Anamorphic sequence settings problems w/ a little XML thrown in

After searching long and hard and finding similar problems, yet without seeming to find a solution to mine, I humbly post this.
I have been using FCP since version 1.0 and usually been able to solve all problems, but this one has me vexed.
I am in a major bind. I have a project which needs to be delivered today and I can't figure this out.
I am working on a film shot 16:9. My loading and sequences have all been tagged approriately as DV NTSC 48K Anamorphic. I finished editing the film with no problems until it came time to get notes from the (admittedly) computer-phobe director.
Instead of notes, the director asked if she could take a crack at doing revisions. I never see my family, so I said "have at it!" I backed up my sessions to my internal drive and gave her the firewire drive containing session copies and all loaded footage.
She played around for a week and then told me she could not see the forest for the trees, so could I (quickly) please smooth out the new version and do a compromise between it and the original.
At that point we discovered that she was using FCP 5.0. I am still happily using version 4.5. I got her to export the new version of the sequence as an XML file, which I imported into FCP 4.5 on my system, reconnecting to the media on the drive.
Sorry for that long set up. Here's where the problems start.
The director didn't simply duplicate my sequence and make changes. She created a new sequence and cut and paste portions of mine into it, then added her own parts.
Only she had no idea how to set up FCP properly.
Her new sequence was created as a 4:3. When she pasted footage from mine into hers, it became letterboxed.
I changed the sequence setting to anamorphic, but it just squishes the footage, leaving the matte at the top and bottom.
Upon further inspection, it seems that none of the clips (reconnected from the footage which I originally loaded) is tagged as anamorhic either. (!?) If I retag it, it makes no difference. BUT IT'S THE SAME FOOTAGE I LOADED, WHICH STILL LOOKS FINE IN MY ORIGINAL SEQUENCE!!
She's made too many changes, and her sequence is way too much of a mess with footage everywhere and audio and video disconnected everywhere to reconstruct it easily.
I have to have locked picture by tomorrow!
Why is this happening? Do I have to go back into her FCP 5.0 session to fix this? I'm still running 4.5 (and in the middle of several projects -- I don't want to upgrade now).
Someone please help.
G4 733 Mhz 1GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Final Cut Pro HD 4.5

Well I discovered the solution finally.
Besides the fact that the seq was 4:3 and not one clip was tagged as anamorphic, I discovered that every single individual clip now had an aspect ratio setting of -33.33 in each clip's respective motion tab. Setting that back at zero for each clip, resetting each clip to anamorphic and changing the seq setting to anamorphic and -- voila! Everything is back to normal.
It seems that when you drop anamorphic footage into a 4:3 timeline, it unchecks the anamorphic tag for that footage and changes the clip's aspect ratio setting to create the letterbox effect. Unfortunately this will have to be reset on each clip to get it back to normal.
I'm glad this is just a short and not a feature. What a pain.

Similar Messages

FCP sequence settings problem.. plz help?

Hi i'm trying to set up my sequence so i can submit a tv show pilot..
I'm trying to go by the technical requirements butI'm having trouble..
the Footage is 1920 x 1090
25 f/s
compressor: H.264
as for the seqience settings... i entered them as i have to for the show requirements.
but for some reason it looks like this...
how come there are bars on both sides?
please help

Banky007 wrote:
how come there are bars on both sides?
Because you have anamorphic checked on your sequence settings. If you have described you source material correctly, you need to un-check anamorphic in your sequence settings. Once you do that, then contol-click on any clips you have on the timeline, and from the drop down menu choose Revmove Attributes. When the Remove Attributes pane opens, check Basic Motion and Distort ( if they are not grayed out) and click OK.
And as Mr. Ross has said, you do not want to be working in H,264 in FCP7. If you need to deliver in H,264, then edit In ProRes and when done, export a Quicktime and convert it in Compressor to H.264.
MtD

Sequence settings problem

Hi,
I'm just about done with a project that has 22 sequences...all shot on a sony HDV camera. Everything looks great except the first sequence...it has different sequence settings then the rest. When I go to change that sequence to match the others (HD 1440x1080) it letterboxes it and puts the clips in a tiny rectangle in the middle of the window. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance!
Molly

You cannot change the settings when video is in the sequence.
Try copying all the video/audio on your sequence. Delete it. Then make your sequence changes. Then paste the video/audio back to the sequence.
If that doesn't work try fixing your first clip. copy it. Select the remaining video. Hit Option V. Select Basic Motion. You may have to adjust some clips depending on your edits.
Good luck.

