[Steve Roberts]

AE is very flexible with regard to render choices. We have to know what we’re doing, since the default isn’t always what we want.

Render Settings should be “best”, 98% of the time.

However, the Output Module needs to be carefully chosen. If you look under Lossless settings, you’ll see that AE’s default is the Animation codec. You want the DVCPROHD codec, if you’re going into a DVCPROHD sequence in FCP. Only use Animation if you don’t know what the FCP sequence setting is, or if you need to use the AE clip’s transparency (alpha channel).

(BTW, please only use the word “export” with regard to AE if you’ve specifically used the Export command. Otherwise use the verb “render”. It avoids confusion.)

If you’re still having trouble, consider rendering to Animation in AE, then using QT Pro to Export to the DVCPRO HD codec. Then drop that into the FCP sequence — it shouldn’t have to render.
Let us know if that works.

[Steve Roberts]

Did you click the “anamorphic” button for the imported clip in FCP?

[Steve Roberts]

Niche market, we. (sigh)

[Steve Roberts]

They’ve dropped the embedded numerics from the right half of the main keyboard? No more fn+P for markers?

[Steve Roberts]

[Dave Johnson] “1) A psuedo “client” (sales rep, etc.) says “just put it onto a DVD as a movie”, when what they really mean is “I don’t understand that techie stuffy you’re asking, which makes me feel stupid, so I’m just giving you an answer I made up to avoid having to deal with it”.
“

Dave speaks the truth.

Even if “DVD as a movie” were the required format, your next questions might be “should it be automatic play? After a delay of how much? Or should there be a “play” button on an onscreen menu?”

(I get nervous when I hear the word “just” before a direction.)

[Steve Roberts]

The NASDAQ Marketsite screen used to take Beta SP, squashed to fit a custom template. The template and specs were furnished by an agent who acted as the go-between for the client.

So try to get hold of the people at the facility, whoever books the displays at the facility, the client, the agency … starting with the people who gave you the job. Don’t stop until you get technical specs from someone you can trust … which may not be the client.

[Steve Roberts]

Thanks, Todd. Good info.

[Steve Roberts]

… unfortunately. 😉

Todd, being a clever fellow, maybe you could confirm this description of how AE renders each frame of a movie:

1. according to the Render Settings, a high-quality frame is created, with no compression and stored in some kind of buffer. This is like a “pure” or “ideal” image. This is also where fields are created.
2. That frame is then compressed or altered according to the output module. If the Output Module is Lossless, TGA or similar, the “pure” frame is basically left untouched. Basically.
3. That altered frame is stored along with the previous frames, awaiting a Quicktime wrapper if necessary. If rendering to a still sequence, each still frame is finished once it’s rendered.

Is that about right?

[Steve Roberts]

I second the “blurred prop image” recommendation. AE’s motion blur might give you a spirograph effect, which you may or may not want.

[Steve Roberts]

If I may cut in …

When making stuff in AE, I generally render to the codec of the editing timeline. So if I were eventually going into a PAL DV FCP sequence, I’d render to the PAL DV format. Then the clip just drops onto the FCP timeline quite nicely. There’s no advantage in rendering to another format, since FCP would convert it to the DV codec anyway, to match its sequence settings. However, there aren’t any problems with your method, just an extra rendering step in FCP: that takes time, and there may be a bit of degradation. But really, it’s unnecessary.

If I may generalize, AE people usually render to an intermediate lossless codec if they don’t know where the render is ending up, or they don’t have the editor’s codec on hand, or if the piece may be ending up in multiple formats, multiple editors, etc.

Fields and codecs have nothing to do with each other. You can render with or without fields in any codec in AE … though for some codecs (like for the web), it would be pointless. So if the final output requires fields, render fields no matter what the codec is.

I hate fields. Gotta say it. Too much trouble. 🙂