• Apple Motion

  Super slow on FCP when running Animation codec

  Posted by Sharon Li on March 23, 2012 at 2:40 am

  Hey guys, I have a MBP 2.66GHz/i7/4GB with 100GB space left on harddisk, when I lay a mov clip with Animation codec on my FCP 7, the timeline playback suddenly gets so slow.. when I tried to export this 2m24s video, it says it would take 6 hours to render… same for exporting (I used “export using quicktime conversion with H.264 setting”). When I take that Animation clip out, the timeline seems to work fine again. I need to export this animation and compress it to H.264 format so my client can view easily on their laptop and iPad screen.

  I guess my questions are:
  1. what makes the clip with animation codec run so slow on my MBP?
  2. should I convert the animation into H.264 first and then bring it to FCP for subtitling and audio assembling then export from there? I want to make sure I have the best quality in the final video with H.264 codec.
  3. any tips to optimize FCP rendering/exporting system?

  Any help is appreciated!

  Shaz

  Multi-media specialist / based in Shanghai
  http://www.thevisualnoodle.com

  Simon Ubsdell replied 14 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Stephen Smith

  March 23, 2012 at 6:33 pm

  Did you export out the Animation clip from Motion because you needed the Alpha channel? If not re-export out as Pro-Res 422 (HQ).

  If you need the Alpha Channel maybe try a Pro-Ress 4444 set to millions of colors +.

  Hope this helps and best of luck.

  Stephen Smith
  Utah Video Productions

  Check out my Motion Training DVD

  Check out my Vimeo page
• 

  Simon Ubsdell

  March 23, 2012 at 9:18 pm

  [Sharon Li] “any tips to optimize FCP rendering/exporting system?”

  Don’t export to compressor from within FCP – this is always very slow. Render the animation clip in the timeline first. Export a reference movie. Use that to make your delivery file with compressor.

  Animation is a very, very heavy duty codec that can really slow things down. Unless you absolutely need alpha (in which case as Stephen says, you’re better off with ProRes 4444) don’t use this codec but try and find something that matches the rest of your timeline.

  Simon Ubsdell
  http://www.tokyo-uk.com

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