Photo montage

[Lee Mceachern]

Added note from original poster:
I am checking out Fotomagico or PanZoomPro. I got those names from a search of this forum. What I’m hoping to see here are comments from any experienced users on the functionality/usability and quality of output from tools like those. Thanks!
— Lee

[Dean Sensui]

Here’s what I do:

Create the montage in FCP for timing. Do the pans and zooms as usual.

Then export the whole thing to After Effects via Automatic Duck. AE does a lot better job of scaling and tilts/pans than FCP. It can also do a nicer job of color correction with its “curves” feature.

Automatic Duck helped me rescue someone’s project and paid for itself the first time out.

Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii

[Lee Mceachern]

Thanks very much for taking the time to respond, Dean. As I mentioned, I’m a complete newbie to FCP so I want to make sure that I understand you correctly: You’re saying that I can add pans and zooms in FCP that will be communicated to AE through Automatic Duck? If so, I take it that you find the pan and zoom controls in FCP to be easier/faster/more intuitive than those in AE?
Again…thanks for taking the time.

Lee

[Dean Sensui]

Hi Lee…

Everything in FCP is in real time, and is better when it comes to things that require a sense of timing.

AE isn’t in real time, not without some rendering. But it handles FX and everything else with a lot higher quality.

Automatic Duck will create an XML file which AE can import. It’ll bring across your entire FCP project more or less intact, including anything that’s been re-scaled (zooms, pans and tilts) and transitions such as dissolves.

I’ve had this done to long form projects, then worked on just the sections that needed help, and rendered just those short sections. The rendered movies are then dragged into the FCP project and overlaid atop the existing edits. That way in case I need the original edits for future referene, they’re still there.

Sometimes re-scaled images with pans and tilts will also have their anchor points reset. I haven’t figured that one out yet but it’s probably because of the way I do my pans and tilts. I’m using a method in FCP that makes use of position values, and that’s interprested by Automatic Duck and AE as a shift in anchor point. As a work-around for now, I’ll select all the shots in AE with a shifted anchor point and reset them globally.

I’ve only done three of these presentations so far but will look closely at how “position” in FCP is translated into “anchor point” in AE and make adjustments in my workflow.

Just this past year I learned that it’s better to use anchor point when making movements on stills in AE, rather than simply applying position values. But old habits die hard… 🙂

Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii

[Lee Mceachern]

Once again, thanks very much Dean. You’ve given me plenty of information to work with and I’m definitely going to put that workflow into my plan. I’m glad I get to keep FCP involved in this project just for my own learning.

Cheers,

Lee

[Chris Poisson]

PanZoomPro is a generator that works inside FCP. It beats the pants off FCP’s motion controls. Downside is it can take a while to render. For your basic Ken Burns style slideshow, Fotomagico is my tool of choice. You can put music or sound in it to time to, and it is very fast. Dean’s workflow is good too, I’ve never used Automatic Duck, but I’ve seen it, it’s pretty cool. Fotomagico is your cheapest, easiest, fastest solution.

[Dean Sensui]

Hope it helps.

After looking at it again, and doing a quick test, it seems that it might have been a slight distortion applied in FCP that changed the “corner pin” values in AE. Those corner pin values had to be reset. Might have ocurred while I moved an image. Perhaps when grabbing a corner to re-scale and not being careful to avoid distorting the image. If I use the “center” feature of FCP’s motion tab it translates nicely into AE via Automatic Duck.

Once all of this is imported into AE, you can fine tune the pans and zooms with features such as “easy-in” and “easy-out” to make the motions more fluid.

Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii

[Lee Mceachern]

Dean & Cris,
Thanks — especially for that follow-up, Dean, on the corner pin issue. I’m glad I have about three months before I have to deliver this project. Plenty of time to experiment and learn. I really appreciate the leg up I’ve gotten here. And I’ll take a look at Fotomagico, as well.

Cheers,

Lee

[Lee Mceachern]

I meant to mention that I will also be trying Pan Zoom Pro, too. I assume that whatever it does inside FCP can be exported to AE via Automatic Duck. (John at Lyric Media, who make Pan Zoom Pro was really quick about answering a question I submitted to them. I’m going to test their demo version.)

— Lee

[Debe]

Did you win anything at the SuperMeet, Lee?

debe