[Alex Elkins]

[Jeff Handy] “Not everyone uses or even owns Premiere. Final Cut and AE is a pretty popular combo.”

Hi Jeff. I use a combination of FCP and After Effects regularly myself. My point about Premiere was that a lot of people I know who have bought After Effects purchased it as part of one of the Adobe packages, not as a standalone app (in order to get Photoshop and After Effects together – cheaper than buying both separately and you get all of the other apps too, including Premiere).

Thus many of us have the ability already to import an FCP timeline into After Effects, albeit with an additional step compared to what Boris are now offering. I can’t think of many situations where I would be adding effects in FCP if I later intended to do compositing in After Effects anyway.

[Jeff Handy] “If I need a quick key, I might use Boris in FCP since the clip is in my sequence. But then if the client wants more than a simple composite with that keyed footage, the ability to export the timeline with the plug-in parameters which would then translate into AE seems pretty liberating to me.”

That’s a good point. I’m sure there are other good examples of how this plugin could be used in preference to other methods. Personally for the work I tend to do this it’s an unnecessary luxury when I can essentially do the same thing if I just add that extra side-step to Premiere. For other users this could be an excellent addition to their toolset.

All the best,
Alex Elkins

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed

[Alex Elkins]

The claim that they can translate certain FCP effects is very impressive. For some people that could be a deal-breaker. However for many of us I’d have thought that as we own After Effects we probably bought it as part of an Adobe Suite – I have ‘Production Premium’ for example, which comes with Premiere.
Premiere can open FCP XMLs including markers, transitions and audio pan/levels. After Effects can then import that Premiere sequence with all of the source media, the same as the Boris plugin.

I can’t see much use for it if you already have Premiere, unless your work relies heavily on FCP effects. In which case, why would you need to be taking the entire sequence into After Effects? To add yet more effects to all of the embossed, keyed, posterized shots we all have in our FCP timelines?!

Maybe I’m just being contrary, but those were my immediate thoughts. Anyone agree? Strongly disagree?

All the best,
Alex Elkins

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed

[Alex Elkins]

[Tangier Clarke] “Can I just export to Quicktime movie to yield the same results? My timelines are already fully rendered with color correction and filters and I don’t likely have the time to change the render settings, rerender, and marry my mix to picture before exporting to quicktimes.”

If you export a Quicktime file as ProRes after rendering the timeline as XDCAM then you will have still added unnecessary compression. Exporting as ProRes won’t add further noticeable compression but it’s diligent to export from a ProRes timeline to begin with.

My suggestion would be to duplicate the timeline so you still maintain the rendered XDCAM version. Then in the new timeline change the compressor setting to Apple ProRes 422, render and export. If you don’t have the time, or don’t require the best possible quality then you can export from the XDCAM timeline as you suggested. It’s just not the best way to do it.

[Tangier Clarke] “I would export using the ProRes 422 codec, not the HQ”

That’s exactly what I’d do. HQ is overkill for something originating on XDCAM.

All the best,
Alex Elkins

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed

[Alex Elkins]

Thanks for the detailed breakdown Erik, that sounds pretty good.

[Erik Lindahl] “”2K is 24p not 25p, you’re using the camera wrong”, wrong in the sense they see it as a 24p film-camera replacement. Well I don’t know about the rest of the European RED users but I’d presume most work in 25p and not 24p since everything in PAL-country is based on this.”

Everything I’ve worked on from the Red has been shot at 25p. This is mostly commercials and music videos though, so it would make sense to stick within PAL specs as they’re just for broadcast. With features going to a film print opinions seem to differ as to whether to shoot 24p or 23.98p (or stick with 25p). The problem we have working in PAL countries is that most of the information on the internet tends to be geared towards a US based post workflow. My understanding is that the consensus is to shoot 23.98p in order to easily translate to film and NTSC, and 25p to translate easily to film and PAL.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Alex Elkins

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed

[Alex Elkins]

[Tangier Clarke] “Some have suggested going to some flavor of ProRes Quicktime first, so I would just like some feedback.”

You should definitely render your timeline as ProRes first. Rendering as XDCAM EX will add additional compression unnecessarily.
In your sequence settings window (CMD+0) simply change ‘Compressor’ to Apple ProRes 422′. Then under the Video Processing tab of the same window change to ‘Render all YUV material in high-precision YUV’.

Doing these things will ensure that you don’t lose any quality that you might see as a result of adding text, effects, colour correction etc.

The[Tangier Clarke] “Just wanted to see if anyone had any pointers and/or advice before I do the standard make quicktime, send to compressor for my dvd files, import to DVDSP”

This is what I would do, once rendered as ProRes.

All the best,
Alex Elkins

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed

[Alex Elkins]

[Fabio Basone] “Frame Size – Aspect Ratio – HDTV 1080i (16:9)

Pixel Aspect Ration – Square

Field Dominance – None”

Correct except that field dominance should be ‘Upper’ as this is interlaced material.

[Fabio Basone] “But what QuickTime Compression Settings should I use? XDCAM EX or ProRes…?”

I tend to use ProRes but that’s because most of the material doesn’t consist of entirely XDCAM video. If you’re whole project is XDCAM then I’d probably stick to editing in that codec until you do your final render to ProRes. Lay off the effects and speed changes though as the rendering for preview will take a while. Another reason I use ProRes.

All the best,
Alex Elkins

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Erik,

When you say you now get realtime playback are you talking about the Native FCP re-wrapped Quicktimes? Or proxy files? If so, which resolution?

I work a lot with 25p material from the Red and always transcode to ProRes for the offline, which obviously takes quite some time but is great once it’s converted.

Can you give an example of some of your realtime capabilities you have now compared to FCS2. I’ve not upgraded yet and am in search of more reasons why my boss should shell out the minimal amount for the upgrade. Personally I’m completely sold by it anyway.

Thanks,
Alex Elkins

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed

[Alex Elkins]

[Jim Carswell] “I had read some where recently to turn frame controls on. Apparently that’s not the case.”

Hi Jim,

You would turn frame controls on and adjust to higher quality settings if you needed better results upscaling, converting timebase etc. For converting for DVD is itsn’t really necessary to do that if you’re not converting NTSC to PAL.

[Jim Carswell] “I am now exporting a down converted QUICKTIME reference movie (DV 50 anamorphic) of the one hour timeline”

Exporting as DV50 was an unnecessary step really. You can export the HD timeline as a reference file (make sure it’s rendered first) and then let Compressor do te job of converting to SD DVD. That’s what it’s there for.

Good luck,
Alex Elkins

Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed

[Alex Elkins]

CMD+Shitf+[ (for navigate left) or CMD+Shift+] (for navigate right)

Really handy shortcut.

All the best,
Alex Elkins

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Jason,

If you go to the Apple Icon> About This Mac > More Info… you should be able to see your card listed under the PCI Cards menu. If you select it the info pane will tell you whether or not the driver is installed. If it says ‘No’, you could probably find the driver on the Highpoint support site (or on a CD that came with the card??).
If it says ‘Yes’ then you have a problem. Could be one of many things, in which case I’d contact Highpoint and Lacie and see what their tech people recommend.

Good luck,
Alex Elkins