After Effects to XDCam EX settings?

Hi All.

I've looked everywhere, but can't seem to find the proper settings to export my After Effects work into a XDCam EX timeline without getting the red render bars. In addition, it seems that any footage I've rendered out from AE seems to drop frames in my XDCam timeline. My machine should be powerful enough, have enough Ram. Clearly my settings are way off.

My client shot a bunch of work in XDCam EX 1080p30 (VBR) for 30 second commercials, and no matter how much I've tried, I can't convince then to accept a finished product in ProRes 422. They want it finished on EX. But I really need to add motion backgrounds, to add some excitement to otherwise dull footage.

My first thought is to try a number of keyframe settings in AE to find what the FCP XDCamEX timeline is looking for. (Currently nothing checked for "keyframe every __ frames." Maybe there's something else.

Any thoughts? ((I love these forums so much. You guys rock. Thanks in advance for any help.))

--Troy.

>and no matter how much I've tried, I can't convince then to accept a finished product in ProRes
>422

Not your fault there. You just deal, deliver what the client wants, and advice where possible.

What you should do, is work/roundtrip in ProRes. Then in your final sequence, switch codec to XDCAM EX, render and export. Roundtripping in XDCAM EX is asking for trouble. You will end up with lots of quality hits, and long render/export times.



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks, Strypes. Think I'm with ya.

But for edification, you have any idea what those AE setting could be, to come into the timeline render-free? (--If your feet were held to the fire?) It's driven me crazy.

Troy.

> (--If your feet were held to the fire?)

Make sure you select an "XDCAM EX" (not XDCAM HD, not XDCAM), and make sure your composition is set to 1920x1080.



www.strypesinpost.com

I would deliver in both XDCAM EX and in ProRes. This assumes your client will be doing their work on a Mac. Odd they would ask for it to be rendered out in XDCAM EX.

-Andrew

Thats a good point.

Yea, XDCAM is an extremely odd choice, as I initially thought they wanted it on tape (the same reason why some guys choose to go out to HDV, despite it being a really bad mastering format), but I just remembered XDCAM is a tapeless format.



www.strypesinpost.com