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Workflow question
I’m trying to decide, what’s the best workflow for the most realtime, without rendering until final render time, for working with DV footage and movies from After Effects with an alpha. The way I’ve been doing it, just isn’t close to real time. Render out of AE as mov with animation codec with alpha (millions of colors +), then drop it on a DV timeline and render to watch and keep editing. My real problem is that I do keep editing, causing me to have to render again and again, if I want to keep seeing the AE movie.
1-Is there a way to have at least a preview quality, somewhat realtime playback on a DV sequence with an mov with an alpha? If so, what is it and what are the pros or cons?
or
2-Do I need to switch my workflow to uncompressed or some other codec? If so, other than drive space, what are the pros or cons, (keep in mind, I’m using a firewire 800 Graid, and I have a Black Magic Decklink Exreme)? Also, if so, where will I realistically see the difference between 8-bit and 10-bit uncompressed?
Thanks,
Gary -
2 Replies
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You kids. Back when AE was CoSA, it took a weekend to render one effect on a ten second layer. I have no sympathy.
FCP is totally CPU-based. There is no way for the CPU to handle two streams and process them into a composite. Future versions of FCP may have hooks into graphics processors, the current rev does not. You can downgrade your renders to 50% and they complete in 1/4 the time. That’s plenty of resolution for previewing and coarse timing. If it’s not, you’ve got to learn to work differently or you will need more expensive toys.
Your decision to go to a proprietary format will be economic. Beyond that, there are endless hassles with drives and updates to those silly boxes and cards. Researching the reviews for them is easy, it just takes a few weeks to figure it all out. You can lurk on all of those forms here but please don’t start asking, “Which is best?” That’s up to you and your budget and your frustration level. Waiting for renders in DV may be chump change when it comes to maintaining proprietary boxes.
Yes, you will see substantial differences between 8- and 10-bit video but only if the subject matter can benefit and only if you are playing your movies on systems that can show them well. If you need 10-bit quality in AE, you already know about it. If you don’t, then you don’t need it.bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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You don’t have to have sympathy for me. That’s not what I’m asking for. (I think there’s another forum for that.) I remember the good-ole days too. I used to sell bagphones and install them into Mercedes. I also used to sell computers that required a 5-1/4″ before it would boot. Now, my phone is 4″ long and my computer doesn’t even have a floppy drive.
Thanks for the downgraded render quality tip, that’ll help. I should’ve thought of that, I was just concerned with the possibility of not having to render at all, till time to print to tape. (Guess I had blinders on.) However, I never mentioned going proprietary, or buying “boxes and cards”. I’ve had proprietary and I’m not interested again. I’m simply asking which is the better codec or workflow for my situation, or if there is even a better workflow that I’m not thinking about. I’m no newbie, just new to FCP. I’m about to start on an infomercial for Orange Glo and I just want to know that I’m working as efficiently as I can, before I start.
You never said anything about going uncompressed, unless that’s what you mean by proprietary. So, I ask again, will switching to uncompressed help me out or just take up more drive space? (again, I know uncompressed will not make my DV-Cam footage look any better, this is a workflow question, not a quality question.)
Thanks,
Gary
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