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Best workflow for massive image files that crash fcp
I’m editing a documentary and I’ve been given very big image files that we need the ability to zoom in on very tightly. The first couple of pics I received were 3314 x 4652 and 5596 x 4121 at 7.3 MB and 21 MB respectively. My FCP7 is barely able to handle them, slow renders, crashing constantly, out of memory errors, etc.
We are cutting HD 1920 x 1080. I, of course, can make these files smaller and low res, but eventually we’d need best quality, and I’d hate to work up all of our moves and layering with temp versions, just to have to rescale and recreate the whole batch at the end… provided FCP can even handle doing that at all.
I can’t just resize the images to my timeline’s aspect ratio, because we need the flexibility to zoom so tightly and the quality of the image would suffer.
Any advice would be SO appreciated. Thanks so much.
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4 Replies
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Use Photoshop or Preview to reduce the image size to 4000 pixels on the largest side. FCP cannot deal with anything larger than 4K.
This will still allow you to zoom in pretty darn far.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Thanks for the quick responses! What about image resolution? I’ve heard different pieces of advice online. It’s currently at 600dpi. Do we want to scale down to 72? Will it affect our ability to go very tight on the media?
The AE/Motion idea is great, but I’m not proficient in either and I don’t have time for the learning curve at the moment. Deadlines…
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DPI is meaningless in video. 600dpi…72dpi. 4dpi…it will look the same no matter what, as long as the dimensions are the same.
DPI is for print. YOu can reduce the dpi to 72 to make the files smaller if you want.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Ok, 72 dpi, less than 4000 pixels on the longest side. Great. Is there a maximum still file size that FCP7 can handle gracefully? It seems like even with smaller JPGs or TIFFs, my timeline demands a lot of rendering. But at least it is functional now :).
It really would be great to somehow export these stills in a format that plays nice with my prores timeline. If I did tackle Motion, you’re saying I could basically turn these stills into ProRes video files? That would be fantastic. I’d want to have flexibility in the length of the clip, and I presume a video file wouldn’t be able to ‘stretch’ like a JPG, if we want to hold on it longer. I’m assuming I could set a time limit on the clip that’s long enough to accommodate our needs?
Thanks!
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