[Jacob Brown]

semi transparent layers stacked over fades stacked over other layers. with various compositing styles.

[Jacob Brown]

i would LOVE if someone could set out an exhaustive explanation of how FCPX handles stacked alpha channel effects when compositing.

i’ve experienced some crazy weird results when doing music video work — mostly just have to trial and error it and i never can predict the solution that will get me what i want.

[Jacob Brown]

By the way, i think FCPX is really great NLE for editing a feature. I just edited my first feature on it, and had never used it before I started cutting. I learned it very fast. And I think it’s actually a great filmmaker’s tool. As far as what you can do in the timeline, it’s at least as powerful if not more than the other NLEs, but it also very quickly sort of disappears and lets you just work. you can do almost everything with the mouse. you dont HAVE to use keyboard short cuts. skimming through timeline and event clips really lets you work intuitively.

I say go for it!

[Jacob Brown]

it might be what you are used to calling a nested clip. basically anytime you take a bunch of clips and layer them and turn into a single clip within the timeline.

usually you can just flatten these before you export the XML….easy to do in FCPX. If you’ve done any compositing, or multilayer fades though, you’ll need to break apart and leave as layers so that they have the full clips when they bring into flame.

also, i’m not certain about this, but i think that when i was exporting XML, they had trouble when there was audio embedded in a clip — FCPX treats in camera audio or synched dual system audio as priveledged, doesnt drop it into track but keeps in attached to main timeline. you have to “break apart” the audio before exporting….but this is pretty easy as you can select all and do it in a few steps.

my sense was that if i had gone to resolve before creating the XML that i gave to technicolor, i would have been better off. i didnt go that way and cant be certain but when i used resolve for some smaller things, it seemed like it was simplifying the XML in a way that autodesk seemed to ingest better

[Jacob Brown]

hey josh. i’m in middle of post at technicolor in NY…edited in FCPX. they had a little trouble right at the beginning dealing with my XML, but was pretty quickly resolved.

my team there is using autodesk which worked well with FCPX XML — BUT it can’t handle compound clips. something to be aware of.

when you do your xml output for them, you’ll have to break apart comp clips including those with synch’d audio

[Jacob Brown]

have you tried taking your audio out with one workflow and your picture out with another?

i just brought an old FCP7 project shot on RED into FCPX perfectly this way (problematic bc the fcp7 was linked to QTs not the red raw, which i needed in FCPX). exported an xml. ran through 7tox to get the audio into fcpx. ran through disolve to get the timeline relinked.

i believe you could x2pro out your audio.

use resolve to get the visual out.

then combine the two into either fcp7 or premiere. exactly the opposite of what i just did.

[Jacob Brown]

Davinci Resolve, which is free, will read FCPX XML multicam clips no problem and relink to originals.

I would bet that you can go from Resolve to PP. But if not, you can definitely go back into FCPX from resolve with a flattened timeline that is easy to export

[Jacob Brown]

hey oliver, have you ever dealt with roundtripping to autodesk program? either smoke or flame?

i’m trying to figure out what I need to do to my timeline to “prep” it before i create xml for my post guy who works in flame….

-j

[Jacob Brown]

If you are using compressor or something like that, be sure to pay attention to the key frame setting in the H264 conversion.

If you have a lot of fades or composites or effects or the like. Or rapid camera movements. Or a few other things….then you will want to do a keyframe every few frames. Otherwise you can get weird compression artifacts.

It’s basically a keyframe every X number of frames. Lower that number is higher quality, bigger file size. So just play with it until you like the output and file size.

[Jacob Brown]

Oliver,

For my feature I basically create a keyword for scenes or groups of scenes that all go together.

Then I view the clips within that keyword sorted by scene. The FCPX basically groups all the takes for a given shot for me and I just favorite the relevant parts of each take. Then when I’m ready to start editing I can switch to viewing favorites only and get nice blow up versions of each in event viewer.

Next time I plan on making the DIT enter the scene meta data in camera so that I don’t even have to do the set up myself in FCPX haha!!!

Jacob