FraGTaLiTy's HD Quality Tutorial | 1080p interpolation and x264 Encoding with Megui

First, Download this: http://www.filefront.com/16795869/FraGTaLiTy%27s%20Quality%20Package.zip

The tutorial is included in there as a .pdf file in the download(you can always just read it from the thread), along with all other stuff you'll need (except After Effects and Instant HD 1.1, of course).

Something to note: The higher the quality of the source file, the better the result.

Any who, off we go into the world of Quality.

1080p Quality and Encoding Guide for Windows Users
by: FraGTaLiTy

Part A: Interpolating your footage to 1080p

1. Install the Red Giant Instant HD 1.1 plug-in for After Effects CS4 or CS3 (I don't believe it works in 64 bit CS5 yet).

2. After you have finished editing your entire video, render out your entire video as an uncompressed .avi file with audio in the native resolution of your video file (which is 1280x720 if it's HD, unless you have already cropped it). Make sure you render out of your editing software in 30fps or 29.97fps even if you're using a Black Magic Intensity pro, and recorded in 60fps/59.94fps. If you recorded in 50fps on your BMI, render out at 25fps.

note: If you want to crop your video, I'd recommend doing it that after all of this. If you have already cropped your video, you will need to adjust your 1080p interpolated resolution accordingly.

3. Import your 720p uncompressed .avi file into After Effects CS4 or below that has the plug-in installed.

4. Make a new composition with that file. The composition settings should default to 1280x720 if that's what your video file's native resolution is.

5. Go to composition>composition settings and change the "width" to 1920 and the "height" to 1080.

note: If you have dropped your video prior to this point and your original file resolution is no longer 1280x720, you will need to adjust the "height" accordingly. To find out when your "Height" should be, simply find the resolution of your cropped video file, and divide the height by the width, and multiple that value by 1920. That final value is what you want to use instead of "1080" for the height portion of this interpolation.

ex: I have a video file that was originally 1280x720, but I cropped it to 1280x600 before interpolation. To find the correct dimensions of the interpolated output:

600/1280 = .46875

.46875 * 1920 = 900 therefore your dimensions for the 1080p interpolation will be 1920x900

6. Go to Effect>Red Giant>Instant HD and apply that effect to your footage.

7. Go to the "effect settings" and find the "Instant HD" effect. If you don't see it, go to windows>workspace>reset to "standard", and you should see it on the left column, a tab that is to the right of "Project".

8. Under the Instant HD effect settings, find "Output Size" and click on the button to the right of it (If you can't find it, it probably says 1280x720 by default, with a down arrow to the left of it).

9. After clicking on this, select "custom" at the very bottom of the list of resolutions.

10. In the Instant HD effect settings, underneath "Output size" you will find:

"Custom Size"

and underneath that "Custom Width" and "Custom Height".

Underneath that, you will find "Lock Aspect Ratio" which is enabled by default.

UNCHECK THAT BUTTON. The Lock Aspect Ratio should be unchecked.

11. Change the "Custom Width" to 1920 and the "Custom Height" to 1080 or the value you find by doing calculation shows at the bottom of step 5.

12. Underneath "Lock Aspect Ratio", you will find "Filter Type". By default, it is on "quick". Click on "Quick" and change it to "Best".

13. Underneath "Filter Type", there are 3 interpolations settings. I PERSONALLY RECOMMEND LEAVING THEM ALL ON DEFAULT. If you want to tweak them, go ahead, but I'd definitely leave "sharpness" and "antialiazing" on default, and only tweak "quality". Again, I use the default settings for all of them as I have found that gives the best results. The defaults should read "2, 8, and 6" from top to bottom.

14. Now, it is time to render this out. First, the audio. Then the video. This is important because you will not be able to do with encoding portion of this tutorial without having both audio and video separate.
Assuming you are still in the composition that you have done all the steps above in, go to Composition>add to Render Queue.

