Originally posted by Richard DiBona : Would you mind posting a brief overview of what you can do with Motion?

Thanks.

You could animate layers of video or even 2D graphics.

Example at class :

We took a 2D design of a reel and placed it on the upper corner of the canvas. The canvas had an animated background of sun beams over a dark screen. On the lower third of the canvas, we created a film reel that had the title of a movie and its synopsis which we typed in.

Then we made the reel in the upper corner spin, we added some particles on the film reel to make it look reflective and made the film reel move from right to left.

That took no more than 10 minutes to do. Motion has a lot of self animated objects which you can alter in any way you want. It also has several dozens of templates like fire, water, light, clouds, ocean waves. It's truly amazing what you could do with Motion.

As I said, Motion will compliment FCP. Just remember though, technically, it will run on SOME G4 Powerbooks but it's truly built from the ground up for the higher end G5.

This happened on a dual 867MHz G4 with 1.5 GB DDR SDRAM.
I was using FCP HD.
Only other wildcard is the use of an external drive: LaCie 250GB FireWire 400/800.

Now I'm on a dual 1.8GHz G5 with 1.25 GB DDR SDRAM.
I'm switching over to WiebTech BayDocks (mirroring).

Thanks.

No, everything is on a Mac based system.

bump

There is a setting in FCP to use Super White (255). I'm not at a computer with FCP at the moment, but it should be in the Audio/Video Settings>Sequence presets>Video Processing. You should find some options on how to render white and what color space to work in.

Hi gang (figuretively speaking)

I am looking for an affordable monitor solution. Can I get away with just the 4 or 5 hundered buck monitors that B&H offers?

What type of work do you do?

I am digitizing from a MiniDV tape for the first time.
in to my dsr-45 componet video thru the kona SD into fcp 4.5
it looks terrible. artifacting and jumpy and every other thing you dont want.
what is up?

I do weddings and special occasion video mostly. At this time a post production monitor is what I need more.

Sorry, maybe I'm not clear on what you're trying to do. Why are you sending DV through component and then digitizing again with the kona? Why not just use firewire (i.Link) directly into the computer? This would transfer the data directly without any loss. It appears you are now performing digital>analog>digital conversion which one might expect to create problems. But I don't have either a DSR-45 or a Kona SD card, so maybe there's some reason for doing it your way?

I've got FCP HD on a Mac G5 with dual 2 gig processors. When I import things into Peak Express, I just get a massive peaked audio noise signal upon playback. I assuming I'm doing something wrong. How do I import .wav files, etc. and work with them. I assume Peak Express is Apple's answer to Sound Forge?

Thanks!

because its easier to put it in the deck that to crawl under the desk and find the firewire input.
plus, i've never done it that way before.does FCP have top be open to see it?

Connect your deck or camera via firewire to your Final Cut Pro system. You may have to go under one of the menus to set the configuration to use firewire instead of the Kona card, but the results will be worth it.

Digital is Digital is Digital you wont notice any loss from the original quality.

Cheers
Stephen Schleicher
www.mindspring.com/~schleicher
home of the Final Cut Pro Quick Tip series.

Thank you.

Here's my dilmma,
I shot a video on my canon GL1. Now, as many of you know, it puts these weird black bars on each side of the frame. Well, I shot the thing on a green screen and am pasting the cut out image on a new frame that is 16:9 format. The problem I'm having is that it still continues to put those stupid black bars on either side of the image. I've tried to garbage matte them out, but haven't had any luck. Any idea what I can do to get those damn things to go away?
-Kyle

HA!... never mind, I figured it out. This is gonna be cool!
-Kyle

Hi Michael,

you don't need to ChromaKey it. Just crop and/or resize the video you want to play on the video screen and then use distort in the Browser window in FCP to place the corners of this video onto the your movie "video screen"

does this make sense?

Just lost a week worth of vocals inside of Macintosh's Garage Band software program, and here's why . . .

