Adobe Premier Pro to Final Cut Pro Switch

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Justin: There are so many items in your message that I can’t cover them all in a single reply. As an overall thing, you’re right that many things are not limitations of the software but just part of getting used to a different tool.
FCP comes with excellent documentation, and most of your questions are covered there.

“Lack of full Photoshop integration”
The irony here is that, even though Photoshop is an Adobe application, Final Cut Pro might have deeper support for PSD files than Premiere. For instance, when FCP imports PSD layers in a sequence, they retain the orignal transfer/composite modes. Last time I checked Premiere didn’t support transfer modes. This could have changed in most recent updates, though.
I don’t know why you’re getting problems. FCP imports multi-layered PSD files as nested sequences. You can choose if you want to use that as a single clip or use the layers as separate clips (either command drag to the canvas, or double click to open as a separate sequence). Alpha channel interpetation is automatic. You can also use the “open in editor” command to modify content in Photoshop and have it updated in FCP.

“Transition Limitations”
What you discriribe for PSD clips could be related to the next item.
MP3 and other compressed audio formats are a no-no in FCP. It’s a professional application that works with uncompressed audio (with the exception of the MPEG audio in HDV). Convering an MP3 to AIFF or WAV takes seconds. Can be done in QT Player, iTunes or FCP itself.

“Timeline Limitations”

Go to FCP preferences and set the default still duration to whatever duration you want. You have to understand that FCP imports PSD files as sequences, not clips. Thus, it creates a 12 second sequence when it imports them. Easily solved by the preference item I just mentioned.

“No built-in Titler”
The original FCP text generators are competely awful and don’t support PS fonts. They are still around for legacy compatibility and quick slates, mostly. FCP comes with Livetype, an animated text application which is capable of things a “titler” can’t dream of. It also comes with 8 GB of text presets, animated fonts, effects, backgrounds and graphics elements. Also, read this: Livetype projects can be imported as if they were clips into FCP, and you can again call Liveype from FCP (they can both be open at the same time) modify it and get the results in FCP.

“Realtime Playback Abilities”
You really need to read the manual 🙂
You’re surely in “RT – High” mode, which only tolerates RT effects with final or near final quality results. If you switch to the different Unlimited Modes (high, medium, low) you will easily get the 11 layers you used to have. The RT menu is in the upper left corner of the timeline window. This will be more automatic with FCP 5, since it has the “dynamic” mode.

“Importing Limitations”
Vector graphics import is a notorious omission. MP3 and AAC were already discussed.

Hope this helps.

Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
https://www.adolforozenfeld.com
adolfo@adolforozenfeld.com

[Walter Biscardi]

[Justin Pepple] “Lack of full Photoshop integration
Some PSD files I create do not import correctly with strange alpha channel behaivor occasionally. In Premier Pro, I could import any PSD no matter what attributes and it worked great. FCP I am finding has trouble with certain PSD files. Also, manytimes FCP won’t play the PSD files in realtime nor display them in the canvas until I render all.”

FCP has an issue with odd frame sizes at the moment. Keep all frame sizes even numbers, no odd numbers. For example 720×486 instead of 720×485.

[Justin Pepple] “Transition Limitations
Photoshop items are often limited as to what transitions can be linked to other media. For example if I want to transition from one PSD to another video clip, I’ve noticed oftentimes FCP won’t allow it. Or transitioning audio from MP3 to Movie Clip Audio (Wav or Aiff)–I can’t seem to do this. “

There are no limits on transitions. If you can’t place a transition, then you are missing “head” or “tail” on your video or audio clip. You cannot place a transition if there is no media available in the clip to make the transition. FCP will either not place the transition or place a 1 frame transition.

[Justin Pepple] “Timeline Limitations
I’ve noticed many items have duration limitations on the timeline. For instance any stills or text generators, I have great difficulty scaling past a certain limit. Most of the time FCP prevents me from stretching stills beyond 12 seconds. Sometimes, I can’t stretch files at all. (I’m just talking about still PSD’s, JPEG’s, etc. I have also noticed that marquees or scrolling text generators seem to limit the duration to a maximum of 2 minutes. In Premier, it was unlimited”

If your photoshop files have layers, then the files come into FCP as a Comp. That Comp will be the same length as the Still Duration, which is sounds like is set to 12 seconds on your system. If you want to lengthen that still, you first need to lengthen the the Photoshop Comp first, then you can lengthen that on the timeline.

Single layer Photoshop files show up as a single graphic so you can lengthen that out to about 1:30 at a time.

[Justin Pepple] “No built-in Titler “

There’s multiple Titlers built into FCP. It wouldn’t be a very good NLE if there was no title tool. The tool of choice is Text 3D which features everything you’re asking for. Look it up in the manual and you’ll find it’s a Boris product and it’s outstanding. Use LiveType for even more functionality. FCP uses TrueType fonts.

[Justin Pepple] ”
No Audio Normalizer
Premier has this great Audio normalizer to help set audio levels…I can’t seem to find one in FCP.”

Audio Filters > Compressor. Again, read the manual on how to use this tool effectively.

[Justin Pepple] “Final Cut Pro however, when I do the same thing gives me a blank screen that says “Needs Render”. I wish FCP would atleast give me a low-res preview as I don’t always have time to wait for it to render. Could this have anything to do with my specific system? “

Yep, faster system equals more realtime. For instance, my systems are G5 Dual 2.0’s and I have one system that runs a 2TB Fibrechannel array at 325mb/sec+ and another system that runs Firewire 800 drives. The Fibrechannel runs rings around the FW 800 drives because they’re so much faster. FCP 5 will introduce dynamic realtime which will provide the same low-res preview as you describe in Premiere.

[Justin Pepple] “Importing Limitations
I can’t import Illustrator files, nor MP3, nor AAC files. I have tried MP3’s, but they firstly won’t playback in realtime in sequences, and secondly when I export I get clicks and pops in the audio. I have tried AAC files which don’t seem to import at all (silence). “

AAC does not work in FCP to protect against piracy and from illegal use of music from the iTunes store. MP3’s do not work in realtime because the files are generally 44.1khz and FCP uses 48khz audio. Either render the audio file in FCP, export it and bring it back in or use Quicktime Pro to export the audio and then bring that into FCP.

[Justin Pepple] “I often make changes to files that I have imported to FCP, such as PSD files. Everytime I make changes to the files, FCP thinks they are missing, and makes me re-link them. Very tedious sometimes to go in and re-link all the files.”

That’s how FCP works, if the date modified is changed on the file, then FCP sees the file as off-line, simply allow it to re-link the file. Use the External Editors tool and set still images to Photoshop. Then when you make the changes, FCP will automatically update the PSD file, though sometimes it doesn’t work as well as it should.

Use the Help tool within FCP. Much of what you’re asking here is covered in great detail in the manual. When running FCP, simply click on the “Help” menu at the top and then type in a search term. I use that all the time and it’s quite quick. In particular, look up how Nests and Nesting works in FCP. Essentially all photoshop files with layers are Nests so knowing how a Nest works will take you a long way in working with the Photoshop files.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Bret Williams]

How many times have you seen the splash screen, and you still can’t spell Premiere? 🙂

[Hector Candleleven]

It seems like a classic case of “I don’t need no stinking manual!”

There’s a reason why FCP comes in a big box.