After Effect custom TIF plugin dev

[many2]

I am looking for a programmer to develop a custom plugin for After Effects that would allow me to import footage in a custom 10-bit per channel TIF (frames sequence) format directly in After Effects 16 bits per channel mode. The goal is to be able to composite using After Effects 16-bit per channel mode, which is so much better for color-correction.

Right now, I have to convert the footage to 8 bit with a third party application before importing in AE because AE can't read my footage special TIF file format.

There is an SDK for this third party software, so this should help.

Of course, I have a budget !

If you have the time and the skills to do it, send me a mail.

[cat]

Can you not render to a 10bit codec like blackmagic or are these tifs supplied by someone else? Or photoshop batch to 16pit psd's?
Just thinking workarounds, cant program for toffee!

[robotfunk]

Does AE support 10/16 bits per channel footage in any other format? If not, just an import plugin won't do much good, all compositing/fx parts would need a redo as well. If its just the format it can't import this should be very doable.

[many2]

After effects work with 16 bit footage in 16 bit mode since version 5.5 at least - all I really need is a way to read the files properly. If you haven't played with 16 bit per channel you'll see that the expanded color space is tremendously useful for color correction. A good way to test this is to use some photographs you import in RAW format.

After effect even loads 16 bits per channel tifs - but not the one I shot with my high-speed camera. Tif is not one format but a definition encompassing a wide range of formatting possibilities, so it's not because a soft support one type of TIF files that it will support all of them.

As for using photoshop to batch process the content, even photoshop doesn't read my TIF sequences properly : it sees them as 16 bit greyscale instead of 16bit per channel RGB.

[many2]

update : I checked the documentation properly and finally After Effects doesn't load 16 bits tif (but Photoshope does) but it does load 16 bits per channel images in other formats.

Anyways, if you have any experience coding import plugins for either photoshop or After Effects, send me an email :)

[syzygy]

Have you tried this?

SuperTiff (http://www.fnordware.com/supertiff/)

[many2]

Thank you Syzygy !

I'll try it as soon as I get home - it looks like it's exactly what I was searching for :)

[many2]

it doesn't work :(

The files do load (which is better than before) but AE see the files as 16 bit greyscale while they should be seen as 16 bit per channel RGB. In fact, it reads the files exactly like Photoshop does (it also sees them as 16 bit greyscale).

Anyone else has had a similar problem before ?

[syzygy]

My suggestion would be to contact the developer of the SuperTiff plugin - they will be in the best position to do the extra development you need for the minimum of effort (and cost to you)

Hopefully it will just require a slight tweak to make their plugin understand the format of the tiffs that you have.

[robotfunk]

have you tried all the IMAGE programs rather than the VIDEO ones? I imagine image editors are more likely to support esoterically deep formats like 16 bit TIFF.
As soon as you find a 2D app that imports it properly, there are certain ways of automating things.

[many2]

Actually, a very important piece of imformation was missing : reading the camera software manual I found out that the native TIF files are actually greyscale !

The color is encoded in the 16 bit greyscale file using a method called "Bayer Color Filter Array". When I use the camera software, it interprets the grayscale file to produce a 16 bit per channel RGB image. The Bayer color filter is what is used in many Cmos camera, and I believe most digital still camera Raw format are indeed Bayer color encoded greyscale files (but I might be wrong about that, it's just an impression)

Basically, what I need now is an importer for Bayer encoded grayscale Tif files so they can be seen as 16 bpc sources inside after effects.

Thanks to all for your suggestions and hints - any information is very welcome :)

[syzygy]

either that or you need a plugin to apply the bayer color filter array transform within after effects.

A bayer color filter array is pretty simple - its basically a checkerboard arrangement of red green and blue pixels, each with their intensity given by the greyscale value of its pixel. (twice as many pixels are used for green as for red or blue - so 50% are green, 25% red and 25% blue)

To get a colour image, the pixels have to be interpolated using the available red green and blue pixels.

It should be pretty simple to write a plugin to to the interpolation. PM me if you want me to have a look at it.

It might also be worth looking for existing Bayer interpolation plugins or standalone software. Its must be a solution that has been needed by someone else already.

Dan.

[syzygy]

Another thought - have you tried importing the images into photoshop as raw images?

Most digital cameras use Bayer arrays as their raw file format, so I'd expect photoshop would provide facility for interpolating them.

[syzygy]

give QImage (http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/) a go - I'm reliably informed that it will do Bayer interpolation on raw digital camera files.

30 day free trial too :)