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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

from FCP to AE for 4K out - a workflow!

K

Kenn Michael

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So now that we have the Adobe suite reading R3Ds natively, I thought I'd try out a workflow experiment that I've been thinking about ever since I found out that Premiere Pro CS4 can now import XMLs from Final Cut.

Well it worked, and here's how to cut in FCP and get to a complete 4K conform in After Effects for DPX output (or anything else you want to export from AE)

1. Use RedRushes to transcode your footage to 1K for an offline edit in FCP. (Make sure to have all your transcoded files in one main directory. For this example we'll call this directory - FOOTAGE)
2. Edit normally in FCP.
3. Export an XML from your offline edit.
4. Open the XML in the wonderful app Clipfinder.
5. Use Clipfinder to 'convert MOV to R3D'.
6. Select all the clips in the Clipfinder window, then Cmd-C (to copy the list)
7. Create a new folder in the finder which you can call your 'Neg Pull' (name doesn't matter for the moment)
8. Cmd-V (to paste the list of just the used shots in the cut to the new folder)
9. Create a folder called 'FOOTAGE - Offline' and MOVE the 1K offline QT movies to it. Your 'FOOTAGE' folder should now be empty.
10. Use the spotlight function in the finder to find the .R3D files in the 'Neg Pull' folder. You should now just have a bunch of .R3D files in a list.
11. Move that list of .R3D files into the 'FOOTAGE' folder.
12. Open up the offline XML in a text editor and do a 'Find/Replace' where you find every instance of ".mov" and replace it with "_001.R3D".
13. Open PremierePro and import this altered XML.

If everything goes right, you'll now have a sequence that instead of pointing to 1K ProRes files, it will connect to the folder of R3D files in the 'FOOTAGE' folder.

Now, you can do the new Adobe workflow to preview the cut and make sure that everything came over correctly, copy/paste into a 4K sequence, change your resolution settings to Full on all R3D files, import into AE and adjust to taste before exporting to glorious 4K DPXs!

Whew, that was a lot, and I hope it made sense. I'm sure that someone will write a brilliant little app or plugin to do all this automatically, but the above workflow works today and works great!
 
Good one Ken, I'll try this later today.
I agree, Clipfinder is fantastic.
Perhaps Hans could incorporate your ideas into Clipfinder.
 
There is a new beta on my server at http://www.daun.ch/software/Clipfinder2.1.9.beta.zip.
When you select "Run Conform on FCP XML file" you will see that there is now an option to conform to "R3D".
This will do what Kenn described.
You need to point the "Clip Directory" to a folder that contains your original RED material (i.e. the .R3D files).

Let me know how it works for you.

Cheers,
Hans
 
Nice...
 
Hans-Georg Daun said:
There is a new beta on my server at http://www.daun.ch/software/Clipfinder2.1.9.beta.zip.
When you select "Run Conform on FCP XML file" you will see that there is now an option to conform to "R3D".
This will do what Kenn described.
You need to point the "Clip Directory" to a folder that contains your original RED material (i.e. the .R3D files).

Let me know how it works for you.

Cheers,
Hans
Click to expand...

Wow, that's AMAZING Hans! Thanks! I'll try it out later today.
 
Ricardo Mehedff said:
Even the new and improved L&T transfer using the native redcode? does it still stay slow?
Click to expand...

Yes, unless you're using L&T to transcode to ProRes, which in that case RedRushes gives more options when transcoding.

Ricardo Mehedff said:
but do you have to go through premiere to go to AE? what about going straight from FCP to AE?
Click to expand...

I don't think (AFAIK) that AE can directly import FCP XMLs. Haven't tried it. What I like about importing to Premiere is that Premiere has realtime playback on the timeline. This allows you to be able to playback your conformed cut, make sure everything is synced properly with sound anmake any last minute changes before going to AE.
 
With this workflow, is the color-correction being done in After Effects? (I don't use After Effects, so I don't know much about color-correction within that app.)
 
Yes, Premiere can edit without transcoding or manipulating, but for those who are more familiar cutting with FCP, this is a great workflow.

The main color correction would happen in After Effects, but some correction can happen in Premiere as well.
 
Isn't there a FCP XML to Premier exchange now that would essentially do this? I could be wrong but i thought this was already possible with that new FCP XML import in Premier, but I can't be positive. Could someone verify this?
 
Also there is FCPtoAE, it is a script for AE CS4 that will import the FCP XML. Right now I can import whatever I'm Editing in FCP to AE, easy.

But if I want to Edit in _H Proxy, then Online to R3D in Clipfinder, save XML and impor into AE, I have to relink all R3d's manually in AE CS4.
 
I think AE must work in 32bit float mode to work with all the raw data in the r3d files, right?
Because then, 4k 32bit must be a real pain to work with, I mean, how much ram do you need to RAM Preview 1 second of footage?

Is there something I'm missing?
 
Yes 32bit allows you to work with the full latitude.

I have an 8-core with 16GB RAM. The only time all that memory is used is when using multi-processor rendering.

I haven't done many tests regarding RAM usage and preview... If you're viewing at 25% and quarter resolution (basically 1K), the response time is very fast and you can preview 20 seconds at a time. 4K obviously is much slower depending on what fx you have going.
 
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