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What codec should I edit in?
Can someone help me out with my pipline please? I’m at a bit of a loss:
I am producing 100% cg footage, (rendering out tiff image sequences designed for 24p playback). My final output destination is DVD, but I would like to maintain the option of outputting it to tape, in the event that someday it will be broadcast on TV.
So I am rendering out tiffs at square pixel 720×540. I am opening the image sequence in After Effects to do some compositing work.
I am then placing that comp in an Output Comp which has the settings of 0.9 pixel aspect ratio, 24fps and 720×486.My question is: What codec should I render to to bring these shots into FCP for editing and color correction? And what sequence settings in FCP should I use?
Bare in mind, these shots are very very short. The whole DVD content in less than 2 minutes long, so I do not need realtime playback in FCP. There is no legnthy or complicated editing work to be done. (Plus usually I am not under severe deadline situations.)Also, I have no video card, but I do have a g-raid drive.
Qu: Does it matter if I give Compressor 720×486 24p footage to encode into MPEG2 for use in DVDSP? Is it going to give me any different MPEG2 results than 720×480?
If anyone can help me out here, I would be most grateful: So far I’ve just had to make it all up as I go along, because there don’t seem to be that many people with a similar pipeline situation as I have. None of the FCP books out there really cater to cg animation folks, the guys at Techserve here in NYC don’t care, and even the Apple genious bar folks have no experience with 100% cg pipelines.
Thanks so much!
David -
7 Replies
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David,
The answer is pretty simple, 10-bit uncompressed if your g-raid can handle it, or 8-bit uncompressed if its not fast enough for 10-bit.
DRW
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Thanks for your help David.
Wow, those Apple Uncompressed 10bit files are ENORMOUS!
What is the advantage of using this over Animation at 100% which gives me significantly smaller files?
Also, should I use the Apple 10bit, or is ot worth me using BlackMagic or SheerVideo’s 10 bit codecs?Sorry the basic questions. Just tryng to get this sorted once and for all.
Thanks again!
David -
Take a look at the Sheer codec from bitjazz.com. Beaustiful, and about half the size of 8bit.
Have a wonderful day.
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Animation files are only for rendering and not playback. Apple 10 Bit is for playback and is the right codec should you ever want to go back to tape. If you want to color correct, don’t forget to use a good video monitor, not the computer monitor.
Kevin Monahan
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fcpworld.com
Pres. SF Cutters -
Thank you thank you! This is very helpful.
On the subject of the video monitor, I know I need a video card to see my fcp timeline on an NTSC monitor, and I’m familiar with the major options form Kona and Blackmagic and now Matrox.
Will it be a problem for the cards to do a realtime telecine operation? My footage is 24p, but an external NTSC monitor needs 29.97fps interlaced for playback right?
So will the card do this on the fly for me?
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I’m a big fan of PhotoJPEG@75%. Smaller than DV, and close to lossless. And with my hack you can have RT Effects for it.
Sean
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If your source is CG there is simply nothing better than SheerVideo. Do a search over at the LAFCPUG forum and you will find my fairly detailed posts about my progress with SheerVideo on some major animation projects.
Rob Weaver
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