15. After Effects should have directed you to the "Render Queue" tab after doing this. Under this tab, select "Quality Module". It should be orange.
A new window should pop up. At the top, click on "Format" and change it to WAV. Make sure the "Audio Output" box is checked, but that should do that by default after selecting WAV. Click "OK"

16. This brings you back to the Render Queue tab. Select "output to" and select the folder that you want to render too. If you unzipped my ZIP package, you can select the "Encoding" folder. I would name it "Uncompressed Audio" (.wav of course) just to keep this organized. Press "Save".

17. Click "render".

18. Once that finished, uncheck the button under "render" in the "Render Queue" tab. Actually, just select the entire composition render command that just finished click clicking on the name underneath "comp Name" and hitting "delete" on your keyboard. This is so that AE doesn't re-render the audio while we are rendering the video.

19. Go back to your video composition, the composition that we spent the majority of our steps in. Go to Composition>Add to Render Queue". It should bring you back to the Render Queue tab.

20. Select "Output Module" and leave everything at default, which is "uncompressed .avi" by default. If not, change it accordingly to the Format that says "Video For Windows".
Assuming everything is fine by default, the only thing you need to check is "Audio output". It is unchecked by default. Although you don't need audio on your video file for the encoding we are going to do, it is convenient if you want to render out a simple .wmv file or something in the future for Youtube. Click OK.

21. Select "output" and render it to the "Encoding" folder that was extracted from the .zip file. Name the file "Encoding" (.avi of course). This is so that it matches the .avs encoding script in that folder. If you named it something else, you can tweak the .avs encoding script by opening it up in notepad and changing the "Encoding.avi" command in it accordingly.

22. Click render. You are now done with the 1080p Interpolation and uncompressed audio rendering.


Part B: Encoding your video in x264

1. Go to the "Avisynth" folder and install Avisynth_258.exe. Go to the "Megui Folder" and extract the "megui.zip" file to the "Extract Megui HERE" folder.

2. Go to the "Extract megui HERE" folder and double click on MeGUI.exe. No need to install, it runs automatically. There will be tons of updates, and it will take a few minutes. Allow it to update everything.

note: for convenience, I would recommend right clicking on Megui.exe and creating a "shortcut", which you can drag to your desktop or wherever you'd like. Simply double click on this shortcut in the future to run Megui.

3. Exit out of Megui, and go back to the original "Megui" folder. Right Click on the x264_dp_ FraGTaLiTy's x264 Preset.xml file I included, and copy it. Then go to the x264 folder, which you can find by going through the following folders:

Extract Megui Here>Allprofiles>x264

Paste the x264_dp_ FraGTaLiTy's x264 Preset.xml file in there.

4. Go back to the original "Megui" folder. Right click on x264.exe, and copy it. Then go to a different X264 folder, which you can find by going through the following folders:

Extract Megui Here>tools>x264

and paste the x264.exe file there

5. Now, it's time to start encoding. Open Megui. By default, you are on the "input" tab. To the right of "Avisynth Script", import (click on the small box with ... inside), go to the "Encoding" folder and open Encoding.avs

note: if your video does not pop up, it's because you didn't render it as "Encoding.avi". Open the avs file in notepad and make sure the file name in the command matches the file you rendered out. Underneath that, select your video output of the video encode, or keep it as default. You're just changing the name and the output location with that setting.

6. To the right of the "Encoder Settings" (located under Video Output) click on the long rectangle (to the left of "config") and select x264: FraGTaLiTy's x264 Preset.

7. Click on "Config". See the "Quality" value to the right? This is called a "CRF Value" By default, it is on 18. The higher the value, the lower the file size and the higher the loss of quality. The lower the value, the higher the file size and the lesser amount of quality loss. I would recommend trying "18", but if that is too big after you encode it, try again at any value between 18 and 23. Leave everything else alone. Click "OK".

note: Because of how CRF works, you can actually afford to use a higher CRF value with 1080p than you can with 720p, so don't be afraid to use a higher value for your 1080p version than for your 720p version. Also, if you know a bit about x264 feel free to play with the settings, but the preset I made hasn't failed me yet.

