Killing myself over a stop motion project…

[Erik Waluska]

You should probably post on the FCP forum if you haven’t done so already. After Effects can probably handle your jpeg image sequences much easier. Could you explain in more detail the problems you are having with AE, such as what format you are importing (pro res or image seq) and what comp settings and render settings, effects, etc. that you are using within AE. Color bars indicate that there is footage missing. Did you perhaps move or rename any of the images after importing?

[Walter W thompson]

I haven’t actually posted anything on the FCP forum yet, probably a good idea!

I’m importing high quality jpegs taken with a Canon t2i (5184×3456) The frame rate needs to be 15fps. All I’m trying to do is create the best quality quicktime that I can transcode to Pro Res 422 and edit in Final Cut.

The photos are labeled in ascending order, but some numbers are missing, as I took the pictures in Lightroom with a tethered camera, and sometimes the flash didn’t fire.

[Erik Waluska]

The fact that some of the image numbers are missing from the sequence would account for the color bars since after effects considers those to be missing frames from the sequence and substitutes a placeholder (color bars) in for those images. Use the “force alphabetical order” option when importing the sequence and it will overlooks the missing frames.

Check that the image sequence frame rate is set to 15fps in the interpret footage dialog in the project window. If not, then set it to “assume this frame rate” and enter 15fps.

Then you can drag it to the new comp icon at the bottom of the project window and change the comp size to the size you want to export for editing in FCP (1280×720?)and set the frame rate to that of your FCP project(29.97fps?). Then resize the image sequence to fit in the comp size.

Now just send it to the render queue and render it out in pro-res or whatever format you want and the final movie should play at 29.97fps (or whatever you set it at) but the image sequence is still 15fps, which you can confirm by stepping through frame-by-frame and you should see that each frame plays twice (30/15=2).

[Jonathan Ziegler]

I find it best to process all images in photoshop first. Ps is way better at properly resizing images and maintaining quality. I’ve also had luck with After Effects image sequences and QuickTime (after processing in photoshop). Can you post what you have?

Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293

[Walter W thompson]

Will running them through PS help to maintain quality in Final Cut? I pretty much have the project finished in FCP 7, I just can’t get the quality that I’m looking for.

I have literally never worked in AE before, so it’s all very new to me. I have a Composition that has all of my footage and audio, I just need to add text. The quality of the images seems to keep in AE, I just have no clue what I’m doing beyond importing, interpreting, and dragging to the timeline.

The project I’m working on is a LEGO stop motion proposal video for my girlfriend which I’m planning on showing her tomorrow afternoon, so it’s getting to be crunch time!

Thanks so much for your time,

[Jonathan Ziegler]

Well, I would have processed the video files in photoshop to fit into a 1920×1080 frame cropping the difference between a 3:2 and 16:9 frame. Then load the sequence into AE to get the 15fps then render out to QuickTime (pro res) and finally import to your fcp timeline at 15fps. From there, add your titles, lower-thirds, audio, etc. and run the final thru compressor. I’ve done the majority of my time lapse work this way. For stock I only ever use AE since it just exports straight from the timeline. This a great way to turn time lapse from DSLRs into 4k footage, too.

Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293

[Walter W thompson]

Is there an easy way to batch process (crop) a few thousand images in Ps at the same time to fit a 1920×1080 frame? I shot all stills with a Canon t2i.

When you say ‘add lower thirds’ does that mean I can bring the cropped part of the images back in FCP?

Sorry I’m such a novice! This stuff is pretty complicated!

[Jonathan Ziegler]

Hey, whoops, my bad. “Lower-thirds” is a name for the graphics (ie: the person’s name during an interview) that appear in the lower-third of the frame (that’s what I was told anyhow and it sounds reasonable).

First, to prep, drag all of your images into a single folder (they probably already are, but just to be sure). Now, in Photoshop go to your General Prefs (on Mac, it’s Photoshop >> Preferences >> General), change the “Image Interpolation” to “Bicubic Sharper” and click on Ok. Next, go to File >> Scripts >> Image Processor. Select the folder that has your images in it. Next, select the folder you want it to go to or create one (if you pick save to same, it will make a new folder in the folder and save converted files there). For file type, choose JPEG, set quality to 8 or 9. Make sure to check “Resize to fit…” and set width to 1920 and height to 1280 (remember, 5184×3456 is 3:2 and 1920×1080 is 16:9 so you want to get the most from your frame – if you use 1920×1080 in the image processor, you’ll get images that are 1620×1080 with pillarbars). Leave the save as PSD and TIFF options off. Add copyright info if you like here, too, but since the final will be a video, you can add that in your NLE or AE. Hit run, then, depending on your machine’s speed, go get coffee or lunch. 😉

when you load your image sequence in AE and drop it on a 1920×1080 timeline, it will cut off the top and bottom by 100px on both. You really shouldn’t have any major motion going on here anyway that close to the top or bottom of the frame. You can always do a sort of pan n scan if you feel you are missing something. Heck, even film was about a 4:3 ratio so cropping was quite common.

Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293

[Walter W thompson]

Thanks to all who offered advice on how to enhance the quality of my stop motion project. I wound up doing using automate in Ps to make each individual still image 1920×1080, then brought them into QT Pro as an image sequence and exported as ProRes 422. Worked like a charm! Here’s a link to my proposal video.

Thanks again, everyone!

https://vimeo.com/34638912

Walter W Thompson
FIREPIT PICTURES
walter@firepitpictures.com

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[Jonathan Ziegler]

That is awesome! Thanks so much for posting the video. I showed my wife and she cried. 😉 I really hope she says yes! nice video!

Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293