Basic questions from novice.

[Norm Peterson]

Hey guys, hows it going.

ok, so basically i have a couple of fundamental questions for you guys that might sound a bit stupid so stick with me. i've used Final cut at intervals over the past couple of years and have just got FCE HD after not having used it for some time. My mind has gone a bit blank as to the set up process for what i want to achieve.

I am basically using FCE HD to edit an a short animation. Now, my still frames have been created as 1920 by 1080 jpegs, when i drop these into the timeline they are sized into the canvas with the black bar at the bottom and top and a small section of the back of the canvas (grey) is visible at the very top and bottom (although it sometimes doesn't put the bars in and there's just the grey??) So is FCE HD basically automatically sizing my image for me? The last version of Final cut i used i dont remember it doing this.
aslo, does it then matter how the "easy setup" is set, i had it defaulted to "DV PAL" (i'm in UK) but does this matter for still frames? sometimes it seems to go into "custom mode" when i check it after importing.

oh and my last question was about Layered PSD's, when i drop a layerd PSD into the timeline (same dimensions as the aforementioned jpegs) it automatically shrinks a little bit, so when you have your PSD sitting over the jpeg a small sliver of the jpeg is still visible at the top and bottom.
I think this has something to do with the pixels of the photoshop file but as yet have been unable to find a solution.


ok, cheers, so basically i need help working out which "esy setup" option i need for 1920 by 1080 still images to eventually be DVD bound and also help sorting the PSD thing.

thanks alot in advance.

[Ben De Rydt]

You're choosing the wrong tool for the job. Final Cut Express HD can only work with DV material or HDV material in the form of the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC). Both codecs are highly compressed and generally not recommended for graphics work.

If your end product is a DVD, you can make it work by creating a new project with the HDV-1080i50 setup and using Export -> Using compressor. This will bypass the AIC compression and send the footage uncompressed to Compressor. You will most likely need Compressor 2 though.

Regarding the size of still pictures: a) you're in the wrong setup - you need HDV not DV-PAL and b) FCE and Final Cut Pro will automatically correct the aspect ratio of the stills to the correct ratio for the sequence. To undo this aspect ratio correction, load each image from the timeline into the viewer by doubleclicking on them. Next, go to the Motion tab, disclose the "Distort" parameters and set Aspect Ratio to 0.

Working with individual pictures is not the best way to work with FCE or FCP. You would be better off by creating a Quicktime movie out of the pictures and importing that movie into FCP. You can create a Quicktime movie in Quicktime Pro by choosing File -> Open image sequence. Normally you would export it to something like the Animation codec, Uncompressed (if you have the disk space) or PhotoJPEG@100% but FCE HD won't work with those. You're only choice is Apple Intermediate Codec.

[Norm Peterson]

Hello Ben, thanks alot for the reply.

so you're saying that i need to set-up a new project and then in the "easy set-up" choose HDV 1080i50. I can then do my project using my 1920 by 1080 stills and when done export the project using compressor. Does that sound about right?

Oh and so do i also need to set the sequence setting to 1080i50 as well?

Again, thanks for the help.