[Jeff Greenberg]

a MUCH easier workflow would be to:

Open the stills in QuickTime 7 – it can see image sequences. Then save out as an Uncompressed (or ProRes) file. Now it’s a single QuickTime file.
or
GO to motion, it’ll auto collapse the image sequence there – then adjust the length of the motion project to the duration of the clips; then you can bring the motion file into fcp.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
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[Jeff Greenberg]

Larry,

ProRes 4444 retains a better color space, but is compressed.
Animation, is less compressed but is 8 bit.

Why not put the project itself in FCP directly?

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
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[Jeff Greenberg]

Basically, FCP was never meant to handle distribution codecs, like mp4, mpg2 files; camera manufacturers have shoehorned these into cameras because the files are small (enough).

You’ll need to transcode either via Compressor or MPEGStreamclip to ProRes (either ProRes LT or ProRes 422). These will make the files significantly larger, but they’ll work perfectly in FCP.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
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[Jeff Greenberg]

Probably a 1920×1080 ProRes sequence will minimize your pain/performance at the common frame rate. Please don’t have four different frame rates.

Standard ProRes422 is likely sufficient to avoid gobs of transcoding prior to your edit.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
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[Jeff Greenberg]

You want AutoMotion from Digital-Heaven. Not cheap ($495) but TOTALLY does what you want.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
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[Jeff Greenberg]

Your Z space adjustment on the HUD ought to switch to Z+Scale when you use the CMD key. And you must adjust this on the HUD to take advantage of it.
If it’s not doing that, then no, it won’t work. I have had times where it does (and then later) doesn’t function. Mark probably knows why.
It works best when objects origin are at the center of the composition.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
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[Jeff Greenberg]

One thing I don’t think I saw in Mark’s document (but I may have missed it) are two things:

First, make sure you’re monitoring on a broadcast monitor out of FCP (vs. the canvas)
Second, is to set FCP’s sequence settings to Best.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
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[Jeff Greenberg]

You don’t say whether your on a Mac or a PC – I’d suggest one of three workflows:

1) Animation/Uncompressed – advantage, no additional degradation, disadvantage, file size. Hey, it’s near to perfect
2) ProRes/DNxHD – advantage, large beefy codec used by editorial systems, disadvantage some compression. This is essentially what FCP/Avid users are doing when they transcode.
3) Cineform. It’s a third party codec (you’ll have to pay for it) – but it provides excellent storage/playback, you can choose the amount of compression, and it will general QuickTime files that work in other editorial tools, totally cross platform (they just need to download a decoder.) Advantage, adjustable to your needs, con: you’ll have to pay for it.

#3 is the way I’m suggesting most Premiere Pro users go, unless they want to just bring the whole project back (and I do believe in backing up your whole projects)

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
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[Jeff Greenberg]

Usually it’s that the lights are too bright. Using a light meter, your background should be as bright as your foreground subject.

You’re looking for (in post) a spill suppression. Then go smack the person who added lights without consulting post.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
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[Jeff Greenberg]

You have your footage optimized for editorial in FCP – that’s the timeline setting.

The question is, “What will my audience need?” Determine this, and you have your problem solved – but the codecs we use in post production are less than suitable for distribution – they’re mostly too large (such as prores) and specifically licensed to an editorial system (like XDCam)

Right now, the ‘most universal’ codec, is likely an h.264 in an MP4 container – this is playable on most modern systems, mac, pc, iOS and linux – and this codec looks good too!

If you’re going to have your PC guy do this for you (via squeeze or any other tool), you’ll need to give us loads more detail about what you’re using inside of FCP (as per Craig’s post.)

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
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