Andy Neil
Forum Replies Created
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Sounds perfect to me. You can batch convert in Compressor (probably what you were planning anyway), but keep in mind that the preset for ProRes 422 in compressor is set to pass-through the audio, so if the audio in your H264 clips are of a compressed variety (ie: AAC or MP3), you will have problems with your audio in FCP7 unless you convert it to aif.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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From what I can tell, there is some bugginess with that particular title as it translates from Motion to FCPX. Let me try to address your issues one by one.
[Rocco Richardson] ” First off, and I have seen this thread on here, sometimes when quitting and re-entering a project, i lose my fonts/spacing on the title I was using.”
Are you using the most recent version of FCPX? I haven’t seen that issue since upgrading to 10.0.1, but it’s possible that it’s still around.
[Rocco Richardson] “whenever I use a specific TITLE (for example Four Corners) and I go to change the font color using the FACE option, where you would normally see COLOR,GRADIENT,TEXTURE or – …..I am not seeing Gradient swatch….when I click Color, the – is selected for NONE…when I click texture, the COLOR option selects. When i go to change the color, the color will not match what I select. I choose red, it goes blue.”
Ok. this specific title has two places to change the color and they appear to conflict with one another. If you click on the Title tab of the inspector you’ll see a parameter for Title Face and Subtitle Face, and a check box for Use Face Color. Click the check box and change the color there for proper results. If you change color in the Face parameter of the Text tab, it will jack up the color for the title and you won’t be able to get reliable results.
You currently cannot color text in the Face parameter with the gradient and texture selections as you can in Motion. The interface isn’t displaying the correct parameters for those selections. That is a bug, and one they are likely working on. Hopefully, by the next update, you will be able to apply gradients to text from that control, but for now, you have two workarounds.
One, you can build a gradient effect that can be applied to white text and give you the ability to place color gradients on text (or on any video for that matter).
Two, you can open a copy of the title in Motion, do the gradient there, and save it as a template for use later.
Hope this helps.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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If you click on the viewer settings button (upper right), is the viewer set to “show both fields”? Also, computer displays are progressive by nature. It’s possible and likely that FCPX is treating your footage fine, but since you can’t view the signal externally on an interlaced monitor, it may be impossible to tell at this point.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Do you have FCS3 installed on the same partition? Also, if the install didn’t work properly from the start you may need to re-download.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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[Don Smith] “The FCP7 act of just dragging them in wasn’t working, and selecting them to use Q or E would give me a random range. I guess I must double-click on the clip first so I get the full range.”
Yeah, this is a strange behavior. It feels like a bug to me, but perhaps it’s just non-intuitive behavior. When you import a still, that still exists at a default length of 10 seconds. It doesn’t matter what your still preference is set to. However, if you click on the thumbnail, a range is automatically selected based on that preference (default 4 seconds). So if you are viewing clips in list view, you have to select the clip in the list and then click on the filmstrip to select the preference range. If you’re viewing the browser in icon view, you can simply single click the thumbnail to set the range and then use the W or Q keys to insert or connect the clips. This is how I’d recommend adding lots of photos to a project.
BTW, you can’t select the clips with the keyboard or else it will add the entire 10 second clip. But if you just want to get them in your timeline, you can just lay them in there at 10 seconds, select them all in the timeline afterwards and hit CTL+D and adjust their length to whatever you want at the same time.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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[Don Smith] “I had about six short animated circle effects above the primary storyline. I would lasso them all and attempt to slide them down the timeline a little, and on release, they would all flow out end-to-end.”
This is confusing to me Don. Are you saying that you have 6 graphic layers stacked as connected clips atop one another above the primary storyline, but when you lasso and attempt to move them, they spread out end to end? I’ve never seen anything like that except when you attempt to move connected clips over a place in the timeline where there are no clips. I lasso and move connected clips all the time without any issue at all. If you are trying to move connected clips over the end of your timeline and don’t want them to be laid into the primary storyline end to end, then hit P on the keyboard and use the position tool. The position tool will automatically create a gap clip underneath the connected clips you are moving.
[Don Smith] “I often need to take a clip and tuck it between two existing lanes. I found it easier to do with the Position tool but it’s still a cat-and-mouse game.”
Use the selection tool instead (A). Hold down SHIFT when you select the clip you want to move. SHIFT will constrain the clip to vertical only movement. I find it’s much easier to do it this way.
[Don Smith] “I’m used to FCP7 and how it gives me a preset number of seconds. I can’t just drag the still into the timeline. I get some random range for its length.”
Stills in FCPX work in much the same way. There is a preset in the preferences for stills. In FCP7 it’s default to 10 seconds. In FCPX it’s default to 4.
[Don Smith] “My workflow for the moment is to put the primary effect above the presenter, make it a composite clip, and then go into the composite clip to add other things like timed bullet texts, but I often have two problems there; timing and difficulty seeing the graphics with alpha channels if they’re the same color as the default black background.”
Why are you making a compound clip? Can’t you just attach all your graphics and text effects as connected clips to the green screen footage? Keep everything in the primary project timeline until you’ve got the timing all down, and then collapse everything into a compound if you want to make sure the timing stays in one place. You can add the background as a connected clip BELOW the green screen in the primary storyline as well.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Unfortunately, there’s no hidden control like that and Motion shortcuts are sometimes dependent upon which section of the app (utility, viewer, or timeline windows) is active.
However, CMD+` (tilde key) is the shortcut to toggle between the open windows so if a shortcut isn’t working, you can usually just toggle to the viewer window so it will.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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I’m not sure I understand. All these answers are easily attainable by simply launching the application and doing a few tasks. If you need to return Motion to it’s default state, just delete the preference file.
Number 1 can be answered by making a quick animation and then in the keyboard editor, toggling between the various interpolations to see what they do.
Number 2, by clicking on the render dropdown above the viewer.
And Number 3, by opening the preferences.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Forgive me if I’m mis-reading you David, but are you saying that if Apple had not shown up at NAB, or EOL’d FCS3 at the product launch, it would have prevented or suppressed the backlash they’re currently getting?
BTW, I don’t disagree that the launch was a PR disaster for all the reasons you stated, but even without those mis-steps, you would still have a radically different piece of software, a closed system (initially) sprung on people with no warning.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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[David Roth Weiss] “I’d suggest that the benefits might have been vastly superior if Apple had chosen an entirely different and less disruptive path.”
I guess my question would be, what should they have done? And would the reaction be all that different?
If you assume that Apple made the decision at some point to completely redesign FCP when they did the 64bit rewrite, and that those making the decisions fully believed that the paradigm shift was ultimately going to be a much better way to work, how then do you bring this program to market?
Many people have suggested that they shouldn’t have used the name Final Cut, and instead should have called it iMovie Pro. But really, would the backlash have been any different? After all, FCP users have waited 2 years for a major update to FCP. Would they not be up in arms to find that all this time, Apple was working on iMovie Pro instead of updating FCP?
What about if Apple hadn’t stopped selling FCS3 to coincide with the launch? Sure, some of the ire directed at FCPX might have been lessened in the short term, but anyone looking at the situation in a position to buy new NLE seats would have to be asking themselves if this didn’t just signify the end of FCS even if it was not announced as EOL. Would anyone actually think that FCS and FCPX would both continue to be updated?
Is there any circumstance where bringing this app to market doesn’t result in this very aptly named “civil war”? I have a hard time imagining any set of choices where this would have been a PR win.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com