[Alan Okey]

If you own Final Cut Studio (which I assume that you might since you’re posting in the FCP forum), you can use Compressor for batch conversion.

[Alan Okey]

Quick and dirty method to simulate a clone operation:

Copy the clip on V1 and paste it over itself on V2. Set V2 opacity to 50%. Offset the V2 clip position in the motion tab (or wireframe in canvas) so that a nearby area of clear skin covers the blemish area on V1. Create a garbage mask on V2 with a feathered edge so that only the small clear skin patch skin area covers the skin blemish on V1. Return V2 to 100% opacity and voila! Skin blemish removed.

Still, it would be far easier to do this in Motion with the paint tools.

[Alan Okey]

The OP stated that he wants to finish his piece in the highest quality possible. While XDCAM EX is a great acquisition format, I wouldn’t recommend it as a finishing codec for several reasons:

1) XDCAM EX is a long GOP format, which will tax the editing system’s CPU more during editing – the result is less snappy performance and longer render times.

2) XDCAM EX has a higher compression ratio than ProRes 422, which is visually lossless. Any graphics, titles or compositing added to the project will benefit from the lower compression of ProRes 422.

3) XDCAM EX uses 4:2:0 chroma sampling vs. the 4:2:2 of ProRes, so any graphics, titles or compositing added to the project will suffer greater degradation with XDCAM EX than ProRes 422.

[Alan Okey]

Michael,

I’ve owned and used BitVice since 2003, and I love its quality. I don’t mean to imply that it’s not a great product. I don’t own Cinemacraft yet, but I’d like to get it at some point.

Cinemacraft is a high end encoder that’s long been the gold standard for commercial Hollywood DVD compression. They released a software-only version as a Compressor plugin a year or two ago.

Here’s a good review:

https://www.lafcpug.org/reviews/review_cinemacraft.html

Cinemacraft allows for true miltipass encoding, which is more than just two passes. BitVice is limited to two passes.

Unfortunately the price went up – it’s now $995 for a single seat of Cinemacraft MP.

https://www.omni-cinemacraft.com/

[Alan Okey]

Cinema Craft MP beats BitVice, but it’s over twice the price.

[Alan Okey]

[James Sullivan] “Until we get to a 64bit version of OS and Final Cut that is bulit to be multicore aware we are going to be taking render breaks!”

Mac OS X Snow Leopard is a fully 64-bit OS. Final Cut Studio is not yet 64-bit, because Quicktime is not yet fully 64-bit. Once Quicktime has full 64-bit functionality, Final Cut Studio will follow.

Details here:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1053457

[Alan Okey]

[Rafael Amador] “No really for Combustion for MAC. “

Sad but painfully true! I love Combustion, which makes it hurt even more that Autodesk has let it languish while they concentrate on new shiny toys like Toxik… oops, I mean Maya Composite, or whatever they’re calling it this week. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that Autodesk is exiting the standalone software compositing market.

[Alan Okey]

[Aaron Neitz] “Also it’s a price issue. It will probably still be rather expensive and continue to be a high-end niche product (as it should, it’s solid code and Autodesk is VERY proactive in updating their software.) That’s why many of us finish in FCP: you may have to jerry rig things and know lots of little tricks, but it’s ultra cost effective. “

Exactly. If Smoke on OS X still costs $40K and up, who cares? Unless the price is dropping considerably, I don’t see the logic in porting Smoke to OS X unless it’s going to make media and project exchange with FCS more transparent.

If the price for a software-only Smoke for OS X (albeit with certain hardware restrictions for guaranteed performance) were to come down to around $20K, it would become a lot more attractive to many FCS users who are looking to step up to a better finishing system. I know I would look at it very seriously at that price. Color is the only tool in the entire FCS bundle that’s even remotely close to the level of Smoke’s pedigree. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s likely that the price is going to drop much, if at all.

I guess I don’t really understand the strategic value of this move for Autodesk.

[Alan Okey]

[chris gorman] “Are you sure your friend’s G5 was PowerMac?”

I’m positive. It’s a Power Mac G5 (PowerPC, not Intel). I have also set up a cluster at another location with a new Mac Pro (Intel) and an older Power Mac G5 (PowerPC).

Power Mac G5 = PowerPC, Mac Pro = Intel Xeon.

Who told you that an Intel Mac can’t “talk” to a PowerPC Mac?

It’s really a moot point however, since you don’t have a license for the second computer.

[Alan Okey]

[chris gorman] “But the bigger problem is that my G5 in not an intel machine, so it could not communicate with the intel mac mini. “

Not true at all. I recently set up an Intel Mac Mini render node for a friend with a G5, and it works perfectly.