dynamic RT?

So I went out and bought 5 thinking that I might be able to do more unrendered realtime viewing, but while it's IMPRESSIVE with DVNTSC, it seems not to work with an animation codec. Which is what I mainly work with. I've got a timeline with 3 tracks which were created in AE and/or Poser and which are animation codec. They all have alpha channels. If I try to play them (UNRENDERED) in FCP with ANY settings at all I get "dropped frames." and they won't play. If I pull them into Quicktime and change them to NTSC codec at 29.97, they play great but they've lost their alpha channels.
If I put the animation clips (with alphachannel) in an animation timeline, they must be rendered if I want to stack them on top of each other -- which I do -- and an "animation" timeline doesn't offer any kind of realtime options.
Is there anyway to view a bunch of clips with an alpha channel in realtime without rendering? I guess I still believe in Santa Claus, and now you're about to offer to sell me swamp-land in Florida.

I'm not aware of any solution besides the now defunct CineWave card that lets you play animation codec in real time on a FCP timeline.

One solution I have done is to make a DV version of the animation with a black background. Then using the FCP luma key in real time to knock out the background and approximate the alpha channel. Once you get your edit looking good, replace it with the animation codec version to render.

Another option is to view things in Motion which plays Animation Codec with alpha in real time (because it first loads it into ram). You can load up as many layers as you like.

Hope this helps.

- T. Payton

Yeah, that did occur to me. At least I could view my edits in real time first. Thanks. Good to hear from someone else dealing with animation.

Wait! Wait!!! Just by accident, wanting to hear audio tracks, I told preferences not to notify me of dropped frames, and guess what? It plays! Huge, elaborate sequences with layers upon layers of animation clips. User Preferences/General/report dropped frames. Simply uncheck it, and it PLAYS without stopping in adequate real time.

Very cool. However, I was unable to reproduce this.

Please give us specifics. What is your sequence settings in FCP? What kind of machine are you on.

Thanks,

- T.

I'm on a G5 dual 2.5. Running 10.4.3. Running FCP 5. Sequence settings are the default (DV) ones.
Set the RT on "dynamic" on "frame" and "playback" AND "unlimited RT." There are 7 or eight tracks in the sequence and every clip was made in AE with many many effects AND alpha channels and was rendered out of AE as animation at 30 fps. The sequence includes one set of stereo audio as Quicktime.mov tracks made from capturing analogue tape directly into the camera via RCA cable. I also made a nest of this particular sequence and used it in another sequence without rendering with settings as above and it PLAYS. In user preferences I just unchecked "notify (or whatever) of dropped frames." Again, Wowwweeee. I"ve been chirping with joy all day at the speed and ease. P.S. this is the same poster as above. A problem with my password.