Scott Sheriff
Forum Replies Created
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“Morphing and dissolves require time, 15 to 60 frames for each transition.”
Morphing yes, but dissolves can be 2 frames. It’s done all the time. Old school guy’s used to call these ‘soft cuts’.
If this was done well it might look like stop frame animation. -
Julie,
I would try the post in FCP and work with the timing and alignment of the scenes using cuts. Once your as good as it gets, start working with dissolves, adjusting the length as needed. You might find a ‘happy accident’ by trying different rates, lengths or type of dissolve. If you still don’t have what you want, then look for someone to morph what you have. At least at that point you will have the best material isolated to build the effect from.
But first, I would do a proof of concept test and run 10 jog sessions separated by a few minutes off the mill between recordings. Use these to work out the click track pace, critique’ your running and ability to duplicate the motion, and to have some footage to play with before investing all the time.
Glad I could throw you a couple of good ideas. I learned TV in the old school analog days, when we had to figure out how to do things in camera, or what could be done with a 3 bank switcher and a few tape machines.
Best of luck! -
If you are going to pull this off it has to be planned very well, and the runner has to be willing to put in the practice to pull this off. The more you can do in camera, the easier the post will be. If you can successfully run consistent each day,you may be able to pull this off with nothing more than 5 frm dissolves.
Camera
Even if you think you can keep the camera still for that long, something will happen. You need to find a subtle reference in the BG so that the framing can be checked each time.
The machine and the tripod locations have to be marked.
Even better if you can build a stage and bolt them to it. Use a Hi Hat instead of a tripod. Either use a fixed lens (best), use a zoom at the full wide(OK), or turn off the servo and tape the zoom ring to keep it from getting bumped.
The camera iris has to be the same every time. Tape it.
The less of the treadmill and the more bland the BG is, the easier it will be to slightly alter the framing in post to help line up the shots.
Treadmill
Mark the entire belt with footmark targets where your running stride lands. You may have to compromise your stride so that the marks are symmetrically placed along the tread. The left-right pattern has to work out seamlessly on the belt.
Mark the treadmill frame so that you are running in the same spot.
Practice running on the targets, and staying between the frame marks. While shooting use a spotter to coach your foot and arm placement.
Have a mirror off camera you can see, with marks you want to keep yourself in.
Use a treadmill with a digital speed readout, and use the exact same speed.
Make sure the belt is at the proper tension throughout the sequence. They stretch over time and might gradually slip, slowing your stride.
Arm placement has to be consistent also. Practice keeping the sync between your legs and arms, and the amount your arm swings consistent.
Set up a monitor with targets marking your placement on the belt, and arm swing distance so an off camera coach can guide you.
Mark you lights, and flood settings so they can be duplicated in case you loose a lamp.
Don’t skimp on the amount you record each day.
Record a click track on CD, and play it while you run to help you with your pace.
Make sure you have at least two of everything you wear on camera, if you don’t Murphy will have his way.
Instead of using a treadmill, use a bike. It might be easier to keep in the same place.
Third idea. Do the whole thing as a chromakey, even get a used treadmill and paint it green too. Add a nice looking treadmill and BG in post. Then the only thing you have to worry about is the stride length and pace.
Have fun and good luck. -
Michael,
You wouldn’t be forced to do a clean install because of all the KP’s if you would have searched the forum before you upgraded. This topic has been covered ad nauseam. I searched your subject line and got over 600 results.
Why do you want to make your system drive, your Time Machine thru a partition? What are you going to use to restore your data if that drive dies?
Drive space is super cheap, go buy a fresh HD and install SL, and FCS on it and that should work fine. OWC has 1TB 7200 OEM drives for around a hundred bucks. For a Time Machine try something like an outboard WD USB bookshelf drive, these are cheap too. You don’t need FW speed for TM.
That partition/TM thing is a train wreck waiting to happen. -
How about the ‘Earthquake’ filter?
Seems like you could keyframe that and get a handheld look. -
Phil,
That KB latency would drive me crazy! My FCP is instantaneous. I also have a USB Contour Jogger (I’m old school) and that doesn’t lag either.I hadn’t stop to consider Start/Restart times until you mentioned that.
Here is what my system does as an example.Mac Pro 8 core, 2.8 GHz, 16GB 800MHz RAM, System Drive is a 1TB WD Black, 7200 RPM. Running OS 10.6.2 Snow Leopard, and I’m running FCP version 6.0.6. Stand alone system-no network.
Cold Start Up- :46
Running Restart- 1:07
Wake from sleep- :05
Open Final Cut w/6 minute ‘last project’- :26Worst case scenario I’m looking at under 2 minutes to restart and get back to work. Does it really take the Avid that much longer than this?
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I think the reason that you are seeing less aliasing and moire’ is that by going back to analog you have greatly lowered the resolution of the material.
