more good things in FCP5...

IMPROVED MOTION TAB EFFECTS

FCP5 is going well, if a little slow on my system (1.5G Powerbook, 1GRam)

had some graphics in the 30sec TV trailer i;m cutting, and put a slight move (zoom up) on them.
quite fine text in one of them.

not too impressive, with the usual shimmering.

go to Sequnce Settings, Video Processing, switch "motion filtering quality" to best
according to the little blurb, "This selects the filtering qualioty used when rendering Motion Tab motion efects"

need to re-render the entire timeline when you switch this, so ifirst tested one of the graphics.
beautifull!
a really smooth move.

it takes about three times longer to render, though, so you could switch over once you're happy with your timing.
also it's not like the old render quality switch in FCP1~3. it forgets the old renders.

cheers,
nick

Curious Nick

Can you try on your system Dynamic RT and see if it makes a difference? Push it until it breaks?



Michael Horton
-------------------

ok, Dynamic RT...

i;ve had it set to Dynamic Video Quality,
and Full Frame Rate, which might be the factory defualt.

so with those setings, this is what i get:
9-up Multicam sequnce
one box = "full" quality
two boxes = "full" quality
three boxes = green RT, i can see the res drop
four boxes = same
five boxes = same
six boxes = same, first drop frame warning
seven boxes = orange RT, a few seconds of play, then too many drop frames to keep going.
if i switch to half frame rate, the line goes green, but i get the same poor playback.
even at a quarter frame rate, theres too many drop frames to work.

a weird thing is when im on dynamic frame rate, i NEVER see it drop down to a quarter, and idont even think it;s dropping to a half.
it just drops frames.

now, reaslisitcaly six boxes is pretty good, but i;ve got 9.
so that means i cant get a 9-up multi clip situation happening :-(
do you know if theres any way to render your multiclip?

that's on this system.. on a dual G5, i imagine a 9-up would be a breeze.

OK, dumb nick.. these rushes are on a FW400 drive, let's try the 800

one box = "full" quality
two boxes = "full" quality
three boxes = green RT, i can see the res drop
four boxes = same
five,six boxes = same
at seven boxes i get the orange line,
but i can add 8 and 9 and still keep playing.
i saw a drop frame with 9 boxes, but no show-stopper.

whew.. run out of boxes. (i never saved 16-up motion faves, as i could't read that many images at once)

ok, let's switch to Dynamicframe rate.

oh goody! green line!

frame rate has droped to half, and i've gotten some resolution back.

colour corection an all nine clips: still green

ok, lets change tack:
one clip, full size.
add some gaussian blur. plays back smoothly. one drop frame warning, but on hte whole plays fine. cant realy see any res drop, as it's so blurry!
double it up, andmix it in with a non-blur version of itself at 50%
green line, but with drop frames. turn off the warning
plays ok.
CC bottom (non-blur) layer, pull out all colour, crunch the contrast
fine
CC top (blur) layer, over-saturate
fine
widescreen maks on both
fine
rotate both
fine

what can i throw at this?
i;m looking in the filters bins..
is it my imagination, or did there used to be more filters that were RT?
mask shape, and the garbage matte filters are not RT for me.
Extract is, so i put that on teh top clip, even tho i dont know what it's purpose is..
funky look, frame rate must be at a quarter..
add a border..
still going
nest the two clips,
add broadcast safe.
still going
text flying across, no worries.
drop shadow.. RED!
drop shadow on a solitary text clip.. RED.
aw, i thought this would be RT. it's important!
edge feather.. RED! aw...

another clip flaoting thru.
crop, CC and broadcast safe.
it's still playing.

it cant be broken!

actualy im near the limit..

another gausian blur on hte last clip, and i go red.
try something simpler..
TC print on the last clip.. RED.
blink.. RED

conclusion..
i think it's pretty good!

one weird thing, unrelated, but it came up during the course of these "experiments"
you make a multiclip, load it in the viewer.
unless you have "multiclip playback" turned on, you dont see the multi view in the viewer when playing.
fair enough, but the only place to turn on Multiclip Playback is in the RT pulldown in the timeline!

so we've got a control for the viewer in the timeline..?
solution: put a button in the viewer

signing off,
nick

Thans SO much Nick. Great news for those that have slower systems. Great report!

Mike



Michael Horton
-------------------

and this is on a powerbook 1.5Ghz single proc using FW800? Tiger 10.4.1? has me wondering what would a DP G4 1Ghz do?

so could one conclude that FCP5 is faster than 4.5?

wow, sounds promising.

hd

I have done a resize / rotate test using both the new and old algorithms for the motion tab.

[www.andersholck.com]

The left is the new "Best" Setting, the right is the "Fast" setting (that matches FCP 4.5)

Rendering is done in RGB 4:4:4 to keep compression ot of the equation.

Performance-wise the "Best" setting is 2 x slower than "fast" on my PB 1.25 GHZ:

Scale 10 sec.:
Best - 29 sek.
Fast / (FCP 4) - 12

Rotation 10 sec.:
Best - 26 sek.
Fast / (FCP 4) - 13

Wow. Thanks Anders. That is some difference



Michael Horton
-------------------

This really isn't about faster HD, it's about RT on slower systems

Mike



Michael Horton
-------------------

The new scaling is what FCP should have been using from day one! And we've only had to wait, how many years is it now, for it :-)

Graeme



[www.nattress.com] - Plugins for FCP-X

you say potato, i say...

got 'cha. thanks.

hd

in Fcp 4.5 when " media managing" clips : ( like " consolidating" only the parts you wanted) AS NEW CLIPS we used to loose the shift+F feature = back to the original clip in the browser ("open bin". so convenient when you want to change a take of the same action ... etc

that link was broke / if not related to originaly digitalised clip)

in Fpc 5 its OK : wathever came from browser to viewer or canvas/timeline you can go back to with ****+F (either from one or the others)

GREAT