thanks jeff for the help and the links! its greatly appreciated!
matt

OK, this brings up a somewhat similar issue. When I first installed FCP3 I was able to apply dissolves, etc. in "real time" mode, which is the main reason I spent the money on the upgrade from FCP2. Now, however, I get the red bar on the timeline when I apply any effect (it used to be green, indicating real-time, no rendering preview), and have to render before I can see the results. What happened here?

Mike,
This has actually happened to me, too, on my G4-1GHz dp desktop. Quite a while ago, in fact. It's not been annoying enough for me to research deeply since I use few effects that would ever render RT anyway. But it is a puzzle. I'll dig further and let's see what we can come up with.

Also, I've a new PowerBook 1G on its way so I'll be keen on paying attention to how FCP installs there with regard to RT effects.

The most common cause and the easiest to remedy is capture settings and time line settings not matching. The audio should be 48kHz if your using Canon and make sure NTSC DV is used for video. The other cures are not pleasant.

Jeff

<<But for any movement or other effects AE is the way to go. It just does a much nicer, smoother job.>>

Ken, I've never seen AE operate first hand...is it possible (and fairly simple) to animate title text to do things like fade in and fade out PLUS fade in and out of focus PLUS ripple/wave like smoke...in other words, to get a "ghostly" text appearance? Or is that something that will require additional software and/or plug-ins?

John,
Yes, you can accomplish all of that with the standard suite of plug-ins and filters in AE. (I used the ripple effect recently to create the illusion of text under water; it worked extremely well.) If you're interested in taking it for a spin, I think Adobe offers a free trial download of the standard edition of AE.

In all fairness, FCP is no lightweight when it comes to compositing and effects. It's free Boris Graffitti-like filters rival and/or surpass AE's standard package in terms of text processing. But AE is still the king of the hill for special effects.

Jeff,

Just finished loading it. Holy cow this thing is fast. I can live without the features of Explorer. Thanks for mentioning this nifty app.

QUESTION: How do you load the nitro boster pack? I am not a Mac person, so these things are all very new to me.

Jeff,

I figured it out! One other question, do I have to run the script each time I start my Mac?

The script stays loaded until you change a preference. If the preference file is rewritten you need to run the script again. If there are others who have not figured out Terminal use this http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17113 This may actually be a permanent patch for Chimera. I haven't checked into that yet.

Jeff

Jeff,
Yep, using DV NTSC 48KHz and DV NTSC 48KHz Superwhite (the other choices wouldn't even seem like they'd work--like PAL or RT Offline, which I haven't tried).

Ken,
do you mean that you don't use many effects--or the ones you use are so high-end or unusual that they have to be rendered?

The other common error is not turning off view external video. It's under Audio/video settings>external>none. If that doesn't turn on RT effects then you need to reinstall FCP.

Jeff

Well, probably like most others, the cross-dissolve is my staple effect. But I don't use the standard "real-time" cross-dissolve transition, favoring a 3rd party version that has a less linear curve. So, right off the bat, there goes one "real-time" opportunity. The standard fade-in/fade-out is my other staple. But beyond those I do not use many other video effects beyond occasional color correction.

Yep Jeff, got the External Video-none thing covered---looks like it's re-install time...Yukk!

OK Ken, I guess like everybody else I use the dissolve the most, but I use the standard native one in FCP. So now I understand why you don't use it if the aftermarket version is more custom...it used to be nice having the instant feedback of RT on the dissolves, though.

I don't know if I ever was able to get RT rendering of the color correction. I'd use that tool all the time if it did that, I love the results but hate the wait.

Here is the permanent patch plus adds features to Chimera. http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17113

Jeff

hello can anybody help me with converting a real stream i have downloaded, spaceshuttle launch, to quicktime so i can inport it into fcp?
FCP on it self does not recognize real (from realplayer) i tried it a bit with cleaner but it gave me a error on trying to convert...
thanks,

If you can convert it to an AVI, then you can convert it QT. Two-step process, and likely to generate noise at each transcoding.

Real is a proprietary format and they license very few third party plug-ins. To my knowledge only the newly released Cleaner 6 http://www.discreet.com/index-nf.html can work with Real format media. You might want to look around Real's web site in the producers area to see if they offer any plug-ins etc.