So I record the vocals in song A, and then I save another copy as B. Eventually, I work on B so much that it's now better than the original A. So I decide to delete the song A. When I do, I find out that any of the vocals I recordeed in A that I also used for B are now erased.

That's like copying a paragraph out of a word document, pasting it into another document, revising the entire thing in the second document, and then losing your finished product because you deleted the first document that you no longer need.

I really hope someone at Mac gets fired over that line of programming some day. The stumbling blocks we deal with as film makers!!!!!!

Garage Band is a "free" application for many (most?) Mac users, as it comes bundled with the other iLife products. iMovie behaves in a similar fashion. These applications are not meant for professional use, but rather the home hobbyist. Consider Apple's professional program, Soundtrack (http://www.apple.com/soundtrack/), for your professional needs.

Yes,
Thanks!
Micahel

I'm in a really tight timeline so any help would be greatly appreciated, I can't move ahead until this is resolved! Just wondering if anyone out there has had any experience with this...

I created a timeline in Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 for a project I'm currently working on. The timeline is rough cut, and I'm having an editor friend of mine go through and put some finishing touches on it.

My friend is editing on a MAC using Media 100. As a test, I exported a finished timeline from another project as an EDL, and when he imports it, it works fine.

When he tries to import the timeline for my new project from an EDL that I exported in Premier, it comes back with errors. The error log shows, "Event 4: An error in clip timecode was found. (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)".

We compared the two EDL lists side by side, and they look virtually the same. The only noticable different was that the clip names in the file that doesn't work have underscores in them. We tried removing the underscore, same problem.

If anybody has any input or ideas or experience, it would be greatly appreciated. I'll post some sample clips below...

Here is a samble from the EDL Import Error Log:

Errors found importing file: me.edl
Event 4: An error in clip timecode was found. (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)
Event 8: An error in clip timecode was found. (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)
Event 10: An error in clip timecode was found. (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)
Event 13: An error in clip timecode was found. (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)
Event 15: An error in clip timecode was found. (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)
Event 16: An error in clip timecode was found. (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)
Event 19: An error in clip timecode was found. (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)
Event 24: An error in clip timecode was found. (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)
Event 25: An error in clip timecode was found. (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)

it carries on to Even 220.

Here is a copy of the non-working EDL List... It's trunkated to keep this thread smaller.