8. File format: both MKV and MP4 are equally great, but most people seem to use mp4 in the fragvid scene, so just use that. MKV is super cool if you need to include subtitles, though.

9. Press "Enqueue" (the one in the top half, not the bottom half).

10. Go to the "Queue" tab and you should see your encode pending. Press "start" and let it encode. Once it is done, your video is finished encoding. Delete the job in the "Queue" tab after it's done.

11. Go back over to the "Input" tab. Now, we move to the bottom half of this tab: Audio. Select your .wav file that you rendered out of AE for "Audio Input".

12. For Audio Output, name it whatever you want and tell it to output wherever you want. You can always just leave it on default, and it'll render to the "Encoding" folder.

13. Encoder Settings: Select LAME MP3 *scratchpad* and click on "Config". You want "CBR" at 320 (kb/s) bitrate. Leave everything else on default. Click "ok". Extension should, by default, be mp3.

Note: If you are encoding audio that is not stereo, such as 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, don't use mp3. Use DTS or something, I'm not an expert when it comes surround sound audio encoding so you'll have to ask Google.

14. Press "Enqueue" (this time, the one on the bottom half)

15. Go over to the Queue tab and click "start". This should go rather quickly since it's just audio. Delete the job once it finishes.

16. Once that's done, now it's time to combine the audio and video together. The top of Megui, go to Tools>Muxer>MP4 Muxer (or MKV if you used MKV).

17. A new window will pop up. For Video Input, select your mp4 or mkv that you encoded. For Audio 1, select the mp3 you encoded. Ignore subtitles and chapters unless you need them.

For Muxed Output, select the file name you want for your final video. Click ok and press "Queue".

18. Go to the Queue tab and press "start". You now have your finalized x264 encoded video with audio. Make sure to do this for both your 720p release and your 1080p release.

o hai there.

yay! thanks

Good Post Fragtality.

frag, I still lurk sanctuary, I saw that you wanted to troll here, bye bye

This is a great post frag

Any who, this is quite interesting. Trolling us trolls by not trolling. Which leads me the following question: Are you a troll?

tl;dr bro

Sticky worth nice dawg

Good shit Frag. Should be quite helpful to the Goons.

Im 12 and what is this?

i got trolled bro

I'm sure no one one here will read all of that.

good post fragtality

fragtality wrote:

First, Download this: http://www.filefront.com/16795869/FraGTaLiTy%27s%20Quality%20Package.zip

The tutorial is included in there as a .pdf file in the download(you can always just read it from the thread), along with all other stuff you'll need (except After Effects and Instant HD 1.1, of course).

Something to note: The higher the quality of the source file, the better the result.

Any who, off we go into the world of Quality.

1080p Quality and Encoding Guide for Windows Users
by: FraGTaLiTy

Part A: Interpolating your footage to 1080p

1. Install the Red Giant Instant HD 1.1 plug-in for After Effects CS4 or CS3 (I don't believe it works in 64 bit CS5 yet).

2. After you have finished editing your entire video, render out your entire video as an uncompressed .avi file with audio in the native resolution of your video file (which is 1280x720 if it's HD, unless you have already cropped it). Make sure you render out of your editing software in 30fps or 29.97fps even if you're using a Black Magic Intensity pro, and recorded in 60fps/59.94fps. If you recorded in 50fps on your BMI, render out at 25fps.

note: If you want to crop your video, I'd recommend doing it that after all of this. If you have already cropped your video, you will need to adjust your 1080p interpolated resolution accordingly.

3. Import your 720p uncompressed .avi file into After Effects CS4 or below that has the plug-in installed.

4. Make a new composition with that file. The composition settings should default to 1280x720 if that's what your video file's native resolution is.