Jeff

Problem solved ?!?

I think that I've solved my problem. I tried burning on a Maxell disc and the results are fine.

Very strange . . . I had burned in the past on the Apple branded discs without any problems but since upgrading to Jaguar and performing the firmware upgrade the Apple branded discs that I burned could not play back properly in my set-top DVD player.

The Maxell disc worked, so I'll stick with those for a while. I haven't thrown out the bad discs yet...I'm going to try them elsewhere to see if they play back ok. So, maybe I'll still be able to salvage them.

For those considering purchasing the new PowerBook here are some notes from my first few days with this beast. Note that my "comparison" is with my previous PowerBook G4-500, so diffrences from later models might not apply.

Cosmetic appearance: Identical. The case size and finish are identical to earlier models. During the past 1.5 years since the TiBooks were introduced there have been various reports of paint degradation problems. I never experienced such problems with my G4-500. But, at least to my eye, the paint appears to be identical to predecessors. The only real cosmetic difference is the typeface used for "PwerBook G4" under the screen.

Ports: Also identical to the G4-500. 2 USB, 1 Firewire, 1 SVGA, 1 audio-in, 1 ADC, 1 RJ45 (network) and 1 RJ11 (modem).

Airport (802.11b): Now included with and installed in this model. Halleluja. The signal range seems to be at least as wide, and perhaps a bit wider, than the G4-500.

Screen: Same size but a bit brighter and higher resolution than my G4-500. It's now absolutely perfect for video editing and for AfterEffects work.

Keyboard and Trackpad: Same (good) feeling as G4-500.

CD-RW/DVD-R Drive: This model now comes with a special model of Apple's "SuperDrive" which is identified by the system profiler as a "DVD-R UJ-815" made by Matshita. Integrating a CD/DVD burner into such a thin chassis was a real work of product engineering! The slot feed mechanism of this drive also feels a bit more reliable than that of my G4-500's CD/DVD drive. The new drive (really) grabs a disc after it's been 2/3rds inserted into the slot. The old drive's rollers pulled a disc, with some push-help, after perhaps a 1/3 insertion.

Hard Disk: This model ships with a 60Gb system disk. Although its rotational speed is only 4200rpm it's a dense 2-platter (I believe) drive and its read/write performance feels more akin to that of a 5400rpm drive. I had absolutely no trouble capturing DV clips to it (which I only did for test purposes). It has a very snappy feel.

Heat: Heat management was a problem with my G4-500 PB. The bottom plate could become hot enough to produce a mild burn on bare skin. Remarkably this 1GHz PB barely seems to get warm! The warmest spot I've detected is on the bottom where the hard drive is mounted. Clearly Apple has done some serious reengineering of their heat management system. I have noticed that the system's fan seems to stay on more often than off. But it's been very quiet. (I've read that it's actually a 2-stage or dual fan that can kick into overdrive if needed.)

Power and Battery: Unlike my PB G4-500, this unit ships with a very tiny, light DC power adapter/battery charger, the "block" of which can either be plugged directly into a wall outlet or connected to a special extension cable (included) when extra length is needed. The computer-end plug features a cool led which shows the battery's charge status. Battery life seems pretty good. I've managed to get 3.5 hrs from a charge without taking any heroic energy-saving measures.

General Performance: Excellent. Photoshop, Final Cut Pro 3 and AfterEffects 5.5 really do very, very well on this platform.

If you're considering asking Santa for one of these honeys but have additional questions I'll be glad to answer whatever I can.

Ken,
I was all set to get a new Powerbook, and thena I started reading threads on the Apple web site about lines in the LCD monitors. Do you know anything about that? Is it a widespread problem? The threads wee pretty long, so I can't tell how widespread the problem is, or if it's all the same problem. Getting the POwerbook will really stretch the finances, so before I take the leap I want to make sure that I'm not going to regret my purchase.
Thanks for any help you can offer.

Hi Jeff,
The posts I've seen over there seem to be mainly concerning the older 667MHz and 800MHz model TiBooks. The new 1GHz model features a new graphics processor so this may have resolved the problem. All I can say that I've never seen such a problem with either my 500MHz TiBook, which I used for over a year, or my 1GHz, which I've now used for a total of approximately 18 hrs..

