AVX Plug-Ins
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User Guide"Tips" appear in green. Tips will save you time but are not essential information.
"Cautions" appear in red. Be sure to read and understand this information.
3Prong's SpeedRamP AVX Plug-in is a tool for creating motion effects on Avid editing systems.
With SpeedRamP, you can set up to 9 speed keyframes in a clip, and the speed will
change smoothly between them.
SpeedRamP offers improved image quality over standard motion effects, through the features
of Adaptive De-interlacing, Interpolation with Enhancement, and special input modes for
Interlaced, Progressive, and 3:2 pulldown footage.
SpeedRamP can remove the redundant 3:2 pulldown fields from film for smoother slow motion, or add film pulldown to video (FilmSim). It also has such unique features as keyframed strobing, strobe blending, and the ability to swap fields or remove either field. These features can be used with or without speed change.
SpeedRamP provides a simplified user interface with graphical display of speed and keyframes, detection of pulldown phase, and time code tracking. SpeedRamP effects are adjusted directly in the Avid timeline in the context of your other video and audio clips, without all the bother of exporting to other applications, re-importing, and maintaining separate media and metadata files.
| SpeedRamP requires Avid software from 2001
or later. Where shown in Avid Xpress DV or Pro, Avid's Real-Time Effects (the green button above the timeline) must be turned off (blue) to set up SpeedRamP effects. |
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For a practical overview of SpeedRamP and some examples of applications, click here to open the Tutorial Guide, and return to this User Guide later.
For detailed reference information on operating SpeedRamP, proceed through this User Guide. You may work through the Tutorial at a later time.
SpeedRamP has two time bases, shown on different monitors. Watch the appropriate monitor to avoid confusion as you set up the effect.
Keyframes always refer to moments in Source time. Each keyframe has Speed, Strobe, and Hold values which are set in the Effect Editor.
As well, each keyframe has an Order setting. This dictates the order of execution of the keyframes, which is not restricted to the normal left-to-right order. For example, you may wish to start at the end of a clip, and run backwards to the head. In this case, the tail keyframe would have an Order of #1, and the head keyframe an Order of #2. (In this guide, the "#" symbol always refers to Order of a keyframe, not it's position.)
When you park on a keyframe in the effect position bar, its Order number is shown just above, in the image area of the Effect Preview monitor. When any Avid effect is first created, there are default keyframes at the head and tail, and these cannot be deleted. When you apply a new SpeedRamP effect, the Order of the head keyframe is already #1, and the tail keyframe and all new keyframes are #0 (inactive). You can have up to 9 active keyframes, and any number of inactive keyframes.
After adding a keyframe, you will want to make it active. Click on the "+" (plus) button that appears above it in the Effect Preview monitor. The Order will jump from #0 to the next available value (for a new effect this would be #2, since the head keyframe is already #1).
Press the "-" (minus) button to swap Orders with existing keyframes. (For example, say keyframes #1, #2, and #3 exist, and you wish to insert a new keyframe between #1 and #2. When you create the new one and click "+", it will jump from #0 to #4, the next available value. Press "-" once and it will drop to #3, bumping the keyframe that was #3 up to #4. Press "-" again and the new keyframe will drop to #2, bumping the keyframe that was #2 up to #3.)
Corresponding keyframe icons (triangles) are shown in the graph, but here they are shown at the place where they will appear in Program time, from left to right. These icons are not selected or moved directly in the graph. Instead, move or trim the keyframes in the effect position bar in the normal fashion, and you will see the graph and icons update. Adjust a keyframe icon's horizontal position in the graph by changing the speeds of earlier keyframes.
When you select a keyframe in the effect position bar, the Effect Editor shows the Speed, Strobe, and Hold values for that point in Source time, and the Effect Preview Monitor shows the Order. All other SpeedRamP settings apply to the entire effect and not just to individual keyframes.
Make sure you are referring to the source image in the Effect Preview monitor when you add and adjust keyframes, not to the Program image in the video monitor or to other cues such as other audio or video clips in the timeline.
When rendering, Speed and Strobe values ramp smoothly between keyframes of adjacent Order.
Hold sets the length of time that a keyframe's speed is held constant after it is reached. This is especially useful for holding at zero speed and then beginning motion towards the next keyframe.
The treadmill controls used for Speed, Strobe, and Hold provide a huge range:
To adjust treadmill controls, you may click and drag across the entire width of your desktop, and repeat if needed. However, the easiest way to set a specific or extreme value is to click on the treadmill and type a numeric value using the keyboard, then press <Enter>.
