AE render for realtime HD in Premiere

Question

Hi all,
I'm working on a show shot on p2, 720p 23.976 mxf files. Editing is going great, but I'm doing some After Effects work that needs to be brought into the Premiere project. What format can i render to in AE that will allow realtime playback in my HD timeline without rendering in Premiere?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi Lucas,
At the moment, AE/PP don't have a DVCPROHD AVI or QT codec for the purpose you're suggesting. Even installing OnLocation, and the DV100 codec it provides, results in playback functionality only of said AVIs recorded in OL. PP does have DVCPROHD rendering capability, but neither AE or PP offer export. You have a couple options, in my mind:
1) As Craig suggests, render uncompressed AVIs from AE. They will need rendering at some point in PP, and they may or may not be realtime (depending on your drive speed, mainly), but it's the easiest and most logical solution.
2) Render out DV proxies from AE. Set up your export module for DV, 720x480, 1.2 PAR, 23.976. Import these into your project, and edit away--use scale to frame size to at least fill the frame. Granted, it's not going to look fantastic, but you'll at least be able to use the clips for timing purposes and such. When your edit is locked, you could render out uncompressed files as above, and replace the proxies with those. Just name them the same as the original DV versions, make the originals offline in PP, and then relink to the uncompressed versions. This kind of two-step is pretty common in the offline/online process.
3) Here's where you can get crazy with the CheezWhiz. I don't really recommend this, but if you're hell-bent, here goes:
Create a new DVCPROHD 720p/23.976 project. Make sure your render settings are set to DVCPROHD, and not Uncompressed in PP. If you have Dynamic Link (from the Production bundle), bring your comps into PP that way; otherwise, you'll have to render the uncompressed versions from AE and import them. Create a sequence and drop all your comps into it. As expected, the red render bar will appear--so hit Enter to render. Wait. When you have the green bar, save your project and close it.
Now here's the goofy part: open up your original project, and invoke the import command in whatever manner you choose. Navigate to the "Adobe Premiere Pro Preview Files/The Project You Just Rendered In" folder. Just highlight that folder, and hit the Import Folder button. Voila--you now have DVCPROHD MXF clips from your AE comps in your project. They'll playback in realtime, and will show no red render bar, unless you manipulate the clips in some fashion. You can obviously move these rendered files to wherever you choose, and import them if you prefer.
This is a really silly round-about way of doing this, but it works. I've actually started using this when I do heavily-effected sequences or have sequences with a lot of comps, and the render takes forever. I'll import the rendered files back into the project, rebuild the sequence, and then export to my destination of choice (ie. web format). Normally, PP will go back to the raw, uncompressed RGB frames when exporting a movie or via the AME, and that's of course preferable, but there are times where you just want to export something for client review quickly after a lengthy render. I don't really recommend this for FINISHED work, but in a pinch, it'll get you by.
Have fun!