The only two reasons I can't use FCP for Animatic work.

Just FYI the reason I am posting this is in hopes that someone will say... "wait.. that stupid SOB just needs to (blank)!" So if anyone has suggestions please let me know... here is the sitch.

So I cut animatics for various animation houses on the side. They all require the same things. I get full pages with 2 16x9 panels on them that need to be cropped out to individual images for editing. Sometimes I get a page with a larger picture that will later have motion (pan). After I crop every panel I think bring all the images and the audio into Premiere and cut them at 24fps Feet+frames 35mm. Why premiere... because until FCP 5 nothing else I owned edited in Feet+Frames (I know i could have done the math but its just faster not to). AND Premiere auto stretches and squashes every image I bring in to be full screen. Now this may sound stupid but the panels I referred to earlier are various sizes resembling 16x9 and in the end need to just be 16x9 and the aspect does not need to be perfect as long as I just show the whole image. I cut it... export it to a Quicktime using Avid Meridian 14:1p and all is good.

So the two things FCP wont seem to do for me:

1) auto size images to be full screen
2) export a quicktime movie with the Avid Codec properly (i think it's a competitive thing)

HELP!!!! and thanks up front for taking the time to read all that... I really would rather do all this work in FCP.

I don't know about the auto resize thing. I'd be ..disturbed.. if FCP automatically resized everything I brought in. You could just turn on image and wireframe in the canvas and physically drag the image to the correct size in a couple of seconds, though.

As for the second part of the problem - I know there is an issue with Avid's quicktime codec that requires that the export be exactly a particular size. Not sure what it is for NTSC. I'm sure someone else will though.

if the native size of the original image is LARGER then the FCP canvas,
FCP wil scale it to fit, while maintining the originals aspect ratio.
your "near" 16/9 images would be fine, the double size, or non-standrard ratio panels will have black around them
if it is SMALLER, then FCP just leaves it alone, and it will sit at it's own frame size, surrounded by black, within the canvas.

having to manualy re-size would soon become a drag, i think

sorry, i cant help with the avid codec issue.

nick

You could run all the stills through a small utility outside FCP which will easily Batch Convert the sizes for you. Check this link to see a number of free options for this job:
Macupdate

Many of these are simple Drag and Drop Batch Convert tools - very easy and fast.

With regard to the 14:1p encode, can you elaborate on the issues you are having - is it a color issue?

Mark

> So the two things FCP wont seem to do for me:
>
> 1) auto size images to be full screen

From the FCP Manual. (FCP 4.5 page III-36)

Using the Scale to Sequence Command

If you want your imported graphic to fit entirely into your image frame, you can select the clip once it?s edited into the Timeline, and use the Scale to Sequence command to set the scale of the graphic so that it fits as neatly as possible into your frame size.

To use scale to sequence:
1 Select a clip in your sequence to rescale.
2 Choose Modify>Scale to Sequence.
If the aspect ratio of your imported graphic doesn?t match that of your edited sequence, you?ll end up with black borders either horizontally or vertically.

If your graphic is taller than it is wide, there are black borders to the right and left of the image in the Canvas.

If your graphic is wider than it is tall, there are black borders at the top and bottom of the image in the Canvas. tim wrote:


> 2) export a quicktime movie with the Avid Codec properly (i
> think it's a competitive thing)

Don't know about the avid codec. Haven't done avid stuff since OS 9 days.


Hope this helps.

- T.

wow!
that scale to sequnce is great!
i never know that,
thanks,TP

tim,
you could make it into a button on your timeline, (i've just done this)
you;ve got to be careful if you are adding new frames to a sequnce you may have worked on already.. i mean modified some of the pan and tilt frames.
"scale to sequnce" will change them back to their former size.

either be very carefiull selecting the new frames you;ve just aded, or use a totaly separate sequnce for scaling:
drag to new seq, select all, scale,
then drag back to another bin (called "Scaled"?) in the browser.

cheers,
nick

If you're already cropping the boards in photoshop you can just make sure the aspect ratio for the marque tool is either locked at 16x9 or set at the magic number listed in the help manual. I think it's 853x480. We work at standard 4x3 so all of the boards are set to either 720x540 or at least locked at the same aspect ration. You can set up a batch action to scale everything up to size before importing it into Final Cut. The scale to sequence is nice but it's easier if you take care of it in photoshop- especially if your boards aren't consistent in size and scale.

As for exporting with Avid codec: I haven't had to do that since my last job but I don't remember having any problems with it. The trick was getting all of the export settings to match what the Avid was set to work with. Even if you can't get that to work it should still take movies with different settings. It will just take longer for it to import/convert.

Considering all of the editing tools and motion capabilities of Final Cut I can't believe people still rely on a Adobe Premiere. Especially since Adobe gave up on the Mac version years ago. It's funny how Adobe somehow lost both feet and frames and auto scaling/warp to fit of still images when they upgraded to Premiere Pro for Windows. I never found feet and frames that important anyway- the math isn't that hard to figure out with a conversion chart taped to my monitor.

