[Steven Topham]

AVCHD.
Prior to diving in, I had found a very informational PDF created by the camera manufacturer that walked through the whole process. I’ll watch your video in entirety later tonight, but I think all of my compressors and presets were proper.

I take it then, that crashes are not normal.
In my explorations, I may have done something to the original files (deleted some test shots from the file) before trying to log and transfer that FCP didn’t like and caused it some confusion (because those deleted files still appeared in the L&T window when the folder was imported).
Thanks for your reply and the video link!

[Steven Topham]

Good point.
It changes the compressor from Pro res 422 (HQ) 1080p to HDV 1080p 30.
And the final result is the brilliant quality I was looking for.

I don’t necessarily understand why the pro res compression destroyed my image quality so badly, but glad it was a simple fix.

[Steven Topham]

I’ve experienced similar issues. Doesn’t make any sense and there isn’t a fix insofar as something you are doing wrong.
Only option I can think of is to export the file from Motion as a .mov and import that into FCP, rather than putting the motion file directly into FCP.

[Steven Topham]

Hey Dirk, sorry for the belated reply. If Anders’ response isn’t your ticket, then the issue lies in your file creation somewhere along the pipeline. To recreate your situation, I tried the following:
– Opened a photoshop template with 1080 settings. Stuck to one layer, cut out the middle with the rectangle selection tool and colored the border that remained. Saved the psd.
– Imported the .psd into motion as one group. In a second group, I simply chose a particle emitter from the library and placed it atop the border.
– Exported the ugly little file as .mov.
– Imported that .mov into FCP and placed it on the timeline. My video played fine within the border.

Sorry I couldn’t locate anything in particular. But it’s either a mistake in your pipeline sequence, or if you’re making the particle emitter yourself, then it can hopefully be remedied through Anders’ suggestion.
Cheers!

[Steven Topham]

I have, surprisingly, always been able to do everything I need in Motion alone and haven’t imported a file first made in photoshop.

If you are importing a .PNG that you made in photoshop, then you shouldn’t have any problems at all.
I don’t even know if there is an option to import .psd, but that would then depend on the compatibility between the two programs.

So, make sure the file you’re importing is .PNG in order to be transparent. If you’re already doing that, I will try to simulate what you’re doing when I get home and see if the same thing happens for me.

[Steven Topham]

Not sure I completely follow you. Are you building one still frame that a video will play under, or are you creating a moving particle emitter that will vary and change frame by frame?

If the first, you just need to change your settings in the preferences to make the background transparent.

If the second, it’s likely the same answer; check your preferences and settings. Only other reason would be that the layers you added to the group inadvertently cover more area than you realize. Click on the group, instead of each individual layer, and you will see how far it stretches. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the whole area it covers isn’t transparent. Most particle emitters cover a large area, most of which is transparent most of the time. If your manipulating particle emitters from the library, you shouldn’t have a problem. If you’re making your own, then trace your steps and see which setting may be causing an area to be covered.

And the only other thing I can think of beyond that is that you are exporting the project wrong.

[Steven Topham]

I wasn’t able to find out why my particle emitters were being inverted. Tried exporting the FCP movie as an avi to the same results.
So, for anyone who runs into this same issue, I exported the motion project as a png image sequence. That turned out to be a dirty fix to the problem.

[Steven Topham]

I’ve tried just about everything short of reinstalling the program. Even tried to call Apple, but they don’t provide support for FCP 7 anymore and sent me some very unhelpful literature.

I’m reposting here in the hopes that someone may be surfing who can provide me a solution that will save me from hours of reinstallation that will likely not fix the problem.

I should also mention that it is not just aiff clips. Also mp3. Probably all audio clips.

[Steven Topham]

Fantastic response. Thanks for providing a solution even though text buttons are probably not the best route.
Many thanks!

[Steven Topham]

Thanks for the response, but in FCP-USER PREFERENCES-GENERAL I have always had my audio playback quality at low. I looked at all the other playback menus and I don’t see anything that could effect this.