TITLE: EDL Export
FCM: DROP FRAME

001 UNKNOWN V C 01:00:03:09 01:00:05:12 00:00:00:00 00:00:02:03
* FROM CLIP NAME: middle earth.prtl
002 BL AA C 00:00:00:00 00:00:29:11 00:00:00:00 00:00:29:11
003 UNKNOWN V C 01:00:05:12 01:00:05:12 00:00:02:03 00:00:02:03
003 Untitled V D 225 00:16:30:06 00:16:38:28 00:00:02:03 00:00:10:24
* FROM CLIP NAME: middle earth.prtl
* TO CLIP NAME: HORS map reading 01.avi
* BLEND, DISSOLVE
004 Middle_E V C 00:00:54:21 00:00:56:19 00:00:10:24 00:00:12:23
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 04.avi
005 Middle_E V C 00:01:03:28 00:01:05:28 00:00:12:23 00:00:14:23
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 05.avi
006 Middle_E V C 00:02:59:21 00:03:02:00 00:00:14:23 00:00:17:00
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 12.avi
007 Middle_E V C 00:03:15:23 00:03:17:29 00:00:17:00 00:00:19:06
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 13.avi
008 Middle_E V C 00:08:18:08 00:08:19:07 00:00:19:06 00:00:20:06
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 63.avi
009 Middle_E V C 00:08:00:12 00:08:01:14 00:00:20:06 00:00:21:08
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 59.avi
010 Middle_E V C 00:06:51:01 00:06:52:03 00:00:21:08 00:00:22:11
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 48.avi
011 Middle_E V C 00:02:18:05 00:02:19:09 00:00:22:11 00:00:23:14
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 07 Beer Pano.avi
012 Middle_E V C 00:06:32:27 00:06:34:03 00:00:23:14 00:00:24:20
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 43.avi
013 Middle_E V C 00:06:25:28 00:06:27:00 00:00:24:20 00:00:25:23
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 42.avi
014 Middle_E V C 00:06:36:16 00:06:37:20 00:00:25:23 00:00:26:27
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 44.avi
015 Middle_E V C 00:03:24:21 00:03:25:29 00:00:26:27 00:00:28:06
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 14.avi
016 Middle_E V C 00:05:15:06 00:05:16:10 00:00:28:06 00:00:29:11
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 30.avi
017 Middle_E AA/V C 00:01:23:24 00:01:26:16 00:00:29:11 00:00:32:03
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 06.avi
018 Middle_E AA/V C 00:01:40:23 00:01:45:23 00:00:32:03 00:00:37:03
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 06.avi
019 Middle_E AA/V C 00:09:21:02 00:09:23:18 00:00:37:03 00:00:39:20
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 71.avi
020 Middle_E V C 00:09:29:29 00:09:32:12 00:00:39:20 00:00:42:03
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 72.avi
021 Middle_E AA C 00:09:29:29 00:09:33:17 00:00:39:20 00:00:43:08
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 72.avi
022 Middle_E V C 00:09:32:12 00:09:32:12 00:00:42:03 00:00:42:03
022 Middle-1 V D 035 00:03:45:21 00:03:54:02 00:00:42:03 00:00:50:13
* FROM CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 72.avi
* TO CLIP NAME: ME VI (40) 15 2.avi
* BLEND, DISSOLVE
023 Middle-1 AA C 00:03:46:26 00:03:54:19 00:00:43:08 00:00:51:00
* FROM CLIP NAME: ME VI (40) 15 2.avi
024 Middle-1 V C 00:03:54:02 00:03:54:02 00:00:50:13 00:00:50:13
024 Middle_E V D 035 00:10:52:28 00:11:10:04 00:00:50:13 00:01:07:20
* FROM CLIP NAME: ME VI (40) 15 2.avi
* TO CLIP NAME: Middle Earth Tape I (37) Clip 1 79 Driving Cows in Road.avi
* BLEND, DISSOLVE

Here's is a copy of the EDL file that works...

TITLE: Main Sequence
FCM: DROP FRAME

001 UNKNOWN V C 01:00:00:00 01:00:02:02 00:00:00:00 00:00:02:02
* FROM CLIP NAME: trail to trail.prtl
002 BL AA C 00:00:00:00 00:00:02:02 00:00:00:00 00:00:02:02
003 UNKNOWN V C 01:00:02:02 01:00:02:02 00:00:02:02 00:00:02:02
003 Untitled V D 104 00:28:29:14 00:28:36:01 00:00:02:02 00:00:08:19
* FROM CLIP NAME: trail to trail.prtl
* TO CLIP NAME: korkers puesto walking low angle.avi
* BLEND, DISSOLVE
004 Untitled AA C 00:28:29:14 00:28:36:01 00:00:02:02 00:00:08:19
* FROM CLIP NAME: korkers puesto walking low angle.avi
005 BL AA/V C 00:00:00:00 00:00:04:06 00:00:08:19 00:00:12:25
006 Untitled AA/V C 00:49:59:11 00:50:07:10 00:00:12:25 00:00:20:24
* FROM CLIP NAME: korkers middle earth walking skull.avi
007 BL V C 00:00:00:00 00:00:00:18 00:00:20:24 00:00:21:12
008 BL AA C 00:00:00:00 00:00:06:01 00:00:20:24 00:00:26:25
009 UNKNOWN V C 01:00:00:00 01:00:01:22 00:00:21:12 00:00:23:04
* FROM CLIP NAME: minute to minute.prtl
010 BL V C 00:00:00:00 00:00:02:05 00:00:23:04 00:00:25:09
011 UNKNOWN V C 01:00:03:14 01:00:05:00 00:00:25:09 00:00:26:25
* FROM CLIP NAME: step to step.prtl
012 UNKNOWN V C 01:00:05:00 01:00:05:00 00:00:26:25 00:00:26:25
012 Untitled V D 063 00:28:59:20 00:29:02:02 00:00:26:25 00:00:29:05
* FROM CLIP NAME: step to step.prtl
* TO CLIP NAME: korkers footprint shot puesto.avi
* BLEND, DISSOLVE
013 Untitled AA C 00:28:59:20 00:29:02:02 00:00:26:25 00:00:29:05
* FROM CLIP NAME: korkers footprint shot puesto.avi
014 Untitled AA/V C 00:09:52:19 00:10:00:15 00:00:29:05 00:00:37:01
* FROM CLIP NAME: magan nick falling korkers walking.avi
015 BL V C 00:00:00:00 00:00:04:16 00:00:37:01 00:00:41:17
016 Untitled V C 00:30:00:08 00:30:13:10 00:00:41:17 00:00:54:19
M2 Untitled -3000.0 00:30:00:08
* FROM CLIP NAME: timelapse arroyo.avi

