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working with stills
I’m working on a historical video and incorporating a lot of stills. Should I import them as TIFFs or JPEGs? Does it matter? I’m using them as TIFFs and I keep getting the little color wheel coming on and delaying progress. Why is this happening and can I make it stop? I’m getting a green notation on the timeline.
Thanks.
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8 Replies
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The wheel is spinning because the stills are large and because stills are huge RAM hogs inside FCP. How much RAM do you have in your machine?
Tiffs are better quality than JPEGs because they are either uncompressed or have better compression if they are compressed, but they are also much bigger files than JPEGs.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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I have 2 GB DDR SDRAM.
Should I make them smaller TIFFs?
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[apple annie] “Should I make them smaller TIFFs?”
What are the present pixel dimensions and file sizes?
How much do you intend to zoom in on them?
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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I would suggest using PICT files instead. It should help to cut down on the files sizes. Also, I would suggest using either Motion or After Effects to animate the stills, then bring the rendered files into FCP. I think the other programs allows for more creativity and better quality.
-Russ
Russell Lasson
Kaleidoscope Pictures
Provo, UT -
Pixel sizes vary but approximately 2000 x 3000 and approximately 6 MB. I don’t need to zoom in much.
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[apple annie] “Pixel sizes vary but approximately 2000 x 3000 and approximately 6 MB. I don’t need to zoom in much.”
Then indeed you should make the stills smaller, about twice the pixel dimensions of your video dimensions, so make them all 50% of the size they are now. That will save rendering time and overhead. Increasing the amount of RAM in your computer will also help a lot. 2GB is the bare minimum with FCP, and so you should expect those waiting times you mentioned if you keep at 2gb. Working with smaller stills will help considerbly however…
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Thanks for your advice. Is there a way to resize them in FCP or do I need to take them back into Photoshop?
I’ll check in to increasing my RAM as well.
Have a great day.
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[apple annie] “Is there a way to resize them in FCP or do I need to take them back into Photoshop?”
Photoshop…
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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