FCP help :(

[Brandon Fraley]

Ok, so in preparation for getting my new camera, I tried to learn how to edit .r3d files on my system (MBP 2.33ghz 2gig). I would have sworn I was told that editing red footage was not possible in FCP 5, but to my delight it worked. I just installed the Final Cut plug in and it worked. The only problem was that when I imported the proxies, they wouldn't play back in real time and needed to be rendered. After they were rendered however, I could play back and edit the 2k proxies in a 1080 timeline in reatime. It was explained to me that in FCP 6 you didn't need to render the proxies, just drop them in and edit away.

So yesterday, as I had always intended, I went out an bought Final Cut Studio 2. I installed it last night and went to edit some red footage.

1) With FCP 5, I was pretty confused as to what sequence setting to use, so I ended up using the Apple Intermediate 1080 setting, which seemed to work. With FCP 6's Universal Timeline, I wasn't expecting to have to go through all the different sequence setting trying to find which one works with my footage, but i guess that's still how it works. I'm not sure which one I'm supposed to use.

2) No matter which sequence preferences I choose, whenever I bring in a proxy, of any size, they need to be rendered. I've been told that it only works when Unlimited Real Time is selected, which I tried, but then they play back very slow and I get the dropped frame message (which BTW is exactly how it worked in FCP 5)

So I'm hoping someone can point out what I'm doing wrong, but so far it seems like I just blew $1300 on FCP 6, when I could have continued to use FCP 5 for the same result.

Please help

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Brandon,

What computer are you using? Ram? Media Drives?

Did you set quality to low in addition to unlimited real time?

Edit: See you listed specs, sorry

 

[Bal Deo]

Hey Brandon,
Also it will be worth while reinstalling the RED quicktime codec. When you installed ver 6, With the fcp 2 installer the quicktime also get's re-installed, hence you will need to update your quicktime, since fcp 6 comes with ver 7.1 or some thing.

good luck

 

[Shawn Booth]

Brandon, are you also editing in high precision YUV?

Hard Drive/speed being used?

 

[Tim Sutherland]

I have the same MBP/setup, and i just set the YUV as Shawn mentioned then us the playback tab in system settings to set RT to Unlimited. It will drop frames with more than _M proxies, but if you uncheck the 'warn next time' box then it will play back as many frames as it can, then skip the rest.

 

[Brandon Fraley]

I have the same MBP/setup, and i just set the YUV as Shawn mentioned then us the playback tab in system settings to set RT to Unlimited. It will drop frames with more than _M proxies, but if you uncheck the 'warn next time' box then it will play back as many frames as it can, then skip the rest.

I set the YUV high precision thing... no difference.

Re-installed the quicktime plugin... no difference.

BTW, I'm getting about the same framerate whether im using the small proxy or the 2k proxy.

Also, what sequence setting am I suppose you use? and again, whats the point of the universal timeline if you have to select sequence settings?

I'm not being sarcastic when I asked what was the point of me buying FCP 6 when im getting the same results as 5? I'm hoping im doing something wrong.

 

[michael zaletel]

Brandon...Looks like you're rolling up your sleeves and digging in with both shovels. Let us know if you figure it out. As a consolation prize, you do now have Master Templates and a much improved smoot-cam filter with 6. ?

-shooter

 

[Tim Sutherland]

With universal timelines, they ask you if you want to change sequence settings to match the first clip you drag in (if it's different than current settings). They also automatically scale and letterbox other types of footage into that same timeline.

Here are my system settings and sequence settings as well:

When all is working, then you should have an orange bar on your timeline, not red:

However, when I import anything other than 4k_m or 2k_h (which are the same size) proxies, they don't work without rendering. Not sure why.

Actually,
I just tested it a bunch, and nothing worked but those two sizes, unless i put one of those in first, then dropped in the other, let fcp scale automatically, then deleted the original. So from what I can gather, the renderless playback only works at sequence settings of sizes 1024 x 512, then no matter what you drop in, click NO on the conform settings to clip settings, and then it will be automatically scalled to fit the window.

Hope this makes sense. So actually, you're not using the autoconform feature of the universal timelines, but scaling so you don't have to go in and change the size in the motion tab of each clip.

Hope this helps,
Tim

 

[Brandon Fraley]

thanks tim, im gunna try this

 

[Brandon Fraley]

It worked! Thank you!

I took a leap and changed the settings to 2048x1024, and when I dropped in a 4k_H clip it played back great, not PERFECT, but really good. Probably 18-22fps. Is there a way to see what framerate a clip is currently playing back at?

Since 2048x1024 doesn't play back 100%, I should probably stick with the 1k clips. Is there an easy way to conform to the 2k clips?

Also, I've dumped different sizes into that timeline and it doesn't pop up a dialog box like you described.

 

[Tim Sutherland]

yeah, it only pops up if it's the first clip in an empty timeline. shortly after i posted i tried going bigger, which worked as well. But i tried to put the full 4k file, and final cut crashed, so now i know not to do that anymore. haha. the 2k_F proxies play fine but when still, the canvass looks all green/four frames per window/wierd effect thing.

Glad you got it working. I don't think there's an FPS monitor in FCP, since i found one in motion but not final cut, too bad. but you can watch the timecode counter under the sequence tab of the timeline and see a general idea of how fast it's moving.

 

[Nick Gallegos]

Brandon,

Don't feel too bummed out. Even my 2.6GHz MBP with 4GB RAM is pretty sluggish when viewing/editing 2K proxies in real time. You really need an 8-core Mac Pro to get 2K proxies working smoothly. You might even try setting the RT playback quality to "low" instead of "dynamic" and see if that helps a bit. Besides, it's going to be difficult to discern the differences in playback quality on small viewer/canvas windows on a laptop.

If you want to edit the 1K proxies and conform to 2K, I'd try out the Crimson workflow. You first export an XML of your sequence from FCP and Crimson will help you match your 1K proxies to the original R3D files. Then, you can conform to 2K in Redcine and roundtrip everything back into FCP. Very neat program.

 

[Brandon Fraley]

yeah that's probably what I'll do when the time comes. doesn't sound too difficult. in the mean time the 1k edit will be fine for dvd which is really whats important for me until a screening is needed.