Does Final Cut X's Project Properties have an equivalent of FCP 7's NTSC CCIR 601 (anamorphic) Sequence Settings?

I work with a lot of remote freelance production vendors and manage productions that they are doing for me. I am not yet working in FCX, and only one of my vendors is using it.
The issue is that none of his footage is HD, but a lot of it is 16:9 SD anamorphic, or SD 4:3 footage that he might choose to stretch or enlarge to fill the widescreen frame. He created his project as a 1080 HD project. I am concerned that putting all this SD footage into an HD timeline will distort the footage from the get-go by blowing it up unnecessarily. I can't see anything good happening by blowing up footage only to shrink it back down to resolution for DVD encoding.
Final Cut 7 allows you to keep such footage at its native resolution through the NTSC CCIR 601 (anamorphic 16:9) Sequence Setting. Does Final Cut X allow you to do the same thing, and how do I talk my producer through the steps needed to do it? Does he need to start over with a new project?

Go to the Project Library and right click the project then choose "Show Properties" from the drop-down menu to bring up the Inspector. Click the little wrench icon to bring up the settings dialog. Change the settings to SD Anamorphic or 4:3 and the appropriate framerate.
Upscaling to HD is completely useless when dealing with SD footage going to DVD.

Annoying Sequence Settings Problem!

Hi,
I have a short film I'm working on and each scene is a different sequence. I would like to include them all in one sequence so I can see how it all plays together but whenever I copy and paste the entirety of one sequence's clips into another, the pasted clips become distorted and cropped. All the scenes were shot with the same exact camera on the same settings and in their respective sequences, they look the same.
User Preferences > Editing > Auto Conform Sequence does nothing no matter what I switch it to!I would really appreciate some help with this! This short's been delayed for months and months and it just won't end!
Please help me figure out how to include all the scenes in one sequence!

I'm well aware of how it should be. Working with two editors, I assume mistakes were made and settings were mixed with. Thanks for the help anyway but I just manually resized all the clips myself with no pixelation issues so I solved my problem.
Message was edited by: Aeonstars

What are the best sequence settings for anamorphic?

sorry for the long explanation....
i have a project that was shot 16:9. my question is what is the best sequence setting to use so that when i export it to tape it will look right on a regular TV? on the FCP viewer it looks right with either setting. the difference is that if i choose a regular sequence setting ("anamorphic" unchecked), the video clips need to be rendered (it's green, but it will limit my ability to add effects and watch them without rendering). therefore i would prefer to use the anamorphic setting that does not need rendering. However, when i export the movie it comes out stretched (and only works with TV that has an anamorphic setting).
Can i edit the whole project with the anamorphic sequence setting and in the end copy it to a regular sequence without it becoming stretched?
i tried this on a little test sequence and it appeared to work, but i'm afraid that if the project becomes elaborate... well, last time i tried editing an anamorphic sequence (a while back, on FCP 2) i had to redo my whole film cut by cut with a regular sequence setting and then render it anamorphic so that it will look right.... it simply didn't work to just cut and paste the project onto a new regular sequence (could this have happened because i had many effects?). it came out stretched as it would when you merely uncheck the "anamorphic" box. has this been solved in the newer versions?

Your settings -- between the Compressor, Pixel Aspect Ratio and Frame Size -- are oil-and-water.
If this is going to YouTube (meaning not going to be viewed on traditional TVs) and it's mainly Photos, try using this:
Frame Size: 1280x720
Aspect Ratio: HDTV 720p
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square
Editing Timebase: 29.97
Compressor: Motion JPEG A
Quality: 100% (though in a lot of cases, you could drag this down to about 75-80% and quality will not suffer)
Unfortunately, you won't get much (if any) real-time effects. Unless, of course, you're on FCP 6 or later, where you can use a ProRes compressor instead. But with your signature saying 10.4. something, I wasn't sure if it was safe to assume that. The Motion-JPEG setting should work in all versions.

Anamorphic sequence problem

i've run into this bug before and i'm curious if there are any workarrounds. i'm editing anamorphic DVCPRO50 clips in FCP 5.1.4. My usual workflow for using these (which works perfectly) is checking "anamorphic" under item properties --> format, and not altering any sequence settings.
occassionally, i forget to check the anamorphic box and cut my sequence while it's stretched. now, you would think you could just go back into item properties, check anamorphic and it would be fine, but that never seems to work. apparently, if you don't tell a sequence a clip is anamorphic before dropping it into the timeline, you can't tell FCP that it is anamorphic in the future ..?? This is silly!!
I just finished cutting a 40 minute show, realized it was stretched, and am now faced with re-cutting the whole thing. Are there any workarrounds?? I would really appreciate the help .. thanks!
cheers,
Adam

hmm - I was hopeful that fcp was applying a distort.
Have you checked the anamorphic settings in all places ?
Browser>rt click the clip>Item Props>Format (or Scroll across)
and rt click the clip in the tl>Item props>Format ?
I know the problem you're describing well - I deal with this all the time with field issues on clips. (I have to replace them if I forget to check fcp's interpretation on import.)

