FCP importing anamorphic motion files as 4:3

[Tom Wolsky]

When you were saving the template you probably noticed there is no way to tell it that the NTSC is anamorphic. It saves it incorrectly into an NTSC 4:3 format. You may also have noticed that none of the PAL or NTSC templates are 16:9. The only widescreen templates are HD.

“I might play around with the XML code of the templates and see if I can alter it so that it will automatically read correctly by FCP.”

Sounds like it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

All the best,

Tom

Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop”

[Ariane Fisher]

Yes, you’re probably right. Thank you so much for all your help.

[Bret Williams]

Why are your personal templates ending up in the templates bin for FCP? Put your templates in a bin, show the anamorphic column, and check it. I don’t get what you’re trying to do at all. I make a motion template. Drag it from the finder into a bin. Check the anamorphic column. Done. Just like anamorphic footage that was rendered from AE or imported.

[Matt Gerard]

I get what is going on here. At least the confusion part of it. There are 2 ways to create a motion template for FCP.

1) Use the “Save As Template” option in Motion. this saves the file (template) into

USER/LIBRARY/APPLICATIONSUPPORT/FINAL CUT STUDIO/MOTION/TEMPLATES

This allows the “template” to show up in the MASTER TEMPLATES Folder in the effects tab in FCP I think this is what Ariane is currently doing.

2) Just save the motion project anywhere you want, drag it into the bin, or import into FCP when you want to use it and it shows up in the bin like a piece of footage. This is when it has access to all the columns, namely the ANAMORPHIC column, that would apply to standard video clips. The ANAMORPHIC column does NOT appear nor can it be accessed while looking in the Effects tab at the MASTER TEMPLATES.

I am having the same issue right now, I create a Motion template as anamorphic, save it using the SAVE AS TEMPLATE option in motion, and when I drop it onto an anamorphic timeline, FCP wants to scale it to 98.7% an sets the distort aspect ratio for 18.27. FCP timeline settings match Motion project settings exactly.

I’ve tried using square pixels with a canvas size of 853×480, and that doesn’t work either. I’ve tried all combinations of pixel aspects and canvas sizes and i can’t get FCP to scale it to 100% and leave the distort aspect ratio to 0.

Frustrating.

I’ll keep testing and post here if I find anything.

Matt

Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…

[Ariane Fisher]

Have you tried it with Motion 4? I gave up and went back to 4:3 on my templates because that’s what 98% of our footage is. I figured out a workaround for anamorphic templates using XML but that was no quicker than the suggestions offered already.

[Matt Gerard]

Yes, I’ using Motion 4. I got FCP to leave the scaling alone, but it still is usinghte Aspect Ratio distort at 18.52 in the motion tab of FCP. I found that this mucks up the video less than letting FCp do scaling, which it is horrible at.

Even Apple’s NTSC templates that they built do the same thing for anamorphic. If THEY can’t figure it out….

Matt

Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…