Preparing still images for Final Cut Express 4

[Andreas Karoliussen]

Ill try to help you step by step:
[Erica Rich] “keyframe motion to zoom in and out and pan around the images”
you can zoom and pan more on”big” images (: high resolution horisontaly and verticaly, with for instance 200 dpi) than a “small” image.
(small = your video material size)

Try working “natively” from scan to fcp.
Scan good quality, take it through Photoshop without messing with size or aspect.
If it works – you have a good starting point in FCP.
If this gives you too big files that fcp doesn´t handle – decrease file size until FCP handles it.

[Erica Rich] “While the images with motion look good in my canvas, the quality is terrible when viewed on an HDTV”
What is your “View” -> “video playback” settings? and your sequence settings? – do you have “RT” button on the left side of your sequence: what is your playback quality?

[Erica Rich] “that the dpi should be set at 72”
this is the dpi end result for a tv image.
Images used for zooming and scaling should have an higher dpi. And at least 4 times your video frame size.
1920×1080 video format you should have at least 7680×4320 (given its the same dpi)

[Erica Rich] “1. Is there a uniform pixel ratio that I should use for horizontal images (and reverse the width/height for vertical)?”
ehm.. no…

Use whats native for you video material/ sequence settings I believe…
or you can adjust in FCP on your clips motion tab later.

[Erica Rich] “2. If the original images look better in FCE is there any harm in not adjusting the pixel ratio? (ie, can I trust my eye over technical specs?)”

trust your eyes… on a good monitor (or, what it will be displayed on)

[Erica Rich] “3. Does the actual size of the file in megabytes impact its quality in FCE or am I just to be concerned with pixel ratios?”

good quality (high dpi, big frame size, big bit depth) gives big file sizes. – however there isn’t any point in increasing file size to bigger than the native scan.

[Erica Rich] “4. Is TIFF indeed the right choice?”
FCP eats many still image formats. however do not save your stills as cmyc color space – choose for instance RGB.

from: https://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/specs.html
“Still image importing for PSD, BMP, JPEG, PICT, PNG, SGI, TARGA, and TIFF formats”

[Erica Rich] “6. Should I be using filter?”
in photoshop or in Final Cut?
Use a filter if it does what you want it to 😉
on your clip in final cut you might turn on motion blur in your motion tab on your clip if you are moving it allot around. try different settings. you can also control motion settings in Sequence settings -> “video processing” and “render control”

[Erica Rich] “7. How should I set the output settings given that the final DVD will be viewed on an HDTV?”

haven’t quite got the specifics about your video material, sequence settings.
Are you making an SD dvd? or HD (blue-ray)?
I DVD – not compressor and dvdstudiopro? Are these at your disposal?

Hope this helps you on your way,
Andreas

[Erica Rich]

Hi Andreas,

Thanks so much for all your thoughts. I have just upgraded to FC Pro (from Express) so hopefully that alone will help with some of the issues I have been facing. I plan to work through your notes as I tackle my new project.

Thanks again,
Erica

[Andreas Karoliussen]

Hi, Erica.

It´s a nice move to FCP, if you post your specs on raw/original media and delivery/end format I may be able to guide you even further.

Good luck with your project.

Andreas

[Erica Rich]

Thanks — I will primarily be using stills that were given to me as jpegs (various sizes and dimensions) that I have saved as TIFF files. (Many are quite large – like 35 mb, so I will have to see how FCP likes that.) I have not made further adjustments to the still images, but can (in Photoshop Elements) if you have suggestions since I have yet to import anything into FCP.

I will also be bringing in a few video clips, which were given to me on SD DVD or as .mov files. The quality of these clips varies, but I don’t plan to make any adjustments to the footage.

I plan to export to SD DVD through DVD studio. It will need to be able to play on an HD TV through a standard DVD player.

Since I’m just getting started with FCP, I have yet to make any adjustments to any settings. I have never really tackled settings, so if you have thoughts, they are much appreciated!

Thanks,
Erica

[Andreas Karoliussen]

[Erica Rich] “Many are quite large – like 35 mb, so I will have to see how FCP likes that.”

this is large files… try reducing them a bit for processing in FCP – or you can do their movements in motion.
lay out your timeline, choose a still or two and “send to motion” (make a copy to video track 2 first and hide it, so that you have the original in your timeline)
Save your Motion project and what you did in motion is ready in FCP.

[Erica Rich] “I will also be bringing in a few video clips, which were given to me on SD DVD or as .mov files. The quality of these clips varies, but I don’t plan to make any adjustments to the footage.”
Choose the highest SD quality you are given on your mov clips as your timeline/ sequence settings.
or choose uncompressed 10 bit 422 – this is as high as you get in SD.
(or you may choose prores if your space is low and you are on an intel mac)

video dvds (with a video_TS folder in it) you can extract the video with mpeg stream clip and export to e.g uncompressed 10bit 422.

Editing many formats together requires rendering your timeline – or you can convert everything to your prefered settings using compressor before you edit.
your choice…

[Erica Rich] “I plan to export to SD DVD through DVD studio. It will need to be able to play on an HD TV through a standard DVD player.”

when finished editing; export your timeline and take your video into compressor. Choose SD DVD Best settings – and take your output into DVDSP.

Have Fun!

A

[Erica Rich]

Andreas — I don’t think I properly thanked you for your advice. Got swamped with the project, but it turned out well, so thanks! Will be back with trickier questions next time…

[Andreas Karoliussen]

Hi Erica,

Nice to hear it turned out well!

Good luck on further projects;-)

Andreas