Multimedia/timeline problems – 720p60, p30, flash, still photography…

[Todd Beabout]

OK, some quick general advice.

First pick what format you want to work with. If you really want to go all-out, go ahead and choose HD. I wouldn’t recommend HDV, probably DVCProHD would work best. Buy a capture card, or otherwise figure out how to bring in your HDV footage as DVCProHD.

Now, just edit it. Throw your stills into the DVCProHD timeline and work on them. Export any Flash or whatever other graphics you create at matching specs to your DVCProHD timeline so that you end up with QuickTime .mov files (not some kind of Flash file) that you can drop into your sequence. Get all your materials into the project, then cut them together on the timeline until it is the way you want it.

Finally, output it. If it is for web, then just export a QuickTime movie and compress with whatever flavor you choose. For DVD, encode using Compressor (or your favorite MPEG encoder) and burn a DVD. (There are some options for creating widescreen DVDs from within DVDSP, but you can search that forum for more info there.) If you are needing a 4:3 “square” full-screen version, no problem. Drag your completed HD Sequence from your Bin into a 4:3 Timeline. Then render and you will have “down-converted” from HD Widescreen to SD 4:3 Fullscreen.

From your post, it sounds like you are doing too much importing and exporting. Keep it simple: do it HD if you really must, then just downconvert for the SD version.

If you are really just going to the web with this, then HD is probably WAY overkill. But if there is ANY chance that you will want this in High Definition, then go ahead and do it that way from the beginning. You will need to look into a Kona or Blackmagic card that supports HD, and your sequence settings will be based on what card/format/codec you end up buying into.

Hope this helps!

-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios

[Daone2007]

A couple things.
1. you can bring a .swf file into FCP no problem.
2. You said you hand regular NTSC 720×480 footage. You need to work in the frame size of you smallest size media.

So what I would do is:

1. capture the HDV footage natively (make sure it’s set to anamorphic) create a matching seq and put it in.
2. then create a 720×480 NTSC seq (non anamorphic). Put your p30 in there, and drag the HDV SEQ into the NTSC DV timeline.
3. bring stills into the timleine.
4. make flash at 720×480 (make sure to compensate for title safe) and bring it in also (.swf or .mov)

hope this helps