Rendering nests

Hi everybody-
Just looking for a shortcut:
I have a sequence with about 50 'nests' within. I have rendered the sequence for a tape playout, however here and there it stops because there is a nest section that wasn't rendered at the core. I of course can go through and check them all, but I'm wondering...

Is there some option/shortcut to render everything, including all nests, right to the base clip?

Thanks!
Luna

Export as a self-contained movie file first.

Is nesting the same as marrying a title with the shot? Like iMovie does it, the title is on the clip. Why can't we do that in FCP 5? Or perhaps I should ask, how does one do it in FCP?

Thanks!

Sure you can. Export the clip as a movie file after applying the title. I don't know why you'd want to do that, though, since it prevents you from changing either the supered text or the shot underneath individually from that point on. The only reasons I can think of are a) if you're preparing a tape output and are exporting the whole film/show as one movie file; b) you have complex text designs that are relatively locked and you don't want to render them from now on. In both cases, make sure you preserve the actual timeline where the text was created so you can change elements and re-export if you need.

> Is nesting the same as marrying a title with the shot?

You're not quite understanding the concept of nesting. It's apples and oranges. Nesting takes *any* number of cuts in one timeline and converts that entire timeline into one clip item in another timeline. It's like a Layer Set in Photoshop. You *can* use this function to make a shot and its superimposed title into one clip in another timeline, but that's only one very limited function of nesting.

I'm not the biggest fan of nesting, but sometimes it's necessary. It requires careful file management, though, or you'll have identically named copies of a timeline that don't contain the same media -- which is suicide.

Apple's nesting functions within MY copies of FCP5 are, for the mast part, satisfactory. But at least once every project, everything goes a bit wonky and the stacks of items become utterly undependable. Just a gut feeling of mine, this inability to track accurately back upstream seems to be based on FCP's apparent lack of intelligent render tracking. FCP will forget stuff. Critical stuff. God, I hope they fix this stuff soon before they add more useless baggage.

bogiesan

> FCP will forget stuff. Critical stuff.

True. Every time I so much as touch a LiveType .ipr file that exists in an FCP timeline, it goes offline. I avoid nesting myself (I prefer using second-generation movie files if I need to "clean up" complex effects sequences), but it goes to reason that if they're gonna have this feature at all, they need to improve on it. For example, I think every time you nest in a timeline -- a technique many of the editors I worked with on a show used, as flawed as it was -- the nested sequence should appear in the Browser, and the two should be intrinsically and irrevocably linked. It's my opinion that nothing that's not FCP-generated in the timeline must have a Browser equivalent.

derekmok wrote:

It's my opinion that nothing that's not
> FCP-generated in the timeline must have a Browser equivalent.

Check again...it does create the nest and add it to the browser. I use it all the time

> Check again...it does create the nest and add it to the browser. I use it all
> the time

Been awhile since I used any nesting, but last I checked, it's still possible to have one version of a sequence in the Browser, and a different one in the timeline.

Yep, just checked, It's possible to delete the one that appears in the Browser and the timeline one will remain. Which means they aren't one and the same. I think they should be. Not to mention the problem somebody else mentioned -- lots of people like to chop up nested items in the timeline, and somebody in here mentioned that this method will create a lot more render files than necessary.

So ...
I'm still wondering... I'll give a little more info (as brief as poss.):
I nest a two cropped/colored images together, because I want to do a speed change to both and apply a blur as well. That's one nest. Then I do another of the same, and nest that with the blurred one just mentioned.
There are roughly 30 of these instances in my 30 minute timeline. Then the whole sequence is nested, to globally apply a deinterlace and change the 16:9 aspect ratio to a 92% scale.
So, when I render the first level, then the global nest, all is well, I play it out to tape...
Then somewhere along the way it stops. Because I didn't double click on the nest mentioned above, which revealed a deeper nest, which revealed one more. I know I can go through and double click and find all the nests, render them on each level... But I am hoping there is some option where I can render the entire sequence, and it also renders every nest, etc right to the base QT's in one step.
Possible?
Ayuda? Help?
I hope this gibberish makes sense to someone...
Luna

In the rare instances when I nest, I haven't found it necessary to go into the deeper layers -- rendering the outer layer is enough. It seems to me some of your effects are being nested unnecessarily, creating too much of a "Chinese box" load.

Just do a self-contained movie before you output to tape. You'll save yourself a lot of headaches that way.

I thought nesting was for embedding titles into shots, etc. Thanks for clarifying it to me. But beyond the best uses for nesting, it seems that nesting also creates other problems, like the time it takes to render. For me it's best not to do any more nesting of titles. Thanks again.

Here's what you do: render every sequence and nest in the browser. That way, you can be sure every nest will be rendered. Just select the sequences and choose Sequence>Render All.

Kevin Monahan
Author, "Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro"
Don't Miss My FCP Master's Seminar in LA on 11/12-13!!"

Mmm, that's sounds pretty good Kev, thanks...
Well thanks Derek and everybody else too!
Luna