Animated Pix jittery in FCP

I'm 100 per cent with Andy. Even if you're not doing intensive graphics work -- I don't, either -- you have to have Photoshop on your station. Even if you're just doing temp work with stills, such as optimizing their format and size, or even as simple as scanning or organizing them, you need Photoshop. And I'd also add R-Name to that list. Having to add "1920x1080" as a suffix to 200 files by hand is just, well, not economical use of an editor or assistant editor's time.

Right now, if your graphics people make a mistake, or don't anticipate your needs in editing (eg. didn't make the pictures large enough, didn't change from CMYK mode, didn't change to 72dpi etc.), you'd have to round-trip yet again. And it's more files, more versioning, more time wasted.


www.derekmok.com

As long as we're on the subject, remember that you can pick up the CS4 Production bundle, which includes Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects, or either the same price or slightly less than buying After Effects and Photoshop together. So if you're in the market for those two, consider getting the whole package. I don't use Illustrator often, but when I do, it's because there's literally no better tool for the job.

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Graphics designers take handle everything graphic.
I'll send the stills their way and ask them to reformat to 8-bit RGB then

No offense...that's ridiculous. IMHO, every Editor should have Photoshop handy and know how to optimize photos / stills / etc.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I agree, but my company doesn't.

Then tell them to live with the problems in the edit. Can't have it both ways -- pinch pennies by withholding necessary tools from the editor, while expecting buttery-smooth stills, fast render times and good-looking graphics.


www.derekmok.com

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I agree, but my company doesn't.

That is no excuse...and I really do not believe that anyway. It's your responsibility as an Editor who is ultimately responsible for the deadlines to make your "company" aware to get you the best tools to get your job done and done WELL. We are talking about a few hundred dollars here dude...I could sell them on it in 10 minutes. You have to want it.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I have no idea what is meant by optimizing photos for editing.

I have always dealt with RGB png and tiff, 75% of the time. I never have pics over 2500-pixels and since i have heard jeff talk about 2k being the largest aspect in fcp, i have cut that to 2000-pixels.

So other than RGB and pictures being 2k pixels or less, what would be considered optimizing pictures?

It apparently is not common editing knowledge as i see a ton of post with pic problems. I have only had 1 project out of over 200 to have a problem with picture size in the last 2-years or so.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

grafixjoe Wrote:
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>
> That is no excuse...and I really do not believe
> that anyway.

Off topic, here gfixjoe. No need for such comments.

FCP used to have a 4000 pixel limit (or something like that). I don't think that's the case any longer. However, it's generally not a good idea for the pics to be more than 2x your frame size. 1.5x is what is usually recommended. In hard-nosed terms this means if your frame size is 1920x1080:

Recommended: 2880x2880 or smaller

Not larger than: 3840x3840

Again, this is just a rule of thumb, and there are lots of times I wouldn't adhere to it, but the recommended rule is there to provide you with the largest size for un-pixelated scaling with a manageable file size and the fewest technical issues.

As far as optimizing your photos (aside from size), here's what you have to keep in mind:

RGB color mode. Grayscale, and CMYK photos will react unpredictably (sometimes not even opening).

Alias really thin sharp lines in your photo. This is one of those things that will sometimes be a problem for you, and sometimes not depending on the photo, and the frame size and codec you're working in. Thin lines will sometimes moire (appear to crawl), when animating or scaling photos. This can be handled a variety of ways; the simplest being adding a slight blur that is not really noticeable to the eye, but aliases the line enough that the moire is less pronounced or gone altogether.

Andy

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Off topic, here gfixjoe. No need for such comments.

Why not? It is right on topic responding to your post (since you are the original poster). I simply do not believe an employer WILL NOT PURCHASE PHOTOSHOP for their Editor. It's a necessity... not a luxury. That's my opinion - sorry you don't agree. They just need the right kind of convincing

This whole still optimizing subject depends on what you are doing with the pics. I don't do pics in FCP but when I do them in AE I have my rules of thumb:

* 3X my frame size if I plan on making moves on the stills (which I usually do).
* RGB Mode only (CMYK not acceptable - must be converted before import)
* High Res JPEGs (High or Max) are much smaller that TIFFs / TGAs and look just as good.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I'm sure that FCP still has a 4K limit. I work with stills that are resized to 3800 or so. Many I have to resize from 6000x5000 600DPI down to 3800x3200 and 72DPI...or whatever the pixel dimensions. Some moves we do are zoomed WAY in.

But I mostly use Motion for that anymore...it allows you to zoom in more on lesser quality pics.

Here's my quick tutorial on how to do moves on stills in FCP, and how to deal with dissolves:

[library.creativecow.net]

But I agree with Joe. Either you or your company needs to get Photoshop. If they leave it up to you, then you get it and RENT your system (laptop) with it on it. You aren't going to provide them with this service for free. So they can either own it, or rent it from you. At companies I rent my system to, I charge more than the other systems they rent, because I have CS3 and a host of other applications that add functionality to editing and converting stuff for editing.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

FCP doesn't had a frame size limit on imported files,
certainly not image files as i have worked with rollers that are 10k - 12k high

but it has a 4000 pixlel frame size limit on it's own sequences.

however...
if you import a layered PSD that's over 4k it will come in as a nested SEQUENCE that respects its native frame size.
(i just imported a 720 x 6000 file.)

could be asking for trouble if you start playing with that?

i imagine future versions of FCP (the next one?) will remove the 4k limit,
or at least push it out to handle "4k" media, and probably "6K" as RED are promising a camera that shoots that.
just like they expanded the arbitrary 4hr timeline limit.


nick

3x aspect is optimum. That goes in my workflow handbook immediately. Thanks

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"