ProRes 4444 is my hero!

[Mark Petereit]

OK, for those of us who are *still* behind the times, what does it do for you that you couldn’t do before? 😉

[Aaron Neitz]

Oh man! – no more Animation+Alpha from After Effects/Nuke/Maya/Whatever. Now we can get high quality renders to the editor that will matte over video with realtime results. No more renders!

This is great for greenscreen elements, graphics, text, and CGI.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Yes, I agree. It’s about time.

[John Pale]

Before you had to use the Animation Codec to get an alpha channel for a graphic overlay (still or motion).
This required rendering in FCP for playback.

ProRes 444 requires no rendering in a ProRes timeline (any flavor of ProRes, not just 444).

[John Davidson]

And you actually get the correct color out of AE straight out of the gate now. It really has sped things up a bit for us.

[Liam Lawyer]

This funny because just today I am learning how FCP noticeably changes the color of an Animation codec file in a sequence. So you are saying that you can get the same color levels that you design?

Do these files work in FCP 6?

Liam Lawyer
-editor-

[John Davidson]

I can’t confirm but I think they’ll work fine in 6.

[Petteri Evilampi]

“Do these files work in FCP 6?” -Liam Lawyer

If I have got it right they will not work at all in FCP 6. In FCP 6 you have two levels of ProRes: ProRes HQ and ProRes. No proxy or 4444 or what-ever-else-levels-there-is-in-7 and if I remember right it is not even possible to install those codecs to FCP 6.

[Ben Holmes]

Not sure I realised when 7 was released what an important addition 444 was. I enjoy education AE artist to the advantages of outputting this rather than Animation. It’s not just the ease of use in FCP, it’s also the reduced size.

I plan at some point investigation ProRes LE – it seems to have been designed for use in the kind of live, mobile production I work in frequently, with 60% the bitrate of standard ProRes and almost all the quality (supposedly). Crucially for HD, it opens up the storage options, and reduces the amount of storage needed for large amounts of live footage.

Funny – when ProRes was introduced we all went screaming towards HQ – but I get the feeling that the ProRes family will all end up being used in broadcast widely.

Ben

Edit Out Ltd
—————————-
FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/casestudies/detail.asp?case=therydercup

[Ben Holmes]

And yet again on the cow, if I’d read Gary’s response about LT below I’d see there was a quality loss. I think I’ll stick to a G-Raid and standard ProRes for 1080i work…

Still love 444 though.

Edit Out Ltd
—————————-
FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/casestudies/detail.asp?case=therydercup