[David Fortin]

I used the 4-point or 8-point garbage mattes in the effects tab to select what I wanted to blur, then added the blur filter.

Drop the garbage matte on the clip. Select the area, using key points if the faces are moving in the frame. Then drop the blur filter onto the clip, and select the amount and type of blur you need.

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.4.5}
4.5 GB RAM
FCP 5.0.4
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard

[David Fortin]

I just upgraded, installing Tiger 10.4.5 onto a new HD on my dual 2.5 G5. I also upgraded to FCP 5.0.4. (I have Panther and FCP4.5 on the old HD, just in case. This way I can always boot on that HD and go back and edit on an application that hasn’t given me any problems)

Prior to the upgrade I can’t remember my G5 every freezing. Now it happens quite often when I try to open FCP. And sometimes when I’m trying to open a project. Not usually when I’m editing. But I think it may have happened once since the upgrade.

The only thing that seems to work for me is to Repair Permissions on my boot drive BEFORE I open FCP. Everytime I Repair Permissions, FCP starts up and I can then edit.

Don’t know if this will help you, but that’s what I’m doing.

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.4.5}
4.5 GB RAM
FCP 5.0.4
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard

[David Fortin]

Frank,

I don’t think I understood the “sheet trick”.

Are you actually shooting the sheet that shows the shadow?

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.3.7}
4.5 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
FCP Production SuiteHD 4.5
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard

[David Fortin]

Frank,

I finally got a chance to look at the footage today from last week’s shoot. I think it’s going to work well. The room was small, so it was a little tough to set up, but there was a pretty big window in the far end of the room. I had the subject sit in a chair near the camera with the big window far behind. I also threw about 3,000 watts of light on the back wall area and window. I had the subject sit so their profile was silhouetted. It looks nice. I may have brought the iris down too much just before shooting, but I won’t know until I actually edit the footage. I had everything set up before the subject got there, than 2nd guessed myself just before we rolled tape.

But thanks to your advice, the shoot did go smoothly. I have one more to do in the next month, so by that time, I should have it down pretty well.

Thanks again.

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.3.7}
4.5 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
FCP Production SuiteHD 4.5
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard

[David Fortin]

Frank,

The shoot is tomorrow morning and I never got around to posting the question. Thanks for the quick turn around. Everything you said makes a lot of sense. I have a lot to try and because of you now I’m confident I can pull it off.

Thanks again.

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.3.7}
4.5 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
FCP Production SuiteHD 4.5
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard

[David Fortin]

I believe those type of effects do not import into FCP unless you Rasterize the Layer, or create a merged layer before importing.

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.3.7}
4.5 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
FCP Production SuiteHD 4.5
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard

[David Fortin]

You are also talking about 2 different compressions. MPEG-2 for the DVD creation and another format, such as Windows Media or MPEG-1 for playing on a “CD”.

I agree, 20 minutes will be tight. I also have my PC system set up for comrpessions. If you have the same you could do the DVD on your MAC and the CD on you PC. That would speed things up a bit.

Good luck,

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.3.7}
4.5 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
FCP Production SuiteHD 4.5
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard

[David Fortin]

What codec are you editing in on the timeline?

You mention the need to smooth pixels. If you are having problems with text, graphics or photo edges, it may be that your QuickTime Video Settings in your sequence is set to DV. This will make your graphics look kind of crappy.

What version FCP are you using?

If you are using FCP4 and have QuickTime 6.5 installed, EXPORT a self contained QuickTime movie using the 8bit Uncompressed video SETTING.

Then open this movie in QuickTime and do am EXPORT from QuickTime to MPEG-2. Set your OPTIONS to ONE PASS. Target Bit Rate 6.5 Mbps and Motion Estimation Best.

If your video was good to begin with, this should get you good looking DVDs.

You’ll also have to convert the audio from AIFF to AC3 using APack. Here’s info on that:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/a_pack_warmouth.html

Good luck

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.3.7}
4.5 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
FCP Production SuiteHD 4.5
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard

[David Fortin]

Depends on what you want the final image to look like. I needed to “blur” some kids faces for a DVD where the client didn’t get releases from them. There were 10 kids that walked up on stage and participated in some activities with the speaker. There were some long shots, zooms and close ups of the kids.

I first used the QuickTime Blur filter right in FCP, masking off the areas I wanted blurred using a 4 or 8 point garbage matte. (also in FCP, Filters/Matte) I made key frames in the garbage mattes when the kids or the camera moved. I thought it came out pretty good.

But no matter how much I blurred the faces, the client still wasn’t happy (said that if you knew the people you could tell who they were.)

So I did a Diffuse filter (FCP/Stylize) and they liked that a lot. You can combine the Blur and Diffuse to see if you like this.

Again, it suited my client’s purpose, but it may not be the type of “look” you are trying to achieve. I’m sure someone with more FCP experience will come up with something better.

Good Luck,

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.3.7}
4.5 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
FCP Production SuiteHD 4.5
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard

[David Fortin]

I have DVmatte Pro and found for the money, it works great. Good tutorial and easy to use right from the start. And the more time you spend with it, the better you get.

David

Dual 2.5 G5 {OS 10.3.7}
4.5 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL
DeckLink SP
ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S
Medea Video Raid RT320
Sony UVW-1800
Pansonic AG-DV2500
FCP Production SuiteHD 4.5
Media Cleaner Pro 6
Squeeze 4.2 (PC)
ViewSonic 19″ LCD
Optiquest 21″ CRT
Bella EZ Keyboard