anyone know how to do this? Keep's telling me that I don't have the right hardware, but I meet all the requirements. g4, 512mb ram firewire dvd drive agp card etc

I have no experience whatsoever with any of this, but reading the
error message it looks like the input and record sizes do not
match (sourceOut - sourceIn < recordOut - recordIn)

When I look at event 4 for example I see:

00:00:54:21 00:00:56:19 00:00:10:24 00:00:12:23

Now I assume this is: sourceIn, sourceOut, recordIn, recordOut
at 30 frames per second (doesn't matter really what you choose)

So source is: 00:00:56:19 - 00:00:54:21 = 00:00:01:28
record is: 00:00:12:23 - 00:00:10:24 = 00:00:01:29

See the difference? There is a 1 frame mismatch between the
two. Now how it got there I have no idea. But perhaps this will
get you a bit closer to what is going on.

Perhaps a program called EDLMax (http://www.edlmax.com/) can help you.

Calculations:

00:00:56:19 = 1699 frames
00:00:54:21 = 1641 frames
=========================
1699 - 1641 = 58 frames = 00:00:01:28

00:00:12:23 = 383 frames
00:00:10:24 = 324 frames
========================
383 - 324 = 59 frames = 00:00:01:29

Peak comes from Bias inc not Apple. Apple has a package called Logic. I use Peak DV and find it suitable for a number of things. They have decent tech support. Contact them at www.bias-inc.com.

I would like to know what programs I'd need if any to do what seems to be a very simple effect for a scene. I have FCP HD and I'm not sure that if that is all we'd need...or if we'd need motion.


What we are trying to do is this:

our subject walks through a room into the bathroom. As she passes through the room (wide angle) there is a transformation of the room right behind her. Almost like a rippling wave following her and as it moves it changes the room.

I hope I described that well enough for you to get an idea of what I'm talking about. Its one shot, and the effect will be done throughout the entire movie.

We are thinking of shooting the scene once with the regular room, then changing the room and shooting it again and then overlapping the footage and adding some sort of effect to it that makes that possible. is my thinking correct about that?


sorry if the post didn't make sense. I'm going back and forth here from work to this. But I read it over and it makes sense to me.


thanks for all the help guys.

Have you tried running fsck -f and repaired your permissions? that might help. What version of FCP & OS-10?

Thanks Rob, I'll try the EDL program and see what I can come up with, wonder why it's off by a frame?

I have QT 6.0.1 and now would like to purchase the Pro Key. However, I don't want to upgrade the current version of my QT Player because I don't want to mess up with iMovie (2.1.2), which i still use very often. I use my computer, almost exclusively, for video editing and so upgrades are not important to me. That said, will the current Pro Key offered by Apple work with the (relatively) outdated version of my QT?

