Matt Gerard
Forum Replies Created
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Right now I don’t think that there is a workflow that will do everything you want. That’s why you’re posting here, right?:-) You need to be able to have someone on set with a handheld/laptop/iPhone connected directly to the camera, and rename and log clips within the camera. i think this will actually happen, its jsut a matter of when.
In the meantime, what do we do? It depends on your workflow that you need. Its rare that there is a solution that covers every situation. Personally I dont’ like the idea of editing my shows with reference files, its one more thing that can get mucked up. I haven’t done any testing as to relinking files that get archived and refs that get deleted/moved, but right now I have more disk space than time, so I log and transfer. I use a bare drive in my weibetech enclosure and archive the raw P2 data, put it on a shelf. FCP was made to work with quicktime movies. Not MXF files. until Apple opens the platform to recognize other file types, there will not be a reliable way to get metadata from the P2 card into FCP. For some reason, QT’s don’t jive with P2 metadata.
Anyway, enough of my rant. As an editor, I despise logging and digitizing. I’ve always hated it. I can log and transfer, its faster than realtime. I like that. Its one step forward without using some fancy footwork of a workaround that has a greater chance of failing (computer error or human error) and sticking me near my deadline.
These are my OPINIONS, this is the way I work. I know everyone works differently. Most people don’t mid using raylight, and it is a cool idea, and it seems to work. But not for me.
Until log and transfer recognizes the metadata within the mxf files, I don’t think there will be an easy way of doing this.
Matt
Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…
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[Shawn Miller] “but none of them will import existing .obj files. 🙁 “
Actually Zaxworks will. We do it all the time, we get the .obj file from thier CAD team, then import them into zaxworks. Problem is that CAD people have a hard time understanding that we don’t need 2.5 million polygons to make us a lawn mower blade… I’ve been messing with cinema 4d to see if I can simplify models for this purpose, as zaxworks slows way down with large obj files.
But it does work!
Matt
Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…
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https://zaxwerks.com/invigorator_pro/index.shtml
Cinema4D and AE have a tight integration, I’ve heard. I haven’t tried it yet, or know how/what/why it works. Isn’t that helpful?!?!?
I just say that Cinema4D Also has a save option for Motion, I’checking out what it does right now. Will post later.
Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…
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Absolutley correct
[david bogie] “It is a cruel and needlessly sick joke. “
Apple has lagged behind in network rendering for 2 reasons, I believe. First is that 90% of FCP editors wouldn’t see any benifits from it, as the macs nowadays are so powerful that for most of the work, rendering stuff within FCP is minimal. At least in the stuff that I do.
Second, is that farming out QT movies is much more complicated than farming out frame-stacks. That’s why most (if not all) 3d render farms output to frame-stacks. It easier to keep track of individual files (frames) in a framestack than to keep track of them within a QT movie. Plus if your render freaks out on one frame, you can just go back and render that one frame. Try doing that with a QT movie file. If you are looking for a Motion based render farm, you can do this through compressor by setting up a qMaster node farm like I did within the office. Drag your motion file into compressor and render it out to a framestack. I got it to work ONCE. After that, qMaster ignored all the other nodes on the network, and simply refuses to use those nodes. I haven’t spent alot of time digging into it, but I just picked up the Apple Pro training sereis book on compressor, I’ll see if there is anything there about it. I doubt that it says anything that hasn’t been said on the forums somewhere, but there is always hope.
Matt
Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…
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Look under EFFECTS->TIME. Try some of those, and see if they work for you.
Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…
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[Nick Griffin] “I’ve just started looking into P2, so excuse my complete ignorance.
“‘Tis excused!
[Nick Griffin] “Does P2 create files based on individual takes or one big file that can’t be broken into smaller parts? I assume the previous but fear the later. “
Each clip is separate. Everytime you start recording it starts a new file (actually a number of files, more on that later).
[Nick Griffin] “Also, at full HD on a 2000, what’s the shoot time per 32Gig card?
“I have the 2000, and it really depends on what codec you are shooting. see this website-
gives a small comparison.
There ya go… Found it on Google, took me 5 seconds. Way quicker than waiting for someone to respond to this post.
Matt
Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…
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You can also map effects to the keyboard, I have F1 set for the default video transition fade, just select the edit, hit f1 and bam, dissolve. Go to the tools menua dn select keyboard layout. Click in teh search field and hit apple+T, then drag the effect that pops up to where you want it. Both the video dissolve and the audio dissolve will show up. I have the F1 key mapped for the video transition and apple+F1 for the audio dissolve. Then learn to love the razor blade tool. I do most of my audio editing in Protools, but with the razor blade and the apple+F1 shortcut I can get most things done in FCP.
Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…
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Okay, all I got was one setting for now, Its a 720DVCproHD 30P for interviews. Blacks smusheda little, detail cranked down a little.
DISCLAIMER- I am not a professional video engineer. I came to these settings by the technical practice called “futzing”, or button pushing and knob turning. I make no claims about what this will do to your camera, or what you think these settings will make your video look like. I am totally open to thoughts suggestions and CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.
Okay, done with that. Just make sure that you make a scene file for your settings before loading mine, so you can go back to your own stuff if you don’t like mine. That being said, i would love to build a library of setting files that people could look at and download, or upload theirs to share.I might look into making a simple gallery website for that if there is enough interest.
Here is the link to my FTP site. Unzip the folder and copy it to your SD card. there is only one setting file in here, and I only had one file on the card, so I’m not sure how you load more than one file setting onto the card. Let me know what you think!
Allright, now for the fun. just click
to go to the Creative Images FTP site. Login with this info
username- creativecow
password- mooIts more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…
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Oh nooo. 15 min? I wish. more like 10-15 per card. Our teardowns can usually take anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours, depending on the shoots. Clients just need to be explained to that transferring the footage might take a while. Goes with the technology. Couple of times break down went quick, boss took the client to happy hour while guess who gets to guard the gear while the transfer is going on. I’m not looking for pity, really. 😉
Also, if the client really doesn’t/cant’ wait for it, we will take it back to the office and ship them the drive. I like that, because then i can go through the footage, check it out against the shot logs, make sure everything is transferring properly.
Matt
Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…
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Couple of options for you,
1. Client brings own laptop/offload station
2. You provide laptop/offload station with hard drives that the client “borrows”
3. Same as above, but charge them for the HDD and they keep it. (think tape stock)
4. Not sure if you can do this on all the P2 cameras, but our HPX2000 can act as a USB (2.0) host, and I can plug a HDD directly to the camera and offload from the cards to the HDD while packing up gear. Then let them borrow the HDD or sell it to them. Or they bring their own. It actually is fast, and easy to do from the camera.
Either way, it depends on the camera, what the client can handle as far as ingesting footage (can they use the mxf files, or do they need quicktimes?) and what you want for liability. If they get to the office, and the HDD doesn’t work, who’s fault is it, and lets hope you haven’t erased your cards yet. With out 2000, we have 7 16GB cards, and we haven’t filled up 5 of them on a full days shoot yet. At the end of the day, i take the camera and dump the cards to a mini g-drive, 160GB and it powers right off the camera, to floor wart to plug in. And I copy everything off while breaking down the equipment. they can keep the drive (add it to the bill) or they can “borrow” it out of the kindness of our hearts. Either way, I go back to the office and dump the stuff off onto my own drive, and keep it there for a while, just in case.
Good luck!
MAtt
Its more fun to ride a slow motorcycle fast than a fast motorcycle slow…