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does FCP have 32 bit Effects ?
hi,
i wanted to know if FCP has 32 bit effects ? …not just for motion previews but for output at 32 bit like in After Effects ?
Raj
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10 Replies
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Nope. FCP currently operates in 8 bit color space internally.
Jeremy
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Incorrect. FCP has had 32bit float support for rendering for ages. 10bit video uses it by default, but you can turn it on for 8bit video by selecting the “high precision YUV” option.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP
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thanks for the help…but how do i export at 32 bit..if i want export it as a QT file ?
Raj
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Okay, I hear you Graeme, but tell me, what Effects are processed @ 32bit? ANy, all? If it’s a plug in, isn’t always round down to 8 bit at some point even though it’s technically processing @ float?
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If the plug-in is based on the (older, discontinued) AE SDK, then it indeed forces the input/output to 8 bit.
If a plug-in is based on FxPlug, then it can optionally support high-precision (floating point math) in both RGB and YUV. A good many of our plug-ins have this support already:
https://www.noiseindustries.com/fxfactory
Motion only does RGB, whereas FCP is capable of high-precision rendering in YUV as well.
As a side note, the sequence setting called “Render all YUV material in high-precision YUV” is mislabeled: in reality, if you have a plug-in capable of high-precision rendering in RGB only, the high-quality “rendering path” will still kick in when this setting is on: FCP does a high-quality conversion from YUV 32 bit to RGB 32 bit. Contrary to the 8 bit conversion, this one causes virtually no loss of color information.
In Motion, you’ll also notice a 16 bit half-float option. It’s great because the quality is almost identical to 32 bit float processing at half the consumption of VRAM resources. This option can only exist in Motion, since 16 bit half-float math is only available natively on GPUs.
Hope this answers your question 🙂
Gabe
Noise Industries, LLC -
Nice, that clears some things up. But what about internal FCP effects, say the 3way cc? You are telling me that processes in float if high precision is on?
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I guess the only people who’d be able to answer for sure would be Apple’s engineers, but if I’d have to make a guess I’d say that the color corrector is certainly capable of working with floating point (heck, I’d be surprised if it *ever* works at less than high-precision internally, even when its input/output is only 8 bit).
NAB is just around the corner, and that’s a great time to get answers straight from the horse’s mouth 🙂
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[Gabriele de Simone] “NAB is just around the corner,”
Unfortunately, I’ll be in the editing seat, but thanks a lot for the info!
Jeremy
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Raj,
I think you are mistaking your question. When you export fro FC a RGB clip, your exporting 32b. 8b per color channel (RGB) plus 8b for the Alpha channel (If you are exporting Millions+). If you are exporting DV, the most part of the codecs use 8b to sample the Luma (Y) and the color components (Cb and Cr). In the case that the codec support Alpha channel (i.e, Sheer), also take 8b. If you use 10b Uncompresed, is all the same but using 10b per channel.
AE allows you to export with higher quality because with some codecs you can export 16 bits per channel, so a total of 64b.
So if your question is if you can export clips with Alpha channel from FC, the answer is yes, but you need to choose a codec that allows you export Millions+.
Cheers,
rafael -
I wish Apple would give out more info on this 🙂 In that mode, 32bit float is the data format used internally. Any FXPlug filter should be producing float data, but again, how accurate, I don’t quite know. However, in this mode, you can darken an image, and in the next plugin brighten it up without the losses you’d have if you were using an 8bit intermediate stage.
Rounding will be to 8bit or 10bit depending on timeline codec, and, right at the end.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP
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