Copying clips from 1080p to 720p for keyframing?

[James Cude]

Sure you can create a 1080p Multicamera clip and then drop it onto a 720 timeline in FCP X.

Though to be honest if it’s going to DVD you wouldn’t see much visual difference (probably none) from working on a 1080p timeline since everything is being down converted to 480p anyways. But yes you could do precisely what you’re asking.

Also you may find you don’t need to use nearly as much keyframing with X’s built-in Ken Burns effect instead- which lets you set starting and ending frames and then automatically moves between them over the length of a shot.

Hope that helps- there’s a free trial if you wanted to experiment.https://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/trial/

[Brian Thomas]

Many thanks for the reply James – that’s really good to know!

Maybe I’ve been wasting my time introducing the 1080p to 720p step? I thought I’d read somewhere that it was the way to go but from what you say I think I’ll drop it in the future irrespective of which editing software I’m using. I wonder what percentage of scaling it would be sort of safe to go up to when zooming without losing too much discernible resolution – any thoughts?

I really will try out the free trial as soon as I finish the current projects. I actually bought a complete training course for FCPX a good year ago and then decided to take advantage of the Premiere Pro special offer that was available last year. It seems FCPX will handle my needs – do you know if there is somewhere I can read about the limitations? It’s just that I remember last year there was a certain amount of unhappiness with perceived missing functionality.

Thanks again for your time.

PP 5.5 and 6, iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Brian Thomas]

Whoops, sorry, I just realised that special offer from Adobe was TWO years ago. Time flies when you think you’re having fun!

PP 5.5 and 6, iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Nicholas Zimmerman]

There really aren’t any limitations. Since 10.0.3 X has done pretty much everything Premiere does (and more). I have PPro, MC, FCP7 & X, and am proficient with each, but find that I’m significantly faster and less stressed with X. At $999 I’d recommend Media Composer over Premiere as well. Really it comes down to preference / dealing with quirks at this point.

Shoot sh*t, Edit sh*t

[Brian Thomas]

Thanks for the thoughts Nicolas. I’ll do some more research and reading.

PP 5.5 and 6, iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Chris Lehmann]

Just a note since you said you bought your FCPX training over a year ago. There have been many significant changes and additions since then and you might be heading down the road to total confusion. On Lynda.com they actually pulled their old training videos completely and released new ones.

[Brian Thomas]

Good to know, thanks Chris. I actually bought Izzy’s course and I’ll check back with him and also look at the Lynda offering too. At my advanced age I don’t anticipate changing video editing software yet again so it would be good to avoid lots of fumbling around this time.

PP 5.5 and 6, iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland

[Nicholas Zimmerman]

You’ll do fine. It’s actually an incredibly intuitive, fast, and powerful interface. The problems tend to arise when people just dive in head first thinking that they know it. There will be a lot of times where you will go “Well how would I do this, or that?”, and for that you’ve got us here at The Cow.

Shoot sh*t, Edit sh*t

[Brian Thomas]

“…for that you’ve got us here at The Cow”

That’s great – and sort of why I pop in here 😉

PP 5.5 and 6, iMac 24 + MBP 17″. Near Geneva, Switzerland