<<<with a conversion chart taped to my monitor.>>>

But it has to be a *designer* chart on Parchment Simulation and Graded Pewter accents and Original Garamond BT font with drop shadow.

The PC people can have a hand-written PostIt®.

Koz

[But it has to be a *designer* chart on Parchment Simulation and Graded Pewter accents and Original Garamond BT font with drop shadow.]

Yes, and your point?

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Do a virtual Audio Mixdown to lighten playback load with Command-Option-R!

The FCP HD KeyGuide?: your power placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central
www.neotrondesign.com

It seems that the resizing issue is covered, but not the Avid codec issue.

[www.avid.com]

I have used the Avid codec when going between Avid and FCP. Actually, it seems to me that the bottleneck is the speed at which Avid import/exports QuickTime files that are not using their codec. If I don't need to go into or out of an Avid I'd pick another codec.

By the way, what's the problem with using FCP for animatics? I edited the previsualization for "The Day After Tomorrow" on FCP and had no problems.

--Dan

Right on, Dan!

The Avid codec is provided by Avid and written by them, using QuickTime architecture, and it's available in any QuickTime-savvy app, from Player Pro, to After Effects, to FCP. I currently show 4 flavors of Avid Export available: Avid 1:1x, Avid DV, Avid Meridien Compressed and Uncompressed.

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Do a virtual Audio Mixdown to lighten playback load with Command-Option-R!

The FCP HD KeyGuide?: your power placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central
www.neotrondesign.com

Ahh .. from the site Dan linked

"Be aware that exporting using the Meridien Codec in AE any size other than 720x486 will fail. 720x486 (D1 NTSC) is the only supported size for the Meridien Codec. As a note, a common alternative to the Meridien codec for exchange with AE is the Animation Codec."

So your widescreen size is not going to work at all maybe? Will the animation codec work between FCP and Avid?

PAL SD resolutions will also work fine, regardless of what Avid say ;-)

So you can do widescreen to Avid if your FCP sequence is set to 720x486 (or 720x576) anamorphic.

Martin Baker
www.digital-heaven.co.uk

Huh! Will wonders never cease...

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Do a virtual Audio Mixdown to lighten playback load with Command-Option-R!

The FCP HD KeyGuide?: your power placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central
www.neotrondesign.com

Hi all. Thanks for all the advice. I decided to just resize all my images to 854x720 in photoshop after I crop everything and that took care of teh full screen issue. But I wasn't too specific on why I can't use the avid codec.. my bad. The issue is I have to make an Avid Meridian Compressed 14:1p RGB Quicktime. Now I can output to quicktime using the Avid Meridian Compressed codec... but when I change the options from the defaul 2:1 601 settings to match the 14:1p RGB it doesn't hold the settings. So in face even after I change it I still can only get a 2:1 601 file. I don't have this issue in Premiere.. only FCP.

Hi Tim,

> The issue
> is I have to make an Avid Meridian Compressed 14:1p RGB
> Quicktime. Now I can output to quicktime using the Avid
> Meridian Compressed codec... but when I change the options from
> the defaul 2:1 601 settings to match the 14:1p RGB it doesn't
> hold the settings. So in face even after I change it I still
> can only get a 2:1 601 file. I don't have this issue in
> Premiere.. only FCP.

Humm--I was able to make 24fps 14:1 Avid QuickTime files. It was a while back but if memory serves me I had to create a sequence setting with the right video options. If you are using "File > Export > Using QuickTime Conversion..." the settings won't be saved.

Of course something may have changed with QT-7, FCP-5 that broke it. Then again Avid never did play well with QuickTime and it might be a problem with the Avid codec.

--Dan

Why doesn't FCP have an Output Module system you can name and save, like in AE?

One workaround for me is to code a simple QuicKey (www.startly.com) which automatically selects all the export settings I need. These shortcuts can be named and assigned to "deep" key commands (i.e.: Control-Option-Command 1,2,3 on the keypad, which is also easy to press). That's been good, but I haven't tested it in FCP5.

Quickeys has been around forever and has never conflicted with either FCP or Avid, and has enhanced my work in both. Absolutely indespensable.

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Do a virtual Audio Mixdown to lighten playback load with Command-Option-R!

The FCP HD KeyGuide?: your power placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central
www.neotrondesign.com

"Why doesn't FCP have an Output Module system you can name and save, like in AE"

i use sequnce presets for this, as Dan sugests
when you export, export to QTMovie, select your sequnce preset from the "Settings" pulldown.

it might not cover everything.

and then there's compressor.
i dont know if "Export using Compressor" is still a problem under FCP5, QT7 + Comp2
but if it is, export as QTMovie, ref only, drop on a Compressor droplet

cheers,
nick