Hello Ted,
You might some good stuff at Digital Juice

Ted,

Intelligent Assistance offers a great tutorial/help tool for LiveType, and included with it are some nice templates for lower thirds.

I second Glenn's opinion. There is only so much you can do in post that will really help.



mg

Dang it, I'm still using FCP 3. That IA Tutorial sounds like the way to go, considering the cost of "store bought" lower thirds.
I see it has info about Calligraphy, but I wonder if it has enough for FCP3 to make it worth buying.

Vegas user looking at FCP
 

Just wanted to find out if anyone has some good ideas on Training . What book or DVD set would you recommend?

Thanks

Chris.

Which G5 for FCP?
 

Hi. I am getting ready to convince one of my workplaces to buy a G5. The workload will be light with little rendering so any of the three available models should do fine. However I wonder which of the three makes for the best investment in terms of money/performance ratio. Can anyone advise on this issue? Perhaps somebody here has benchmarked the three machines, i.e. rendered a complex FCP project on all three and compared the render times, or perhaps there is a benchmark site you can recommend. Any comments? Thank You.

Ted,

The IA tutorial I have is for LiveType. It really doesn't mention FCP much at all, and when it does, it seems to be universal stuff that you'd find in any version of FCP.

Basically, it gives you some nice templates to use IN LIVETYPE to export out as Quicktime movies. Then, you import those movies into the FCP timeline. It shows you how to alter the templates in a multitude of ways so that they take on a whole different look and style. And finally, it shows you how to make your own using graphics and existing objects and textures and animations in LiveType.

So really...FCP has nothing to do with it. It's all about LiveType...and it's well worth the money.

http://www.barefeats.com/fcp4.html
Barefeats has benchmarks. The best price/performance ones IMO are the dual processor G4s (1.25ghz and 1.42ghz) and the dual processor 1.8ghz G5.

You can buy a refurbished mac off places like smalldog.com, which is just as good as new (might even be better) but at a lower price.

Softness in Timeline, FCE, Help
 

I am in FCE. I open a clip in it the timeline. With the playhead stationary the iamge in the canvas window remains sharp, but when I go to play mode the clip in the canvas window seems to shift ever so slightly and go noticeably softer. As soon as I hit stop, the image sharpens again. Also when I scrub through the canvas (timeline image) the shaprness is not affected.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Grant

I don't know about FCE, but in FCP you can control the render quality for the canvas window. Try setting it higher if possible, although that might affect performance on your computer. But the important thing is how it looks on an NTSC monitor driven by firewire. The canvas window is only preview quality and shouldn't be used for critical judgements.

Thanks, Boyd.

Apple Motion
 

Where did this come from? I just went on to the Apple website and saw the big splash for this new motion graphics program. Looks pretty sweet!

Apple Motion

Another 256mb?
 

I'm running FCP4 on an emac 1ghz with 768mb of memory. Would another 256mb make much of a difference?

Also is there much difference between lets say kingston, edge or GVP besides the price?

Thanks, Chris

It was released last Sunday during a special Apple event at the Venetian resort in Las Vegas.

I was able to attend and saw the demo. Was amazing to see what it could do, in real time, with an HD video clip and a variety of effects piled on.

And FCP HD was equally impressive.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions.

FCP Free Online Tutorial- For Dummies?
 

Anyone know of a good intro to FCP 4 online? Even just some how-to articles or others would be helpful. I am very much a newbie and needing a good starting point... for free.

16:9 -> 4:3 in Media Cleaner 6
 

I've got a 16:9 movie file that I want to output for TV (4:3). I don't want to squish or crop the image, I just need to add the "black bars" on the top and bottom.

Is there a way to do this directly in Cleaner? I'd rather not go back and re-render my project and I can't find anything in the manual about it. It seems silly to me that it can't add a field of black to the "unused" part of the screen.


-j

I just ordered peachpit press's Apple Training manual for FCP4. I heard several positive things about it. I just recently made the switch from FCE.

For FCE I used the Visual Quickstart series. FCE didn't come with a printed manual, and I prefer having a book in my hand instead of having to switch back to Explorer or Safari. I also use their book on Adobe GoLive and found it easier than the manual that came with GoLive.

Go to the public library and take a look at what's available for FCP (be it 1, 2, 3, or 4). Even if the book is outdated, it should give you a feel for what each different series (Dummies, Visual Quickstart, etc.) is like before you buy something and discover you can't stand the way it's written.

Hope this helps.

