Adding film grain, what's your opinion?

[jcs]

Here's a simple test I did last year with real-time film grain using the GPU, include a noise sweep from left to right, then a noise pattern from 0 to 100%. For the first part, it's subtle and makes it through the H.264 encoders. For the 2nd part, most of the high frequency components are lost (through DCT quantization).

 

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?278876-Film-Grain-Real-time-GPU-PPro-CS5-5

 

There's a .zip file there with the GPU accelerated PPro effect and instructions how to use it. By tweaking this GPU effect (including changing the blend level and blend type), every time I compare tweaked results to the Filmconvert (demo), I don't have a need to purchase it. I like the product/looks, but it's not GPU accelerated in PPro. Since I have very limited time to shoot and edit, I set a constraint to only use real-time tools and effects. I've looked through the PPro/AE SDK and have not seen any plugin example code which can take as input an OpenGL texture and send a modified texture back (required for full GPU acceleration). Not clear if Adobe allows this for 3rd party plugins. Have been writing GPU shaders for iPhone/iPad and would love to write some for PPro (not interested in AE- not a real-time tool).

[Bioskop.Inc]

Perhaps, but I've never found a good, complete document of all the settings.  

 

Yeah same here, there's bits & pieces but never everything - the things that are missing just seem like they might be the most important parts to understand. Thanks for the preset, i'll give it a go & see if it improves what i've already figured out.

 

And the new settings for YouTube does make you think that these sites might be uping their game (Vimeo has altered theirs to double what they originally recommended). Just hope that H265 gets up & running soon - its about time that H264 was replaced.

 

@Bruno - give x264 a go, as it will improve the quality of the files you upload, but they will be slightly bigger. And don't get hung up by BR's forthright bedside manner, as he actually knows what he's talking about most of the time.

[Bruno]

Here's a simple test I did last year with real-time film grain using the GPU...

 

"No permission to watch the video".

 

 

 

And don't get hung up by BR's forthright bedside manner, as he actually knows what he's talking about most of the time.

 

Most of the time... That's not an excuse to be a random asshole anyway. I know what I'm talking about most of the time, so what? What is he talking about though?

[jcs]

"No permission to watch the video".

 

Fixed.

 

Regarding cranky folks on the internet- understand that they are in pain for one reason or another (mind, body, or spirit). Don't take their comments personally- they tend to be cranky to everyone. Being kind to them anyway can help them out of their pain. Minimally, at least you'll feel better.

[Glenn Thomas]

I'm a fan of grain, but not to emulate film. Since I use Neat Video noise reduction to tidy up most videos I do, adding some grain on the output helps to make the video look slightly more detailed, even though there's no extra detail at all being added. And I use the simplest of plugins - 'Add noise' in Sony Vegas set to monochromatic with a size of 0.035 and the animated setting disabled.

[Bioskop.Inc]

Most of the time... That's not an excuse to be a random asshole anyway. I know what I'm talking about most of the time, so what? What is he talking about though?

As 'jcs' said, just don't rise to the provocation - its pointless as most of the time the cranky ones are looking for an argument.

 

Anyways...what he's kinda saying is that YouTube/Vimeo compression is shit (well we knew this anyway) & H264 is not that great a delivery option as it is. However, H264 does have different flavours & the open source x264 allows you to manipulate the codec to make the compression better quality - give it a go as it really makes a difference.

 

 

Back to topic...since i've been editing H264 natively, i'm finding less faults in my footage & i only noticed moire again when i shot the barcode of a salt container. I haven't seen banding for so long, i'm starting to think that my smoking has left deposits on my sensor that has cured it!

However, this could be due to finally understanding shooting on a DSLR?

[Bruno]

Here's a simple test I did last year with real-time film grain using the GPU

 

That's pretty cool, but the way I see it, it wouldn't help much as it would still have to be encoded to a file and then reencoded again by youtube...

It feels a bit too much like digital noise, and less like film grain, but it would be great if youtube and vimeo could add this as a realtime playback option (defined by the author), so you'd upload a clean version, and then choose a realtime playback "film grain stock" that wouldn't make the life harder on the h264 encoding process.

 

Film grain is great to add texture, fix banding issues, or even in more extreme uses for aesthetic preference. Using x264 allows you to get a better h264 file, but then again, you still have no control over how youtube reencodes the footage. I'm sure there's a few encoding settings that will produce better results, and that's exactly what I'm trying to find out here.