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Field Issues when Importing Progressive Animation
Hi guys, wondering if you can help me out with something.
I’m working in FCP (studio 2) on a 29.97 SD 4:3 Progressive ProRes sequence.
I’m exporting graphics out of After Effects in Lossless Progressive QuickTime Animation (100%) with an alpha channel.
These look crisp in QuickTime, but when I bring them into FCP they lose half of their vertical resolution and their properties say they’re Lower/Even, not progressive.
Opening the files in QuickTime, going into their properties, and checking “Single Field” does not resolve the issue. Is there some way I can force FCP to recognize that these files are progressive? Is there something I might be doing wrong in AE? (I’m set to Off in Render Settings > Time Sampling > Field Render, and when I go ProRes out of AE there are no problems).
Any ideas about why this might be happening?
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20 Replies
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It sounds like you rendered out of AE with fields. the only way to fix this is to re-render without fields.
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/ -
Yeah, FCP is misinterpreting your progressive movie as interlaced (since it expects 4:3 SD to be lower field first n NTSC). In the FCP browser, find the field dominance column and change it from lower to none. Then add the clip to your progressive timeline.
Jeremy
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Hmm, I’ve been poking around in AE but when using the Animation codec, I believe the only place to specify field handling is in the Render Settings, where I’m set to Fields Off. (When going out to ProRes, you have an additional option in the codec settings, but not so with Animation).
I have a 6-frame sample clip if someone would like to try it out:
https://www.4shared.com/file/75991734/b2ab7148/FieldTest.htmlI seem to lose every other line of this test clip when dropping it on a progressive SD sequence. Does this happen for you?
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D’oh!
Thanks Jeremy!
So FCP looks at the frame size and frame rate and assumes it’s NTSC DV material, even if there is nothing in the file to indicate interlacing?
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That’s what I think, yep. It seems to happen like this all the time. When and if you send out to compressor, make sure to set your field dominance for your exported movie in the a/v settings tab of compressor so that it too knows your movie is progressive.
Jeremy
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This is not an FC but a QT issue. Whatever the application you use (FC, Shake, AE,..) you must make sure that the field order is properly interpreted. It seems that QT do not have a field-dominance flag.
Rafael -
[Rafael Amador] “This is not an FC but a QT issue. Whatever the application you use (FC, Shake, AE,..) you must make sure that the field order is properly interpreted. It seems that QT do not have a field-dominance flag.”
agreed.
I’ve never seen this problem in my work.
exporting a quicktime animation or png video out of after effects (I NEVER render to fields)
then importing into a final cut prores or uncompressed 10-bit sequence…it always just works. -
And I’m pretty sure I’ve had this workflow go fine in the past… strange.
What’s interesting is that exporting ProRes of the exact same comp in the same dimensions and frame rate from AE works fine: FCP realizes it’s progressive without being told. Are we sure the QT file format has no field order flags for any codec? Perhaps additional metadata is included in the ProRes?
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[Nick Haffie-Emslie] “Perhaps additional metadata is included in the ProRes?”
It is as you had pointed out. There an in ‘interlaced’ check box in the ProRes codec that is not in the Animation codec. I think this is codec and also format specific.
Jeremy
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Yes as you and Jeremy points must be something in the codec.
The DV Anamorphic footage captured with the BlackMagic DV codec plays 16×9 in QT. You don’t get that with the Apple DV unless you change the properties.
Rafael
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