If that is what you really want to do, it would be easier to just add a 1% Gaussian blur (or other blurs-experiment) to the timeline. It doesn’t take much, and is usually not noticeable to anyone but another editor once you get down to SD DVD. This trick works the same way as your Beta solution, but gives you the option of controlling the change of resolution, is a lot less work, is reversible and probably doesn’t degrade the picture as much as your solution. However I would only use it as a last resort. My guess is there is something in your workflow causing this that can be fixed without degrading the image. -
Maarten
Some thoughts on Mac Pro running Final Cut.I came to NLE’s from the CMX online world, with casual experience in Avid and Media 100. When I decided to buy my own system, I wasn’t biased one way or another, but needed to get the most bang for my buck. When I decided to put down the cash, I went Apple/FCP and never looked back, even though I have been a long time (remember IBM XT) PC Windows guy. Here are a few of my reasons, in no particular order.
1. The build quality of the Mac Pro is first rate. Open one up and look at the quality of the solder joints, no loose bundles of wires etc. The case isn’t cheap plastic, or stamped sheet metal. It’s easy to see where the money is going when you buy a Mac Pro. Very easy to add drives and memory, and the standard I/O ports are plentiful and conveniently located.
2.Software Price. With FCS, you get a suite of programs including DVD authoring, color correction, motion graphics and more, for a lot less than Avid MC.
3. Avid didn’t support the codec of my camera, even though it had been out for over 2 years. The Avid and JVC forums were loaded with complaints about lack of support for the 100/110 series cameras, as well as others. Avid seems unresponsive to changes in the market.
4. Dissatisfaction expressed by my Avid using friends, some of whom have their own MC systems. Main complaints seems to be lack of support for the smaller owners, in favor of the larger network type customers, a heavy reliance on expensive external hardware and third party software, and high cost to upgrade systems as the world changes.
5. No silly dongle.
6. The OS, Apps and hardware all from the same company. No worry about third party compatibility/driver issues. One stop shopping to keep the system up to date.
7. Hardware Price. By the time you spec out a PC to meet the Avid specs, you are in the same price range as a Mac Pro-see #1 above.
8. The Windows Vista debacle.
9. The perception by some in the biz, that Avid is moving more towards the server market, and away from the core NLE market.
10. I didn’t want to tinker with the system. I bought it to edit with and the Mac Pro/Final Cut solution seemed much more ‘turn-key’ than the Avid, with all the talk about how picky it was about qualified hardware.
As far as FCP issues, yes there are things that could work better. But, that is true in Avid, Vegas, AE or any other program. I’ve been in broadcast TV since 1981, and there isn’t a piece of gear that I have ever used that was perfect, and didn’t require some type of work-around, or have some limitation.
And honestly, 90% of the posts on the Cows FCP forum are ‘pilot error’ and could be easily solved if the person posting the problem would just read the manual, and follow the directions. A couple of good examples of this are all the people whingeing about the lack of QT 7 in Snow Leopard. Well in fact, it is on there, as is QT 10 if they would just bother to look. Or people posting all the problems they are having editing with H264, which is a delivery, not editing codec.
Another 5% are unrealistic expectations, and hardware/software bottlenecks from people on really old systems trying to work in an HD world.
The remaining 5% are real problems, and people pushing the envelope. In that 5%, the issues are usually workflow specific, and only affect a small group of users with a unique workflow.
My system arrived by UPS around 9am. By 1pm that same day, I was up and running and cutting some test footage together.
After 2 years, I can say I’m still very glad I chose FCP, and have had very few issues. And those I did have were minor, and solved by reading the manual. I looked at my system logs, which now only go back to Aug 30th, which is when I installed Snow Leopard, and could only find 2 crashes, neither of which involved the FCS Apps.
At least two of my friends with older Avid MC’s have switched to FCP after using my system, rather than upgrade their MC’s to go HD. While the only folks I know that are sticking with Avid, don’t actually own the system, or pay the bills to upgrade or maintain it.
Don’t get me wrong, Avid is a fine App, but look at all your options, I’m glad I did.And for all the Avid fanboys out there, these are just my opinions, and experiences, and in no way meant to disparage the Avid, or Avid users.
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For hourly (non bid) jobs, I don’t charge the same rate to log, capture, or compress, etc as I do for editing. Even though it’s using the gear, I can be doing something else for many of these tasks. Back in the day using the sliding scale was the norm at most production houses. No one would think of charging a client an edit rate for dubs, or Chyron compose, unless it happened during a session because of some last minute thing. But otherwise most non-editing jobs were done off hours, at a lesser rate.
If you decide to use a sliding scale, you should consider using a time-tracker program like Timeslice, or the time-tracker in Quickbooks, to keep an reference as to where the time was spent on the job, instead of relying on memory. Timeslice also allows you to do fixed cost jobs and see if you are over/under budget. -
I’m not familiar with AE, but instead of the Levels filter, have you looked at the 3-way Color Corrector filter? And don’t forget to use the disclosure triangle at the bottom, which will reveal functions to isolate the Color Correction (think Pleasantville). There is a lot of power in the 3WCC, compared to the Levels filter. This might be more of what your are looking for.
Also you could use the Color application if you need more finesse than you can get from the 3WCC.
Perhaps some of the big guns with AE experience will chip in here.