AFTER EFFECTS FCP WORKFLOW

I'm new to After Effects and was wondering what you guys recommend as the best and most efficient workflow between AE and FCP? I'm working with a five minute DV CAM segment that I'd like to apply effects, transition and color correction to.

THANK YOU

As an AE artist primarily, I work in Final cut to do what AE cant. That is easily cut my footage. I break it down into which shots will require FX, and seperate them to another video layer for organization purposes. Then I export the footage from those sequences as individual shots which I can manipulate in AE. Make sure that you keep your codec the same and work lossless so that you dont start to loose color information etc.. and when your finished with your treated shots, import them to your project and set them ontop of the un-treated footage. This way you always have clean source material, and you can easily toggle between your treated and untreated footage to see the differences.
-A

Use AAF export out of FCP and into AE. Render out AE in the same codec that you use in FCP.

Andy

There is no set workflow for me. Sometimes I cut the A/V & color correct it all in FCP and export a Ref for graphic treatment. Sometimes I export a full mix AIFF and do the entire spot in AE. The one constant is that I use FCP to digitize all my materials from DigiBeta and lay it off when I am done. Everything else in between depends on the project.

Did I mention the friggin' thing NEVER crashes (knock wood)? Avid's still working on that.

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

the first thing to think about is that AE is not an editing app - and if you try to use it like one - YOU CAN indeed do so, but its gonna drive you batty over long periods of time! its not made for that. sure it has transitions, but its not really intended to be an editor. and its not intended for longform work. agian, it WILL do it just fine - but its not the best use of the app. it all depends on your end goal, but if i were working with a 5 minute movie. id break the needs into smaller parts and do a variety of comps in AE to suit the various needs - using an exported reference clip (possibly lower res for time sake) from FCP.

the coolest thing for me about AE is that it is just about THE MOST FLEXIBLE PROGRAM IN HISTORY. its the one place where pretty much anything is possible and youre limited by just about NOTHING. within reason - and with a little fundamental knowledge, you can sort of create your own workflow... the way i always describe it to newbies is "photoshop in 4th dimension (time)".

i use AE as does joey, different ways to solve different problems.

my AE workflow most often includes adobe illustrator. i lay out ALL my titles, some lower 3rds, and various other graphic elements in illustrator with each element in a seperate layer - then bring that ai file into AE as a composition, animate and add effects. then export that as animation compressed with alpha and bring that into FCP and lay over whatever captured video is there.

i ALMOST NEVER do anything with audio in AE as AE doesnt handle audio in realtime (at least not in such a way that a crotchety oldschool audio guy like me is used to). there is a trapcode plugin that will generate keyframes from waveforms. but more often than not i'll just make timecode notes from the source if im trying to sync graphic elements to sound cues.

as marcopolio says, you can as well export video as lossless from FCP to AE do your compositing in AE then rexport as lossless back to FCP without noticable loss in quality. but more often for me if i bring FCP video into AE it is for reference only and once my compositing is done, ill hide or trash that layer from my AE comp before i do the render. but again, the approach changes from situation to situation...

and again - like joey says - AE is stable as hell! it will endure about anything you can throw at it. it may slow to a crawl, but it will fight its way out of just about anything...

ive been using AE since around 1995 or so (anyone here remember CoSA after effects?) and to my recollection - ive NEVER seen AE crash.

i could live without FCP if i had to. but i would DIE without AE!

Oh, I have, but then I've been told that I can crash just about anything.

Andy

ok, there are 2 more option, one deals with java scripting and one deals with 500 dollars.

the java scripting one can be found on creativecow.net, search the aftereffects forum for java and final cut,

the other is automatic duck, it can take your timeline and transfer it into aftereffects, but like i said it's 500 bucks!

(p.s. they make one for avid too)



Amateur Teacher

Thank you all for your workflow suggestions!
jintz