If the graph appears extremely irregular, there is likely an impossible combination of keyframe Order and Speed. For example, an effect cannot start at tail keyframe #1 and move backwards towards head keyframe #2 when both have positive speeds. When changing directions (moving from positive to negative speed or vice versa), you should create an intervening keyframe with a speed at or near 0%.
You can usually create a SpeedRamP effect right in your main sequence, in the context of the rest of the audio and video of your program. If you are changing the speed, however, the segment will typically need to be longer or shorter than the desired result. As well, there will be restrictions on trimming or editing the segment with the effect. This section provides tips for working within those limitations.
In a few cases, rather than working with SpeedRamP in your main sequence, you may prefer to gain complete editing freedom by making a video mixdown from your SpeedRamP effect. (Whether you create a short sequence for mixdown with only your effect clip, or mixdown from the SpeedRamP effect your main sequence, always keep a copy of the source of the mixdown in case of later changes.)
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Speed changes are accomplished by repeating "time samples" of the source footage to slow down the action, or skipping time samples to speed it up. The Input and Output menus control the size of these time samples. Interlaced uses a time sample of a field, Progressive uses a frame, and 3:2 uses a film frame of 2 or 3 fields.
If your footage is shot on video:
Adding FilmSim to Video:
If your footage is film transferred to PAL, set Input to Progressive, but leave Output set to Interlaced.
If your footage is film transferred to NTSC:
| Mode Menus | Output | Interlaced (most fluid motion) |
Progressive (web or film output) |
3:2 (look of film motion) |
| Input | ||||
| Interlaced (video camera source, De-interlace required) |
Default (best choices if unknown) |
FilmSim for PAL users |
FilmSim for NTSC users |
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| Progressive (film transferred at same frame rate as video) |
Fluid motion, |
Maintain Progressive | Use 80% speed to add 3:2 pulldown |
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| 3:2 (24fps film transferred to 30fps video) |
Remove redundant fields and get more fluid slow-mo |
Use 125% speed to convert to progressive |
Change 3:2 phase (caution at speeds other than 100%) |
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| Duplicate
F1 Duplicate F2 |
If other type of field is damaged | |||
Interlaced Input is for footage shot with a video camera, where each field was captured at a unique moment in time. There are 60 time samples per second in NTSC, and 50 in PAL. With frequent time samples like this, interlaced footage will have the most fluid motion. However, each time sample has only half the scan lines of a full frame, and SpeedRamP will need to be De-interlace to create the missing lines when the speed is changed, so the footage may not be quite as sharp.
Similarly, Interlaced Output is recommended to give the most fluid motion for NTSC and PAL projects, since every field may have different action. In this mode, SpeedRamP may split Progressive and 3:2 Input frames into fields as required to give slightly smoother motion.
Using both Interlaced Input and Output is similar to Avid's Interpolated mode, but SpeedRamP provides Adaptive De-interlacing and Enhancement for superior results.
Progressive Input is for use when source footage has field pairs belonging to the same moment in time. The available time samples are coarser so the motion is not as fluid, but SpeedRamP can retain the full sharpness of the image since de-interlacing is never required.
| 100% Speed, Progressive | Time > | |||||
| Field 1 | 1f1 | - | 2f1 | - | 3f1 | - |
| Field 2 | - | 1f2 | 2f2 | 3f2 | ||
| input as: | frame 1 | frame 2 | frame 3 | |||
Often film is transferred progressively at 25 FPS to PAL, and sometimes at 29.97 FPS to NTSC. Animation may also be produced as progressive instead of interlaced, and a few video cameras are beginning to appear with this option.
Choosing Progressive Output forces field pairs to be from the same time sample, so motion cannot be as fluid as Interlaced. Also, the number of time samples is halved, so if the input is interlaced, many fields will be likely require de-interlacing. For most video applications, even if using Progressive Input, use Interlaced Output.
Using both Progressive Input and Output is similar to Avid's "Both" mode. Only entire progressive frames will be skipped or repeated. Again, use Interlaced Output for smoother motion.