5. Go to composition>composition settings and change the "width" to 1920 and the "height" to 1080.

note: If you have dropped your video prior to this point and your original file resolution is no longer 1280x720, you will need to adjust the "height" accordingly. To find out when your "Height" should be, simply find the resolution of your cropped video file, and divide the height by the width, and multiple that value by 1920. That final value is what you want to use instead of "1080" for the height portion of this interpolation.

ex: I have a video file that was originally 1280x720, but I cropped it to 1280x600 before interpolation. To find the correct dimensions of the interpolated output:

600/1280 = .46875

.46875 * 1920 = 900 therefore your dimensions for the 1080p interpolation will be 1920x900

6. Go to Effect>Red Giant>Instant HD and apply that effect to your footage.

7. Go to the "effect settings" and find the "Instant HD" effect. If you don't see it, go to windows>workspace>reset to "standard", and you should see it on the left column, a tab that is to the right of "Project".

8. Under the Instant HD effect settings, find "Output Size" and click on the button to the right of it (If you can't find it, it probably says 1280x720 by default, with a down arrow to the left of it).

9. After clicking on this, select "custom" at the very bottom of the list of resolutions.

10. In the Instant HD effect settings, underneath "Output size" you will find:

"Custom Size"

and underneath that "Custom Width" and "Custom Height".

Underneath that, you will find "Lock Aspect Ratio" which is enabled by default.

UNCHECK THAT BUTTON. The Lock Aspect Ratio should be unchecked.

11. Change the "Custom Width" to 1920 and the "Custom Height" to 1080 or the value you find by doing calculation shows at the bottom of step 5.

12. Underneath "Lock Aspect Ratio", you will find "Filter Type". By default, it is on "quick". Click on "Quick" and change it to "Best".

13. Underneath "Filter Type", there are 3 interpolations settings. I PERSONALLY RECOMMEND LEAVING THEM ALL ON DEFAULT. If you want to tweak them, go ahead, but I'd definitely leave "sharpness" and "antialiazing" on default, and only tweak "quality". Again, I use the default settings for all of them as I have found that gives the best results. The defaults should read "2, 8, and 6" from top to bottom.

14. Now, it is time to render this out. First, the audio. Then the video. This is important because you will not be able to do with encoding portion of this tutorial without having both audio and video separate.
Assuming you are still in the composition that you have done all the steps above in, go to Composition>add to Render Queue.

15. After Effects should have directed you to the "Render Queue" tab after doing this. Under this tab, select "Quality Module". It should be orange.
A new window should pop up. At the top, click on "Format" and change it to WAV. Make sure the "Audio Output" box is checked, but that should do that by default after selecting WAV. Click "OK"

16. This brings you back to the Render Queue tab. Select "output to" and select the folder that you want to render too. If you unzipped my ZIP package, you can select the "Encoding" folder. I would name it "Uncompressed Audio" (.wav of course) just to keep this organized. Press "Save".

17. Click "render".

18. Once that finished, uncheck the button under "render" in the "Render Queue" tab. Actually, just select the entire composition render command that just finished click clicking on the name underneath "comp Name" and hitting "delete" on your keyboard. This is so that AE doesn't re-render the audio while we are rendering the video.

19. Go back to your video composition, the composition that we spent the majority of our steps in. Go to Composition>Add to Render Queue". It should bring you back to the Render Queue tab.

20. Select "Output Module" and leave everything at default, which is "uncompressed .avi" by default. If not, change it accordingly to the Format that says "Video For Windows".
Assuming everything is fine by default, the only thing you need to check is "Audio output". It is unchecked by default. Although you don't need audio on your video file for the encoding we are going to do, it is convenient if you want to render out a simple .wmv file or something in the future for Youtube. Click OK.

21. Select "output" and render it to the "Encoding" folder that was extracted from the .zip file. Name the file "Encoding" (.avi of course). This is so that it matches the .avs encoding script in that folder. If you named it something else, you can tweak the .avs encoding script by opening it up in notepad and changing the "Encoding.avi" command in it accordingly.

22. Click render. You are now done with the 1080p Interpolation and uncompressed audio rendering.


Part B: Encoding your video in x264

1. Go to the "Avisynth" folder and install Avisynth_258.exe. Go to the "Megui Folder" and extract the "megui.zip" file to the "Extract Megui HERE" folder.