Jeremiah

http://www.kenstone.net (go to the FCP section, the photography section probably isn't safe for work [EDIT: I can't believe I said that now everyone will be curious...])

http://www.digitalzoo.com.au/lunchtime/

Marking/subclipping while capturing
 

Anyone using FCP knnow how to mark clips or even sub-clip while capturing - like you can in AVID?

thanks
j

Good places to sell edit system?
 

I've been looking for places to sell my iMac (which I had been using to edit with b/f moving to a G5). I've already placed it for sale locally on various bulletin boards, as well as the DVinfo Classifieds- both which have not produced much yet.

Any suggestions on a buyer rich environment? I'm pretty burned out on eBay, fending off scams, etc...

Thanks for the help!

keyboards?
 

hello all,
i am new to FCP (recent PC switcher) and i was thinking that i would invest in an ezboard keyboard with the FCP shortcuts on the keys to speed up my learning curve and because i had wanted one for premiere when i was on a PC. then i came across a much more affordable solution here, http://www.itn.net/cgi/air?stamp=Z7s...r_ampm.1=12+am

^ it is just the keycaps that you can replace your original keys with. my question for you all is, if i have a keyboard from my PC that connects via USB, can i use this keyboard to put the caps on and hook it up to my powerbook?

thanks a lot

JR

You could try listing it in our Classifieds section. You could also try trading it in at PowerMax against a new purchase.

update to FCP HD (aka FCP 4.5). It has CinemaTools built in, so it can handle 24p editing, plus with the new release it has the ability to edit HD footage in real-time.

Cheers

Problems opening sequences
 

I am using FCP 4 on a G5. I have a project with 8 sequences. When I opened the project thismorning, FCP began to open everything normally so that all the tabs showed in the canvas. As it got to opening the last one, it shut down all the sequence tabs except for two. All the sequences show in the browser. When I double click on the sequences in the browser, again, FCP goes through the motions of opening them. You see the progress box ´preparing video for display´ on the screen and the sequence tab briefly appears in the canvas and on the time line. Then it literally jumps back into one of the tabs that was showing originally. I can´t open my sequences. Does anyone have any idea what might be happening?
Thanks,
Kirsten

Are you talking about doing an offline edit, or an online, full quality edit? The workflow is essentially the same, exept that you would have to conform your EDL later in an online suite. Many HD and indie film projects have offlined in FCP just using the DV codec, but then, what's the point in editing in NTSC or PAL from HD footage? it's like working on a 1/4 size proxy.

As far as Final Cut Pro HD's capabilities, what I saw at NAB was 720 24p footage from the Panasonic Varicam. I'm not sure that the CineAlta's 1080 24p would transfer directly. In fact, Apple was really hyping the relationship with Panasonic. I expect that the DVCProHD codec is the only one at this stage. You could always transfer the footage to DVCProHD, then work natively in FCPHD. You would then get the full advantage of being in the native codec, except you would have degraded the image quality by downsampling.

By the way, if you wanted to work in FCPHD, you need a dual 2Ghz G5 with very fast IDE drives, like maybe the new Firewire 800 drives. If you're going to offline at DV resolutions, a fast G4 is fine, with off the shelf FW 400 drives.

New G5, now what?
 

I gave up waiting for a speed bump that might never come and have a G5 DP sitting in a box in the editing suite.

So, now what? I've upgraded the RAM to 1 gig. I will get a second hard drive in the next week or two (either the Seagate 160 or the Maxtor 250). I already have a few externals for storage/backup and I'll be ugrading to FCP and DVDSP over the summer.

Any tips on setting up/getting the most out of the new computer? Gotchas to watch out for?

Thanks.

<<<-- Originally posted by Scott Anderson : Are you talking about doing an offline edit, or an online, full quality edit? The workflow is essentially the same, exept that you would have to conform your EDL later in an online suite. Many HD and indie film projects have offlined in FCP just using the DV codec, but then, what's the point in editing in NTSC or PAL from HD footage? it's like working on a 1/4 size proxy.

As far as Final Cut Pro HD's capabilities, what I saw at NAB was 720 24p footage from the Panasonic Varicam. I'm not sure that the CineAlta's 1080 24p would transfer directly. In fact, Apple was really hyping the relationship with Panasonic. I expect that the DVCProHD codec is the only one at this stage. You could always transfer the footage to DVCProHD, then work natively in FCPHD. You would then get the full advantage of being in the native codec, except you would have degraded the image quality by downsampling.

