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Why does my FCP output of 2k red footage look so bad with only some of the shots?
Hi there,
I’m under an extremely tight deadline with a short film.
I’ve been editing with FCP studio 3 on my imac (slightly underpowered I know)
Whilst editing I noticed some of the shots on my timeline were a little bit low in resolution compared to other shots which displayed the lovely sharpness that red is famous for. They were shots shot at a slower frame rate.My method for importing, grading and then then converting to Pro res 422 was through REd alert.
This was the process recommended to me:1. open R3d file using red alert
2. grade it
3. save as it to a drop folder I had created using these settings : debayer half norm , apple pro res 422 etc.
4. I then would hit render and wait for the file to load.5. then I would import the rendered file into FCP and cut it on the time line.
* I followed this process for every single shot in the film except for a couple of 5d cutaways which I had converted into pro res 422 earlier
6. after I had completed cutting the film and sound together I rendered all of it in FCP.
7. Then I exported using a quicktime conversion at 1920×1080 @ 25 frames in H.264.
As the export loaded for a number of hours I had to leave for my other job and let it continue exporting on it’s own,.8. once it completed My colleague called me and informed me that the final output had aprx 12 shots/scenes that looked really pixelated and low res. (as if it was shot on DV) whereas other shots in the same H.264 file look normal.
All of the files I imported were R3D conversions done at Half debayer in red alert.
My colleague who has more experience with Red could not understand why it was happening,
He recommended I go back and re import the clips, from their source R3d files, that were not looking right, into red alert again and this time convert them at at full quality as opposed to half.
I have such a short amount of time to resolve this issue and i don’t have the time to be waiting hours for renders if i’m just going by trail and error. Does anyone have an idea as to why these lower quality images are are occurring in my output?
And any idea on how I can fix this?
Months have gone into this project a fair bit of my dignity as well.Help is much needed over the next 10 hours
Kind regards
Rory
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4 Replies
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QuickTime Conversion from the timeline is your problem. It’s creating a poor VBR encode of each shot. Export a self contained QT using Export>>QuickTime Movie, the bring that into compressor to encode your h.264.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Thank you very much for your prompt reply. I am looking at the file now that I made into an individual QuickTime movie as you suggested. The same shots look as blocky as all hell. I haven’t compressed the file yet because I’ve gone back to a previous saved version of the fcp timeline that I made just before rendering. All the shots are perfect. I’m finding that immediately after clicking sequence> render all before exporting is when these particular shots loose their quality. Interestingly the bulk of them that are not working were shot in slow motion. Or had a speed reduction made on them in fcp. Another one of the ‘blocky’ shots was cropped from a mid to a cu frame. There are one or two quick cutaways that were shot on a 5d as well. Is the fcp render te cause of this as well do you think? Should I follow your instructions but apply them to the fcp timeline that has not yet been rendered? Forgive me bit I am relatively new to this.
Regards
Rory.
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[Rory Twomey] “I’m finding that immediately after clicking sequence> render all before exporting is when these particular shots loose their quality. “
What precisely are your Sequence Settings? Something is wrong there. Go to Sequence>>Settings and write down or take a frame grab of what’s there.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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This is only a guess as to what the problem si, but Red shoots at a different resolution 2k (2:1) when shooting @ 120fps per second. The vertical raster is less than 1080 lines, 2,048×1,024 to be exact.
Perhaps RedAlert is tripping up on this format. I would recommend taking those specific clips to RedCineX Build 351 and render out ProRes movies and see if that works better for you.
Also, double check the scaling on those clips in your current timeline.
Jeremy
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