Sequence settings for digibeta anamorphic capture?

I will be capturing from digibeta where the image is 16x9 anamorphic, using an AJA Kona card. What capture settings and sequence settings must I use to properly deal with the anamorphic image? I am renting the editing suite so I do not have access to it now. I need to prepare still images and titles using the same sequence settings that I will be using to capture. Does the Kona card come with sequence presets that I would not have in final cut pro 5.1, and if so can I edit my sequence settings to match?
Thanks,
Mike

The templates can be found in the new image settings, under "film and video" from memory.
But you could save yourself some trouble, and possibly aspect issues with an older version of Photoshop, by just making a new image in Photoshop that is 1024 x 480 (NTSC land).
Paste your images into that as your template.
Technically the images size IS 720x480 in your project, and then stretched out, but giving it 1024 x 480 starts you at a higher resolution, and avoids any graphics changing shape.
Though FCP handles larger images, and you would be fine to just have all stills under 2000 pixels, and resize in FCP.
Sure it needs to render, but then again you can do non-loss moves into stills.
Oh, and as for presets;
I prefer to use good old ProRes(HQ) rather then card specific codecs.
This way you can archive the project to a harddrive and later edit or change in a suite with a blackmagic card, or even a cardless machine(as in capture card!).
I believe there is an anamorphic Prores(HQ) anamorphic SD option,
or at the very least you can duplicate a Prores setting and tick the anamorphic option!
If you had the harddrive bandwidth and space you could choose to go uncompressed?
Digital beta is about 2:1 10bit, so close to ProRes(HQ).
Uncompressed is best though, but takes space and speed!
FC

Sequence Settings, HD Export problems.

1. I'm importing a perfectly good quality Quicktime Movie segment of about
150 MB
1344x840
H.264 codec
Duration 00'55
...in which it's perfectly easy to read small print in the movie. The source audio/video comes from the game World of Warcraft, and has to be processed in Quicktime Player Pro first in order for FCE to recognize and be able to import the file.
2. I'm being forced to render a lot to see the effect of any of my editing, this may be due to the input does not match anything in the Sequence Settings - which I have mostly only tried
HDV Apple Intermediate Codec 720p30
HDV Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i50
HDV Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60
...I have no idea which ones I should be using, or if I should be using one of the confusing numbers of DV-PAL or DV-NTSC sequence settings. Since the video is closest to the 1280x720 of the 720p30 I've been using that.
3. End problem is that no matter what I do to the export settings, - I've spent about ten hours now trying different export formats - I always seem to lose a lot of quality in the process. The small text is not readable. The quality loss is simply too much for me to want to present the final product to anyone.
I'm currently trying to fiddle with export settings in QTP in order to hopefully evade having to do so much rendering in FCE, but so far no success. Any help would be much appreciated, as this has bothered me for a long time now, and may be enough cause for me to give up on FCE altogether.

Try this free third party app:
http://www.squared5.com/
You have to decide which format you want to work with in FCE and use that Easy Setup. Read the details when you are at the Easy Setup window, each are different to suit incoming audio and video.
Then use Streamclip to convert your original footage to conform to your chosen Easy Setup, audio rate and video size.
Al

This is a tough one! Problem with sequence settings....

OK...where to begin!
Here is some background (I have posted many questions about these issues and have resolved most of them, except this project)
1.Recently upgraded to 6.0.1
2. 'lost' my scratch disc (ok, I accidently deleted it)
3. All projects are OK to do without, except this one!
4. The footage for this project was from 2 cameras: one is DV and one is HD. The HD footage was downgraded to DV during capture from camera for the original project. Now, with 6.0.1, I bring it in HD and mix the footage on the same timeline with the DV (which is so cool and so much easier for me!) But I wanted to make sure and do the same thing I did for the original clips on this project, so when I just batch captured all the clips, I brought the HD in as DV. Both were shot wide screen.
This one sequence is 6 minutes long and I COULD recreate it, but it is very detailed and has a lot of filters, edits, etc. Here is the problem:
I did a batch capture on all the clips and successfully got all the clips back and the timeline plays, but the two different "cameras" footage looks different in the canvas: (the sequence settings are frame size: ntsc dv 3:2, pixel aspect ratio ntsc-ccir601/dv and anormorphic is checked)
The HD footage, downgraded to DV, looks fine
The DV footage is stretched, and has a bar on the top and bottom.
I have played around with the sequence settings and these are the best results i can get.
Now I made a new sequence with same settings as above and i dragged a couple different clips from the browser into the timeline and they are fine... (these clips are the same ones in the problem sequence that look stretched)
Any ideas??
Thanks in advance!!

