Render Workflow with Motion Roundtripping at DVinfo.net

John Lee · January 27th, 2009, 10:41 AM

I'm working on a monthly project that requires 30 individual promos to be exported out of FCP and recompressed to MPEG-2 to air off of our broadcast server. At my previous job we would cut all the weeks promos into one timeline on an Avid and export it to DBeta for airing at our uplink. However, that workflow is not possible here.

We need to post individual mpg files for each promo that airs, so we need to have 30 separate files for each week. The issue we're running into is that these promos have their text animated in a motion, which is subsequently cut into an FCP sequence. Is there any straightforward way to create a batch render of each of these clips out of FCP?

The method I've come up with for now is a straight render of the entire timeline followed by exporting each individual promo out as an uncompressed quicktime, but I'm wondering if there's a better way. I've tried sending to Compressor for export but that hangs, it also doesn't seem possible to export the promos as references either, since the sequence itself is a reference to a motion project. What I'm looking for is a process akin to After Effects render queue, where I'd be able to batch each clip and select the proper mpeg settings for our server in one fell swoop.

Suggestions are appreciated, thanks--John

Paul E. Coleman · January 28th, 2009, 12:35 AM

Compressor could hang if you're using the motion project file in the Final Cut sequence. I've rendered out LiveType and Motion projects to find things run smoother back in Final Cut when I have a lot going on like layers, keying and filters and transitions.

You can use the same timeline in FCP, set in/out points and Export using Compressor to create different segments in one fell swoop. It takes manually changing the in and out points, sending each to Compressor and then moving the jobs all onto one tab which then gets sent to Batch Monitor.

It took me just a few minutes to cut one sequence into four different parts, combine them in Compressor and batch render them. (Worked fine, never knew I could do that so easily.) And if you set your default settings to the flavor of Mpeg that you like and the destination, each one sent to compressor will already have that set when you open it. The file names even progressed sequentially (1, 2, 3) each time I added them.

January 27th, 2009, 10:41 AM	#1
John Lee Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Silver Spring, MD Posts: 152	Render Workflow with Motion Roundtripping I'm working on a monthly project that requires 30 individual promos to be exported out of FCP and recompressed to MPEG-2 to air off of our broadcast server. At my previous job we would cut all the weeks promos into one timeline on an Avid and export it to DBeta for airing at our uplink. However, that workflow is not possible here. We need to post individual mpg files for each promo that airs, so we need to have 30 separate files for each week. The issue we're running into is that these promos have their text animated in a motion, which is subsequently cut into an FCP sequence. Is there any straightforward way to create a batch render of each of these clips out of FCP? The method I've come up with for now is a straight render of the entire timeline followed by exporting each individual promo out as an uncompressed quicktime, but I'm wondering if there's a better way. I've tried sending to Compressor for export but that hangs, it also doesn't seem possible to export the promos as references either, since the sequence itself is a reference to a motion project. What I'm looking for is a process akin to After Effects render queue, where I'd be able to batch each clip and select the proper mpeg settings for our server in one fell swoop. Suggestions are appreciated, thanks--John __________________ John Lee Levelse7en@gmail.com

January 28th, 2009, 12:35 AM	#2
Paul E. Coleman Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: 42º 12' N, 72º 32' W Posts: 88	Compressor should work Compressor could hang if you're using the motion project file in the Final Cut sequence. I've rendered out LiveType and Motion projects to find things run smoother back in Final Cut when I have a lot going on like layers, keying and filters and transitions. You can use the same timeline in FCP, set in/out points and Export using Compressor to create different segments in one fell swoop. It takes manually changing the in and out points, sending each to Compressor and then moving the jobs all onto one tab which then gets sent to Batch Monitor. It took me just a few minutes to cut one sequence into four different parts, combine them in Compressor and batch render them. (Worked fine, never knew I could do that so easily.) And if you set your default settings to the flavor of Mpeg that you like and the destination, each one sent to compressor will already have that set when you open it. The file names even progressed sequentially (1, 2, 3) each time I added them.