Animation codec with field ordering?

[David Roth weiss]

[JeremyG] “Okay, you have me curious. Now how do you do it?”

As soo as the Scooter Libby verdict is rad I’ll explain it… That’s hapenning now…

DRW

[David Roth weiss]

Okay, now that Scooter Libby has been convicted I can explain how to import sequential animation files into FCP. I will use 32-bit Targa or TGA files as my example because they simply work well and because they carry an alpha channel that makes them perfect for keying over video. There are other still image formats that work, but TGAs are my favorite.

Step 1: Open a new bin
Step 2: Go to User Preferences – Editing tab – change Still/Freeze Duration to 00:00:00:01
Step 3: Import your sequential TGA into the new bin
Step 4: Lasso the files in the bin and drap them to a video track above your other tracks

BINGO!!! Thats all there is to it…

Use in good health,
DRW

[Jeremy Garchow]

Yeah, that’s what I figured. Thanks, I will give it a shot next time I render an alpha (which will probably be later on today).

Do you mind explaining the advantages of this over an animation movie with an alpha one more time?

[David Roth weiss]

[JeremyG] “Do you mind explaining the advantages of this over an animation movie with an alpha one more time?”

There are many advantages, here are a couple that come to mind… Keep in mind that, as file sizes increase dramatically, as with this whole HD thing we’re all adopting, this becomes very much more important.

1. TGA files are universal. As we read every day here on the Cow, QT files and those created by other NLEs are not. Send a TGA seq. to somebody on an Avid and you never hear back from them… Or, just try importing something into FCP with the Avid codec… If the same guys sent you a TGA sequence you’d have no worries.

2. When rendering, if something goes bad or if a change needs to be made, you can pick up where it left off or where you need to rather than rendering from the beginning. So, imagine you have a client’s ten-minute animation at uncompressed HD resolution. That is taking five hours to render. Half way through the power company decides they need to fix a fuse, or, half way through you get a frantic call from your client telling you that the phone number in the final half of your animation is wrong. If you’re exporting sequential animation files you lose nothing you’ve done so far and you can make your fixes and render out from that point without a single issue.

3. Your five hour render now finishes, when suddenly, your client, working from offices in New Zealand, phones to inform you that they have moved up the air dates on the project and that its being broadcast tomorrow night. FEDEX is closed, and they wouldn’t get to NZ on time anyway, so you begin trying to FTP the material ASAP. Your giant HD QT file chokes the server, and each time you start up again it goes for an hour an then quits. You are dead in the water. With sequential stills its a whole different ball game… File Transfer Protocol and the Internet just love lots of small files and they hardly ever choke on them. However, if you lose your connection you can just resume the file transfer right where you left off.

There are many more advantges — too many to list here.

Hope this helps…

DRW

[Will Barry]

I actually haven’t been rendering using fields at all. I didn’t think it would be necessary?

[Rafael Amador]

Thanks David. I can see few people trying the Targas today.
Cheeers,
Rafael

[Martin Baker]

well if you didn’t render fields (which as you is optional) then that would point to a problem in AE rather than FCP.

Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
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[Martin Baker]

There are also some disadvantages to using image sequences:

– Projects take longer to open and save because FCP has to load in every single frame rather than one file.
– FCP’s still cache will get used up very quickly if you use image sequences. This means you’ll lose RT on titles further down the sequence.
– The general pain of editing with single frame files.

Image sequences certainly have their place in high end or 3D projects where you need more flexibility but for simple renders from AE, a single QT in animation codec is far easier to deal with IMHO.

Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
Unique plug-ins and tools for Apple Pro Apps
NEW! Final Print for FCP
Hot Tips video podcast

[Rafael Amador]

I’ve just purchased the MICROCOSM. I downloaded the NONE 16b that they give for free and I’ve got so amazed how it plays in RT that i couldnt refrain my self to try the MICROCOSM. Did anybody tried it yet? Any tip about how to use it?
Thanks,
rafael

[John Pale]

[Martin Baker] “- Projects take longer to open and save because FCP has to load in every single frame rather than one file.
– FCP’s still cache will get used up very quickly if you use image sequences. This means you’ll lose RT on titles further down the sequence.”

Martin, won’t these problems go away if you render the image sequence? You would have to render an animation codec file anyway.

[Martin Baker] “- The general pain of editing with single frame files.”
I suppose you could nest it, so it appears as one unit in the timeline.