I understood that the sequence looked at the first stuff dropped into it for behavior. If you dropped the problem material from the first sequence into the second sequence you created prior to dropping any thing else in then it will behave as you would expect. if you dropped footage that wasn't formatted the same as your sequence settings you get the "...would you like to ..." and the sequence settings get changed. I avoid this because some of the changes applied don't allow my Kona to playout.

FCP 6 Sequence Settings and RT playback problem

Hi everyone
Have recently bought a copy of Final Cut Pro Studio for my macbook pro
I know to play video in FCP in real time all the sequence settings need to match the captured video/file settings of the clip.
All my settings are matching, Ive tripple checked them but they are STILL saying I need to render the clip before playback in SafeRT.
Have tried deleating files and re-importing them ect still no go.
The file ive imported is a DVCPRO HD codec.
I cant render everytime I want to play a video - thats not an option. It should be okay if all the settings match (Which I belive they do) but still not working.... is there a vital setting I may have missed?
Im running FCP 6 on a
Mackbook pro 17"
5400 rpm sata drive
NIVIDIA 8600 geforce 256MB graphics card
160GB hard drive
2.0 MB Memory
this prob is SO WEIRD
cheers
h

Yeah tried doing that, plays okay but really want to get the safeRT working properly
wow - i didnt realize that the 5400rpm drive in the macbook pro would preform so poorley with compressed codecs such as DVCPRO which is a pretyt standard codec yes?
I guess the 7200rpm drive now is def the way to go - i was getting one anyway
so does it matter that the computer drive speed is 5400rpm when working of a 7200 rpm firewire 800port drive? I assume that if all the media is on the 7200rpm the computer internal drive would only be running the program, which would be more then enough do you agree?
Its looks as if FCP 6 has some way of recognising the computer drive speed for accessing the media and determining whether it is fast enough or not, if not, wont even try to attempt to play in RT resulting in the red render line, no matter if I have my sequences settings all set up correctly and matching. This is something that I am unclear about in the software.

FCP sequence settings when shooting 24p, 2:3:3:2 at 16x9?

I'm attempting to edit my first feature project on FCP after having shot footage on a canon xl2 at 24p, 2:3:3:2 and using the 16:9 frame size.
Can't find specifics about the proper FCP settings anywhere in the manual for editing footage shot this way. So I'm wondering-- since the captured footage shows up in the browser as 720x480, should the sequence setting be dialed in the same? Also should I be editing in the timeline with sequence settings at NTSC DV (3:2)and the anamorphic 16:9 box checked?
Oh... and one more thing-- how much memory would you guys recommend be allocated to the fcp application (i'm guessing less than 100%)and how much to the thumbnails?
I've got my notions on all this but am a little nervous about going forward without some reassurance. Appreciate any help you can offer on these questions.
mac g5 Mac OS X (10.3.5) 3.5 gig ram

I'm attempting to edit my first feature project on FCP after having shot footage on a canon xl2 at 24p, 2:3:3:2 and using the 16:9 frame size.
Can't find specifics about the proper FCP settings anywhere in the manual for editing footage shot this way.
You're best off creating a new, custom Easy Setup to meet your needs...
Press Option-Command-Q to launch the Audio/Video Settings dialog
Select the Sequence Presets tab, then...
Click DV-NTSC 48 kHz - 23.98 and press Duplicate
In the Sequence Preset Editor, check the Anamorphic 16:9 box
Rename this Sequence Preset to DV-NTSC 48 kHz - 23.98 Anamorphic and click OK
Back in the Sequence Settings tab, place a checkmark next to your newly created sequence preset to select it as your current preset
Select the Capture Presets tab, and repeat the previous sub-steps for DV-NTSC 48 kHz Advanced Pulldown Removal
(that is, duplicate, adjust for Anamorphic, rename, then select as your preset)
Select the Summary tab and confirm that you've got the correct presets for all selections - outside of what you've adjusted already, Device Control as well as Video Playback should be set to FireWire NTSC - then click the Create Easy Setup button
Enter a name and description, then click OK
After you've saved your preset, click OK to exit Audio/Video Settings
You've now got your system up and running correctly so that you can digitize and edit.
If, for any reason, you screw up your settings, you've now got an Easy Setup that you can simply access at anytime, simple press Control-Q and select it from the options. Or if you're a menubar person, that's Final Cut Pro > Easy Setup.
Oh... and one more thing-- how much memory would you guys recommend be allocated to the fcp application (i'm guessing less than 100%)and how much to the thumbnails?
Personally, I leave mine at 100% - never had a problem with it. However, many here advise dialing it down to 70% or so (if I can remember correctly - hopefully someone else will chime in if I'm wrong).
The default thumbnail value is fine as well, in my experience.

