Nick Fox-Gieg's Tutorials » Final Cut

Log and Transfer

Nick — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:55:40 +0000

Up through the mid-’00s, we used to capture footage in realtime from tape. If you think about it, “capture” is an exciting and dangerous sort of word which implies you’re getting a hunting party together and it might come back empty-handed. Now we “ingest” footage by copying it in non-realtime (that is, faster than) from memory cards and hard drives…which to me suggests a much more relaxing process, one that happens after a nice meal. However, it’s a bit of an arcane process in Final Cut:

Step 1. Choose File / Log and Transfer.

Step 2. Click this obscure icon to import files.

Step 3. Click this other obscure icon to view your Preferences.

Step 4. Check to see if your camera shoots “24pa” or “24psf” video. If so, you’ll need these extra steps. (Traditional camcorders are more likely than DSLRs to have this issue.) ProRes is a good default choice for your video codec.

Step 5. Select the clips you want to transfer, or else choose Edit / Select all.

Step 6. When you’ve made your selections, choose Add Selection to Queue to begin transferring.

Step 7. Once you’ve transferred your clips, click on your Sequence.

Step 8. Go to Sequence / Settings.

Step 9. The default settings probably won’t be what you want, so click Load Sequence Preset.

Step 10. Most modern cameras in North America will work nicely with Apple ProRes 422 1920×1080 24p 48KHz as your preset.

Step 11. After loading the preset, your settings should look like this.

…and you should be ready to edit. Be sure to back up your original video files!

Reverse telecine 24p

Nick — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:36:55 +0000

In 2012, interlaced video will be 90 years old, so little wonder it’s a hard standard to completely get rid of. Many great cameras capable of shooting true 24p video still have to save the images in interlaced formats (confusingly called “24pa” or “24psf”—essentially the same thing). But this is only a temporary inconvenience; with a bit of extra effort it’s possible to perfectly reconstruct the 24p original:

Step 1. Choose File / Log and Transfer.

Step 2. Click this obscure icon to import files.

Step 3. Click this other obscure icon to view your Preferences.

Step 4. Make sure Remove Advanced Pulldown and Duplicate Frames is checked. Use ProRes as your video codec.

Step 5. Select the clips you want to transfer, or else choose Edit / Select all.

Step 6. When you’ve made your selections, choose Add Selection to Queue to begin transferring.

Step 7. Once you’ve transferred your clips, click on your Sequence.

Step 8. Go to Sequence / Settings.

Step 9. The default settings probably won’t be what you want, so click Load Sequence Preset.

Step 10. Choose Apple ProRes 422 1920×1080 24p 48KHz as your preset.

Step 11. After loading the preset, your settings should look like this.

Step 12. When you add clips to your sequence, you’ll be presented with this warning. Be sure to click no.

Step 13. The thin green bar indicates that a realtime reverse telecine effect has been applied. You should now be able to view and export clean deinterlaced frames.

Setting up a Final Cut Project

Nick — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 18:54:42 +0000

A lot of common problems in video editing can be avoided if you make sure you’re using the proper settings each time you create a new project. This is especially important to get right if you’re capturing from or recording to tape–typically, there’s only one combination of settings that will work for any given hardware device.

Settings to watch for include the size of your image in pixels, the number of frames per second, and the type of codec (a set of instructions the computer follows to draw your video on the screen) used. There are also some more arcane details to keep track of, having to do with how your video will display on an analog TV.

Fortunately, modern editing software spares you from memorizing all this stuff; in most cases you can just pick a preset off a list. However, you still have to be vigilant, because the same potential for trouble exists whenever these many variables aren’t all just right. The following advice is for Final Cut, but the principle’s the same for most comparable programs.

Step 1. The first thing you should do when starting a new project is go to the Easy Setup menu:

Step 2. Pick your preset off the pop-up list. For North America and parts of Asia, DV-NTSC is a good default choice. (You might need another option on this list; check your camera hardware or ask a friend for help.)

That’s it–all new sequences you create for this project will now conform to the settings you chose. If you’d like to change settings for an existing sequence, you have a few more steps left.

Step 3. Double-click your sequence in the Browser window to open it:

Step 4. Choose Settings from the Sequence menu:

Step 5. Click on Load Sequence Preset:

Step 6. You’ll see another list of presets, more extensive than in Easy Setup. Choose the one you need:

Remember, if you’re not sure what settings you need, ask before starting your project! At present, some settings for a Final Cut sequence already in progress can’t be changed. (Timebase, or frame rate, is a particular offender.) This limitation isn’t shared by other editing programs, and I hope it’ll be fixed in a future version of Final Cut.

Simple Masks in Final Cut

Nick — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 02:48:20 +0000

If you’d like to put a mask around your video in Final Cut, you can do it easily with a quick trip to Photoshop. ( By the way, this trick will work in almost any video editing program.)

Step 1. Create a new image in Photoshop. For NTSC video (the standard in North America and part of Asia), make it 720 x 540. For PAL video (the standard in the rest of the world), make it 768 x 576. As you can see below, Photoshop helpfully offers these sizes as menu options.

Note: If these dimensions seem a little different from what you’re used to, remember that many modern video formats (DV and DVD, for example) are anamorphic. That means they require a “squished,” or distorted, recorded image, which they restore to normal size when they play back. We’re using the proper unsquished dimensions to create our masks; Final Cut will take care of the resizing automatically.

Step 2. Make your mask. Use black for any areas you want completely blocked, and white for any areas you want completely visible.

Step 3. Drop the mask image onto your Final Cut timeline, placing it on a new track above your original video.

Step 4. Right-click (or control-click, on a one-button mouse) on the mask clip to bring up the Composite Mode menu. Choose Multiply.

Step 5. Your original video on the track below should now be visible through the mask.

Still Images in Final Cut

Nick — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 21:23:10 +0000

Importing hundreds or thousands of still images into an editing or animation program is a pretty ordinary task. Final Cut makes it an unnecessarily complicated process, but it can be done:

Step 1. Go to your Sequence Settings.

Step 2. Set your sequence resolution and framerate to match your still images. Notice that there’s no straightforward way to set low frame rates like 12 or 10fps, common in animation. For now, if your desired framerate isn’t offered, pick the closest even multiple. If you would like 12fps, for example, you’ll need to pick 24. Yeah, hold on, it gets better.

Step 3. Go to your User Preferences.

Step 4. In the Editing tab, set your Still/Freeze Duration to the existing frame rate divided by your desired frame rate. If you were able to set the frame rate you wanted in Step 2, then your Still/Freeze Duration should be 1 frame. If you wanted 12fps and had to settle for its closest multiple, 24, your Still/Freeze Duration should be 2 frames. Silly, isn’t it? But that’s what you’ve got to do.

Step 5. Create a new bin, and open it up.

Step 6. Making sure your new bin window is selected, import all your image files. (If you don’t select your bin window first, your still images won’t go into the bin, and the rest of this trick won’t work.)

Step 7. Drag and drop your entire bin onto your sequence timeline. The frames will now play back at their proper frame rate, ready for editing or rendering.