Kevin Monahan
Forum Replies Created
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Which means….
Start dubbin’!!
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
OR you could just buy my book! 😉
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
Hey Logan,
Good to see you here. SF Bay Area in the HOUSE.
If you ever need help, we’re here for you.Take Care,
KevinKevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
FCP was meant to be rigged up with a video monitor that is being fed by your video deck or camcorder. (See pg. 55 of the FCP HD manual). Are you using a video monitor as you log? You should, I do.
In that case, the speakers should be hooked up out of the deck/camcorder, and not the Mac. So if you set your speakers up out of the deck/camcorder, you should both see the interviewee on the video monitor and hear the synch audio fed from the deck and playback from the FCP timeline. BTW, If you don’t have a video monitor, you can use a TV. My friend uses a Sony one with an S-Video connection and it looks pretty good.
Since you probably aren’t set up this way you are experiencing unreliable and unpredicatable behavior from FCP. If you are set up the above way, then most of your troubles in editing DV go away.
Now the problem lies in that you can’t hear your Mac’s audio through your speakers: no iTunes/Garageband/Soundtrack, etc. So what to do then? Just get a Y-split adapter cable from Radio Shack or get a small mixer. I use a Mackie 1202.
It is possible to work with FCP without properly monitoring video, but then you’ll need to change your Audio Video settings for Audio Out to built in.
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
Of course, Arnie is right. Motion is really good for this job once you get the workflow down.
To answer your question, the velocity “handle” is really only a small purple dot that is located directly on the bezier handle. You slide it up or down to accelerate or ease. It’s very sensitive, but if you zoom way in on the Canvas, you’ll gain more control. Looping in QuickView (which no one probably does), will allow you to see the result of your tweaks. If you’ve never seen it demo’d, you’d never really even know this thing exists. Unless, of course, you read the manual. But who does that? 😉
So, you see–it takes extra care to finesse the motion controls in FCP, but it can be done satisfactorily. Especially if you extend the Center keyframes beyond the trim points of the clips, then dissolve through the move. Whether you want to spend that time to do is properly is up to you.
However, as Arnie points out, Motion is the app to use for full control of position and scale. After Effects can take is one step further with the addition of a simulated 3D environment with 3D cameras and 3D lights. Boris RED which plugs into FCP does a bang up job along these lines as well, but you can extrude the edges of the photos for an added effect very easily.
Lately, these kinds of projects are so commonplace that I am getting sorta lazy with requests to do this kinda thing for family and friends. For that, I just toss my photos into iPhoto 5 and it actually does the rostrum moves to music automatically. It’s pretty cool. iMovie is also a no brainer way to get the job done down and dirty. The down side is no real control over position, scale or anchor point.
Good Luck
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
Damon,
Get to know the velocity handles on the bezier handles. You can tweak them for more adjustment with your acceleration. My technique involves zooming way in on the Canvas and tweaking the velocity while my comp loops in to out in the QuickView Window.It takes a little practice, but you can do it–
Fore more info on this technique, you may want to check out my book.
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
Hi James,
2 things you can do to get closer to true color.
Click the Auto Contrast button once. (It’s the one with the black and white arrow on it).
Then use the eyedropper near the Whites Balance controls.
Just click on an area that appears white.This info will get you most of the way there. My book also includes information about basic color correction and effects you can make with the color corrector.
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
mmmm…..crow. tasty. 😉
So what were these “pointers” Chris?
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
Hi Jian,
This is a really common problem we see here nearly every day. A quick search may have revealed an answer to your problem sooner, so check that out next time.Here’s the deal: likely, you don’t have a “functional FCP workstation”. You see, FCP is more than another computer app, it’s a system–you have to work with FCP set up properly to interact with other devices to have a predictable and reliable experience while you’re editing. Page 55 of the manual has a diagram which shows: FCP with a video monitor and powered speakers connected to your DV Deck or DV Camcorder. Have it set up this way while you are working at all times.
If you do not work with FCP set up this way, you will not have a reliable and predictable experience with FCP. Audio is certainly one thing that will confuse you if you work with the speakers connected to the Mac, which unfortunately, many self-taught people do.
If you are worried that you won’t be able to hear audio with your other apps, like Garage Band or the like, get a Y-splitter adapter from Radio Shack or whatever and connect it to the Mac’s audio out. That way, you can feed speakers from the Mac and from your DV Deck or DV Camcorder at the same time. Instead of a Y-splitter, you can also use an audio mixer like many of us do.
If you are not even recording audio, then that is a different problem. I suggest you go back and use the stock Easy Setup for DV-NTSC. Things will behave, again, much more predictably and reliably with the proper pre-sets.
Kevin Monahan
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
fcpworld.com -
Eric,
I hear you on this confusion. It actually happens a lot to people, and you’d see that too if you did a search on the word “blurry”. What is going on here? In the Viewer, you are seeing the LT animation in the Animation Codec, which is lossless. Once you place it into the timeline, it becomes a totally new beastie. It’s now in the DV-NTSC codec and compressed 5:1. Adding to this confusion is a little thing called RT Extreme, which is something you absolutely need to get your head wrapped around. RT Extreme allows you to preview more layers with effects on them to playback. Next on the list: the dizzying array of options to render your animation into the timeline’s codec. You have to make sure the correct options are checked off. Topping off this confusion is that I am guessing that you are not using a video monitor as you work. If you are judging your graphics and rendered fx on the Canvas only, well, you cannot see the true rendered quality of your fx. IOW, you don’t have a “functional FCP workstation”. You see, FCP is more than another computer app, it’s a system–you have to work with FCP set up properly to have a predictable and reliable experience while you’re editing. Rather than giving you a quick fix, it’s better that you understand what is actually going on here:First read this so you can understand how rendering works, you’ll need to know the difference between Safe RT and Unlimited RT and have the right properties checked off when you render your LT animation into the Sequence:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/rendering_rt_fcp_4_balis.html
What should you learn from that article?