LiveType / Motion Alpha channels--etc...

It is my understanding that graphics created in after effects, Motion or LiveType, can be utilized in FCP as long as they are the same resolution as the sequence.

This appears to work fine with after effects, as long as no Alpha channel is involved. If the QT has an embedded alpha, FCP requires you to render.

Also, why does LiveType and Motion require you to render? is there something i'm missing here?

thanks to all.
This forum has been a real help to us!

--sbf

You don't have to render while you are in LiveType or Motion - usually one pass to cache into memory..then it plays in real time - depending on how fast your video card is...but if you bring outside each program - and you want to keep the alpha channel - you need to output in Animation Codek with millions of colors + selected - the + is the alpha channel.

You can select alpha settings in preferences in Motion - then just save the project file - and import that project into FCP - makes it editable if you need to go back into motion and change something.

Best - Andy

I believe he means why Motion or Livetype projects (and AE movies with alpha) needs to be rendered when brought into FCP.

Nayrbnevets: The strange thing about Livetype and Motion projects imported into FCP is not that they have to be rendered, but the amazing fact that they work. Basically, they are not "video" at all but raw, unprocessed projects. Of course FCP has to render them, they are projects - not "content" in the usual sense. For the sake of simplicity, let's just say that FCP has the Livetype and Motion render engines built-in, and this allows it to process these projects. It's nothing short of amazing. If you don't want to render inside FCP, you could just export a Quicktime movie from either Motion or Livetype with the correct settings and they will playback in real time. But you loose the fantastic ability to call Motion or Livetype from FCP, modify the project and see the changes updated in FCP.

As for After Effects (or any other) movie with Alpha having to be rendered. Let's see.... the conventional knowledge in editing systems says that a video clip will only play back in real time if every setting in it matches the timeline's processing settings (frame size, field order, frame rate, codec, etc.). Quicktime movies with Alpha use the Animation codec. But you know what? The Animation codec is not native to any editing format and thus no sequence setting mathces it. It's also true that the Animation codec is rather slow to process. G5s are among the first generation of computers that allowed to watch them without a lot of skipping! For all these reasons, a small render is required to composite the clip and convert it to the timeline "specs", to say it in someway. But again, the practical side of embedding alpha in a video clip more than compensates this (usually very quick) renders.

Now, I said before that the "convention" is that a clip has to match the sequence/timeline settings to work in real time. However, the latest news are: the competition (Avid) has reached the technological breakthrough of multi-format/multi-codec/multi-resolution playback in the same timeline. This is good news for FCP users, in the sense that if Avid has it now, with the tough competition between Avid and Apple, FCP will have to have it by next NAB

FCP went a little bit in this direction with version 5, in the sense it will try to play back some movies with unmatching codecs when in unlimited RT mode. If it's too hard, it will fail and give you the dropped frames sign. But for many codecs, it will work. It's a start

All the best,



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com