import with alpha cause wrong field order

[Walter Biscardi]

[anders bundgaard] “i’ve supplied graphics with an alpha channel to a fcp editor. when this is imported i shows that the clip has a field order of upper. the quicktime is without field order and using the animation codec. i’ve double checked my after effects setting and imported again but still doing it. is this a bug in fcp or are they incorrectly imported… is there a way of changing the default so this does not happen…?”

Are you rendering to the exact specifications of their timeline? Such as they are working in a 720p / 59.94 ProRes timeline so you are supplying them with a 720p / 59.94 Animation file?

Are they working in an Interlaced project such as 1080i / 29.97? If so, then you need to provide an interlaced clip.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.

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[Anders Bundgaard]

the gfx is rendered to the same specs as the timeline. but that shouldn’t really make any difference as when you look at the info on the clip in the bin it’s listed as having an upper field dominance when the actual file has not….

i’m not a fcp user so if my terminology is wrong, please accept my apologies.

anders

[Jeremy Garchow]

If you in fact rendered without fields, simply have the editor change the setting to none and it will be fine.

[Anders Bundgaard]

they were done without fields.
the editor did actually figure out how to do this.

the main issue is that they’ve done a bunch of tv spots and they have only now noticed that it was interpreted wrong and they have to import everything again and change it in all the timelines…

is there a way of forcing fcp to import them correctly?

[Jeremy Garchow]

Use ProRes 4×4 which has a field order metadata flag.

You can also use the weird utility Dumpster to modify the field flag.

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1032788

Really, this falls on the editor to be mindful of these things.

[Anders Bundgaard]

thanks for this i’ll check the dumpster out.

does prores 4444 support alpha channels?

[Anders Bundgaard]

ah dumpster is an old app and can’t run on my system without rosetta (is that OS9…).

any other way to manipulate quicktime files in that way?

[Jeremy Garchow]

Absolutely ProRes 4×4 supports alphas. The last 4 is the Alpha. Highly recommended to move away from the larger animation files. 4×4 will play better in real time in fcp as well.

[Anders Bundgaard]

i think i looked into this a while back. is it still the case that you can’t buy that codec from apple?

[Jeremy Garchow]

You must purchase FCP7