For example, this chart shows how the source fields are mapped to the output at 50% speed.
| 50% Speed, Progressive Input and Output | Output Time > | |||||
| Field 1 | 1f1 | - | 1f1 | - | 2f1 | - |
| Field 2 | - | 1f2 | 1f2 | 2f2 | ||
| output as: | frame 1 | frame 1 | frame 2 | |||
When 24 fps film is transferred to 30 fps NTSC video, 3:2 (also known as 2:3) pulldown is added, meaning a field is repeated on every second film frame. That is, one film frame runs for two video fields, and the next film frame runs for three fields, in a repeating pattern. The third field (shown here in cyan) is merely a copy of the first one, and is redundant.
| 100% Speed, 3:2 Pulldown | Time > |
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| Field 1 | 1f1 | - | 2f1 | - | 3f1 | - | 4f1 | - | 5f1 | - |
| Field 2 | - | 1f2 | - | 2f2 | - | 3f2 | - | 4f2 | - | 5f2 |
| (phase A) | Film frame A | Film frame B | Film frame C | Film frame D | ||||||
The time sample alternates between 2 and 3 fields in length. At normal speeds, this stuttering pattern is not disturbing, and in fact contributes to the "film look" that many people find desirable. However, at slow speeds, the irregular motion can be unpleasantly jerky. SpeedRamP can be used to either insert or remove the redundant fields.
The 3:2 Input setting gives 3:2 footage smoother motion and sharper pictures at non-play speeds, as compared to standard motion effects.
This is because there are no redundant or wrong-type fields deleted or repeated when making up the new speed. For example:
3:2 Input assumes that the entire segment has continuous phase, so will not work on film footage that is previously altered in speed or contains video edits or effects. If you cannot add edits to divide the segment into new segments with continuous phase, you must use Interlaced Input mode.
To use 3:2 Input, SpeedRamP must know the phase
of the pulldown in that segment, meaning the point in the repeating 3:2 pattern at which
the segment starts. You indicate this by pressing the Other Options
button. The 3:2 Phase dialog box opens on the far left side of your monitor.
Click the Input Phase Detect button, and wait a few seconds.
SpeedRamP compares the fields adjacent to the current source position, looking for
matches. You should see the menu change to the correct source phase. Then click OK.
(An AVX bug may make the mouse cursor disappear if the 3:2 Phase dialog box is moved over top of the Effect Preview monitor in Windows. Press the <Enter> key to close it, and then open it again.)
If you forget to set the Input Phase when attempting to use 3:2 Input mode, or if detection fails and the Input Phase menu remains set to Unknown, SpeedRamP will operate in Interlaced Input mode.
The Phase menus do not report what kind of frame (ABXCD) you are parked on, or the phase of the original master clip. They indicate the phase of the segment as used in the sequence, and report the kind of film frame the segment begins with.
If you trim the head of the segment, the phase will likely change since the segment then begins at a different location in the pattern. Repeat the Detect operation after trimming is done.
Input or Output Phase Detect will fail if:
If you still see Unknown in the menu after clicking Detect, try these solutions:
You can use SpeedRamP to find the phase of master clips used in an NTSC sequence in order to modify them in the bin and re-digitize them into a film project. Cut all the master clips into a temporary sequence, making sure they each start at the head. Apply SpeedRamP to all segments at once, or to a filler segment above all the clips. For each segment, park on some action and use the Detect feature, noting the result in the Pull-in column for that clip.
SpeedRamP's FilmSim feature can simulate the motion of film footage from video. Select this by choosing Interlaced Input, and Progressive Output (PAL) or 3:2 Output (NTSC). SpeedRamP performs De-interlacing as required (indicated here by the yellow cells), with Adaptive processing available to retain resolution.
| 100% Speed, FilmSim | Output Time > |
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| Field 1 | 1f1 | - | 2f1 | - | 2f1 | - | 3f2 |
| Field 2 | - | 1f1 | 2f1 | 3f2 | |||
| output as: (phase A) | FilmSim frame A | FilmSim frame B | FilmSim frame C | ||||
24 FPS motion is quite coarse and will often appear choppy. Film camera operators know this and will avoid some types of camera motion, but video footage not shot with the same care may not produce good results. Aside from the frame rate and pulldown pattern, the look of film is characterized by motion blur as action occurs while the film camera shutter is open for a relatively long period. This motion blur tends to mask the choppiness. To reduce stuttering and add a slow-shutter type of effect, try Blending. When 3:2 or Progressive Output is selected, Blending will mix two adjacent input fields into a single image which is then repeated.
Whenever using 3:2 Output, you may set the Output Phase in the 3:2 Phase dialog box, or leave it as "Unknown - using X".