2. Go to the "Extract megui HERE" folder and double click on MeGUI.exe. No need to install, it runs automatically. There will be tons of updates, and it will take a few minutes. Allow it to update everything.

note: for convenience, I would recommend right clicking on Megui.exe and creating a "shortcut", which you can drag to your desktop or wherever you'd like. Simply double click on this shortcut in the future to run Megui.

3. Exit out of Megui, and go back to the original "Megui" folder. Right Click on the x264_dp_ FraGTaLiTy's x264 Preset.xml file I included, and copy it. Then go to the x264 folder, which you can find by going through the following folders:

Extract Megui Here>Allprofiles>x264

Paste the x264_dp_ FraGTaLiTy's x264 Preset.xml file in there.

4. Go back to the original "Megui" folder. Right click on x264.exe, and copy it. Then go to a different X264 folder, which you can find by going through the following folders:

Extract Megui Here>tools>x264

and paste the x264.exe file there

5. Now, it's time to start encoding. Open Megui. By default, you are on the "input" tab. To the right of "Avisynth Script", import (click on the small box with ... inside), go to the "Encoding" folder and open Encoding.avs

note: if your video does not pop up, it's because you didn't render it as "Encoding.avi". Open the avs file in notepad and make sure the file name in the command matches the file you rendered out. Underneath that, select your video output of the video encode, or keep it as default. You're just changing the name and the output location with that setting.

6. To the right of the "Encoder Settings" (located under Video Output) click on the long rectangle (to the left of "config") and select x264: FraGTaLiTy's x264 Preset.

7. Click on "Config". See the "Quality" value to the right? This is called a "CRF Value" By default, it is on 18. The higher the value, the lower the file size and the higher the loss of quality. The lower the value, the higher the file size and the lesser amount of quality loss. I would recommend trying "18", but if that is too big after you encode it, try again at any value between 18 and 23. Leave everything else alone. Click "OK".

note: Because of how CRF works, you can actually afford to use a higher CRF value with 1080p than you can with 720p, so don't be afraid to use a higher value for your 1080p version than for your 720p version. Also, if you know a bit about x264 feel free to play with the settings, but the preset I made hasn't failed me yet.

8. File format: both MKV and MP4 are equally great, but most people seem to use mp4 in the fragvid scene, so just use that. MKV is super cool if you need to include subtitles, though.

9. Press "Enqueue" (the one in the top half, not the bottom half).

10. Go to the "Queue" tab and you should see your encode pending. Press "start" and let it encode. Once it is done, your video is finished encoding. Delete the job in the "Queue" tab after it's done.

11. Go back over to the "Input" tab. Now, we move to the bottom half of this tab: Audio. Select your .wav file that you rendered out of AE for "Audio Input".

12. For Audio Output, name it whatever you want and tell it to output wherever you want. You can always just leave it on default, and it'll render to the "Encoding" folder.

13. Encoder Settings: Select LAME MP3 *scratchpad* and click on "Config". You want "CBR" at 320 (kb/s) bitrate. Leave everything else on default. Click "ok". Extension should, by default, be mp3.

Note: If you are encoding audio that is not stereo, such as 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, don't use mp3. Use DTS or something, I'm not an expert when it comes surround sound audio encoding so you'll have to ask Google.

14. Press "Enqueue" (this time, the one on the bottom half)

15. Go over to the Queue tab and click "start". This should go rather quickly since it's just audio. Delete the job once it finishes.

16. Once that's done, now it's time to combine the audio and video together. The top of Megui, go to Tools>Muxer>MP4 Muxer (or MKV if you used MKV).

17. A new window will pop up. For Video Input, select your mp4 or mkv that you encoded. For Audio 1, select the mp3 you encoded. Ignore subtitles and chapters unless you need them.

For Muxed Output, select the file name you want for your final video. Click ok and press "Queue".

18. Go to the Queue tab and press "start". You now have your finalized x264 encoded video with audio. Make sure to do this for both your 720p release and your 1080p release.

good post threadtality

feels good man