It's great that Apple provides those support discussion groups. But spend enough time over there and you're bound to find something that will scare the hell out of you, although this certain appears to be a common problem. This type of thing also happened with some moderate frequency to IBM ThinkPads in my former office. We'd have the LCD panels replaced and they'd be fine. To some degree I believe it's caused by the normal wear and tear that a notebook undergoes if it's used for travel heavily. The matrix connections at the ever-shrinking edges of these screens carry millivolt charges and are nearly microscopic. If one shorts-out you lose a line of the matrix, producing a dark line on the screen. It's amazing to me that these things work at all.

Thanks, Ken. I think you've encouraged me to go ahead and take a chance. Having the ability to take it back and forth between shcool and home is something I really want. And really, I wonder sometimes how any of these fantastic electronis work!

Good to read a report from a video guy. Sounds really sweet.

I ordered one on Saturday and am waiting for this baby to ship. I've been following others talk about the new TiBooks online and it seems like Apple is selling truck loads of them.

Can you try one thing for me please? If you have Toast can you see if says the burner supports buffer under run protection, i.e. burn proof. (I think Toast reports this if detected)

Since DVD burning is 1x, which means a full disk would take about 50mins to write, it would be cool to be able to do other things safe in the knowledge you won't be getting any coasters.

Do you use iDVD or DVD Studio Pro?

I created a matte in photshop (white text on black) and can't get it to work.
I saved it as a pict, imported it, placed it on layer 3 above what I want as background and forground, switched "composite mode" to travel matte-alpha, and got nothing.

I tried my matte on different layers, and tried some of the matte effects in FCP, still nothing. I also went through all the "composite modes".

I've had this answered before, but couldn't find the post.

any help would be great.

I'm running FCP 1.2.5

thanks

Kev

Kev,

There are ways, I'm sure to get pict or jpeg or whatever to work in FCP...but I'll just tell you how I always do it...that I know works.

Make your image in Photoshop, putting the text and various elements on different layers. Make your background black or white, whichever contrasts best. Save it as a Photoshop document (.psd).

Import that into your project in FCP and place it on the timeline. Double click on it so that it appears in the "viewer." Go to "Effects>Video Filters>Key>Color Key" and select it. Then, go to the "viewer" and select "filters." Click the color square in the "color" section and select whichever layer you want to be transparent. Play with the other settings to get the look you want.

If you want this to be superimposed over other footage, just put it on V2.

Hope this helps.

I am about to upgrade my Mac hardware and software. I want to use FCP and DVD Studio Pro to do basic video editing (no fancy compositing or complex transitions) and author straighforward DVD titles.

My question is a hardware one. What will be the major differences between running this software on a G4 Powerbook (1 GHz @ 133MHz bus) and on a Power Mac G4 (Dual 1 GHz @ 167 MHz)?

I will be using some basic titles, transitions, and filters (color correction) in FCP and burning some 60 min. projects to DVD.

Thank you for your input.

Originally posted by Dick Walton: ....My question is a hardware one. What will be the major differences between running this software on a G4 Powerbook (1 GHz @ 133MHz bus) and on a Power Mac G4 (Dual 1 GHz @ 167 MHz)?

Hi Dick,
Answer: none appreciable. I have the same desktop as well as the 1GHz TiBook. I've not used DVD-SP on the TiBook for a full project yet but functionally there's no difference. You will probably see the TiBook a bit slower during multiplexing (to be expected) but otherwise you'll do just fine.

FWIW, if you're not doing anything fancy with your DVD authoring you might as well stick with iDVD. It's more fun and easier to get a final product.

Simon,
Indeed, Toast reports that the TiBook's DVD-R does support buffer underrun prevention.

I use both iDVD and DVD Studio Pro, the former more frequently than the latter.

Thanks, but that's not what I'm trying to do.

I want to use the black background of the pict as video layer 1. and use the white text as moving video also. The text part of the pict is a window cut out of the layer 1 image to reveal other video.

Thanks anyway though.

Kev

<<<-- Originally posted by Ken Tanaka :
FWIW, if you're not doing anything fancy with your DVD authoring you might as well stick with iDVD. It's more fun and easier to get a final product. -->>>

I agree with Mr. Tanaka. iDVD is great to work with and will handle most projects. DVD Studio Pro is a very expensive application and the users manual is not all that friendly. Unless you have a specific need for DVD Studio Pro, you should really give consideration to iDVD.

