[Craig Alan]

I was thinking audio keyframes where I place them at exact points based on the waveforms and couldn’t imagine how that would work on a different area of the timeline. But if they create a visual sequence I can see how that would come in to play. Never been real comfortable/fluid with key framing and trying to get past that. I guess even with audio, if I could copy four of them and paste them near another spike and then adjust two of them at a time down or up the line, it would save a lot of steps.

Maybe you could help with one more problem. When I’m watching the waveform while playing a sequence, the playhead quickly moves out of site to the right. Is there anyway of keeping the playhead centered as the sequence is played back without zooming out of the timeline to the point where I can’t see much detail?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks. I tried to find the conflict but came up blank. Now I get it. Sort of. When would you want to move a collection of audio keyframes as a group?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

I’ve been doing that too. However if I want to correct a small spike, where you need four keyframes to drag down just the spike, I find it easier to to use the play head and right and left arrows to add closely spaced keyframes.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

thank you. now it actually makes more sense ergonomically since

alt-k adds a keyframe

alt-;

alt-‘ navigates between them

alt-shift-delete deletes them

though again, since once a keyframe is highlighted, delete would work fine
and would be consistent throughout FCP X or OS X for that matter.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

select keyframe> shift-option-delete.

Not sure why if it’s highlighted you can’t just hit delete. i mean hitting delete doesn’t seem to do anything else.

Is there a way to move to next keyframe and highlight it using the keyboard. not a big fan of mousing

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

That was my point.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

I had pretty much the same question a little bit ago. Download Handbrake for free.

set the constant quality slide between 18-20, and the x264 preset slider to slow.

Now that said, I have only played it back on a computer screen where it looked the same as the much larger file out of FC. But I was told that Handbrake’s version of x.264 (a type of H.264 is better than compressor’s.

It is used by a lot of pros. The interface is very easy to learn. Export your project as a master file and import into hand brake. You’ll see the two sliders. Beyond that I’d post at the compression forum.

Also do a search for x.264.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks. I will check out 30PN and see if it plays back ok in FCP X. If not I’ll stay with 60p.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Steve. I follow … now … everything you’re saying. However, we were not in film mode. We were not in PN mode. And FCP X does not have L&T but does sometimes have a check box for remove pulldown which I tried both ways. In other words, since we were in 30p mode there was no reason it should have played back in slomo. The up side is I now understand better the different modes and will, when I get the chance, play with them. Like Shane, I never really wanted to do these effects in cam but maybe they are smoother than can be done in post without a dedicated program like after effects. The kids would have fun with them but I want to make sure I know all the ins and outs of the menu system so I can quickly undone any problems.

I think there are two possible explanations: FCP X has trouble for what ever reason with 30p from the 170 cam or some scene mode was set that basically switched the cam to film mode and set a higher frame rate. The rep from panasonic couldn’t figure it out and suggested a factory reset.

I recovered the footage by playing the footage back out the cam and recorded it to a Ki Pro. Pain in the butt.

What modes are your favorites with the HPX170 and the HPX250 (we have 3 170s and 5 250s).

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Shane. Very clear post. I do understand the basic concept of under and over cranking but just getting my head around the choices on these P2 cams.

I read the recommendation in Barry Green’s book. He said that if you are recording to a P2 card (which we are) and using variable frame rates that you can play back in slo mo right in camera as opposed to doing the conversion in post. Plus he said that in PN mode the camera does not record the extra frames needed to play back at standard frame rates and that therefore it saves space. He generally recommends using PN mode if recording to a P2 card and shooting in variable frame rates. However he says no sound will be recorded using the native mode.

Getting back to my original problem with the 720p 30p playing in slo mo in FCP X: I called panasonic and they couldn’t imagine why 30p would play back in slo mo in 720p 30p. The only thing they could think of was if some scene option was chosen that set the camera to film mode. They suggested I do a complete default reset and see if that does the trick. The alternative possibility is that FCP X just doesn’t read that choice correctly. The 170 seems to have a more complicated set of choices that the HPX 250.

When I get the time I’ll experiment with all these modes and see what the effects are.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.