NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2004

[Mark Sloan]

It doesn't hurt to do it lossless to make sure you don't degrade your work unnecessarily... I mean, disc space is pretty cheap.

A lot of people will use Animation... be ready for high file sizes!

[Rhett Allen]

First, what program are you going to use to author the DVD?
I ask because I've never had much luck "exporting" from FCP to another format. I always just make a self contained movie and do my compression with Cleaner. I haven't even spent that much time with "Compressor" because I already know what works and what doesn't in Cleaner. For DVD's I use iDVD or DVD Studio Pro, both of which do a fine job for my needs.

Second, what kind of lines are you talking about? Vertical or Horizontal? Are you seeing the interlacing of the video (fine horizontal lines, called fields)? Are you previewing this on an NTSC monitor or just on your computer screen?

Third, depending on how bad the camera shake is, you can try to use FCP's "image stabilizer" filter (found in filters-video) or look for a third party plugin (they usually have a free demo to try before you buy). Other than that you might need to do a bunch of key framing to help correct it. Now you see the value in a very nice tripod huh?

[Tim White AU]

Rhett,
Believe me, a quality new tripod is the first thing on my long shopping list. I'm punching myself now for not organizing a quality hire earlier on.

To answer your initial question, I'm using DVD Studio Pro to author the DVDs. I might start looking seriously at Cleaner, is there anything to your knowledge that Cleaner does, that Compressor does not?

In relation to these lines, I'm talking about horizantal lines, which as you described probably is the interlacing of the video, I just never knew the term. I'm previewing through a PAL monitor (in a complex series of wires, before I can afford a deck), that has the problem of constantly seeming to skip frames; these frames aren't skipped on the computer monitor, but the video monitor can be very distracting for this reason. My theory is that it is the connection, but when I export to MiniDV, the same frame skipping problem occurs.

I'll give the image stabilizer a try... are the third party plugins generally of a high enough quality to pay for?

[Rhett Allen]

If you are using DVD Studio Pro you can encode it there instead of out of FCP and will get much better results. Just export as QuickTime movie with the settings at "current settings" (probably "DV Pal 48K" in your case) and choose make "movie self contained" (NOT recompress all frames), then add that file to your DVD project. That gives you a pure DV file to work with and compress it in DVD Studio Pro.
Cleaner has a bunch of variables you can adjust to tweak the output of your file. Like I said, I haven't used Compressor much but from just looking at it, it seems to have similar settings available, I just haven't tried it much because I have thousands of hours invested in Cleaner (for web use) and it will do WMP and Real player as well. I also have Cleaner on my PC so I can set it to encode (although it's much slower on the PC's) and then use my Macs to work on something else. I have a new video for web project coming up (no huge deadline) and I am planning on using Compressor on it as a learning project.

As far as third party plugins, yes, many of them are well worth the money, some are not though. There are infinite ways to create custom settings in FCP and some plugins are just presets of those settings so you don't have to fuss with trial and error. Just Google "FCP Plugins" as a start.

As far as the field problem, make sure you are encoding it in the same field order as you captured it (lower first is FCP default). If it's for computer use de-interlace the footage when you encode it.
DUh! Sorry about that, obviously you would need to view it on a PAL monitor if it's PAL footage. Though it shouldn't show the artifacting as much unless it's just a bad encode, which it may have been. Try using the DVDSP approach and see if that helps. Also use the 2-pass VBR method. It takes longer but is worth it in the long run. Find a 30 second segment with stills and motion and use it as a test piece so you aren't stuck waiting for a long process only to see in needs more tweaking.

[Tim White AU]

Thanks a lot for the advice Rhett...

I'll give some of these things a shot, and post my results, be they good or bad.

[Luke Renner]

- I loaded a bunch of footage through my XL2 via Firewire.

- I edited.

- I went through the process of re-loading everything for ONLINE.

- All edit points are off (have drifted) by a significant number of frames. That is to say, the footage that is loaded is a few seconds off (from inpoint to outpoint). It's as if timecode was not LOCKED but approximate instead. It is SO NOT MONEY.

- An AVID editor looking for some FCP redemption. Any help?

