After effects to FCP

[Bob Flood]

hey joe

why?

AE is a so much better compositing and layering tool than FCP.

Just do all that work in AE, and, if your result is going to be full frame, render out movies that match your timeline.

If your result needs to be keyed over other video, render out as a quicktime animation with alpha channel, OR Microcosm has a free codec called None 16, thats smaller and better than animation.

example: subject on green screen.

1. Captured footage (dvcproHD 30 progressive) into FCP.

2. edited out junk, and strung together good shots,

3. exported cut timeline using None16 codec, and copied over to AE workstation, in this case a PC.

4. AE artist pulled a key (i think using keylight) and cleaned it up, matting out gobo arms and such.

5. AE artist renders out his timeline as none 16 with alpha.

5. I use the none 16 with alpha movie as a layer in a simple 3 layer compositing timeline.

6. we would have done the whole thing in AE, but we needed to time out the simple comp in FCP, while pulling the key in AE (not enough time in the budget)

honestly, figure out what you want to do with the goal of “heavy compositing lifting” in AE. You will save yourself so much grief!

“I like video because its so fast!”

Bob Flood
Greer & Associates, Inc.

[Joe Procopio]

in this particular case, AE comp was only going into FCP to output…so no keying or anything, just seeing if there was a faster way to get AE to tape…aside from going to priemere which who knows how much would have to be rendered anyway….we just output QTs, and actually output it from an AVID…field issues from AE output into FCP…but that’s another story…it was a rush, and we explored the fastest easiest way to tape for live show tonight (SNL)

Broadway Video, NYC
AVID/FCP editor/engineer