[Ariane Fisher]

Mostly correct. I apologize for being clear as mud in my initial post. The footage used in the background of the motion project is not anamorphic. It is an SD Digital Juice jumpback that I scaled up to fill the frame. There is no anamorphic footage used anywhere. I used that preset because I thought that was the only way to get the 16:9 aspect ratio that I was looking for with my SD footage.

[Ariane Fisher]

I’m creating a brand new project in motion (then saved as a template) with anamorphic settings, then using the exact same settings in the FCP sequence.

In motion it’s 720×480 NTSC DV anamorphic.
In FCP it’s 720×480 NTSC DV, pixel aspect ration CCIR 601, and I checked the Anamorphic box.

[Ariane Fisher]

Ok, so that being the case, if I want SD footage in a 16:9 format (pillarboxed) what size do I make the sequence? Should it be some custom size that is not anamorphic, yet still much wider than tall?

I need to standardize all my sequences (whether they are 16:9 footage or not), so that I can use one set of motion templates, which will be 16:9. Should the motion templates then be created in this same custom size?

[Ariane Fisher]

Yes, although your response makes me smile.

I know that is possible with the project files, but I need to use these files as motion templates and they will be going directly into the timeline. If you look at a motion template in the browser, there is no place to check anamorphic.

Additionally, I will be using hundreds of these, so checking and unchecking things will be bad for my workflow.

[Ariane Fisher]

For the project files, I imported the files. But for my purposes, I want to use motion templates. I know how to correct it within FCP once it’s in the timeline. But I want to populate the timeline, without having to correct each one. In some projects I’ve had close to 100 of these, so it’s not good for the workflow to have to change it all later.

[Ariane Fisher]

Thanks for the suggestion. My issue is not that the round ring is turning oval, but that the image is getting pixellated, the smooth round ring is now a jagged round ring.

[Ariane Fisher]

In my ideal world I would take the titles, captions, etc and have them “automatically” insert into the appropriate Motion template for the sequence. Don’t know if that’s even remotely possible. I have the templates and where they go on the timeline, but need to manually insert them. I know that I can direct track 2 using the EDL (for captions and such), but haven’t played with it yet. Not sure if I can get XML to talk to motion templates.

As for the photos, I’ve done some playing and found that I can get an EDL to insert the photos in the sequence, although they are all scaled to 100% rather than to fit.

Some other things, in my ideal world, I’d love to play with:
-using XML or Coredata (whichever does the job) to make templates for photos which will automatically adjust for portrait or landscape, like the AppleTV screensaver
-using FXscript or whatever works to take my digital juice transitions and make them native to FCP so that I can make them default transitions where needed without having to manually overwrite them

I’ve tried exporting sequences in XML simply to read them, even sequences with only clip, but haven’t been able to decipher the timecode. Everything else seemed relatively straightforward.

Any good manuals on XML around?

[Ariane Fisher]

I would love to use XML; it’s so much more versatile. I just haven’t figured out how to do that yet. My workflow is that I get a spreadsheet from the client with cuts (no handles), along with titles, photos, etc. I’ve figured out how to get the cuts from the spreadsheet (with much cobbling) into a .txt EDL. Haven’t quite figured out the titles and photos portion yet. Do you know XML or any resources where I can learn it? I’m a quick study on programming but haven’t found any place with the information I need.

[Ariane Fisher]

Yup, that’s what I’ve been trying since I first posted. I ran a test with some unimportant footage, where I captured some new VHS footage. Set the capture to non-controllable. Even if you put a reel name in the field, it doesn’t show up in the browser. After capture I went back and added a reel name. Here’s the kicker, even though I changed the clip name in the browser from untitled, and added a reel name, it still connects to untitled. But, it seems to do it somewhat correctly. You can’t add handles, or at least I haven’t been able to get it to do that. So, I did that in NeoOffice, saved as CSV (space delineated), then resaved as .txt, and imported as an EDL. There may very well be an easier but, wish me luck, this seems to be working. The only thing is that you can’t add 15 frame handles in NeoOffice, it has to be by the whole second. Thanks for all the help. Now I’m going to try it on the real project.