By the way, if you wanted to work in FCPHD, you need a dual 2Ghz G5 with very fast IDE drives, like maybe the new Firewire 800 drives. If you're going to offline at DV resolutions, a fast G4 is fine, with off the shelf FW 400 drives. -->>>

The idea would be to do an off-line edit of HD stuff and deal with it as if it was film. In fact because it would end up in film.

So my guess is a G4 would be enough. What interface do you use to copy from HD to the Mac? For film is usually the lab that makes the video transfer and provides a Beta or DV time-coded copy, which is later fed into the FCP. The lab can do that for sure, but maybe a transfer can be done on location and edit as the film is being shot in HD.

I didn't pay much attention at the time HD was released, as it looked as if it would become an unaffordable system for low budget projects, when apparently it did not. Or not quite so.

The Panasonic seems to provide a mid-term to "full HD" with 24p / 720p, the top being 24p / 1080p). Maybe I should look into released theatrical projects that were shot in 720p, if it's possible to find such info.



Carlos

Aspect problem
 

I'm really sorry to drag this out again but I've gone through the old threads and I still just don't understand and the tutorial that Jeff pointed to is gone.

When I play my DV footage directly from my camera on a TV, it appears at the proper 4:3 ratio.

When I import it into my computer and convert the RAW DV file (720 x 480) to an MPEG2, it plays at the proper 4:3 ratio in my MPEG player.

The problem is when I do my editing and render out a 720 x 480 file. When I convert that to an MPEG2 I get a distorted image as it vertically stretches to fill the 4:3 ratio.

My question: what am I doing wrong? Any help would be appreciated.


-j

What editor are you using? What -specific- settings are you applying for your export from that editor?

Those are great, thanks! Some I had already seen. Is there anything else out there? Thanks for your help...

FCP Lo-Res Rough Cut, Batch Capture Hi-Res
 

I wonder if anyone has experience with this and can lend advice. I would ideally like to log all my tapes and batch capture all the clips at a lower quality than full DV quality. Then I can assemble a rough cut with lower quality clips. Once the final version is created, I do a batch capture to re-capture all the clips I need for the project, re-render everything and I'm set. This allows me to save on hard drive space until the final version is complete.

Anyone done this? What recommendation do you have? What codecs should I use? Even a step by step process would be helpful to find out what other people are doing.

I have about 30 FCP Quick Tips up on my site

Cheers

Stephen Schleicher
www.mindspring.com/~schleicher

I gotta ask why just not get a big (external) harddisk. They are
very cheap and will save time with the recapture (and problems
that might arrise from it). I'm no Mac specialist, but I do believe
FCP supports the feature you want. I'll let someone more in the
know answer the specifics...

New version of Quicktime
 

There is a new version of Quicktime out (or coming out later today). The two additions I know about are the addition of a lossless audio encoder (all the quality in half the space) and improvements to AAC encoding.

Probably best not to be a guinea pig until word of compatability with video software gets out.

Yes, I know that FCP supports doing this. I'm just looking for tips that anyone has, or trouble they might have had doing it.

I do have a somewhat large external hard drive: 160GB. But I only use a PowerBook since I travel so much in Asia and I can't always take that disk with me. So, I'm usually relying on the 30GB left on my PowerBook.

Tom,
This is actually a very handy feature of FCP, called "Offline RT". Discussed recently. See this thread for more pointers to what's involved.

Carlos,

"but then, what's the point in editing in NTSC or PAL from HD footage? it's like working on a 1/4 size proxy."

In my opinion, there is only one reason you'd want to edit in full resolution HD: If you own a high def monitor and you watch your edits in HD realtime. Otherwise, you're looking at the same size clips anyway, might it be full 16:9 DV or Third HD on a cinema display.

After going back online, you can do color correction which doesn't require realtime playing.

mov file editing
 

i have a question about cutting quicktime mov. files together. maybe this question is answered in the previous treads, but i couldn't search it out.

i have got some footages from my friend in mov format and need to put it together. i was able to drag it directly into final cut pro but it needs to be rendered for playback. just a 50meg file takes forever to render.
i wonder is it rendering to change the format to AVI or ?? why is it take such a long time to render such a low resolution file?

If you just need to cut it and do straight edits this can be accomplished in Quicktime Pro alone.

Getting pixelated/choppy playback when recording
 

Hi All,

I'm trying to lay back some footage to miniDV using my camcorder. I know the camera is capable as I've recorded back to it using the G5 dual at school. I'm now at home with a G4 single processor. The footage is playing back in the system fine, but it comes thru the camera stuttering with pixels. Can I change any settings in my system to get rid of this problem? I'm working with FCP4.

Thanks,
Suz