[David Bogie]

1. The file isn’t being rendered, it’s just being pingponged between the apps and is being processed at the sequence rez. The raw movie out of Motion must still be scled and rendered to fit the FCP sequence but it will look better because it’s coming in at a higher base elvel. But the end result, the rendered FCP media, should be exactly the same.
2. I don’t have that issue. We use Motion everyday for alpha comps and DV output. Seems to match perfectly but I’m not looking at scopes. Most of our stuff just isn’t’ that critical and it gets smooshed to WMV anyway..= Sorry, can’t help you there.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Looking at your vimeo clips, I don’t see how you can do a pour.
I say, forget it.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Once they’re still images with an alpha, there is no CPU usage factor. They’re just regular ol’ layers. just don’t make them any larger than they really need to be for your composition.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

You can research the Matrix effects and “bullet time” effects endlessly on the net. We see this question once or twice a month so there’s lots of info here, too.
The simple answer is, “No.” the more complex answer is, “Sort of, but AE itself is not where you build the effects, you will only assemble and composite the items from other sources such as the 200 camera rig or your 3D modeling software.” The more complex answer is, “What is it you’re really trying to do? there are many ways to fake this stuff. ”

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

There’s even a section int he manual on how to move between AE and other external systems.
You don’t need Animation except to carry alpha.
You don’t automatic duck unless you expect to move the entire FCP sequence to AE. This is a rare requirement for most of us but, if you need it, AD is the best solution., Most FCP users are only sending some footage to AE for effects and compositing, most of us simply do not need to send the entire sequence. As Shane says, you only need to render out of AE to the same specifications and settings as your FCP sequence. The Animation codec is a universal, lossless, alpha-capable container used only when you need those properties.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Help if you had included infor about your format. I presume DV.
Yes, this is a known issue with subclipping DV in FCP5, especailly if your footage was shot with a Canon, and I don’t have this problem in FCP6.
It gets worse, on my friend’s FCP5 system the further you get form the start of the master capture media. Best reason to use log and capture and get the clips as individual media. I know of no way to cure this, I just hunkered down and resynced individual clips where necessary. Fortunately, most were nat sound.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

And just google DAY FOR NIGHT and you’ll find tons of helpful information that all would have been best obtained before your shoot. Fixing dumb mistakes can be disastrous because it telegraphs FAKE to your audience. If that interferes with your story, it’s all over. Go back and reshoot it or redesign your concept based on your audience’s expectations, not yours.

It’s the subtle things you forgot to work out that destroy DFN such as people wearing sunglasses or hats, hard shadows that shouldn’t be there, squinting eyes, reflections in windows, and action that simply could not have taken place in darkness.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

[Eric Fitzgerald] “Interesting approch using pieces rendered to the same rate of roll. I usually don’t have flexible durations though so the rate must necessarily change. How do you deal with that? I saw that Brian Williams died. That made me sad. Ever do any Cow PoMo tarot? “

Yar, Brian passed a long time ago now, I cherish the signed books and decks I have from him. I still have thePoMo and, I suppose, I still have Brian’s blessing to use it as the source for answering deeply weird questions about FCP as it did so many years ago on Ye Olde Media 100 Listserve. That was a hoot.

The velocity of the roll is settable in AE but I have not tried to do this in CS4. Duration is a separate function from the vertical velocity. the velocity must be the same for all of the sections of a long roll to seamlessly match. The easier way to do this is to place the four separate segments into a precomp and then set the vertical movement for the precomp. but this usually makes the precomp far larger than 4k and it just gets too huge to mess with.

I think it is always best practice to depend on a competent typographer for serious credits.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

Cheap is not a viable solution so be sure you have a way to back up your media. The issue with cheap drives, as far as I can tell form a friend’s numerous failures, is the housings and power supplies are not designed for media production. They’re meant to be used intermittently for small files or backup operations, not for many hours of constant read-write without pause. He’s spent three times the money on cheap drives that he would have on a good set of robust media drives and he’s had to rebuild RAIDs several times so add that cost, too.
Just have a recovery strategy in place BEFORE you start work.

bogiesan

[David Bogie]

There’s a way to do this but you have to have the Browswer in icon mode, not any of the list modes. It’s in the manual but I’m not on my FCP machine to look it up or test it for you.

bogiesan