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ProRez 4444 realtime alpha working great
Just finished up a project in FCP 7 and wanted to report that ProRez 4444 is fantastic.
Working in a 1080 HDV sequence in FCP, I was able to stack 5, count them 5, ProRez 4444 titling clips with alphas in Safe RT without a dropped frame and the render bar showing green.
With just a single 4444 clip, I got “full” in the render bar.
Great job Apple. We can finally say goodbye to the non-realtime animation codec.
– T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
11 Replies
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Yes, it’s nice isn’t it? On to the jade:
Finally! Capability that was available in other NLEs running on G3 computers 10 years ago.
I kid, I kid.
Thanks, Apple. I do like it.
Jeremy
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This is really a big deal….its strange that Apple has not promoted this as a new feature.
One company I work for basically abandoned FCP because of its inability to do this. For some types of programming the lack of real time alpha keying is a killer
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[John Pale] “This is really a big deal….its strange that Apple has not promoted this as a new feature. “
They haven’t?
It’s in the videos for ProRes and in the white paper here:
https://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper_July_2009.pdf
Jeremy
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Its still kinda buried. I mean…I wouldn’t call a white paper “advertising”.
It should have its own mention on the “What’s New” page. This can save HOURS in render time.
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Doesn’t Final Cut Pro still need to do a render before final out-put? I’ve had sequences state “full quality” but after a render it still looks better. Do layouts to tape work when you’re using the RT-engine?
Sounds awesome if it does but I thought this still was somewhat a limit of how FCP operates.
Also have you experienced FCP7 more efficient when working with RT-effects in 10-bit? I’ve been editing a 1080i50 ProRes 422 HQ sequence during the day in FCP 6 and even a 3-way CC gets the green-bars (and the resolution is lower during playback).
Erik Lindahl
Freecloud Communication
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[Erik Lindahl] “Doesn’t Final Cut Pro still need to do a render before final out-put?”
Sure, but you can watch the alpha in real time, unlike the animtion codec which chunked through even the fastest of systems.
[Erik Lindahl] “Do layouts to tape work when you’re using the RT-engine?”
Sure, but a full render is usually still recommended.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Sure, but you can watch the alpha in real time, unlike the animtion codec which chunked through even the fastest of systems. “
Except on our blessed CinéWave systems about three or four years ago now. Full quality realtime Animation with alpha. Full quality realtime Chroma Key.
Hard to believe the computers have gotten so much faster since those days and we still can’t achieve full quality, edit to tape quality with Animation or Chroma Key like we could back then. Shame Pinnacle / Avid pulled the plug on that board and nobody has been able to replicate that.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
[walter biscardi] “Hard to believe the computers have gotten so much faster since those days and we still can’t achieve full quality, edit to tape quality with Animation or Chroma Key like we could back then.”
I hear that, and that was true hardware support of the FCP rt engine. Hasn’t been a card like that since, and Apple likes it that way as people will need faster and faster computers to do what a dedicated hardware controller could do a decade ago.
Jeremy
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What Walter is getting at is why I ask if FCP7 has improved in this area. Personally I have little need for this “real realtime performance”, the new features of FCP7 will be sufficient for my needs since I primarily need a realtime preview at high quality. But I understand for certain operations this is critical and FCP has little chance in this area.
I am surprised this feature has yet to come back to Final Cut Pro and it’s part of my “why didn’t they do that?” with Final Cut Studio 3. I get cards like Cinéwave isn’t a optimal or even elegant solution since it’s all hardware based and it’s not very open for the future. It also doesn’t scale outside of systems that don’t have this special piece of hardware. I think Apple should look at the current possibilites in the RT realm with the use of a general model instead in harnessing the GPU with OpenGL and OpenCL, making for instance “guaranteed levels of RT”. This might come but I think it will be a few years off still and it might mean a fundamental rewrap of the core of Final Cut.
Erik Lindahl
Freecloud Communication
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Without addressing all the issues, I don’t really think this is an improvement with FinalCut per say, but with ProRes. In my view ProRes is what we have needed to unify editing, especially now with alpha channel support, there is little reason to use anything else.
Think about it, we now have a universal editing codec for both video and CG elements – ProRez, and a great delivery codec – h264.
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque
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