[Winston A. cely]

Great info! Thanks everyone. This has helped me make the right decision for my first personally owned edit suite!

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4.5 GB
Final Cut Studio (Not Universal, yet)

[Winston A. cely]

Thanks so much Bob! Being able to capture from SD sources such as BetaSP is very important, and cost is for sure an object, so it’s the Kona LHe for sure.

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4.5 GB
Final Cut Studio (Not Universal, yet)

[Winston A. cely]

What are the settings for you’re Motion files? Though it’s possible to, for example, have a Motion file that’s created with SD settings and bring it into a FCP project that’s setup as one of the numerous HD settings, but it’s not advisable. Make sure that whatever your Motion File settings are, match the sequence settings in FCP.

If you’re still having trouble, what’s the color of your background in Motion. Every now and then, the background will through me off what the actual lower third is going to look like. (Things will look more saturated or less transparent and then when in FCP they’re the opposite). Just to make sure, sometimes I’ll drop in a still frame of video from my FCP sequence in to my Motion file, just so I’m not surprised.

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4.5 GB
Final Cut Studio (Not Universal, yet)

[Winston A. cely]

Specialcase is on the money. Import the Motion files into your FCP timeline, that way if you need to tweak them, you don’t have to keep exporting out files.

BTW, if you have tons of Motion name keys or lower thirds, I highly recommend getting Digital Heaven’s AutoMotion. It’s one of the best tools I’ve used with Motion. We have to do name keys a lot and it’s cut down the time to make all those different lower thirds to a matter of minutes instead of hours or even days!

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4.5 GB
Final Cut Studio (Not Universal, yet)

[Winston A. cely]

We just had a big snafu with a client. Normally, we’ve never had any problems viewing the work we’ve done on DVD using LaCie’s Capty Fast Coder (hardware). It’s fast, and blows Compressor out of the water. However, a particular client was extremely dissatisfied with the quality when viewing on a computer (laptop). We had to end up going to a local company to actually use their $60k encoder to achieve what the client wanted. Now I viewed both DVD’s on TV’s and on desktops and laptops. On a TV, there was hardly any difference, except in the few dissolves we had you could tell the Capty was a little dirty. When viewed on a computer or laptop, the difference was tremendous. Though the overall image quality was comparable between the two, any text, blacks, or transitions were drastically different. I just wanted to make you aware that some clients may be dissatisfied with what might be the best an individual or small company can produce. Being a small company, we can’t afford to through $60k at something we don’t specialize in. Whatever you end up getting, I’d almost always lean towards getting hardware. B&H had some hardware encoder cards that are in the sub-$2k and might be worth checking out.

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4.5 GB
Final Cut Studio (Not Universal, yet)

[Winston A. cely]

I’ve got 2 20″ Cinema displays and an ATI Radeon X800 XT and I get the same thing. Annoying as hell, but I think the only way to get around it is to have a top of the line graphics card, and only use one display, and then it might fix it.

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4.5 GB
Final Cut Studio (Not Universal, yet)

[Winston A. cely]

I’d go back to the particles and maybe add the gravity simulation to it. Try this site out, as they’ve got great demos, and they often get me going in the right direction: https://www.motionsmarts.com/

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4.5 GB
Final Cut Studio (Not Universal, yet)

[Winston A. cely]

I don’t know of any that are made specifically for FCP, but if you can find an eBay’d FCP keyboard, you can pop the keys off and place them on the ergonomic one. I’ve done this when keyboards die, or moving from a wired to wireless board. Just make sure you either do it key by key, or take pictures of both so you don’t get the keys screwed up!

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4.5 GB
Final Cut Studio (Not Universal, yet)

[Winston A. cely]

[Peter Wiggins] “Now Apple just need to address slomos & media manager and I’d be happy”

Honestly! I’d love to be able to use Media Manager, but it’s a little too close to playing Russian Roulette. I’ve wound up like Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter one too many times!

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4.5 GB
Final Cut Studio (Not Universal, yet)

[Winston A. cely]

You didn’t get any warnings about hardware incompatibility when you were installing? I know Motion needs monster graphics cards to get going, and you mentioned having a first gen G5 quad…. I would think it’s card would be sufficient, but I’m not sure.

Is is possible for you to save all your project files to a disc or external hard drive, and chuck all your Studio Apps, and re-install them all from the ground up? I know it’s a pain, but many times, it’s worth it.

Is all your RAM Apple certified? I’ve heard that uncertified RAM can sometimes cause problems, but it seems to me that it would affect the rest of your system, not just 2 apps.

This might not be very helpful. Hopefully someone else will chime in with better tips. Good luck!!!

“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”

Machine Model: Power Mac G5
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 4.5 GB
Final Cut Studio (Not Universal, yet)