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Looking for a better workflow for editing Stop Motion
Hello,
I’m cutting a stop motion project in FCP 5. Working on a 2.4 Dual 2 Core iMac.
All of my stills are JPEG’s shot on a Nikon D80 at either 5.3 mp (2896 x1944) or 10mp (3872 x 2592)
It’s important that I retain as much resolution as possible for digital camera moves and frame readustments.
I’m editing in an HD timeline at 1440 x 1080 with HD1080i compression.
I’m looking for the most efficient workflow to edit these together on. I’ve got over 10,000 stills and these are seriously slowing down FCP, frequently crashing the system. It takes about 20 minutes just to open up the project file.
Right now I’ve got each take nested together so that all of the stills from that take can be treated and manipulated as one clip. Not sure if this helps FCP manage the files or slows it down (I’ve heard that nest can be very resource intensive.)
Would it be better for FCP to have all the 10000 of files dragged straight into the timeline? That is what I’ve done previously on shorter projects, when working in SD timelines, but for this bigger project I was hoping to figure out a more efficient way than just trying to muscle through.
If there are any other Stop Mo editors out there, I’d love some overall advice on setting up a better workflow.
Thanks everyone.
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12 Replies
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There is no doubt it, using large numbers of large stills in FCP is a absolute RAM hog. Instead of nesting the stills, try exporting each sequence of stills as a clip, then reimport all of those clips into another project before editing. Of course your ability to do digital camera moves and frame readustments will be more limited and you will have to open up that original job when doing a lot of that. But, the project with your exported clips at 1440×1080 will run a whole lot better.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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[Eriqwouldlikehelpplease] “I’m editing in an HD timeline at 1440 x 1080 with HD1080i compression.”
That is a Compressed HD timeline and does not retain the most resolution possible. You do that in an Uncompressed HD timeline.
[Eriqwouldlikehelpplease] “Right now I’ve got each take nested together so that all of the stills from that take can be treated and manipulated as one clip. Not sure if this helps FCP manage the files or slows it down (I’ve heard that nest can be very resource intensive.)”
FCP will work more efficiently if these are video clips. Export the scenes as Self Contained Movies and then create a new project. Import all the clips into the New Project and work from there. Loading all 10,000 images into a project as you noted takes a long time. Just leave the project as your original and work on the new project with only video clips.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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l[Eriqwouldlikehelpplease] ” I’ve got over 10,000 stills and these are seriously slowing down FCP, frequently crashing the system”
BTW, have you increased the Still Cache?
Rafael -
[walter biscardi] “That is a Compressed HD timeline and does not retain the most resolution possible. You do that in an Uncompressed HD timeline”
I picked a compression as a compromise between looking good and being easy on my computer. I’ve been told that iMac’s can not handle uncompressed HD, so I picked a compression that it can deal with (in theory).
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[rafalaos] “BTW, have you increased the Still Cache?
“No, I’m not familiar with that. Could you please elaborate? Thanks
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David,
This was always my back up plan, but I wanted to hold off on working in multiple projects as long as possible. It seems so cumbersome. Though, dragging my whole system down is cumbersome too.
It seems like the logical move to make for me at this point, but seems too clunky. I’m curious how other Stop Motion animators edit if there’s any out there reading this. Thanks David for the tip.
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[Eriqwouldlikehelpplease] “I’ve been told that iMac’s can not handle uncompressed HD,”
That is correct.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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[Eriqwouldlikehelpplease] “No, I’m not familiar with that. Could you please elaborate? Thanks”
Click on “Help” in the FCP Menu.
Type in User Cache. That will bring up the relevant information.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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Whoa!
Bring them into Motion. You will be able to handle files up to 4K wide for moves and Motion has built in support for image sequences.
There is also an app (I’m trying to find the link) that can do a bulk rename of images to make things easier
Peter
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The app’s called MicroSoft Excel Peter!
Alan
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