Michael Hancock
Forum Replies Created
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Apply one effect. To apply additional effects, Hold Alt and drag your effect on top of your clip. This will nest your previous effect and apply your new one. Voila! Two effects. Repeat as necessary.
To learn more, look up “nest” in your help file.
Mike.
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File…Import. Navigate to the firewire drive, select the quicktime movie, press OK. You shouldn’t have any problems, but will have a short wait while the Avid converts the file from Quicktime to OMF. Or, have your FCP guy render it out using an Avid codec (search avid.com for the different codecs and email them to your guy). This will guarantee the import will work and the file will import much much faster.
Mike.
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Malcolm–
I use Avid entirely, so I can’t say what’s better about it than FCP. However, I cruise the FCP forums trying to pick up any and all tips and tricks I can. My friend’s company uses FCP, and when time allows he lets me in to mess with it so I can become more familiar with it with the intent to (eventually) learn to use it proficiently. Why do this when my company only owns Avids and will (at least for many more years) only have Avids? In case I ever need to use FCP, I’ll know it. Or at least know enough to get the job down. If this post house is willing to give you some time to hop on an Avid, I say by all means do it. You can never know too many products. After all, FCP and Avid are just two tools to tell your story. Knowing both will open twice as many doors to do that.Mike.
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John–
You have Auto Monitor turned on. Open your timeline settings and uncheck the Auto Monitor button. This will leave your monitor where you last put it instead of switching it to the tracks you’re selecting.I also hate it being turned on–it’s the first thing I change whenever I sit down at an Avid that doesn’t have my settings loaded.
Mike.
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Any Avid can import a quicktime, drop it into a timeline and play it back out. Even better? The only render time you’ll have to wait for is the conversion from a quicktime file to an OMF file (Avid converts all files to OMF, whether you’re digitizing or importing). Want to make it really easy on the dub house? Render your movie out using the Avid codec of their choice. It will make importing much, much, much, much, much faster. Call and ask which codec they prefer (for example, Meridien systems use the Meridien codec, there uncompressed and compressed, etc…), then download it from the Avid site (www.avid.com).
Mike. (Sneaking over from the Avid forums to learn a little something about Final Cut.)
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Well, it’s obvious which program you prefer. Quick question though, is the Mac you’re running Avid approved and up to spec? What version of Avid are you running, and is it installed on the same machine as FCP? What other programs were running while you were doing your comparison?
Also, many of the things you’re complaining about in the Avid can be fixed quite easily by memorizing the shortcuts or changing your settings. I’ll give FCP credit, there are some things that it offers that smoke the Avid, but there are many things Avid still has on FCP.
Mike.
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You might want to check out Avid Liquid. You can’t take footage from a Liquid to another Avid (like Xpress Pro, Media Composer, Symphony), but it’s an all in one package for everything from editing and graphics to DVD authoring. I’ve never used it so I can’t attest to it’s power, but it seems pretty popular. As long as you don’t think you’ll be needing to finish on a higher end system or anything, you might want to look into it. It seems to be reasonably priced too.
Mike.
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Discontinuity in timecode means you have a timecode break and you haven’t set up your system to capture across it. Under Settings, go to Capture and check “Capture across timecode breaks”. It will end your clip where the timecode breaks, but it should pick back up on a new clip and keep capturing instead of stopping.
Mike.
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I think you have to have Render on the Fly checked. It’s under Clip or Special or one of the menu items. Can’t remember which, and I’m not in front of the system right now. If it’s not checked, check it and see if it’ll play realtime. Otherwise, if you have too many streams of uncompressed (1:1) video you’ll have to render. I think. I’ve only worked on our Xpress Pro a few times (I still use an old Xpress Meridien for most of my editing).
Mike.
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You didn’t waste anyone’s time. I use Avid and After Effects every day and I still forget to set the fields right. And definitely tell your editor you need it in the Animation codec. Post back if you still have quality issues and we’ll go from there, but I’m thinking it’s the Sorenson codec.
Mike.