FCP Import into PPro Questions. (From Adobe)

[David McGavran]

What would meet your needs best in converting a Final Cut project to a Premiere Project?


User 1: 4k footage edited on a FCP 2K sequence.

1. Bring the sequence over to Premiere Pro at 4K (native frame size).

2. Bring sequence over as a 2K sequence, with the footage scaled to 2K

*
Option 1: Scale to 2k in Premiere Pro using "Scale to Frame Size" preference. Best for the user who is exporting to 2k anyway. The user wants to work in a 2k timeline, and this will work better if there is native 2k footage. By scaling to framesize we will take advantage of fractional resolution, but potentially loose some quality.
*
Option 2: Scale to 2k in Premiere Pro using "Motion" scaling. This gives better quality, but at a cost in performance. In this case the full 4K resolution is accessed for all effects, renders, and exports.




User 2: Mixed footage (4K, 2K) on a 2K FCP sequence
1. Bring the sequence over to Premiere Pro at 4K.

*
Option 1: do not scale 2k footage to 4K. Here the 2k footage that filled the FCP timeline would not fill the 4k Premiere Pro timeline.
*
Option 2: Scale 2K footage to 4K. Scaling up to 4k could be inefficient and a quality concern

2. Bring sequence over as a 2K sequence, with the 4K footage scaled to 2K. The same scaling option as User 1.


User 3: 4K footage edited on a HD sequence
1. Match the the Final cut sequence in PremierPro. this is always the best option, correct?


Would import options be useful?
Example:
Import as 4K footage?
Place on matching Sequence?
Scale non-matching media using?
- Scale to Frame Size (better performance)
- Motion scalling (better quality)


Please respond ASAP with nice short comments that I can collate.

Thanks

Dave

 

[Uli Plank]

Well, if I edit in FCP at all, I would switch to PPro because of it's full use of the original source and the integration with AE for VFX. That said, I'd rather have it scale on the fly to frame size and keep my source until I get into AE, if needed.

I'd also like to be able to always check my focus in full size as still.

Plus, I don't consider color grading in the CS5 suite perfect, but now that we have Resolve, I'd rather grade there and still keep the source connected. Resolve is a great companion to PPro, using the same CUDA cards, and it has an excellent scaling (plus, rotation or cropping). So, I'd rather keep that quality till the final rendering.

Hope I understood your questions well.

 

[shashbugu]

User 3:
This is the best option. it is the fastest and lightest for an FCP user.
Along with the import as 4k footage, one should also have the option to import mixed non matching formats and media (eg HDSLR).

 

[Obin Olson]

We need options. I would like "scale to frame size" with an OPTION to RENDER FROM FULL 4k and an OPTION to RENDER FINAL from 4k as needed. this covers all needs.

 

[Obin Olson]

what happens is that FRACTIONAL although nice, does not show you the full quality, and when you pushing an r3d around with color etc you can start to see BAD grain and BLUE noise spots etc WITHOUT FULL debayer. so we need to be able to as needed ENABLE ALL renders to use FULL DEBAYER as needed.

 

[D Fuller]

I'm thread-jacking here, but I'm much more interested in getting Avid projects into the Adobe world. My main edit houses are Avid houses, but on projects that can't afford Nice Shoes or Company 3, I'd like more easily to be able to provide better-corrected material.

I use the Adobe suite, and would be happy to correct a spot in AE with Synthetic Aperture, but it's tedious to read the EDL manually.

 

[shashbugu]

what happens is that FRACTIONAL although nice, does not show you the full quality, and when you pushing an r3d around with color etc you can start to see BAD grain and BLUE noise spots etc WITHOUT FULL debayer. so we need to be able to as needed ENABLE ALL renders to use FULL DEBAYER as needed.

I agree with Obin. I have noticed this exact problem in , Redcine-X, AE, and Premiere. I am not sure what it is. Its as if your ability to retrieve color data is lost once you are in half debayer.

 

[Brad Allen]

Import options would definitley be my preference for this. I can see circumstances changing which option I use.

In most cases, I think I would be wanting to generate 4K sequences in PPro - that would be one of the key reasons I was pulling it across from FCP.

I also don't think I would ever be wanting to use a fractional resolution for grading or final output. I could see it being used for preview purposes but in that case, why not just pull it in as a 4K sequence and adjust your playback resolution? Possibley the motion scaling vs fractional scaling could be useful as an option on export. For quick draft exports for clients, one could have Premiere use simple frame scaling and then after final approval motion scaling could be used for the final export.

As a side note, I have always found Premiere Pro's scaling algorithms to be pretty poor. Not sure if this has been improved in CS5 but I used to have to pull projects through to After Effects to get down-scaling I was happy with.

By the way, it is so cool that you guys are asking for user opinions at the moment. I love it!