scratch disk and HD confusion
 

It's a simple enough thing to do, I'm sure, but I just can't figure it out.

How do you get one HD to act as scratch disk (where all of the capturing material goes) instead of the other HD?
And isn't the second HD supposed to kick in and take on incoming video, etc, when the first HD is full? The second HD is recognized by the computer/OSX, it's even recognized as a scratch disk, and yet, this isn't happening...

I'm really wanting to put a very large project on just one HD.
There is a page or two in the FCE manual about this, but...I don't get it!!!

Thank you for help!

Shawn

For FCP 4 HD:
Select System Settings from the Final Cut HD menu
Click Scratch Disks tab
In the Video Capture Column, uncheck the current disk
In the list of disks, check Set for the new scratch disk
Uncheck the Limit Capture Now To box

If it supports think the rollover operation, I'd expect it to go down the list from top to bottom. To add the 2nd drive as the capture rollover:
Click Set for the next disk (labelled <None Set>
specify the 2nd disk
Click Video Capture

I took a class for Motion.
 

While the 3 day course was $1299, I took the first day's class for only $300.

All I can say is that you guys who can run Motion are in for some fun fun fun! However, it's a RAM hogger and really needs a powerful video card! Our instructor had 2 gigs of RAM on a dual 2gHz G5 and depending on the particles and behaviors used, it brought the system down to as low as 5 frames per second. I wasn't sure what type of video card he had but I doubt he had more than 126 megs of RAM. He may have had only 64.

The Mac I had was a dual 1.8 gHz with 1gig of ram and 64 megs of video ram. It certainly affected our lessons coz Motion would sometimes just shut down.

Overall, this is going to be an excellent graphics tool that will compliment FCP and Photoshop. It's rather easy to use, IMO. I'm glad I took the one day course.

Sorry for the brief message with the lack of info. I'm still new to Macs and I'm supposed to be working. =8^)


PS - expect a lot of really over the top cable ads by next spring! 8^D

lost fonts
 

Upgraded to 4.5
lost all my fonts in the generator.
what to do?

Would you mind posting a brief overview of what you can do with Motion?

Thanks.

Check out this excellent article -- it should be required reading before you do your first project.

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/ambitious_fcp_4_x.html

Luminance change from AEX to FCP
 

I've been having this problem with luminance changes occuring in Final Cut Pro 3 when I import After Effects files with alpha channels.

Basically, I'm editing a talking heads piece with animated name slates on the bottom of the screen. I create the animated name slates in After Effects 5.5 and export as an animation file with alpha.

I bring in this exported file into final cut pro and overlay it on top of the edited footage. I then render the seqence and play it back on the monitor (SONY PVM 14M2U). When I hit the portions of the sequence with the alpha channel after effects overlay, the screen gets lighter. When it ends, the screen gets darker. Why is this luminance shift occuring? It doesn't happen on my computer monitor? The only thing I can think of is that it has something to do with the YUV/RGB difference but do not know how to solve it. I'm aware that After Effects works in the 0-255 RGB color space and that YUV is 35-235 equivalent. How do you resolve the 2? I've had to resort to overlaying transparent alpha over everything to prevent the luminance shift. I know it's probably not a good thing, but, I figured consistency was better than having all these luminance jumps throughout.

The footage that I am overlaying was captured through the Cinewave 3 Card from a SONY DSR-20 deck off DV CAM tapes.

I'm still using Final Cut Pro 3 with a G4 Dual 1.25 with Cinewave 3 card.

Any help would be appreciated and I'm sure somebody in this forum knows what to do.

Thanks...

Worked Great! Thanks again Jeff, you came through again!

WOW!!
My eMac will not handle that. Its only got like 384 mb ram!!!!

Is this after effects on the Mac as well or is this footage coming
from a PC? Since there is a gamma difference between PC's and
Mac's.

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.

Post Production Monitors
 

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?

artifacts in Mini DV
 

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?

Can someone answer this Peak Express 3.3 for OS X question?
 

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.

erasing black bars on sides from my GL1
 

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?

Warning: Do Not Delete Old "edl" Files In Garage Band
 

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, for your professional needs.

Yes,
Thanks!
Micahel

911- Media 100 EDL Import Errors - Plz Help!
 

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...

Error Log
 

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.

Non-Working EDL List
 

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

Sample EDL File that Works
 

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

bypassing hardware check when installing FCP 4
 

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 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.

Need some help with some CGI possibly
 

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?