Dylan Reeve
Forum Replies Created
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Will Meridian Uncompressed work with HD?
I’ve tended to use DNxHD in that sort of scenario, seems good generally.
DVCPRO HD is actually a pretty lossy format, so not ideal for finishing or grading really, moving to a lower compression finishing codec (which I consider DNxHD to be) is generally an improvement.
Going DVCPRO HD -> QT Animation/Uncompress -> DNxHD is just going to be more time consuming and risks gamma shifts going to and from the Animation/Uncompressed
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It can be done, but you’ll need to jump through hoops. It’s not really what Avid’s designed for. I second the AE suggestion, definitely the easier way.
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[David Roth Weiss] “Of course the offline/online workflow makes sense if your business is built around finishing other people’s offlines. The real question is, does offline/online make sense for the vast numbers of FCP users whose business are not built around the business of finishing?”
For the ‘vast majority’ perhaps not. But for the type of work we’re doing in this case (series drama, across a whole series) I think it is the only way that makes sense. We have perfectly functional Avid suites to edit work, it’s unnecessary and wasteful to capture hundreds of tapes of media at full resolution when only a fraction of it will ever be needed at that resolution.
Of course there are other options and workflows available and they are absolutely workable – although spending $10k on a massive storage unit to allow us to hold a whole series of media at online res seems to fall well on the wrong side of cost/benefit.
Another benefit mentioned somewhere else was that it forces the producer/director to stop making changes – this is quite valid. In projects I’ve done that are full res from the start many have been plagued by directors who are never quite finished.
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[Rafael Amador] “Instead of turn the layer off again, just undo: Com+Z. You won’t loose your render.”
That does indeed work, and is what I do, but if I need to do anything else (say turn layer off, modify and effect and turn it on again to check) then that’s not going to work.
It just seems insane to me that FCP will loose it’s association to the rendered media so easily.
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[David Roth Weiss] “No doubt about it, onlining in FCP, whether from Avid or even from within FCP, is certainly not the strength of FCP. More importantly, why is anyone today doing an online/offline workflow anyway, much less offling on Avid and onling on FCP and what exactly does any business actually gain from it?”
I’m fairly sure that the majority of serial work (especially scripted drama) still follows the online/offline workflow process. In this case for only a short series (6 eps) we’ve got over 150 tapes, even at the DV25 res we’re using for offline we’ve got over 1TB of media – at full DNxHD or ProRes resolution it would be fairly impractical.
Certainly for our music video, TVC and DV work we seldom follow the offline/online workflow.
In this case we’re editing on Avid because it’s the product we’re most familiar with, and in my opinion the best option for offline cutting with a project of this sort.
[David Roth Weiss] “Also, no one uses the FCP text generator. Why are you using it? Boris 3D is the text tool you should be using in FCP.”
Thanks David, I will look into the Boris tool again. I did look at it as an option before, but it seemed a little overkill for what I’m seeking and a little too focused on 3D-looking titles (sort of like Avid’s Marquee, which I’ve never really liked). I’ll give it another go soon.
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USB has no defined standard for video data transfer.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a DV camera that only has USB, but many (most) of the DVD and Harddrive ones do. And the video you get is generally MPEG2 video, which makes it a PITA to edit.
There are a few shareware and freeware apps that can be used for downloading video from USB connector cameras (in much the same way you get stills of a digital camera) but none that actually capture it as nice usable DV.
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I changed the clips, created a new sequence and then dropped them (actually it, I was testing with a single clip) in there and tested.
Whatever is happening for me doesn’t seem to be related to the plugin, which is doing as I expect, but is something about the rendering, as both the interlacers I’m testing with do the same thing upon rendering.
I may have another crack at it on Monday.
Unfortunately a large part of this series is a ‘show within a show’ that needs to have a ‘videoy’ look (interlaced, and possible sharpened a little).
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I’d been meaning to ask about this…
I tried using the 8-point garbage mask, but found the setting tools to be very annoying – having to select each point in the effect options to set it.
I was surprised not to find anything better in FCP? Avid MC has Animatte and the Paint Tool which are pretty simplistic, but really handy for quick fixes (their ommision from Xpress Pro was always a huge frustration for me), I figured there’d be something similar in FCP given it’s generally more featured effects set.
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Yup, did that. No luck.
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[Rafael Amador] “OK. So the problem may be that even those clips are “visually progressive” they are interpreted and they behave as interlaced.
Is possible that the “re-interlacers” don’t know what to do with some clips that supposed to be already interlaced.
I would try like that:
– In the browser, check the clips as progressive.
– Drop them in a “upper-first” sequence.
– Apply the re-interlacer (Nattress or ReelSmart).
– In the effect check the output field order “upper first”.
Should works.”Yup.
There is no ‘Progressive’ option in the Clip’s Properties, but I can change the field dominance to ‘None’ which I figure is about the best I can do.
Other than that, I created a new sequence with Upper-Field, using ProRes 422 (with Interlaced and Upper field set in Advanced).
Still no luck, exactly the same result – I see two fields in Canvas and out DeckLink before I render, but afterward there are no fields.