[Todd Reid]

drag your custom image to the layer in the timeline that says replace, it should do just that, replace.
Then go to the inspector and change attributes till your heart is content.

I suggest finding a few online tutorials. Motion is a great tool, but its hard if you don’t know the layout.
Once you get a few things learned, its a piece of cake to do some easy stuff.

I’m still learning, but I love what I’ve been able to do so far.
I’ve started with tutorials too, and I did a lot of hunting and pecking before it made sense.
Just wait until you learn about particles and behaviors.

[Todd Reid]

no.
You have to go through a conversion process in order to work on your projects in 5.1.

[Todd Reid]

Johnny-
I’d be interested to hear more about your striped set-up.
You say your getting good 10bit performance, is that over firewire800?
if you don’t want to do this is the post, email me toddreid@mac.com

[Todd Reid]

soundtrack WOULD be your best option, I’ve taken out TONS of AC noise.
But since you don’t have that, go to:
https://www.bias-inc.com/products/soundsoap/
and download the free trial of soundsoap.
I’ve never used it but I’ve heard good things.

[Todd Reid]

Shane-
What kind of results do you get from your G-Raid (8 bit)?
That sounds like it may be a viable solution for me.
I plan to buy a tower/AJA next year sometime, but I’m hoping I can have a more immediate solution that doesn’t require a huge investment.
(key word, hoping)
My clients are extremely happy with what I now provide, but I’m not anymore.

[Todd Reid]

What format are you exporting to?
if you select PNG during your export, it should maintain any transparencies.
A stop-over at photoshop would do the trick too.

[Todd Reid]

does your G5 have two firewire cards?
Not ports, but 2 separate cards (or buses).

Even though some folks have had no problems with external drives and firewire capture, it is recommended that you add an additional firewire bus to your machine. This may fix your dropped frame problem.

Also, confirm you are digitizing in a proper codec for your setup.
Many people experience dropped frames when trying to digitize even dvcpro50 over firewire (usually with drives equipped with firewire 400 only), but have no trouble with dv.

[Todd Reid]

then make it just big enough for its large point on the zoom.
The dpi is the main thing that will help with its blurriness.

[Todd Reid]

You said you used hi-res images.

That may be your problem. Take the photos into photoshop and make them more video friendly.
if they are a large image size, take it down to say 640×480 or at least under 1000 each way (depending on how big it is).
Also make sure your dpi is set to 72.
You probably have an image that is too good for video, so FCP compensates by blurring it out.
I know it sounds weird, but this has solved that exact problem for me many times.

[Todd Reid]

wikipedia says these movies were cut on FCP:

Cold Mountain
George Washington
Gunner Palace
Intolerable Cruelty
Napoleon Dynamite
Spellbound
Super-Size Me
Open Water
The Rules of Attraction
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
The Ladykillers
Corpse Bride
Jarhead
Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story
Little Manhattan

I’ve also heard that Scrubs was the first primetime show to be cut fully on FCP.