[Joe Collins]

Did you shoot at 24fps progressive? You may have to change either your capture settings or/and your timeline settings to 23.98 with the advanced pulldown. I'm just an amateur, so I'm guessing.

If you don't get any good responses here, try the Apple FCP forum:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?13@80.Njd4apZEnaC.2@.ee6bcd7

There are many very helpful folks that can probably fix you right up.

Good luck.

[Luke Renner]

I could be smoking something here... but I think that even when you shoot 24p, it goes to tape at 29.97. It gets downcoverted to 29.97 before it hits tape?

I dunno.
Anyway, I did change my capture preset.
It was using the DV Time and I changed it to LTC.
We'll see what that does.

Cheers!
Luke

[Matthew Stawski]

hey guys.
i was wondering how to achieve the lighting effect that is used in many music videos...it sort of looks like a photocopy beam is crossing over the video rapidly and randomly...it should be some sort of filter in after effects but i can't seem to find it.

thanks a lot!
matt stawski.

[Kevin Kocak]

If print quality is 300DPI and TV is 72 DPI- what DPI is Hi-Def TV?
What resolution does graphics have to be for hi definition tv/video

[Mark Sloan]

Printers use DPI to show how much info they put in an inch of space so you get measurements like 300 dots per inch. The higher the DPI the more detailed the print.

A video signal simply tells you how many pixels you are getting (more or less), and not how densely those pixels are packed, so 72 DPI isn't a real measurement. A TV can be 12" or 40" and still only show the same number of pixels. A DVD playing Standard Definition has 720x480 resolution. As for HD...

From: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/learn/about/chapters/0,,2076_3105627_3105648,00.html

1080i and 720p
How do 1080i and 720p compare? 1080i actually has higher resolution than 720p, but doesn't render motion quite as well. 720p-with its progressive scanning-delivers smoother motion (especially important for fast-moving action, such as in sports) but has lower resolution than 1080i. Still great, but lower. (Don't worry; any HDTV receiver can receive both formats, and a true HDTV television can display both formats.)

Pixels
Another way to compare the two is by looking at their pixel count (pixel is short for "picture elements", the individually addressable areas of light and shadow on your screen). The 720p format creates an image with 720 lines, each with 1280 pixels, so it has a resolution of 1280 x 720. The 1080i format creates an image with 1080 lines, each with 1920 pixels, so its resolution is a higher 1920 x 1080. Denser pixels = a better picture.

[Gary Chavez]

Hi everyone,
I want to get my 12 yr old son a tapeless camera for christmas.
Are there any of these types of cams that dont burn an MPEG4?

Will Imovie import MPEG4?
I have an Imac G3 w/ a 400 MHz and 512 MB.
OS 10.2.8
Firewire ans USB ports.
Also, cheap is a plus.
Am I spitting in the wind here?
thanks

[Boyd Ostroff]

I think it will be difficult to do this with iMovie unless you have a DV camera with firewire. AFAIK iMovie only works with 720x480 DV, so you would need to convert the MPEG somehow. QuickTime Pro can probably do that, but it would involve a number of steps along the way. I got my daughter a cheap Sharp ViewCam when she was a few years older than your son. She and her friends had lots of fun making videos (some were really good in fact). They edited on an iMac just like you described, although I think it was a 600mhz G3 using a firewire interface. A 400 mhz machine might be borderline.

I believe there are some inexpensive USB based devices that can capture analog video that might do what you want. I had one of these in the days before iMovie came out. It captured relatively low res (something like 320x240) from any camera with composite output and came bundled with editing software from Strata (something like "Videoshop" I think). It was all very inexpensive and might be enough for a beginner.

[Grinner Hester]

Download genarts sapphire.
The glows are wonderful and mixed with other tratments and masks, you can get some pretty wonderful looks. There is no template for this. Play and cerate.
If you can't afford sapphire effects, you can fake glows by duplicating layers, adding brighness n saturation, burs and opacity changes.

[Jesse Rosten]

Matthew,

Also play around with Effect>Render>Beam

Apply this effect to a black solid in your comp and set the transfer mode to Add. There are different parameters you can change like start/end width, softness, color, etc. Get the beam looking how you like then just animate its position.

Or better yet. Try filming an actual photocopier :) You never know.

peace
jes