SpeedRamP can change the phase of existing 3:2 pulldown. This is useful if, for example, you need to composite two clips of film on stacked video tracks, with matching phase. Apply SpeedRamP to the clip on the higher track, and Detect the Input Phase.
Then click the Detect from Track Below button to set the Output phase. You should see the menu change after a few seconds. Alternatively, step through the footage and park on one of the THIRD fields of the lower track, and click the Manual: Third Field button.
Note that, at speeds other than 100%, using both 3:2 Input and 3:2 Output is not recommended as the fairly coarse time samples can lead to very choppy motion.
3:2 source footage may begin or end with a split film frame. When this occurs, SpeedRamP will substitute the nearest field, so the re-phased pattern may be broken for a single field at the head or tail. If this is not acceptable, include one extra frame at the head and tail of the segment, start the effect a frame late by putting keyframe #1 on second frame, and end the segment a frame early by covering the tail frame with the next shot on a higher track. Alternatively, you may perform a mixdown to allow trimming of the head or tail.
These modes discard one field of each frame entirely, and duplicate the other field. SpeedRamP's Duplicate F1 is similar to Avid's "Duplicated" motion effect. SpeedRamP also offers a Duplicate F2 setting, which you might use if a video head clog has damaged field 1 of every frame. Other than that, these Input modes are not recommended as you can loose both time resolution (half the time samples) and spatial resolution (half the scan lines).
De-interlacing occurs only when Interlaced Input is selected. If the source footage is 3:2 or progressive and you select the appropriate Input mode, the De-int menu has no affect, the vertical resolution is better and the rendering is faster.
With Interlaced Input, simply dropping or repeating fields to change the speed doesn't produce good results, because the output video must maintain a constant pattern of alternating odd and even fields. About half the time, the field to be shown will not be the type required to maintain the pattern.
In this example of 50% speed, fields in the yellow cells do not match the required pattern and will be converted to the other type (de-interlaced):
| 50% Speed, Interlaced Input | Output Time > | |||||||
| Field 1 | 1f1 | - | 1f2 | - | 2f1 | - | 2f2 | - |
| Field 2 | - | 1f1 | 1f2 | 2f1 | - | 2f2 | ||
| (required pattern) | f1 | f2 | f1 | f2 | f1 | f2 | f1 | f2 |
Converting a field to the opposite type is guesswork, however, because the needed scan lines were simply not captured by the camera at that moment. SpeedRamP can use several methods to derive the missing detail. These choices are shown in the De-Interlace menu. They are shown below in order of increasing complexity -- the lower choices take longer to render but usually produce better results.
(If your effect speed is a constant 100% or -100%, you may eliminate the need for de-interlacing by moving the starting or ending keyframe by a field. This will start or repeat the effect "on the correct foot". For example, start reverse-play effects and play-speed looping effects with a keyframe on the first field of your chosen source frame, not the second. Check that the field in the green SpeedRamP time code display (".1" or ".2") matches the field shown in the Avid time code display above it.)
Selecting None in the De-int menu takes one field's pixels and just place them into the opposite field type, so the image will appear to jitter up or down. Choose this when working with single-field Avid resolutions, because the field pairs are identical anyway. Other settings can be used, but they will take longer to render and will not produce better results. (Nevertheless, you may wish to preset your SpeedRamP effects to another mode such as Adaptive so that they render with better quality when the media for that sequence is re-captured at a two-field resolution.)
The TapeSim method is a simple variant of None that is used in cheaper VTRs. It is similar to the VTR-Style motion effects available in some releases of Avid software. It can provide faster rendering in cases where there is a lot of action covering the entire field of view so that the vertical jitter is not noticed.
Interpolated de-interlacing creates the missing scan lines by averaging the lines above and below, resulting in a slightly soft image. It is roughly the same as Avid's Interpolated mode, with the following improvements.
The Enhancement button in the Interpolation group applies a sharpening filter to the image. It may be left on unless it increases noise or produces unpleasant ringing ("visual echoes") on high contrast horizontal edges. This feature also works during Adaptive De-interlacing on interpolated areas of images.
If you find the softening appears to flash on and off at very slow speeds as de-interlaced fields play through, use the Interpolate All button to apply a similar filter to all fields, including those that don't require de-interlacing.
Adaptive provides the best results for most interlaced footage by analyzing each field for motion:
If there is overall motion, perhaps due to camera panning or zooming, you can save rendering time by using Interpolated de-interlacing instead.
