Simon Ubsdell
6
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Peter.
– What version of FCPX and Premiere Pro do you have?
FCP X 10.2.3
Premiere CC 2015.4– Can you tell me the exact generator to use in FCPX? I tried with some but didn’t see the issue.
You can download an example file here:
https://tokyo-uk.com/Motion/ALPHA_BUG_EXPORT_FCPX.zip
This is an export from FCP X using the “Grey Scale” Generator.
Here’s the FCP X project XML:
https://tokyo-uk.com/Motion/Alpha_Bug_XML.zip
– Exact export settings from FCPX?
ProRes4444 Video Only
– System info
Several different systems and not mine only. My testing has been on Early 2009 MacPro and Mid 2014 MacBook Pro in both El Capitan and Sierra. We’ve also seen this on a recent 5K iMac (don’t know the model). Haven’t yet found a system where we can’t replicate the problem.
I’ve run a lot of tests of this both from Motion and FCP X and tested in both Premiere and After Effects and it is reproducible exactly every time.
If you crop or scale or mask the generator the problem does not persist. If the generator has transparency information (i.e. if the alpha channel is not 1.0 for every pixel in the frame) the the problem does not persist. So for example, if you use the Caustics generator in Motion, you won’t see it.
What are your system specs? What exactly have you tried?
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
It could indeed be an FCP X/Motion issue but then again it’s curious that every other application I tried to open the test with handled the alpha correctly (e.g. Fusion, Nuke, FCP X and Motion themselves). Apart from the Adobe applications – and that includes Photoshop as I’ve just discovered.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
You might want to have a look at a dedicated plug-in like Hawaiki AutoMatch which gives you a lot more control over the process (and generally better results than the built-in Match Color effect) and of course allows you to save presets and copy and paste settings between clips, which is what you are wanting to do.
https://hawaiki.co/automatch.html
It takes a lot of the guesswork out of matching – which can be a challenge even for experienced colorists.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
Not sure what you’re still having a problem with. Here’s a sample project which might help you.
You should be able to get it looking pretty much identical to your example. The Indent filter isn’t doing anything different from what you get with a Photoshop bevel.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
The Indent filter is your friend here.
Make a Rectangle with an outline that is brighter than the fill and apply the Indent filter to that and you will get this effect. Increase the Softness value to increase the “bevel” effect.
(If your outline is darker than your fill, you will get a bevel that goes the other way, i.e a receding bevel, rather than a raised one.)
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
To clarify what I’m talking about here are three different examples, using a 1920×1080 foreground green screen clip (the blonde girl) and a background source image that is much larger, namely 4336×2896.
In this first example, the foreground is merged directly over the background, with the result that it looks very small.
In this next version I have composited the background over a Background node that is set to 1920×1080 – now the foreground looks the right scale, but we are only seeing a small portion of the background.
Finally, I have adjusted the Merge Size (of the node where the background image is composited over the 1080 Background node) so that it fits within that new frame size and we see (almost) all of the background image within our final composite.
Each of these strategies has its use but hopefully you can see from this the value of “formatting” your background image so that it matches your foreground in terms of the frame size.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Eri Levin] “As you can see on the screen grabs there the shot on the previous merge scale down. To me if the transform is piped before the merge why is that having an impact?”
I’m not sure I understand what you’ve done there, sorry.
You don’t really need to be using the Transform tool to do what you’re doing – all those operations (flip, rotate, scale position, etc.) are available within the Merge tool. You might find it easier to work that way for now to avoid confusion.
If you’d like to email me [simon(at)tokyo-uk(dot)com] your Fusion composition or post it here, I could try and get to grips with what you’re done and give you an explanation. From the screengrab of the flow itself I can’t see what parameters you have set for either the Transform or the Merge …
Edit: I would note that because you haven’t composited your background image over a 1080 Background tool, it could be very large – I can’t judge from what you’ve shown there. That would account for the size discrepancy you are seeing.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Eri Levin] “Also how do you turn on a safe frame or viewer boundary.”
Sorry, forgot to answer that. In any Viewer window, hit Command+G (on the Mac), or right-click and select Guides/Show Guides from the menu.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Eri Levin] ” I used ultra keyer because it appears to give me cleaner results. Maybe I am using Primatte incorrectly.”
In principle, you should be able to get much better results with Primatte, but it’s not terribly intuitive, I will admit.
[Eri Levin] ” I have another shot that I was trying to also merge over that background without any luck. What is the proper way to merge several keyed shots into a background. If I use another merge, all kinds of strange things start to happen. “
What strange things are you seeing? I can’t tell what’s wrong from the screengrab of your Flow, which seems to have your second keyed image unconnected to the Merge …
[Eri Levin] “Also how do you turn on a safe frame or viewer boundary. I am supposed to be in a 1080p project, but I am little confused how this boundaries are reflected in the monitors. Thank you so much.”
In Fusion there’s really no such thing as a project of a specific frame size. It depends on many things but mostly on what you are using as your “base layer”, if that makes sense. I notice that your background is not actually 16:9, so the first thing I would recommend is that you composite (Merge) that over a Background node that is set to 1920×1080. At least then you will be compositing over a true 1080 background.
If you can post your Fusion composition (no need to add the media but it would help), I could advise more specifically.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
Just in case that didn’t make sense here’s a screengrab that shows the Flow and the Channel Booleans channel assignments:
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki
