[Jim Glickert]

Hi Kathleen. You’ve asked lots of questions. Let me address just a few. (BTW, listen to what David says. He’s a very bright guy and knows what he’s talking about. I’ve learned lots from his posts.)

I’ve been using a MacBook Pro for several years. Mine has an ExpressCard slot, which I believe is critical, since I use it to connect a high-speed RAID drive. (I have a CalDigit unit, and I love it. I’m not sure the LaCie you have in mind is up to the task of video editing; maybe others can address that.) I use my FireWire port to transfer high-definition video footage from my camera, but that’s about it.

You can indeed partition your system drive to run Mac software on one side, and Windows software on the other. I used Apple’s Bootcamp instead of Parallels simply because Bootcamp was pre-installed on my MacBook Pro. I believe you WILL have to purchase a copy of Windows unless there’s some way of transferring the license from your now-dead PC to your new MacBook Pro.

You might check out some of the available FCP training videos from https://www.rippletraining.com and others to bring you up to speed quickly. You’ll also learn a TON from reading posts on this and the other FCP forum. Sometimes, I think I’ve learned more from these forums than from the thick stack of manuals that came with my copy of Final Cut Studio.

Hope this helps.

Jim

[Jim Glickert]

I’m glad that things are finally working better for you. You’ve probably learned a lot of things along the way. That’s good!

To pan a photo in FCP, first double-click on the photo “clip” in your timeline. This will cause the photo to appear in your Viewer. Click on the Motion tab at the top of the Viewer window. In that Motion tab, you’ll use the Center parameter, in combination with keyframes that you’ll set, to change the center of the photo. It’s pretty easy. If you need help, type something like “changing motion parameters” in your FCP help window. It’ll give you more help than what I can give here.

Good luck!

Jim

[Jim Glickert]

I think I’m getting a better idea of what your timeline looks like. You probably have your background (a still image .jpg) on video track 1, and then your .mov animations on track 2 that overlay the background. If that’s the case, then I can understand why re-rendering becomes necessary every time you move an animation clip in the timeline–FCP can’t play back that part of the timeline (that’s just been changed) in real time because there’s too much video information to process. The addition of a filter or transition makes re-rendering even more necessary.

If my understanding of your timeline is correct, turn off the still image track by clicking on the green button (it’s to the left of the track) that makes the track visible or invisible. You shouldn’t need to see the background image (since it’s static) when you’re editing your animation track, and turning off tracks and filters will make real-time playback more likely. When you’re done, simply turn on the background track by clicking the visible/invisible button again. Give it a try. I think you’ll find some improvement.

Jim

[Jim Glickert]

Have you tried turning off or removing the cartoon filter to see if that’s the cause of the problem? You don’t need to do it to all the clips in the sequence to check. Just pick a clip that’s giving you problems, turn off the filter, and see what happens. A still photo (e.g. .jpg, .tiff, .png, etc.) to which no filters are applied shouldn’t need constant re-rendering. Try applying a different filter instead, to see if the same problem occurs with other filters.

Are the photos approximately the same size as your 720×480 timeline? If they’re much larger than that, you might consider resizing them, but I don’t think that’s causing the problem you’re having.

There are no cartoon filters that come with FCP, so from which third-party developer did you get the cartoon filter plug-in? New Blue? Boris? Have you checked the developer’s website for help?

Also, you said that the DAZ Studio output files are in QuickTime (.mov) format. So your timeline is a mix of only .mov and .jpg files, right, with a cartoon filter applied to everything, or just applied to the .jpg files?

Jim

[Jim Glickert]

“Why does it only do this on certain clips and not the whole thing?”

That puzzles me, too, since everything else seems to be OK.

I forgot ask a couple questions: Did you apply any effects to the clips that need constant rendering, or have you “stacked” several video tracks on top of one another in your timeline? I’m just going to assume you answered “no” to both.

It’s going to take a little detective work, I think. What I would do is leave my existing sequence alone and close the project. Then, I’d create a new “test” project, using the appropriate settings, and import into that project just one of the “problem” clips that needed constant rendering in the other project’s sequence. If the clip doesn’t need constant rendering in the new project, then that suggests the problem is not with the clip. If it does need rendering, then it’s definitely related to the clip.

Another thing I would try is going into DAZ Studio and re-exporting one of the clips that have been giving you problems. Double-check the export settings.

Go to the DAZ Studio website and check the support information. There may be some information relevant to this problem. Also, search Apple’s FCP discussion forum:

https://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=123

Finally, it wouldn’t hurt to search Google.

Hope this gets you closer to a solution.

Jim

[Jim Glickert]

Hello Kai.

What format (i.e. codec) is the output from DAZ Studio? It may be in a format that doesn’t work well in FCP.

Do your Sequence Settings match the format of the footage you’re using? For example, if you’re using 720×480 DV footage, but your Sequence Settings are 1440×1080 HDV, the mismatch is going to cause you problems.

What render settings are you using? Safe? RT?

You didn’t indicate the details of your system, but not having enough memory can cause problems, as well as trying to run too many applications at a time.

One thing you might try is saving your project, close FCP, and then re-open it. Do things return to normal when you do this?

Jim

[Jim Glickert]

Hi Chuck.

I’ve successfully used a software package called DVDxDV to extract clips from DVDs for use within FCP. It’s pretty easy to use as well. They offer a trial version that you can try for free.

https://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm

Jim

[Jim Glickert]

Hi Andy.

First, read this post.

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1066583

The post was found using “convert .mov .flv” in the Creative Cow search bar. You’ll find more related posts using those search words.

I’m not that familiar with FCE, and thus not sure if you can reduce the .mov size to 320×240. I think QuickTime Pro can do it, if you have that on your system. If not, install and try the free MPEG Streamclip. https://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

As far as removing the black bars, FCE has some cropping and/or scaling capabilities to do this, doesn’t it? Do a help search within FCE using “crop” and “scale”.

Hope this helps.

Jim

[Jim Glickert]

Hi Matthew.

Just to give you an example, I recently finished a 7-minute video and posted it online. The video was 640 by 360 pixels in size, 30fps and 48kHz audio. The Flash version was the smallest file size, at 26MB. The H.264 QuickTime version was 77MB. A 1280 by 720 H.264 QuickTime came in at 325MB.

I would suggest you encode in both Flash and QuickTime H.264, and see which works better for you.

You didn’t say whether you’re posting the video on your own website, in which case you have complete freedom to choose the format, size and quality, or something like YouTube, Vimeo, etc., where you may be more limited.

Hope this helps.

Jim

[Jim Glickert]

Hi Katy. Here are two good threads on using iMac for Final Cut Pro. You’ll get a pretty good idea as to what the issues are, mostly limitations in external storage options and internal expandability.

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1064315#1064329

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1066878#1066880

Tripods vary greatly in quality, and you pretty well get what you pay for. The better ones are sturdier, and the head movements are smoother. I bought mine, a Manfrotto, at a photo shop, and it works fine for a lightweight Canon videocamera. If I bought a heavier camera like your Sonys, I’d buy a more sturdy tripod–the heavier the camera, the more sturdy the tripod you need. Stop by a local photo store that serves professionals, and ask them to show you different tripods and their features. You’ll quickly see that the good ones are so much better than the cheaper ones. Expect to pay about $100 for a nice aluminum one for a light camera, and several times that for a really good tripod for a heavier camera. I would bet you can find good deals on eBay. I’d be much more careful buying through Craigslist, but that might be an option.

Jim