If you find double images in the results, adjust the motion detection to improve the Adaptive process:
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| Image to be De-interlaced using Adaptive process |
Show Motion for adjusting Diff and Smooth controls |
After the keyframe with the highest Order # has been reached, there may be more Program time left in the segment. The End menu controls what is shown after that point.
| End | How it works |
| Black | Fills with black to the end of effect, with quicker render |
| Freeze | Holds image at last keyframe |
| Hold Speed (default) | Maintains the speed of the last keyframe |
| Hold Curve | Maintains the last acceleration/deceleration |
| Loop | Cuts to the first keyframe, then executes keyframes again in the same Order |
| Ping-pong | Returns to the beginning, repeating all keyframes in reverse Order |
If using loop or ping-pong at a constant speed of 100%, generally you should place the first and last keyframes on the first field of a frame to eliminate any image degradation caused by de-interlacing.
This menu controls what is shown when an effect runs outside of the bounds (past the tail or before the head) of the source segment. If the effect later returns to the bounds of the source segment, the rendering proceeds as normal.
| Limit | How it works |
| Black (default) | Fills with black to the end of effect, with quicker render |
| Freeze | Holds image from head or tail of the source |
| Loop | Cuts to the head of the segment and proceeds |
| Ping-pong | Proceeds in the opposite direction toward the other bound of the segment |
| Mode Menus | Interlaced or Progressive Input | 3:2 Input |
| Interlaced Output |
Blending mixes the two adjacent time
samples in the correct proportions to create a time sample in between. This produces
smoother motion, especially at very slow speeds, at the cost of some clarity. If Strobe is greater than 1, Blending will mix time samples that are separated by the strobe amount. Large Strobe values will produce an effect of "dissolving freezes". This can be combined with keyframed Strobe action to introduce the effect gradually. This unique effect would be extremely cumbersome to build manually. (If using Strobe Blending, you will speed up rendering quite a bit by setting De-interlace to Interpolated or even TapeSim.) |
(not functional) |
| Progressive
or 3:2 Output |
Blending mixes the two fields of each frame together to give a bit of the effect of motion blur with a wider shutter angle. See FilmSim for details. |
If fields were imported to the Avid system with the wrong order, this feature reverses their order within each frame. It flips the fields spatially with no de-interlacing. Try this if the action of the source segment appears to repeatedly fall back with every frame. Taking an example of 6 fields in length, 21|43|65 becomes 12|34|56.
Swap Fields is incorrect at speeds other than 100% because it swaps on input rather than output.
SpeedRamP also provides a way to change just the dominance or pairing of fields into frames without de-interlacing: place keyframe #1 on the field just AFTER the head keyframe. Set the speed to 100%, and De-Interlace to TapeSim. The segment will end a field short, so set the Limit to Freeze. 12|34|56 becomes 23|45|66.
The following buttons are only to control the overlays displayed in the Effect Preview
monitor while setting up the SpeedRamP effect. They have no effect on the output video.
(However, because their settings are retained as part of the effect, changing them will
cause a rendered effect to become unrendered.)
This shows Source time in the Effect Preview monitor. This is normally on, in order for you to set keyframes. When you need to refer to Program time (rendered output), look at your video monitor. Show Source is provided in case you don't have an external video monitor to check the Program video.
(Due to AVX limitations, the source image shown in the Effect Preview monitor may not
precisely match the scaling or color of the Program image that is revealed when the Show
Source button is turned off. Any slight differences only appear on the computer
monitor and do not affect the output images in any way.)
Enables the graph overlay. You cannot see or change the Order of keyframes when Show
Graph is off. The graph will not update properly when
another video track is monitored.
Enables the green time code overlay displayed in the upper left corner of the Effect Preview monitor. This is the source's time code at the current Program time, in other words the time code of the frame shown on the video monitor.
Due to AVX limitations, the Avid match-frame function
does not find the match for Program time. SpeedRamP assists in manually
matching by calculating and displaying the time code for any point in the effect. To use
this, you must first enter the Source TC Start.
To use the green time code display to find a match frame for any Program time, first enter the time code of the first frame of the source segment in this field. (Remember to correct this if later trimming the head.)
Other than this, punctuation and leading zeroes are not required. For example, for
01:00:15;23, you may enter "1.1523;".
Not functioning in this version:
Known bugs and problems:
Also see AVX Limitations in the Common Topics section.
Slow Motion
Fast Motion