Preparing shots to be sent to VFX House at DVinfo.net

Jase Tanner · August 24th, 2008, 10:49 AM

The VFX people have asked for 16 bit tiffs. What's the best way to do this? I'm using FCP 5.1.4 Going into sequence settings allows you to convert to a tiff but no bit number is specified. I'm guessing its not 16 bit and searching through FCP Help gave me no answers. The original material was shot on DVCam. Is it possible to do this in FCP or do I need another program?

Thanks

William Hohauser · August 24th, 2008, 08:48 PM

Make one tiff and bring it into Photoshop or Preview. There you'll be able to see the bit settings. It should be 16 bit already. I did this for a project a few years ago and had no problem.

Jase Tanner · August 24th, 2008, 11:34 PM

William

I made one into a tiff by changing sequence settings. The only way I could think to bring it into either preview or photoshop was via command I and then changing what program would open the file. Neither would open it. The get info window showed it was a tiff but not how many bits.

Am I doing something wrong?

William Hohauser · August 25th, 2008, 10:07 AM

Open the TIFF from within the program, Photoshop or Preview.

In Preview go under "tools" and open the Inspector (cmd-I). There you can check out the bit depth by hitting the exclamation (!) tab. Now I just checked a TIFF from FCP and it was 8 bit so you will have to use a batch conversion program like Adobe Bridge to convert all the TIFFs to 16 bit if the place you are sending to can't handle 8 bit. This probably what I did. Actually most standard video is 8bit with higher end video being 10bit. 16bit is generally a graphic or photographic format although I guess really high end film production can be 16 bit or even 32. I never venture there so someone else will have to fill in.

August 24th, 2008, 10:49 AM	#1
Jase Tanner Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 346	Preparing shots to be sent to VFX House The VFX people have asked for 16 bit tiffs. What's the best way to do this? I'm using FCP 5.1.4 Going into sequence settings allows you to convert to a tiff but no bit number is specified. I'm guessing its not 16 bit and searching through FCP Help gave me no answers. The original material was shot on DVCam. Is it possible to do this in FCP or do I need another program? Thanks

August 24th, 2008, 08:48 PM	#2
William Hohauser Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York City Posts: 2,650	Make one tiff and bring it into Photoshop or Preview. There you'll be able to see the bit settings. It should be 16 bit already. I did this for a project a few years ago and had no problem. __________________ William Hohauser - New York City Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation

August 25th, 2008, 10:07 AM	#4
William Hohauser Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York City Posts: 2,650	Open the TIFF from within the program, Photoshop or Preview. In Preview go under "tools" and open the Inspector (cmd-I). There you can check out the bit depth by hitting the exclamation (!) tab. Now I just checked a TIFF from FCP and it was 8 bit so you will have to use a batch conversion program like Adobe Bridge to convert all the TIFFs to 16 bit if the place you are sending to can't handle 8 bit. This probably what I did. Actually most standard video is 8bit with higher end video being 10bit. 16bit is generally a graphic or photographic format although I guess really high end film production can be 16 bit or even 32. I never venture there so someone else will have to fill in. __________________ William Hohauser - New York City Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation

August 24th, 2008, 11:34 PM	#3
Jase Tanner Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 346	William I made one into a tiff by changing sequence settings. The only way I could think to bring it into either preview or photoshop was via command I and then changing what program would open the file. Neither would open it. The get info window showed it was a tiff but not how many bits. Am I doing something wrong?