[Nick Meyers]

[Tony West] “I want to know if he did all those VFX on an old computer or a new one. Not what other people do, what did “He” do.”

in all likelihood “he” didn’t do the temp VFX, but rather handed them over to an assistant.
Im still cutting features on FCP7.
i do a lot of temp FX in the timeline, but they are always very simple ones: splits, or dropping in the odd gfx element.
if I’m too overloaded, or the fx too demanding, i’ll hand it over to my assistant.
On the most recent film they used mainly Premiere (he knew it well, and to answer your question, he used his fairly recent MacBook Pro) and sometimes Resolve.
oh yes – if i needed a decent slo-mo, i’d hand that over as well. Classic FCP’s is about the worst around ☺

nick

[Nick Meyers]

a lot depends on how detailed / accurate you want the separation between fg/bg to be.
if you don’t want too much detail / accuracy, then FCP7 can do the job.

the basics are pretty obvious
duplicate your clip/s into two layers, say V1, V2, (option short drag a clip upwards to dupe it)
apply a blur or defaces to V1, apply a garbage matte to V2.
it could be as simple as a diopter effect, where there’s a simple soft line delineating the bg,
or a more complex shape around your fg subject.
keep the shape loose so you don’t have to do a zillion key-frames.

see if you can still find the Paul Crisp garbage metres on line somewhere.
with those you can keyframe the position of your shape as a whole.
makes life a lot easier.

for anything more complex however, you’d need to go outside of FCP7.
Resolve is free, and has these sorts of tools.

cheers,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

but yes… good idea either way ☺
then you’ll be autonomous.

[Nick Meyers]

my most purchase (jan/Feb this year) was a 2015 iMac.
i loaded Yosemite onto it (cloned from my existing 2015 iMac)
and used it as an assistant machine.
pretty economical, and it’ll last a bit linger than a 2011, i imagine.

[Nick Meyers]

hmm.. sounds like you really need FCP7 just to figure out the what and where of your project.
might be worth finding someone over there who has it?
i could possibly find time to open them up and have a look.
but tricky via remote.

nick

[Nick Meyers]

and i guess we should discuss if you need the whole project, or specific sequences?

[Nick Meyers]

hi Lawrence.
i don’t know abt Logic,
but XMLs are XMLs as far as FCP and most NLEs i think. (???)
it’s alarming how quickly computer stuff goes out of date

if you do send your FCP project, zip it first,
it’ll shrink to a 10th of its size and be better for email.
just right-click and choose zip or compress.

cheers,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

and if you don’t have FCP7, i can make the XML for you.
nickm(at)bigpond(dot)net(dot)au

[Nick Meyers]

hi Steph,

i didn’t explain properly –
i prefer to view my rushes i a TIMELINE, rather than clicking each one into the viewer, one by one.
so load all your rushes into a sequence, or better have a separate sequence for each day, or scene.
then in the timeline you can simply turn off/on channels as you view.

cheers,
nick

[Nick Meyers]

you can turn tracks off or on with the round green buttons on the left of the timeline.
if you option click, it will solo that track (and un-solo)
this method it’ll stop playback.

another approach is via the monitoring controls, opened by clicking the tiny speaker icon at the bottom left of the timeline.
this will reveal solo/mute buttons, and using these will not stop playback.
clicking is the only way to activate them, i think. if there are keyboard commands, i don’t know them.

a different approach is if your clips are stereo, and you are monitoring though an amp, you can simply change the balance from left to right.

cheers,
nick