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5D mark II with FCP 7 with MBP 2.93GHz - no real time effects ?

joecool99

joecool99

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Original poster
Aug 20, 2008
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USA
i've original H.264 at 1920x1080 footage from 5D mark II in latest FCP 7.

i'm really bumped that i cannot see an effect that i can review in real time!
Something as simply as applying slow motion, 30% speed, the time-line bar does RED and when i try to play the clip it says UNRENDERED.

Why is that ? Doesn't it supposed to manage to calculate stuff like that in real time ?

What am i doing wrong ? I remember when i fooled around in Adobe Premiere CS4, it does pretty much all stuff in real-time preview.

MBP 2.93GHz, 8GB RAM. the footage is on FW 800 RAID 0 drive.
 
H.264 is not a supported Real Time codec in FCP and isn't a good codec to use for editing anyway. The standard workflow is to transcode the h.264 files into ProRes.


Lethal
 
Thanks. i didn't know that only certain codecs are supported real-time preview.
I'm encoding it into ProRes 422 now.

ps: is there a ROLLING SHUTER plug-in fix for FCP 7 ? I know there is one of Adobe aftereffects.

If not, what would be the best workflow order ?
5D raw H.264 footage -> compressor to ProRes -> After Effects rolling shutter = cleaned up RAW footage ?
Will AE save it as ProRes, preserving the right codec ?
 
Reimported the ProRes files. Speed changes are now previewed in real-time.
However, simple stuff as color correcting still asks to render.

Is that normal ?
 
joecool99 said:
Reimported the ProRes files. Speed changes are now previewed in real-time.
However, simple stuff as color correcting still asks to render.

Is that normal ?
Click to expand...

Not sure if it's normal, but I dohave the same problem with ProRes encoded footage from my 7D in FCP. Even just adding text overlays forces it to render.
 
Realtime effects render Adobe Premiere CS4 vs. FCP 7

Very disappointing to hear. I wanted to give FCP a chance, but honestly this poor support of real time rendering is far behind Adobe Premiere.
Isn't there a setting that will enable render real time preview properly ?

Even lower quality and less fps ?
 
joecool99 said:
Very disappointing to hear. I wanted to give FCP a chance, but honestly this poor support of real time rendering is far behind Adobe Premiere.
Isn't there a setting that will enable render real time preview properly ?

Even lower quality and less fps ?
Click to expand...
Are you sequence settings correct? Have you tried adjusting the properties in the RT menu (button labeled "RT" on the left hand side of the Sequence above the video track names). The 3-way Color Corrector is one of the effects that should be real time, but if you drop it on a speed changed clip you'll probably get a render bar.


Lethal
 
LethalWolfe said:
Are you sequence settings correct? Have you tried adjusting the properties in the RT menu (button labeled "RT" on the left hand side of the Sequence above the video track names). The 3-way Color Corrector is one of the effects that should be real time, but if you drop it on a speed changed clip you'll probably get a render bar.

Lethal
Click to expand...

Sequence settings ? Please explain. I tried some other settings in the RT, but it doesn't seem to effect anything.

Yes, if i combine color with speed change for example, it asks for render. Is that really all it can do ? Are film editors really working this way and rendering everything 20x till they get it right since you cannot see decent real-time preview ??? I just don't get it.
 
joecool99 said:
Sequence settings ? Please explain. I tried some other settings in the RT, but it doesn't seem to effect anything.
Click to expand...
The settings (codec, frame rate, frame size, etc.,) of your sequence (aka timeline) have to match the footage you use exactly otherwise you are telling FCP to render the source footage to match the sequence. Have you changed the default rendering quality to High Precision YUV? What color are the render bars you are getting? You've gone from Safe RT to Unlimited RT and changed the w/the frame rate and image quality settings and nothing changed?

I have a first gen Mac Pro and w/a 1920x1080 ProRes 422 clip, sitting on a normal, internal eSATA drive, I applied a 200% speed change, 4 text layers, and 20 3-Way Color Correction filters. W/RT Set to Safe and the frame rate and image quality set to dynamic I get a green render bar. The playback is slightly stuttery and the image quality is a little soft but it's more than good enough to see what's going on. I then double the ProRes 422 clip (including all 20 CC filters) onto track 2 and dropped the opacity to 50% and that get me a red render bar. I changed the RT setting to Unlimited and it changed to an orange render bar. The frame rate and image quality were degraded even more but it was still clear enough to judge what was going on.