I spoke with a very pleasant product specialist on the Apple Support line and explained my latest finding with the Maxell branded discs.

He said that the Apple five packs are 4x discs, although their speed is not really labeled anywhere. The Maxell discs that I used were 2x discs.

So, the guy at Apple and I came to the conclusion that my home DVD player doesn't work very well with the 4x discs. It plays back the 2x just fine.

So, I'll stick with 2x discs for now. I'm happy to know what the problem was. Now I can get back to having fun with the computer and not worrying about troubleshooting this problem.

The real difference can be summed up by expandability vs. portability. If you really need your editing/post production gear to be portable, go with the TiBook. If the portability is really a luxury and your work (productivity) would benefit by the dual processors and availability of more drives, dual monitors, better audio etc. go G4 dual.

Jeff

I think I understand what your after, but rather than keep guessing, go here http://www.lafcpug.org/tutorials.html and find the tutorials that best fit your needs. You may need to prepare the matte in Photoshop differently or read the composite tutorial.

Jeff

John Locke recently pointed me to a set of filters for Final Cut Pro called Joe's Filters. This is a very handy and economical set of filters that's worth a look for any FCP user. The filters have just been updated to version 3.5. For more information see their site at: http://www.joesfilters.com/

Thanks for the heads up, Ken. I'll be ready to upgrade once I get the e-mail announcement.

Let me see if I understand what you want to do.

you want a black background with white text on top of it, then you want some video to be inside the text but keep the background black?

if that's the case then make your title in photoshop but have white text over a transparent background. always make titles with a transparent background in Photoshop otherwise the black or white background will cover the video on the layer below it in FCP. the text shouldn't be over a black background in photoshop, when you import the transparent layer into FCP, it will make the background black for you if it's on V1

put a video on V2 and select it and go into the Modify from the top of the menus, down into Composite Mode and select Travel Matte-Luma. that will put your video from V2 into your text on V1 but still keep the back ground black.

this will give an effect like the opening titles of the show Spin City,with Michael J. Fox, is that the type of effect you are looking for?
I hope this helps.

Dick,
One last tip. If you really want to use DVD Studio Pro just for the heck of it, do yourself a favor and try to attend one of the free seminars Apple holds around the country or, failing that, a fee-based orientation. DVD-SP is actually straight-forward...once you get the hang of the DVD authoring processes and workflow. iDVD shields you from most of the intricacies of the authoring process by "canning" elements such as menus and by eliminating access to features such as multiple audio tracks and subtitling. Spending a half day at an Apple DVD-SP seminar cleared an otherwise impenetrable fog for me.

http://www.seminars.apple.com/

ken thanks for the link . these look interesting. does the de-interlace and field blender really work better than the FCP de-interlace blend method?

To my eyes it does a better job than FCP's standard deinterlacer. Unlike a few other commercial plug-ins / add-ons with bloated prices (ex: $600 Boris Graffiti titler; not much profit there, eh?) the set is really worth the very modest price. This is just a guy who loves FXScript and takes pride in what he's doing.

Excellent, thanks Ken.

Now I've never used a burner which supported buffer under-run protection so is it as useful as I hope, or are there any problems associated with it?

The reason I asked about iDVD and DVD Studio Pro is that from what I've seen iDVD seems quite capable of producing professional looking DVDs, within of course it's feature set. DVD Studio Pro on the other hand is probably over kill for my needs, whilst iDVD seems to allow a fair amount of customisation. I'm just comparing these two DVD apps to iMovie and FCP. As a FCP user I recently thought I'd try out iMovie for a very simple editing job. After about half an hour I gave up and went back to FCP. I actually found iMovie too simple to get my head round to do this simple job.

So in other words is iDVD simple enough yet with enough options/customisation to allow one to produce a DVD for a client whose needs, whilst straightforward, demand a professional looking DVDs?

Also another question to tide me over until my TiBook arrives.
Later on I'm probably going to purchase an external FireWire drive, probably one of the new Lacie d2 drives. Since the TiBook only has one FW port I would have to daisy chain my XL1 to the FW drive to capture, since the XL1 doesn't have a pass-through FW port. Does this work OK?

