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photoshop file of a Television with transparency – tips?
I’m looking for the best way to do this. I find working with Photoshop files a little awkward in FCP. But I’m creating a white “room” with an actor in the middle. I want to have TV monitors come into the room and back out again. The monitors will have video (from another sequence) playing on them. So I’ve got the photoshop file of the TV. The TV will fly in front of the actor or move around the screen, so in the photoshop file, the background of the image (actually a photo) is transparent. But I want the video to play on the “screen.” If you want to see a concept image, go to my website:
http://www.redeyevideoproductions.com/uploads click onthe file teaser test.jpg
How to do it?
Here’s what I’ve done. In photoshop, I cut out the “screen” of the TV. I brought this file into FCP. New Sequence called TVaction1. Placed action shot on V1. Placed PSD on V2. Problem is my action is longer in duration than the PSD. I can’t seem to lengthen the PSD to fit my action. Next, I place this sequence, TVaction1, into the main sequence, scale, etc. Is there a better way?
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8 Replies
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I’ll answer the .psd question… you’ll need to open the pdf as it’s own sequence and lengthen the layers inside that… THEN go back and lengthen the actual PDF in your timeline.
OR — you can change the import still duration in your FCP preferences. I’ll bet you’ve still got it as default 10 seconds.
CaptM
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My guess, without seeing your timeline, is that FCP has turned your photoshop file into a nested sequence, and you have to jump in to that sequence (double click on you PSD in the timeline) and lengthen the video tracks for the layers there, then lengthen the length of the full PSD nested clip. Or go back into photoshop and exprot a flattened .tif or .tga with transparency, which will probably work better in FCP than a PSD anyway.
Your actor is on V1. I’d animate your tv screen on V3. Then copy (command+c) and paste the basic motion attributes of the tv screen (option+v) on your video clip (which should be below your TV screen on V2). This will will animate the video clip exactly to the animation you’ve arleady done for the tv screen. Finally, tweak the scale of the video clip on V2 so that it fits inside the TV screen the way you want it to. Do this for each “TV” being animated.
-Ben
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Yeah, photoshop file is it’s own sequence. I don’t like that. It’s very awkward.
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If you don’t like working with it as sequence, create an alpha channel in Photoshop and save the file as a flattened PICT, you’ll have transparency in a graphics file that doesn’t behave as a sequence.
All the best,
Tom
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD
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Trevor,
I would do this job in Kinemac, an AMAZING new 3D program. There’s about a dozen samples of 3D movie and TV screens flying around on their Web site. I swear, if you take just about an hour or so to read their manual (that’s how simple it is) you could have this done before lunch. All you will need is a TV image, your actor movie and whatever movie you want in the TV. The demo is free so you can try it out, and the license costs only $250. Plus, on a G5 with a fast card it is real-time. It is truly unbelievable.
kinemac.com
Have a wonderful day.
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I figured out something really cool. I’ve hated working with Photoshop files with multiple layers because of the whole “it creates a sequence for you thing.” But, if you open that sequence, you can select one of the clips, which is actually one of the PS layers, and drag it to your main sequence and then do anything you want with it: make it longer in duration, move it around, etc.
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Trevor
That’s the workflow I’ve been using since PS2 came out. When I save to Targas with alpha the background comes out white. Very handy. Did you check out Kinemac?
Have a wonderful day.
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Yes, I checked out kinemac but I don’t want to spend any more money. My tv’s aren’t 3D and aren’t flying in and stuff. Cool program though.
I like my tip because I can keep the photoshop file as is and not “flatten” it. Because when you flatten it you lose your layers and that is not good.
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