[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Roberto,

I have to do this all the time when I edit stage shows. Obviously the way you should do it is with a clapboard.

The best way I have found to sync clips is to find either an audio ‘pop’ (sharp audio sound that I can hear) or some quick video movement that I can see (you’ll need to see or hear this on both clips). Then I will place a ‘marker’ on each clip where the action is. Then line up the markers. Sometimes it’s still off by a couple frames so you may still need to slide the clips forward or back a few frames. But it’s a lot easier than just searching for the sync without it.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Mike,

[mike albertini] “What’s the best way to reduce this file size while maintaining image quality?”
If you’re video clip is about 40+ minutes that exactly the size it should be, DV codec is about 13 gb per hour, so there is no way to reduce the file size beyond that.

[mike albertini] ”
Also, there is a loss of sharpness in the image, which I assume is normal as I’m downgrading from HD to SD, but is there any way of getting some of it back?”
That’s the trade off from HD to SD. Plus the DV codec is not a great codec for image quality. You can try using ProRes SD instead of DV.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Have you tried using .aiff files instead?
FCP doesn’t like .wav files.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

It sounds like After Effects is exporting out using the Animation codec?
You’ll need to check to make sure the codec that you are editing with is the same codec you render out of After Effects.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Adam,

The video looks good and clean.
Are you keying in realtime? Or is that video merged? If you’re keying realtime, that’s definitely going to require a lot of horsepower.

As for the rest, I can see why you have that many layers, I’m not a big fan of FCP titling, so I forget what a pain it can be.

Again, I’m not trying to sell you something, but if your work is doing a lot of graphics you should look into Boris. They probably have a free trail? You could collapse 6 graphics tracks into 1.

You ‘could’ do the same thing with Motion (but I bet it really bogs down your system) and create one project file that contained all of your graphic elements. Then it would just be one render for all the titling.

Until you can buy a faster system, you’ll continue to need to find way to be more efficient with your tracks.

FWIW

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Adam,

Sorry, you’re setup isn’t fast enough to run and the speed it would need for 10-12 tracks-not the iMac or the drives.
Even if a lot of those tracks are graphics, FCP needs a certain amount of bandwidth for each track, which you don’t have.

10-12 tracks for a car commercial? Seems a little heavy? Usually you are only using 2 tracks for moving video and 4-6 for graphics? 8 tracks tops. You have a lot of moving graphics? Usually, a car commercial will have the graphics ‘fly’ in then settle and not move. In the past I’ve broken up the same graphic into two pieces the ‘fly’ and the static-this way FCP won’t spend as much time processing the ‘non-flying’ part of your graphics. You’ll need make sure the graphics line up, but it can be a time saver.

You probably need to try to consolidate your tracks, if you can get it around 6-8, you probably will be OK.

Boris Grafitti and Red could help a lot because they only use one track, but within the program you can have unlimited amount of individual titles. This way you can have 2-4 tracks tops and still keep all of your title separate. Plus it’s a MUCH better titler.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Adam,

I think you know why you’re computer is crashing… you are WAY underpowered for what you’re trying to do. 20 video tracks? Even the best Firewire drives would only support between 8-10 tracks at once. (having OPTIMAL performance) Which you didn’t mention you were using, so I’m thinking you’re probably editing using the internal drives? If so, you’re creating a lot of problems and you can’t get the performance for a 20 track sequence. You’d need a MacPro and faster drives.

You’ll do better to render down some of your tracks. Export out ALL the video track you have ‘locked down’ and that should help. You can try nesting some parts of your sequence into another sequence, then render-you might get it to NOT crash, but I wouldn’t guarantee.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi James,

No, there isn’t any way to down-convert on the fly with the JVC. You’d need a AJA or Motu box to do that on the fly.

There are many different workflows for HD to SD and down converting. Throwing a HD clip into an SD sequence doesn’t really save you in processing speed. Actually, I believe, it might be harder on FCP to down-convert on the fly as you edit. If you really want to speed up the editing, you’d need to convert all the footage into SD-then edit.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Michael is absolutely correct. Storing any media on your locate drive will lead to many problems.
As to finding the ‘media’ from a clip, I will right click on the clip in the browser and choose ‘reveal in finder’.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Michael,

Funny story about that…but the Plug In was “Furnace” from The Foundry. It included a stabilizer and Kronos.-Time re-mapper. (just 2 plugins and cost more than $500!)

I haven’t used it for a while and wanted to reload it onto my system, only to find out that they don’t make it for AE any more. I’ve looked on the companies website, but I can’t see that they bundle the stabilizer for FCP or AE? They still have great plug-ins (top 1 or 2 bundle packs on the market in my opinion) and plenty of bundles, but very few with the Stabilizer? So I’m not sure I can recommend it if no one can get it for their system.

Todd at UCSB
Television Production