I don't know how the first gen Mac Pros compare to your MBP speed wise, but changing the RT settings should have a noticeable effect.

Yes, if i combine color with speed change for example, it asks for render. Is that really all it can do ? Are film editors really working this way and rendering everything 20x till they get it right since you cannot see decent real-time preview ??? I just don't get it.
Click to expand...
No offense, but going by this thread so far I'd say you don't get it because you don't know how to use it.


Lethal
 
LethalWolfe said:
The settings (codec, frame rate, frame size, etc.,) of your sequence (aka timeline) have to match the footage you use exactly otherwise you are telling FCP to render the source footage to match the sequence. Have you changed the default rendering quality to High Precision YUV? What color are the render bars you are getting? You've gone from Safe RT to Unlimited RT and changed the w/the frame rate and image quality settings and nothing changed?

I have a first gen Mac Pro and w/a 1920x1080 ProRes 422 clip, sitting on a normal, internal eSATA drive, I applied a 200% speed change, 4 text layers, and 20 3-Way Color Correction filters. W/RT Set to Safe and the frame rate and image quality set to dynamic I get a green render bar. The playback is slightly stuttery and the image quality is a little soft but it's more than good enough to see what's going on. I then double the ProRes 422 clip (including all 20 CC filters) onto track 2 and dropped the opacity to 50% and that get me a red render bar. I changed the RT setting to Unlimited and it changed to an orange render bar. The frame rate and image quality were degraded even more but it was still clear enough to judge what was going on.

I don't know how the first gen Mac Pros compare to your MBP speed wise, but changing the RT settings should have a noticeable effect.

No offense, but going by this thread so far I'd say you don't get it because you don't know how to use it.
Lethal
Click to expand...

When i dragged the clip over, i was asked to adjust the sequence attributes to the clip settings, so i believe it's right.

Now, when switched from SAFE RT to UNLIMITED, it actually renders color and speed changed. The top timeline bar is red. What does the color of the bar indicates ? Does it estimate performance ? For some reason it's never green.

Unless i changed the video quality to medium, then the bar goes green.

Guilty as charged, i've spend only few hours with FCP. I;m just finding out what does what. Thank you.

The unlimited RT forces the system to render all as best ignoring the video preference playback ?
 

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Check out Chapter 28 in the FCP manual, it explains everything about how RT works in FCP and all the settings. The complete manual is included w/FCP as a PDF under the "Help" menu in FCP.


Lethal
 
TH3D4RKKN1GH7 said:
You see this plug in here the E1
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/c...ategoryid=139&modelid=17662#DownloadDetailAct

Download it and install it.

Rendering takes a while, now you see why it takes movies like Transformers 2 so long to edit. Imagine waiting a whole 24 hours for a couple of seconds to render.
Click to expand...

This plugin doesn't address the rolling shutter does it ?

film hi-end 3D rendering is a bit different in comparison to few effects on a RAW video footage.
 
joecool99 said:
This plugin doesn't address the rolling shutter does it ?

film hi-end 3D rendering is a bit different in comparison to few effects on a RAW video footage.
Click to expand...

You're probably thinking about this plugin:

http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/pkg_overview.aspx?ui=47C4AB50-4636-4326-87D1-FB380B2119EF

It will help a little with skew and such, but the main purpose of the plugin is for motion tracking.


As for your rendering issues, as suggested earlier, take some time reading the Final Cut documentation. It really sounds like you're completely unfamiliar with the software.
 
FCP 7 preview quality and export output

i'm confused about the quality i get in previews and exported clips compared to the original clip.

What am i doing wrong ? The footage was from 5D mark II transcoded to ProRes at 720 x 486.

the time-line has green bar, the RT set to high quality. the sequence has 720 x 480 (for some reason i cannot match it the 720 x 486) ???

from the screen shot you see the quality difference, same clip.
 

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