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Building Animatic in FCP
I’m building an animatic in FCP. I’m re-sizing the files in photoshop to 1920×1080, then saving out as jpegs. When I import them into FCP they come in as 1920×1080, sq. pix, 29.97, no fields, and photo-jpeg compression. My problem is that my seq. settings are set to match these exact specs, however when placing the images in the timeline it tells me they need to be rendered. I need to be able to work with these stills without having to render everytime I make a change. Can anyone explain why I’m still needing to render these files when they match every setting in the sequence? Or another better, quicker way to work with these files. Should I be doing something different when I format in photoshop?
Thanks.
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9 Replies
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What kind of system are you on?
Even if you have all the settings set up to match the images, that does not mean that your computer can handle realtime playback of that type of video.
I would check and see if FCP supports realtime playback in that specific video codec.
-Ross
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G5, dual 2.5, 4 gigs of RAM, fcp 5.1.4. Seems like my system is plenty fast, it’s just a matter of figuring out a way to work with still files so that they don’t need to be rendered in the timeline. I’ve tried creating tiffs and changing my seq. compression to match, but still no luck.
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JPGs are a very weird file format in general… try using PNGs or TIFs. See if that helps.
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your computer’s internal parts aren’t what you should worry about for playing back HD- if the computer is new enough and decent (AND YOU HAVE A RAID SYSTEM) like you must since these came from 1080i video then it can only lead to one thing- your sequence is not matching the clip- open both, identify the problem between the two and move on… like a typical HD sequence will have a compression setting (10bit, 8bit etc…)- where as a jpeg won’t, perhaps start there.
Post Production Specialist
The DR Group
Los Angeles, CA -
The stills didn’t come from HD video. They were created in photoshop at HD size. I don’t have raided drives and shouldn’t need them, as I’m dealing with still files, not video with high data rates. I’ve tried re-sizing to DV 720×480 (720×534, sq. pix, in photoshop) but still no luck. Still frames match exactly to seq settings, but still show that they need to be rendered. Same goes for tiff and jpeg. I just need to figure out a way to work with stills w/o rendering – any help would be appreciated.
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[Brady] “I don’t have raided drives and shouldn’t need them, as I’m dealing with still files, not video with high data rates.”
Hi
You’re dealing with ‘still’ files, but FCP isn’t. Its dealing with frames on a timeline, so unless your stills are only one frame duration it is having to render out as many frames as each still lasts for….Even if they are only one frame duration they will only not need a render if they are imported in a FCP video codec format, with your sequence settings matching.
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Thanks so much. I see what you’re saying. They play in a DV sequence (DV NTSC compressor) but it really compresses and muddies up the image. I’ve tried a number of other codec timeline settings but that seems to be the only one that will give me the ability to play back w/o rendering. I’m saving out as uncompressed pict files in photoshop (and they look great) but once they’re in the timeline they start breaking up. FCP video playback is set to high. Any ideas…?
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Brady,
If they play OK in DV (even if they look bad) go ahead and edit in DV. When you got everything ready just change the setting of your sequence to a better codec before to render. About the JPEG that you get from PS and the Photo-jpeg in QT, I’m not sure that is exactly the same codec, so I thinc the rendering is unavoidable.
Cheers,
rafael -
You’re right. They look terrible when played back in the dv sequence but for some reason when I export to .m2v using compressor and burn to DVD they look fine. It must just be something with the real time playback. Thanks.
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