[Raven Plenty]

Thanks for the info about TIF files needing alpha channels – that transparent backgrounds are not enough. And perhaps PSD is the way to go for any of our graphics. I seem to recall some issue I had with PSD in the past, but don’t remember what it was. Also, for what it’s worth – maybe not much – the PNGs don’t require aspect ratio conversion. FCP seems to “get it” and handle it fine, whereas PSD has to be set up properly or else, which I can do, but I’m just saying.

None of this addresses the bizarre PNG-24 issue I’m having though. Is there an answer other than “you should use PSD instead”?

Thanks for your input.

[Raven Plenty]

Update: I confirmed that this is the case with tapes I’ve shot as well, so I guess it means FCP needs 2 seconds of pre-roll in any shot before capturing begins. Hadn’t noticed before since I’ve always been in the habit of rolling a while before “action” anyway. This latest tape was shot by folks even more amateur than me, so there you have it. I’ll have to be a better coach next time…

[Raven Plenty]

I too am having major lagging in Motion 3. I’m running FCP2 on a new 8-core 2.26GHz “Nehalem” Mac Pro with 12 GB of RAM, doing simple animations, just keyframing a mask moving around. There are loads and loads of RAM available. The lags happen when I select or deselect objects and/or keyframe points. I understand the graphics card can be a weak point, but deselecting an object doesn’t seem very intensive to me. For what it’s worth I have the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120.

Do I really need a better graphics card in order to select and deselect objects, or should I just get After Effects instead (which is what I really want to do)? 😛

[Raven Plenty]

I found the answer: On the HVX menu, Scene File > Operation Type > must be set to Video Cam, not Film Cam.

Learning is fun…

[Raven Plenty]

[Christopher Wright] That probably means (she?) also might have the wrong (if any) FCP Easy set-up selected in her sequence…

I am a “he” not a “she”, but no offense taken whatsoever. I am (temporarily) using the DVCPRO HD 1080p30 Easy Setup, since this is what we are shooting for now.

[Christopher Wright] There also seems to be a lack of basic knowledge of FCP going on here as well, as Raven didn’t know how to render a QT out of FCP

It’s true that I am in the early stages of learning here. That why I so appreciate the help that is offered in forums like this. In the other post you’re referring to, you said to “Render > QT”. I tried right-clicking, I searched the menus, I scanned the user manual and could find that command. Did you mean “Export > Quicktime Movie”? I asked for clarification but didn’t get any.

[Jeremy Garchow] “if the files are coming in @ 23.98 and you are expecting something different you have a setting wrong on your camera. 720p30 over 60 should have 2:2 pulldown {AABB}”

I agree that 720p30 should have 2:2 pulldown. That makes perfect sense. What doesn’t make sense is that the camera IS set the 720p30 and I’m getting 3:2 pulldown (AAABB), i.e 24fps. Same for 720p60. As I’ve said, when I open the source QT clips in QuickTime and right arrow my way through the frames, I can see the frames repeating: 3 and then 2, 3 and then 2. For the P2 test clips, they are ingested via Log & Transfer with “remove advanced pulldown and duplicate frames” selected, and sure enough the imported footage is 23.98 fps, no matter if it was shot 720p60 or 720p30.

If I don’t have the camera set to 720p24, then what other “wrong” setting could be to blame?

[Christopher Wright] The FS records “Pn” in both QT and P2, but does the frame conversion itself. The HVX camera setting still has to be in 24P (or 30P/60P).

I guess what you meant was that the HVX needs to be in 24P or 30P (and not PN), and the FS needs to be set to QT PN or P2PN. I have done a series of test clips using that set up. Guess what? No matter which frame rate I choose when shooting 720p, they are captured as 24 fps. I shot 30 second clips using 720p24, 720p30 and 720p60 using both QT PN and P2 PN. They all (.mov and .mxf) have identical file sizes of 180 MB. They all are 24 fps.

One ray of hope I have: our current FS is loaded with v3 software. I am going to update it to v4 and hope that fixes this.

[Raven Plenty]

Very well. I wonder why FAT32 was chosen for the FS-100, since it seems slightly awkward having all these 1.9GB chunks. Surely there was a good reason…

Should we decide to Render > QT … um… where is that option? I can’t find it in any menus, and can’t find anything about that in the manual either, it’s all about rendering effects etc. Also, does that recompress the footage?

Many thanks!

[Raven Plenty]

You are right, I am in experimentation mode. It’s exactly with the aim of choosing a standard workflow for our team that I am doing all this in the first place.

[Christopher Wright] “Also the HVX has to be in 720P24P mode to communicate with the FS”
This is a bit confusing since I did record footage with the HVX set to 720p60p and 720p30p, it just captured as 24p instead. In addition, if 720p30p is a supported input, why am I getting 24p when I choose that setting?

Also, if I choose QT mode, how do I do the pulldown? The 720p clips still show at 60fps in FCP. Do I need to run it through Cinema Tools? When I use P2, pulldown is removed during Log & Transfer.

Your help and patience is greatly appreciated.

[Raven Plenty]

[Noah Kadner] “If you want 60 fps to read as slow motion it has to be over a 24p timebase. “

Gotcha. That makes perfect sense, when shooting footage you know is intended to be overcranked. Are there ever situations where one would just shoot at 60 fps (or 48 or whatever) and then manipulate the speed as desired later on in post? Thank you for satisfying my curiousity.

[Raven Plenty]

Wouldn’t 720p60 be a better choice, allowing for smoother slow-mo footage? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

[Raven Plenty]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I shot two test clips within minutes of each other: one P2 and one Quicktime format. The camera is using free running time code (set to match time of day), and the Firestore is set to use Ext TC from camera. The P2 clip’s time code is in the 15:00:00:00 range, but the Quicktime clip (shot just minutes later) in in the 20:00:00:00 range. I didn’t shoot it 5 hours later. I am certain the Firestore doesn’t have separate TC setting for P2 and QT.

Hope that is more clear.