Simon,
Spending a couple of days with iDVD will, I believe, answer all of your questions. It's a very neat authoring app with plenty of headroom for customization. DVD-SP is a very full-bodied app that exposes all of the possibilities, and precipitant complexity, of the dvd authoring environment. It's also alot of fun to use, but in a different way.

Re: Firewire, that will be no problem. Just be sure to get a drive that has 2 6-pin ports. You'll also need a 6-pin to 4-pin Firewire cable to connect your camera to the drive.

Have fun with your new G4!

When I try export files to "movie" in Premiere 5.1, I get files that don't seem to be as high quality as the ones I originally made in Photoshop.

What is the best compressor to use when I export movies? There are two different areas to choose from, one is like "Quicktime" etc. and the other is compression utilities such as Sorenson, animation, none etc.

Really confused in regards to obtaining a clean, clear movie, that looks like original photoshop files. Also regular camcorder movies as well.

Thanks for any help!

Bill

What settings are you using and what format are your projects going to? Do you do work for web, streaming, or broadcast? What format do you go to DV, VHS, DVD? Until I understand what you want it will be difficult to advise you.

Jeff

To:Jeff

The main thing, is that I am trying to get the very best movie quality. So I would like it to be as high quality as possible. That would mean for CD or DVD. Later I would like put my movies on the web. But for now I am trying to get the highest quality possible.

I do most of my work in Final Cut Pro and haven't used Premiere much in 6 or 7 years. When you go through the export settings you'll see the options for DV. If your work is going to mini DV tape that is the format to choose. Likewise DVD requires MPEG 2 and video CD is an option for output in newer versions of Premiere. I would suggust upgrading to 6.5 for the latest options.

Video can be a lower resolution than your original photoshop files. Be sure to use a TV or production monitor to view your movie. It will provide a more accurate view than your computer monitor.

Hopefully some Premiere users will chime in here, but if not Adobe offers good support on their site

Jeff

To: Jeff


Thanks for the tips! I think I am starting to realize that nomatter what I export, it is not going to be as good as the orginal files. I guess I just have to make sure that I make the highest quality files that I can. I know I've heard good things in regards to mpeg 2 and have worked with it a little bit.
Good point about the adobe forum.

Bill

Hello Bill,
I've just a thought or two to add to Jeff's remarks.

When using static graphics from PhotoShop it's important to be cognizant of the size and aspect ratio of your target format. For NTSC DV that will be 720x480 pixels. If you import graphics of different sizes and/or proportions into your editor (ie Premiere) and then try to fit them into a video frame the results will often be disappointing. Editors simply do not do as good of a job of rescaling bitmapped graphics as products like PhotoShop.

Also note that video uses non-square pixels, versus graphics programs that use square pixels. That is, in order to produce an image with, say, a 4:3 aspect ratio your editor will ultimately have to stretch the pixels of your graphics. So graphics with text or lines can often look a bit raggedy after an import. If you are using NTSC 4:3 video the video frame is 720x480. But to most accurately accommodate that frame's aspect ratio with PhotoShop you need to work in a 720x534 frame. (For an NTSC 16:9 frame you need to work in a 960x540 PhotoShop canvas.)

One last point. It's generally best to flatten your PhotoShop graphics' layers -before- importing them into your editor, even though your editor can probably flatten the layers automatically.

Hope this is helpful.

Here's some tutorials http://www.lafcpug.org/basic_ps.html on Photoshop for FCP. Don't worry, it works in Premiere, but the screen shots will be different.

Jeff

Ken,

Thanks. Of course questions that will only be answered once I get my hands on the HW/SW, but I'm sure you know what it's like. Waiting for "stuff" to turn up.

It's quite an order I placed. Not only will this be my first laptop, I've been using towers for years, but also arriving with my PowerBook will be my first digital stills camera. I've been putting off buying one for quite a while but Apple UK had a couple of specials so I went for the cheaper of the two. Also went for the mobility pack. All in all Apple made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

Problem I know have is that I find myself spending ages online looking at all the gear you can get for laptops. More cases, coolpads, and that's even before I get onto wireless networking. Not that I really need this, but the option does exist.