480 or 720x486 for D1 output. If you do this by selecting one of the Presets, you will need to reset the frame rate to 23.976 frames per second. If you manually set the Width and Height, you will also need to manually set the correct Pixel Aspect Ratio (including choosing either widescreen or not, depending on your preference).

If your footage is widescreen, but you do not desire widescreen output, you may switch your Pixel Aspect Ratio to D1/DV NTSC (0.9) now.

Click OK to close the Comp Settings Window.

Make sure your footage layer is selected and hit command+shift+option+h [control+shift+alt+h] now. This will stretch the footage to fit horizontally in the comp, respecting the pixel aspect ratios of both the source aspect ratio and the comp aspect ratio.

With the footage layer selected, find Frames Plus under the Magic Bullet sub-menu in the Effects menu.

Click on the Auto Setup button that appears in the Effect Controls Window. A dialog will appear to show the status, you can dismiss this.

With the Effect Controls Window still up, apply the Looks effect from the Magic Bullet sub-menu of the Effects menu.

Hit the Edit button in the Looks plug-in controls to open the LooksBuilder user interface.

Select the Basic Warm from the Preset quickdrawer and click OK to apply it.

Now apply the Letterboxer effect. Set it to the 1.85:1 preset. If your footage is already widescreen, you can skip this step.

Finally, apply Broadcast Spec. Make sure the Component preset is selected.

Quick Start
The final set of Effects in the Effects Controls window

With your comp active, hit command+m [control+m] to create an item in your Render Queue.

Set the Render Settings to the Best Settings preset. Set the Render Queue to the field order that matches your video card, and select the last choice from the 3:2 Pulldown menu (WWSSW) in the Render Settings dialog.

Configure the Output Module for the NTSC QuickTime Codec that matches your video card or your final destination, and select a file name and path for your movie.

Click on Render.

When your render is done, view your results through your video card on an NTSC-interlaced monitor.

QUICK START: SETTING UP A SIMPLE PAL MAGIC BULLET SUITE PROJECT

This section is for those anxious to get started with their interlaced PAL footage, and for whom PAL video output is the primary desire.

As with the above instructions, you will need After Effects 7.0 or CS3, a properly installed Magic Bullet Suite 2007, and a piece of interlaced PAL footage originating from a digital source. We recommend either DV/HDV footage captured via FireWire, or higher-bandwidth digital footage captured through SDI using a capture card such as Aja or Blackmagic. You’ll also need either FireWire video out or a video output card such as those listed in order to view the results of your Magic Bullet footage.

Create a new, empty Project and import your footage. Hit command+f [control+f] to open the Interpret Footage Window.

If your footage is widescreen, make the correct adjustment in the Pixel Aspect Ratio menu.

Click OK to close the Interpret Footage Window.

Now drag your footage to the Create Comp button, found between the folder icon and the trash can in the Project Window.

If your footage is widescreen, but you do not desire widescreen output, you may switch your Pixel Aspect Ratio to D1/DV NTSC (0.9) now.

Click OK to close the Comp Settings Window.

Make sure your footage layer is selected and hit command+shift+option+h [control+shift+alt+h] now. This will stretch the footage to fit horizontally in the comp, respecting the pixel aspect ratios of each.

With the footage layer selected, find Frames Plus under the Magic Bullet sub-menu in the Effects menu.

Click on the Auto Setup button that appears in the Effect Controls Window.

With the Effect Controls Window still up, apply the Looks effect from the Magic Bullet sub-menu of the Effects menu.

Hit the Edit button the Looks controls to open the LooksBuilder user interface.

Select the Basic Warm from the Preset quickdrawer and click OK to apply it.

Now apply the Letterboxer effect. Set it to the 1.85:1 preset. If your footage is already widescreen, you can skip this step.

Finally, apply Broadcast Spec. Make sure the Component preset is selected.

Quick Start
The final set of Effects in the Effects Controls window

With your comp active, hit command+m [control+m] to create an item in your Render Queue.

Set the Render Settings to the Best Settings preset.

Configure the Output Module for the NTSC QuickTime Codec that matches your video card or your final destination, and select a file name and path for your movie.

Click on Render.

When your render is done, view your results through your video card on an PAL-interlaced monitor.

SUMMARY

You’ve now seen the Magic Bullet Frames process in action on your own footage. You can delve into the Reference section for in-depth breakdowns of each of the plug-ins you just used.