Rob Tinworth
Forum Replies Created
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Try compressor – it has an add timecode function. It’s unreliable in 23.98fps, but should work for 50i. Test a short clip first.
Compressor/Inspector/Filters Tab/Timecode Generator
Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv -
I’ll also get this message when I have a number of large stills in my timeline that I haven’t scaled down.
Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv -
Welcome.
When I made the transition to FCP, I recreated the Avid keyboard in FCP, which was a mistake. FCP operates in a different way to Avid (at least 5 years ago when I made the switch – I haven’t cut on Avid since). As one of the first computer non-linear edit systems, Avid took its cue from the only other non-linear system at the time – film. Load clip, splice here, splice there, paste in. FCP took everything that’s great about Avid and combined it with everything that’s great about computers. You want to just drag that still from the finder into your timeline? Knock yourself out.
The result is that when you first cut with FCP it seems a little infuriating. In Avid, the options in the timeline were pretty limited, scrub, trim, move clip. In FCP, the cursor is very context sensitive – you can move the cursor an inch, and it changes into half a dozen tools. Annoying at first, but once you get used to it, you’ll fly.
Point is, don’t try to impose the way you cut on Avid onto the way you cut in FCP. It’s a different tool.
I’d copy over the obvious shortcuts – mark in, mark out (‘mark clip’ is the command you’re looking for, but you need to have the right tracks activated), play etc. But then create new FCP shortcuts for the other functions you’ll find yourself using repeatedly. I wouldn’t use the standard FCP keyboard layout – every editor edits differently, and the keys you use the most often should be right under your fingertips. I’ve personally mapped almost every key onto the left side of the keyboard so that I don’t have to lift my hand over to the other side – who’s got that kind of energy?
As for learning FCP, launch FCP and open the manual to page 1. And then read it. It’ll take about a week, combined with playing around on the timeline, and there will be sections you’ll skip over, but there is no better way to learn FCP.
Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv -
How portable do you need to be?
Sonnet make an eSata card that slots into the macbook pro, so you could run the media at full res from a striped disk array. It’s slightly heavier than firewire drives, as you need the disk enclosure, but it doesn’t take up much more space.
Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv -
Yup – the way Avid deals with renders is much better. And you retain the control to clear unused renders when you need to free up space. Ah, those media tools. That and different coloured markers are the main things I miss from Avid. Wouldn’t wanna go back mind, even though I see they’ve finally introduced a ‘select all to right’ button to MC.
Lars – Most of my work is long-form, so I still use an offline/online workflow. Interested in trying out ProRes, but I still have a couple of G5s kicking around that I use for capturing and odd jobs.
The “Bounce’ folder is another thing that’s in my folders shortcut. Useful for saving heavy renders I didn’t pull out of the render folder and can’t locate. Also great for smoothcam and speed ramping. I capture long 5-15min clips, so the smoothcam takes forever to analyse a shot. And speed ramping with a completely flat green line is impossible. If you match frame a clip from the timeline into the source window, it retains the in and out points. Export from the source and you retain timecode+tape number. Drag the clip back into your project and you’ve got a clip that’s much quicker to smoothcam, and possible to speed ramp.
There’s a couple of daft workarounds to get FCP to do things that should just work, but the few times I’ve had to go back to the Avid, I feel like I’m editing with one hand tied behind my back.
Each to their own of course…
Rob
Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv -
You can absolutely do this. You need to make sure that the deck you hire/have has the firewire card installed. It’s optional, so it’s not found on all units.
Capturing itself is very simple. You just connect the deck to the mac with a firewire cable, and easy setup for DV PAL Anamorphic. If you have an AJA Io connected by firewire disconnect it – it will conflict with the deck.
The deck will do the downconversion for you, so you end up with DV PAL clips.
As with all decks, it’s worth capturing a test clip to make sure that everything is setup correctly. Check the TC of the clip against the tape to make sure it’s not slipping. And watch for those timecode breaks. If you have your user preferences set to ‘make new clip’ on TC break, you’ll likely find the new clip is 5 or so frames off.
Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv -
Is there anything to be gained in using compresser to upres SD footage over just dropping it into an HD timeline in FCP and rendering?
Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv -
Thanks for the replies.
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I’ve worked remotely a few times using this. I run the analogue output from the edit suite into a DVCAM deck (set to analogue input), and then hook the DVCAM deck via firewire to a laptop. Open ichat on the laptop and just tell it there’s a firewire camera. It treats the deck like a camera, the edit suite treats the deck like a deck. Result is that you can stream the output from the edit suite into ichat. Same thing works with skype.
Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv -
Same issue here. For heavy renders, I’m dragging the render file from the render folder into my timeline and laying on a track above the clip that’s just rendered.
Only occassionally throws the render file links, seems to be random. Look forward to them fixing this.
Rob Tinworth
http://www.1021.tv