John Vonmutius
Forum Replies Created
-
I don’t mind the supplementary questions at all.
When you shoot 25fps with the 5D (which I’m assuming you do for anything local), does the footage playback the same way on your computer? In my experience, H.264 footage from the 5D will not play smoothly on any computer save for the most powerful. I’m using a dual quad-core 3GHz machine with 8GB RAM, and I still can’t play it back smoothly, because I am using the factory installed video card. A coworker has an AJA Kona capture card, and he’s able to play the H.264 fine.
Shooting in ProRes is possible, but not with the 5D. Some of the new digital format cameras – like the Arri Alexa – shoot in ProRes, but they start at $50,000. They’re true production cameras.
—
Exploring the pitfalls of the 5D workflow. The many, many pitfalls… -
Yes, FCP 7 can edit H.264. This isn’t much of a blessing, however, because the render times are outrageous, and Unlimited RT playback only works for one video track. If you have two or more video tracks of H.264 footage, you MUST render before playback. Also, if you’re going to apply any color correction to your footage, you’re working at a disadvantage, because H.264 is so highly compressed.
Transcoding your footage to ProRes increases file size because it’s a better codec containing more color and pixel information. It’s a necessary step in the 5D workflow. You just have to start thinking about hard drives the way you used to think about DVDs or tapes: Fill one up, put it in a box, and start on a new one.
—
Exploring the pitfalls of the 5D workflow. The many, many pitfalls… -
If that’s what your grader wants, then it’s probably a good idea to deliver HQ. However, I would disagree with him. I have done color correction on my own footage with FCP and After Effects as well as some color grading with Color and I have never seen any difference between LT and HQ. The codecs are the same color depth and use the same compression schemes. As long as the color grading application is set to render with a high-quality, high-color-depth codec, the results should be identical.
—
Exploring the pitfalls of the 5D workflow. The many, many pitfalls… -
After a quick Google search, I found that this camera does indeed record in AAC format, which is why you have to render. Try recompressing the footage, or just recompressing the audio, and that should work.
—
Exploring the pitfalls of the 5D workflow. The many, many pitfalls… -
FCP certainly doesn’t have any 3D features, either. I think there are some anaglyph plugins you can get, but IMAX theatres aren’t projecting anaglyph 3D anymore – it’s polarized. So you’d have to find a different software to work with, anyway.
—
Exploring the pitfalls of the 5D workflow. The many, many pitfalls… -
More RAM won’t help much, as FCP 7 can’t use more than 4GB, to my knowledge. It’s not actually a 64-bit application. What’s the processor speed on your Macbook – that’s more important. How many still images are you working with? I think TIFF would take MORE memory to process, not less. FCP crashes for a lot of reasons – I can’t really troubleshoot it without more information. When does it crash? What’s the error message? How big is the FCP project file? How long are you clips, on average?
—
Exploring the pitfalls of the 5D workflow. The many, many pitfalls… -
Batch transcode using Compressor. Use one of the ProRes presets (422 or 422 LT, audio pass-through), save yourself some trouble. You can do a quick-and-dirty cut in h.264, but as you can see working with it in any depth is just impossible. And don’t bother trying to use ProRes HQ – even ProRes 422 is usually overkill, because you’re not going to add quality to h.264, it is what it is.
—
Exploring the pitfalls of the 5D workflow. The many, many pitfalls… -
These are screenshots from FCP? It seems like you just need to research your cameras and play with the settings, because that’s in-camera blur. If you open the raw footage in QT or some other player, does the motion look just as bad? I don’t have experience with a wide range of video cameras, so I think you’ll have to head over to a different forum, maybe the Cinematography forum or the Sony camera forum here on Creative Cow.
—
Exploring the pitfalls of the 5D workflow. The many, many pitfalls… -
When you say “affect” what do you mean? Filters? Motion? Edits?
—
Exploring the pitfalls of the 5D workflow. The many, many pitfalls… -
Well, you’ll have to play with the handles of each point, just like you would when making a path in Illustrator or Photoshop. Make the handles longer, and you’ll slow down the speed around that point, make them shorter and you’ll speed it up. The spacing of the small dots between the green points will show you the speed.
Unfortunately, I have not had much success smoothing motion paths in FCP – I get the same erratic behavior you are seeing now. I really prefer to leave FCP to simple editing and do any other motion in a program made for it, like Motion or After Effects. It is possible in FCP, though, just harder.
—
Exploring the pitfalls of the 5D workflow. The many, many pitfalls…