Thank you.

its OSX 10.3 and FCP 4, tried that, still says i don't have the right hardware...

Call Apple support, something isn't right. It could be something with the ram. I know FCP does a ram check, but I thought that was only after the install. It would make sense to check ram prior to install as well. Do you have the Apple Ram Test CD? If so, run it over night if possible, but at the minimum for several hours and see if any errors are found.

I don't think the QT key will work with the older version. You should look into upgrading iMovie for greater compatibility with current offerings from Apple.

Jeff, thank you for replying.

I think I wasn't clear enough... QT Player 6.0.1 is the version that I have on my computer now. According to Apple's site it is recommended that one upgrade to the latest version of QT Player, which is 6.5, before purchasing the Pro Key. So, my question is this... If I don't upgrade, will the Pro Key currently offered by Apple work with my QT Player 6.0.1?

Can anyone help me? This is probably a simple matter, but I'm relatively new to FCP4 and never had this problem with v1.2. If there is a timecode break in my miniDV tape, I cannot seem to capture the footage after the break (when the timecode starts back at '0'). I've tried Batch capture and capture now, but nothing seems to work. I'm guessing this is a simple Preferences setting, or is there something I can do when I'm shooting to get rid of timecode breaks? Whenever I look at the footage and start again, even if I overlap with the previous footage, there's a break. Thanks so much for your help!

Have you tried changing the FCP setting of User Preferences -> General -> on timecode break? I don't understand why you get timecode breaks if you overlap with previous footage though. I suggest that you check the camera settings too.

Call apple for a definitive answer, but to my understanding the new QT key will not work with older versions.

Justin, this is entirely possible in FCP, but how good is it going to look? That depends on how careful you are at planning the shots, getting the shots, and how adept you are at using the tools. Well, and how complex the shot/effect is going to be. Does the effect follow hard on your characters butt or follow a couple steps behind? Is your camera moving or locked? What are you shooting on? What are you delivering on? I can imagine scenerios where this would work well in FCP, and others where it would require more fit-to-purpose compositing software.

Here is a crazy idea. Try shooting a practice reel of this and seeing what you can do! Take it to your local Final Cut Pro Users Group and ask for some advice. Post clips to your .Mac site and ask people to take a shot at it. Hire an a cinematographer that knows this kind of work, a director, an editor, someone, anyone, with some experience.

And make sure to post your work-in-progress asking for advice. Who knows, it might be easier than any would think with all the help available.

Thank you Jeff.

Hi Graeme,

A belated thank you for your reply.

I'm editing PAL 16:9 material on a mac in NTSC land. We are trying to determine what additional hardware we need to be self sufficient in post. Do we need a multisystem DVD recorder to output for both PAL and NTSC audiences? And what kind of PAL monitor is recommended?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as always.

I just finished a football highlight reel for my son's team and stumbled upon something strange to me. I edit in FCE and generally use "color corrector" and "desaturate" filters to improve the look a bit (but I'm no expert). In FCE, there is no gamma adjustment within the color corrrector, just the ability to adjust highs, mids, lows and white balance.

Since I know very little about gamma, other than understanding that it can be tweaked to make video look more like film, I thought I would apply a "gamma correction" filter to a clip set at 25% speed. This gamma filter in FCE only has a slider that can be adjusted from the the default of 1.00 to say .50 which makes it brighter, or 1.25 which makes it darker.

Funny thing is, when I set it at 1.25 and rendered the clip, the slo-mo suddenly looked much smoother (and a bit darker). The difference was more than subtle, and I wish I had tried this before burning 15 copies of my DVD!

Can anyone explain what is going on? Note that I didn't do any sort of de-interlace on the footage.

