[Philippe Gariepy]

My biggest Red file is 4096 X 2304. Yes, i was going through Color only to upres, I was pretty sure that Final Cut wasn’t able to manage 4K footage.

Now, I seem to have a problem to relink my files. At the beginning, I used Log & Transfer to compress my footage in ProRes 422. Now, to relink, I was pretty sure that I had to create an offline using the media manager. But when I do this, I end up with only 2K footage. Is there a reason for this?

[Philippe Gariepy]

Ok, I just found it. And then, I take this SGI sequence in Color and render it in 4K to, then, bring it back in FCP? Right?

And finally, is there any preference to which compression would be better out of Color? If I go with ProRess 422 HQ, will there be another color shift? Am I better off with uncompressed 10 bits? And will AE run smoothly with an uncompressed file?

(I’m not the one doing the AE work and I know nothing about it, I wanna make sure that everything works when I give the project to the guy).

[Philippe Gariepy]

And how do I do this? Do I need another application or something like this?

[Philippe Gariepy]

“It is never a good idea to edit in After Effects. So the closer you are to picture lock when you send a clip, the better it will be. You will need to use your judgement.”

There will be no editing in After Effects, just compositing, but I suspect the director to not know exactly what he’s going to do in post, so he’ll probably make constant modifications in the editing room as the effects get made at the same time. I know it’s probably far from the best way to work, but… well : directors…

“You need to maintain all file path information, or The Duck will lose track of the clips. You may have to create FCP projects just for the AE guy, containing RED (not Prores) clips stored in a special capture scratch on a portable hard drive.”

The AE guy will have all the original clips, as well as the ProRes, on an external drive. If we just don’t switch them around, it’s going to be alright, I guess?

And I’m not sure what you mean about that special FCP project just for him with all the RED files in a capture scratch. Since FCP can’t edit RED footage, how would I do this?

“The only good way to work with AE, FCP and Automatic Duck is on THE SAME MACHINE. That won’t be possible”.

Exactly. That won’t be possible. What are the problems that could arise from this? Will we lose our in/out points, the cuts will move, etc.?

But since everyone seems to agree that the Duck is the best tool out there for this kind of workflow, how can’t it be safe for the editor and the animator to not work on the same machine? I’m pretty sure that it’s most common for editors to not do their own effects, so what am I missing here? Is it just that most people, when they have effects to work with, go with Premiere instantly?

[Philippe Gariepy]

It’s going to be on a Mac, and I’m pretty sure with CS5.

[Philippe Gariepy]

Alright, I downloaded M2CMS and everything seems to work now. Thanks a lot to everyone, let’s hope I don’t have anything else to ask you about this project. Cheers.

[Philippe Gariepy]

Alright, so if P2CMS installed that MXF QT component on my drive, why isn’t it there anymore? Should I reinstall it? Does it still work in FCP 7?

[Philippe Gariepy]

Woah, looks like my troubles aren’t over. It turns out I edited some parts of the videos with the Quicktime files, which I was able to reconnect, but a pretty large part of the edit looks like it was made directly with the MXF files.

When I look in the timelines, it’s the MXF files that are there, with cuts, fades, etc. Only, when I try to play them, it’s only a white screen. I’m pretty sure I didn’t use any other application to do this, none of those you named reminded me of anything.

Also, in the navigator, I see that I imported the entire CONTENTS folder, with the AUDIO, ICON and VIDEO folders in it. It seems like this is where I took my MXF files. I kinda remember that I MAY have had to connect manually the audio files with the video files. Also, I think I worked on FCP 5 back then, maybe this could make a difference.

So, if anyone can understand how I worked back then, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

[Philippe Gariepy]

Thanks to both of you, my problem is solved. Thanks again.