NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

John Locke · November 28th, 2002, 12:04 AM

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

Rik Sanchez · November 28th, 2002, 12:35 AM

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.

Ken Tanaka · November 28th, 2002, 01:08 AM

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/

Matt Stahley · November 28th, 2002, 11:28 AM

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?

Ken Tanaka · November 28th, 2002, 11:42 AM

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.

Simon Plissi · November 28th, 2002, 05:27 PM

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?

Ken Tanaka · November 28th, 2002, 05:36 PM

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!

Bill Furner · November 30th, 2002, 08:35 PM

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

Jeff Donald · December 1st, 2002, 08:56 AM

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

Bill Furner · December 1st, 2002, 11:56 AM

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.

Jeff Donald · December 1st, 2002, 03:01 PM

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

Bill Furner · December 1st, 2002, 04:51 PM

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

Ken Tanaka · December 1st, 2002, 05:25 PM

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.

Jeff Donald · December 1st, 2002, 05:59 PM

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

Simon Plissi · December 1st, 2002, 06:19 PM

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.

November 28th, 2002, 12:04 AM	#1186
John Locke Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Austin, TX USA Posts: 2,882	Thanks for the heads up, Ken. I'll be ready to upgrade once I get the e-mail announcement. __________________ John Locke SursumFilms.com

November 28th, 2002, 12:35 AM	#1187
Rik Sanchez ChorizoSmells Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Osaka, Japan Posts: 424	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. __________________ ChorizoSmells Video Barrio Tamatsukuri, Osaka, JAPAN

November 28th, 2002, 01:08 AM	#1188
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	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/ __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

November 28th, 2002, 11:42 AM	#1190
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	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. __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

November 28th, 2002, 05:36 PM	#1192
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	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! __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

November 28th, 2002, 11:28 AM	#1189
Matt Stahley Major Player Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Waynesboro, PA Posts: 648	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?

November 28th, 2002, 05:27 PM	#1191
Simon Plissi Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 105	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?

November 30th, 2002, 08:35 PM	#1193
Bill Furner Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Calif Posts: 46	Adobe Premiere 5.1 / What is the best formate? 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

December 1st, 2002, 08:56 AM	#1194
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	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

December 1st, 2002, 11:56 AM	#1195
Bill Furner Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Calif Posts: 46	format 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.

December 1st, 2002, 03:01 PM	#1196
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	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

December 1st, 2002, 04:51 PM	#1197
Bill Furner Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Calif Posts: 46	format 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

December 1st, 2002, 05:25 PM	#1198
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	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. __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

December 1st, 2002, 05:59 PM	#1199
Jeff Donald Warden Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Clearwater, FL Posts: 8,287	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

December 1st, 2002, 06:19 PM	#1200
Simon Plissi Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 105	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.