Here's one solution which allows you to hide a dead pixel in footage using the "DH_Reincarnation" Plug-In for Final Cut Pro. Allows you to hide two (2) dead pixels at a time.
http://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/finalcutplugins_flash.htm
Plug-in cost: $10
(There's also a nice video tutorial demo of the plug-in on the Digital Heaven website)

Spread the word to anyone you know who needs a bit of dead pixel relief!

Lots of other highly useful and affordable plug-ins from Digital Heaven, including the "DH_Dropout" plug-in, which allows you to repair dropouts in footage much easier and better than before.

- don

Hi all

I know this issue has been discussed to death here but I've created a DVD using FCP and I'm using 16:9. It looks ok in final cut but I export the video to dvdsp3 using compressor as an mpeg2 120min two pass template.

When I view the mpeg file it appears stretched, to be expected I think. However, when i import into dvdsp3 it still appears squished even though I have selected 16:9 as the project format. I'm not sure, the options are 4:3 letterboxed or 4:3 pan and scan or both???? Which one should I select???

When i play the created dvd in my standard phillips Q40 dvd player it doesn't letterbox. I am forced to select widescreen on the tv to view it properly. Even when i tell the dvd player my tv is 4:3 the output is the same, no letterbox.

Have i missed something??? I'm worried that the fact that it appears as 4:3 (squished) in dvdsp3 is the problem?

Can anybody shed soem light on this? I know it's been talked about before but I'm obviously missing something I guess?

Thanks
Donie

<<<-- Originally posted by Duane Martin : Justin, this is entirely possible in FCP, but how good is it going to look? That depends on how careful you are at planning the shots, getting the shots, and how adept you are at using the tools. Well, and how complex the shot/effect is going to be. Does the effect follow hard on your characters butt or follow a couple steps behind? Is your camera moving or locked? What are you shooting on? What are you delivering on? I can imagine scenerios where this would work well in FCP, and others where it would require more fit-to-purpose compositing software.

Here is a crazy idea. Try shooting a practice reel of this and seeing what you can do! Take it to your local Final Cut Pro Users Group and ask for some advice. Post clips to your .Mac site and ask people to take a shot at it. Hire an a cinematographer that knows this kind of work, a director, an editor, someone, anyone, with some experience.

And make sure to post your work-in-progress asking for advice. Who knows, it might be easier than any would think with all the help available. -->>>

thank you I will take that into consideration. Much thanks

I have shot a feature on a SONY TVR 900 in the standard mode, looks great, but I heard that a more film- like motion can be had by rendering with programs such as Magic Bullet. Has any body tried this program or do you have any advice about making DV look more film like. THANKS-Robert

Magic Bullet for Editors, for FCP does not do the 24p part of film look. Check out my Film Effects at www.nattress.com for a true 24p effect, and faster rendering than Magic Bullet. You could also use DV Film Maker which does a 24p effect. I'd adivse to download the demos of all, and email the authors with your questions and see what their tech support is like. Check out the quality of the 24p effect too.

Graeme

Hi all

Does anybody know what the implications of turning on the macrovision bit for dvd's you burn yourself. DVDSP3 warns of patent or whatever on macrovision but the checkbox is allowed to switch. I've looked on the macrovision site but it gives very little away and I cannot get a return call from their sales guy in the uk (I've tried him 4 or 5 times today but all i get is voice mail).


Do I need to pay royalties to them to switch on this feature? Does it work for DVD-R burned in a powerbook?

I'd appreciate some info...
thanks
Donie

Not an expert but maybe blue screen the peron walking in the same area with a screen behind her so that your camera angles are correct. Maybe there are better ways, I don't know.

Then shoot the before for the before, change the layout (whatever) and shoot again. If you don't move the camera it should be ok as regards position.

Tehn show the before room with transition to the after shot . I'm sure you can find a tranisition that follows the person who is moving in the shot.

Then add the person you shot earlier on the blue screen with the background removed.

Should be easy (sortof) but I havn't done anything like that before so I don't know the pitfalls....

Donie