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It’ll never be perfect, but you certainly can get better results than some of the horrific keys I see on those “Top 100 This-or-That” shows on VH-1 or the like using DV footage if you’re patient and diligent. You need to make use of the Matte Choker, the Color Smoother, and the some of the third-party keyers like DVmatte if you can’t get the Color Keyer or Chroma Keyer to work. G-Nicer from Graeme Nattress is also helpful instead of the Color Smoother. Sometimes both help. Sometime both fight each other.

It’s art and science. It’s a ton of tweaking and a ton of patience. It’s knowing which way to “hark on the knobs” after you look at the key. It’s more renders than you can think of, and it has to be full renders, ‘cos if it looks good spot checking through the shot, there’s always going to be that second when they shake their head and their hair goes funky, or turn and their glasses disappear…or something. Partial resolution renders don’t get you very far.

I did a series of DV keys last winter that were shown at a large business meeting, projected on a screen. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know how big the screen was. There were some crawly edges here and there, and there were some eyeglass frames that disappeared, but the budget didn’t allow for taking it to an uncompressed online suite to finish. The client was happy with the results. The limitations of the format were recognized, and next time, they probably will make a different decision, but it wasn’t unuseable, it just wasn’t as flawless as we’d all hoped it could be.

If this is your first experience with keying, I do suggest you make some noise among your colleagues in your area and see if you can scare up someone with a little bit of a background in this. You will find yourself wanting to punch out a wall after a while, especially if you don’t have enough background of your own to really have a grip of key theory yet. This one sounds like an extra huge job.

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Perhaps your Render settings somehow got changed.

Go to Sequence>Render and check to see if there are checkmarks next to everything you want rendered with that command.

One tip, I usually keep my Sequence>Render settings to the bare minimum, and the next one, Sequence>Render All to the maximum, depending on the workflow I need for that specific project.

Give it a try, if it doesn’t solve it, post back and we’ll see if we can figure out another option.

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How full are your drives, alicow?

You need at least 15% free on every drive connected to your computer, including the boot drive. 20% is better.

If you need to clean up files and make space, do that first. Then try to open your project. If you get the same error, try opening up the latest project file in your AutoSave Vault, and see if that will work. You may have lost some of the last of the work you did, but if your original project file is corrupt, it’s about the best you can do.

The AutoSave Vault is usually in your Final Cut Pro Documents folder on the main hard drive, but it is something that’s relocatable, so it might be easiest to do a Finder level search for “AutoSave” to find it.

Post back if that doesn’t help. Another option is your project grew to be too huge for the RAM you have, and the option there is to put in more RAM. If you post back, it would be very helpful if you included what version of the OS, FCP, QuickTime, how much RAM, what video card you have, all the system specs. Sometimes it’s tough to pinpoint problems without the vitals of the system.

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Tim-

I agree that you should look at what JeremyG suggests. However, if you’re on a deadline and need to get this done, there is a Hail Mary that might work first, and then you can work on what JeremyG brings up to get your system back up to snuff.

Make a self-contained movie of your timeline, import it back in, and use that to make your tape. If FCP is having trouble accessing your media files, give it different media files to work with. Do this in a fresh project, just for good measure. Close up your original project after you’ve exported the movie.

Give it a try, and if it still conks out on you, post back and we’ll see if someone else has another quick idea! (Jeremy’s options will take the better part of a day, if done right, and we know you want to do it right!)

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[thewanggao] “on a similar note, how much on average would you say CEOs of small-medium sized post houses would typically make per year?”

…more…

;-p

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In your browser, right-click (or control+click if you don’t have a two-button mouse) on any one of the column headers. A drop-down will appear. At the bottom will be a bunch of things that say “Show X”, “Show Y”, with “X” and “Y” being actual column headers. Pick the ones that are missing, and they should be added to your browser window. You have to be right in that skinny rectangle with the text that says “Media Start”, or whatever one you choose.

You’ll have to do it for each one you want to add. I don’t think you can select multiple headings when you do this. But I could be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time!

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Oh, Arnie!!

Some of young-ish fogies do use search engines, but I still come here for recommendations because I never know if the ones that come up when I google are any good! I like to get recommendations from people I trust, not the marketing department of the company trying to talk me into parting with my money!

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…and it depends on where you live. In some states, you can’t sue for legal fees.

Hopefully, you don’t live in one of those states!! Call a lawyer! It’s your best ammunition now!

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Hey, Bob!

I have a flip-side argument for getting your RAM through Apple, but it only makes sense if you have an Apple Store near you.

I weighed the pros and cons of paying Apple’s higher price for RAM. I decided that although I was shopping for the most reliable RAM I could get, I also was shopping for immediate customer service, which does have inherent value. I decided that any RAM could go bad, and if I’m down due to bad RAM, I’m losing money if I can’t get back up and running quickly. I even have backup empty hard drives ready to install if I ever have a media drive go kaput on me.

So I decided since there 3 Apple Stores in my metro area, I could always drive over, walk in, and have my RAM replaced and be up and running within an hour if the closest one wasn’t out of stock. Plus, Apple RAM is covered under Apple Care, but third-party vendor RAM is not.

What I think it boils down to is each purchaser needs to make a decision. Buying third-party vendor RAM definitely saves you money now, but buying Apple RAM has the possibility of saving you lots of money in the future if your RAM turns on you! Another thing to weigh, if waiting a day or more for replacement RAM to arrive from far away doesn’t lose you money, then that’s something to consider for going with the 3rd party vendor.

I know I can’t be down for a day. Oftentimes I have deadlines that are waaaay too tight to take that risk. So I paid more for Apple RAM.

Of course, I’ve also (knock on wood) never had any problems with my RAM, either.

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I’m bettin’ THAT’S the answer postman was looking for! Now you just have to ask the pastor about “revenue”.

Thanks, Kerry!

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