[Joshua Brown]

Color doesn’t read motion files (as I’m sure you’ve noticed). I don’t know a better way if there is one, But I usually just export the motion files from FCP with quicktime (make file self contained). Then add them back into the sequence.

hopefully that helps.

-Josh

[Joshua Brown]

Hi Guys. Thanks again for all the help Tom, Eric, And Rafael.

I’ve got it all taken care of. I’ve set the settings back to normal (the first image I posted in this thread). And tailored my graphics to match the project settings.

And your right, QT didn’t know it was supposed to be an Anamorphic 16×9 image. So I found out that I needed to export it with those settings. So in compressor (or quicktime conversion), I set it to NTSC DV Anamorphic 16×9 output settings, and it interpreted the footage correctly.

Thanks again.

-Josh

[Joshua Brown]

Yeah, your right, it is a big mess. Haha. I thought I had it figured out but now I see it’s all wrong.

Ok, here’s the deal:

In Final Cut, the sequence setting has Anamorphic 16:9 checked on. And it looks just great in the timeline. All the images are the right aspect ratio now too (aspect ratio 0 ).

However, when I export, it is not exported as a 16:9 movie file and it’s squashed back to 4:3. The Images look right, but now the video is mushed so my talking head is tall.

-Josh

[Joshua Brown]

Hi Rafael.

I realize now that the video is in fact 4:3. In order to display properly it needs to be read as Anamorphic 16:9. I have that all ironed out.

The thing I was having trouble with was why the still images I imported were not filling up the whole frame when they were the same pixel size. I see now that FCP was not interpreting them into the project properly and was adjusting them to a squashed aspect ratio that looks right on the screen, but didn’t cover the whole frame size.
However, after fixing the aspect ratio size of the still images, they look stretched on the preview, but perfectly normal after rendering the video out.

-Josh

[Joshua Brown]

Ok, well after screwing around with it for a while (not that I didn’t before I posted) I see the solution.

The Aspect ratio was automatically being adjusted to 18.52 upon import.

So simply setting the aspect ratio to 1 makes the image stretch to fill the frame. It looks stretched, but after a rendered through quicktime, it looks perfectly fine when viewed in quicktime.

And I think I’ve figured out why it’s doing this. But a cleared explanation from someone who knows would be great!
My guess is it’s some funky stuff having to do with the Anamorphic 16:9 being pulled from the 4:3 video. It’s doing something crazy that I don’t get. The images that I import don’t have that anamorphic meta-data in them so FCP overcompensates upon import.

-Josh

[Joshua Brown]

You’re going to need a clean slate. Then you’ll most likely have to tween the movement of objects in the scene. My suggestion would be to shoot your slate. Then Simply shoot the objects you want the “invisible” man to interact with. Run a live preview of the objects being filmed overlaid on your slate to watch the interaction. Then film the man with his hat on or whatever. It’s going to be very complex to pull it off.

A slightly alternative method is to shoot the “plate” and the object movement at the same time then rotoscope out the stick or wires you use to move them. Then film the man on green-screen later.

It’ll be tricky. I’d love to see this if/when you are done.

-Josh