[Daniel Zimmerman]

Tried transcoding the previous 10-bit 422 uncompressed test shot to Prores 422. FCPX behaves normally. It works with the Prores 422 flawlessly. I can pull a clean key without the blur issue or the degradation and color dots. So this has become my preferred workflow.

How do you set a project to 4444 in FCPX? There doesn’t seem to be a place for one to do so.

Thanks.

[Daniel Zimmerman]

Just shot an uncompressed 10-bit 422 test video. This time around FCPX does recognize the footage (because it is 10-bit now instead of 8-bit). However, after applying the built-in “keyer” effect, the footage becomes blurred. Placing background image underneath the keyed footage doesn’t cause the previous issues (degradation and color dots). But the footage looks blurry, even after rending the composite out as Prores 422.

Do the same thing in AE (using Keylight), and the result is beautiful, like before. Slightly worse in Premier Pro (using Ultra Key), possibly due to the keyer.

My preliminary conclusion – in terms of chroma keying and compositing, FCPX 10.2.1 probably isn’t the best tool to use.

[Daniel Zimmerman]

Thanks for helping out, David. I actually tried both methods. First I manually set project video properties to “NTSC SD, 720×486, 29.97i”. Didn’t work. Then I set project video properties to “set based on first video clip”. No difference.

Also, it doesn’t matter what background I put beneath the keyed clip, be it a still image or a video clip. But if I place a similarly AE-generated keyed clip beneath the original keyed clip, there will be less random color dots.

Daniel