Matt Lyon
Forum Replies Created
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Nothing wrong with that, but this command is hard wired, so you can’t assign it to a custom button or keyboard shortcut.
-Matt
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Sorry for the long replay, got busy doing conforms and couldn’t test this …
I appears that when doing a straight output, with no downconvert or 2:3 pulldown business, Audio is bang on. Maybe this is some issue w/ the interaction between the software pulldown and the KONA downconvert?
Is there a way to do the 3:2 pulldown on the hardware card itself and take FCP out of the picture?
thanks,
Matt Lyon
1st Assistant Editor
Toronto -
The original footage is captured directly from camera original tapes, Sony F900, shooting HDCam format. Since our HD deck is a player only, we haven’t done any HD outputs yet to test whether the audio is offset with those settings. Tomorrow I will try capturing full HD directly from one KONA to the other and see if the audio is offset.
Matt Lyon
1st Assistant Editor
Toronto -
Yes, if you look in your render scratch folder, you can see the temp files it creates. These get destroyed after the print to tape (even if print to tape fails – very frustrating). I’ve often been puzzled about why Final Cut sometimes decides it needs to re-render stuff, even when everything in the timeline is rendered. The longer the timeline, the more likely it seems that the print to video process will create temp render files. I suppose you could try to quickly grab a copy of the temp file, move it to another location and throw it in the timeline, but I’ve never tried.
Matt Lyon
CORE Feature Animation
Toronto -
hmmm, you might want to start a new thread for this one. It sounds like you may be missing some system files on your computer. In the finder, launch ‘applications>utilities>console’ and then launch Final Cut. The Console should report some errors when FCP crashes. If it does, please post those on the board and maybe someone can help. Did you delete anything from the computer: fonts, system files, etc?
Matt Lyon
CORE Feature Animation
Toronto -
I doubt this is a preferences issue, since Cary had the same error on two machines.
In my experience you should avoid exporting audio using compressor. I’ve found it very unreliable. Export your video as normal w/ compressor, but export the audio directly from FCP using ‘file>export>using quicktime conversion.’ “FORMAT” should be ‘aiff.’ Select options and choose : 16 bit Stereo 48kHz (assuming you are making a DVD). You might also want to throw away your render files right before exporting (to force FCP to recalculate everything). In the menu select ‘tools>render manager’ and follow the guidelines. This has been my experience in FCP 4.X, not sure if this has improved in v5.
hope this helps,
MattMatt Lyon
CORE Feature Animation
Toronto -
Good luck Julie,
These suggestions are all great. Mixing down audio often helps. If you keep getting dropped frames, I’ve found an even more reliable solution is to export the entire timeline as a single aiff file. Make sure you have no in or out points set in the timeline, use ‘file>export>using quicktime conversion.’ Select “aiff” and export at whatever setting matches your timeline settings (usually stereo 48kHz). After this is done, duplicate your timeline, delete all the audio and drop the audio file you just exported into the timeline (make sure sync is a lock!).
You should also make sure that both your system drive and your media drive(s) are not more than 70% full, as performance begins to degrade significantly when they get filled above this point.
Matt Lyon
CORE Feature Animation
Toronto -
As others have stated, you should be fine with any size external firewire drive. The limitation applies when adding an internal ATA drive. The workaround I used is to buy a PCI ATA card, and connect the drive internally to that bus. Certain models of G4’s only support up to 120 gb on the apple ATA bus. I haven’t tried the driver you mentioned.
Matt Lyon
CORE Feature Animation
Toronto -
Although we don’t constantly create new projects, we do version our timelines quite frequently within the master project. The master projects are stored in a location shared by all. Typically, when an editor hands off the project, the new editor will open the project, duplicate the timeline, change the version number and add their initials. The old timeline gets put away in an “archive” bin.
This does result in large projects, which need to be versioned up themselves and cleaned often, but the advantage is you can maintain a record of all the creative changes that occur. We also have to enforce a “one person in a project at a time” policy to ensure nobody steps on each other’s toes. It is quite easy for two people to have the same project open and, unfortunately, whoever saves last overwrites the other person’s changes.
We IM each other to stay in touch about who is working on what, which is somewhat low tech, but very effective. If two editor’s need to cut the same timeline at once, one of them will grab a copy of the master project and save it to their local drive. When they finish, an assistant will merge the projects.
Matt Lyon
CORE Feature Animation
Toronto -
Hi Will,
Your situation sounds similar to ours.
We are also sharing media using an XRAID system (NOT X-SAN), with our systems connecting over gig-E. We keep “master” projects which are the main reels of our show, which is what the main editors work in mostly. The assistants process incoming media in their own projects, than create “delivery projects” filled with all the media, or timelines, that need to be delivered to the editor. The editors each have delivery folders on the X-RAID, where the assitants copy these FCP projects. The editors can then open these projects and move the necessary media into the main projects. Once finished, the delivery projects are tucked away in dated folders in the finder. The key to the success of the system is using standardized naming conventions, and adhering to them religiously.
Being animation, we don’t really need to preserve master clip relationships, although you could do so easily by delivering media and timelines together. Maybe keep everything in a folder together in the project will ensure this happens.
We also version and clean our master projects religiously, to ensure file sizes stay managable.
Hope this helps!
Matt Lyon
CORE Feature Animation
Toronto