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Old Dawg Needs Help Learning New Trix
First things first:
WOW! What a great resource! If these forums live up to half of what they appear to be, they’re worth their weight in gold. Thanks to everyone for the time and effort it’s taken and takes to create and maintain a space like this.
Second things second:
I’m a professional photographer (stretchphotography.com), and I’m venturing into multimedia.
I’m actually on deadline with a project I shot in Indonesia (nothing like learning something new while one’s feet are against the fire), and I’ve run into some roadblocks. I will greatly appreciate any and all help.
My project is mostly still photographs, with some video interviews here and there. It’s a fairly simple deal, really a slide show on steroids.
FYI, I’m running Final Cut Studio on a 2×2.66Ghz MacPro Dual Core Xenon, OS 10.4.11.
The original photographs were captured digitally in a 35mm format.
The original video is 1440×1080 HDV 1080i60.
FCPro Sequence Preset: HDV-1080i60
The 35mm photographs have black bars at either side of the canvas, which is fine, as I’m cropping the motion clips on either side to match the 35mm frame. HOWEVER-
1) I use motion and zoom on several of the still frames, and when I zoom into a still image, or track across it, it fills the entire 1440×1080 window. I need to do the zooms and pans across the images without letting them enlarge past the original 35mm frame I reference above. How do I do this?
2) When I output the rough cut, everything is squeezed together along the horizontal axis, and thus distorted vertically, making it unusable. I’ve tried a number of different export options but to no avail.
3) Finally, how do I take this huge file (about 2gb at the moment) and compress it down to something I can e-mail to my client for review? I’ve also tried and failed with numerous attempts with this.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice. I’m sure I have something set up wrong in the preferences or system settings or something, but I’m quite confused by all this right now.
Best-
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6 Replies
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Strongly suggest you pick up Photoshop for Video
You also need to read up on nonsquare pixels and Compressor
Good luck
Richard M. Harrington, PMP
Author: Photoshop for Video, Understanding Adobe Photoshop, and ATS:iWork
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“1) I use motion and zoom on several of the still frames, and when I zoom into a still image, or track across it, it fills the entire 1440×1080 window. I need to do the zooms and pans across the images without letting them enlarge past the original 35mm frame I reference above. How do I do this? ”
You should definitely get the book mentioned in the last post. It’s extremely helpful and very clear.
As for your question number 1 there, the way I would do that is to create the frame in Photoshop and add on a track above the moving pictures. If you did not want to use Photoshop, you could add two black color mattes in FCP and crop them to create the matte.
Good luck!
Jess -
If you are on deadline and working professionally, I suggest hiring an editor or producer who has dealt with these issues to help you make your deadline.
I’ve tried this both ways, and although nothing sticks like knowledge gained under pressure, I don’t recommend the “figure it out as you go” route when there are paying clients and real deadlines.
The time saved and knowledge gained will be worth the money spent hiring a pro. You’ll make less money on this job, but look better to the client making future work and positive word of mouth more likely.
After you are through this project, invest the time and money in books and training to bring yourself up to speed.
Best,
Tom Meegan
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Thanks, Richard.
I’m ordering the book today.
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Thanks so much, Jess!
I’ve already given your masking method a quick shot in Photoshop and the results in FCP are good. Not perfect yet, but a VAST improvement.
Thanks for the quick an practical bit of advice.
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Great advice, Tom, and something that I’ve considered.
I got a rough cut in to the client so I have a bit of breathing room now, but still have that card up my sleeve.
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