Using Animation in your Sequence Settings ... Amazing!

Well here's the thing ....
And I'll start off by saying I have so much to learn about FCP but this has made a big difference to how my images look, especially graphics and titles.
So I'm working away at my project and the graphic images that I import into the timeline from the viewer are just ok and I'm a bit disillusioned like so many people seem to be on these forums about how the image degrades from the viewer to the canvas. And of course it is apparent later on the QT file and then the DVD that's produced at the end.
So one day, and I can't remember how it came about, I open the sequence settings and change the Compressor in QT Video Settings to Animation! Well what can I say, the image in the canvas was absolutely perfect and in some cases, it's actually a little better than how it looked in the viewer before I brought it across.
I have to produce a DVD where each week, some of the moving footage and graphic images have to be changed over. A total of about 15 minutes and all of it of course is in this Animation sequence. The downside of using Animation is
(1) the rendering time is horrendous, (or is that horrenderous?)
(2) as I'm editing, the playhead disobeys what you ask of it and you get the spinning beach ball quite often (can take 1-4 minutes before you can continue again)
(3) sometimes when you're playing through the timeline the image on the canvas and the sound quality are poor (processor running out of puff I guess)
It's a bit of a nightmare but I have no choice but to use Animation now the Marketing Department have seen the difference and expect the higher quality on the images. Cannot get this quality with any other setting I've tried in the Compressor setting. HDV1080 for instance means the rendering problem goes away but the difference in quality is obvious. The project has many different files and formats from HDV to H264s to Pro Res 422s and lots of various jpegs in various forms. But regardless of the project, I have experimented with unrelated sequences in different projects with the same result.
My questions are..... has anyone else experienced this, is there another setting that would bring about the same results and lastly, would the rendering and the other problems significantly be reduced with say the top-end iMac?
I have to tell you I almost didn't post this coz I have so little experience with FCP but it would be great to get your feedback. The weekly project I produce may take more time than it should but I have to say I'm happy with the results.
Thanks for reading.
Peter L

Well... the animation codec is primarily used for sneakernetting files from one platform to another, mac to pc for example. It's a bear for a lot of computers to even play out a file without choking. The concept is make animation file, put on disk or drive, carry across the hall to the pc station, convert to something the pc station can use without choking.
I would suggest you try a little experiment: take your input material and convert it to prores (NOT HQ) before import or WHEN you import (log and transfer) and work with that natively. HDV as HDV is really a cruddy medium. Prores will give you a much better color space and have actual frames all the way through, which hdv does not. Take a one minute section of material, load on some graphics and filters etc, render it out, do your whole production process and see what it looks like. Once you move beyond the artifacts inherent in hdv and h.264 encoding you might be surprised.
Bad mistake to point out to marketing folks how cool it looks. You must be young!

Sequence Settings and Aspect Ratios

This may be a bit of dumbo pondering but I've got a couple questions:
My HV20 camera has a DV 16:9 setting. I always use the HD setting. But if I captured such footage, what Sequence Settings would one use? If DV Anamorphic, doesn't that stretch things out? So maybe a Custom choice in Frame Setting of 640x360?
What is the reasoning for the DV Anamorphic Seq Setting to use the 3:2 Aspect Ratio (default) over the 4:3? Isn't the 3:2 converted to 4:3 when exported to dv tape, etc? But what about for internet, would 4:3 Ratio Aspect in Anamorphic (for eventually 640x360 internet movies) be a good choice?
But would that only be appropriate for Internet and if I had any hopes of other uses would 3:2 still be wisest?
What got me thinking (if you can call it that) was that I placed an animation from Archive.org in a DV Ana 3:2 Sequence. To fill the screen, Scale had to be 113, Clip Aspect Ratio: 13. Then I changed the settings to 4:3 aspect ratio and the clip fit perfectly (Scale: 100, Clip Aspect Ratio: 0).
So why not use a non-Anamorphic Seq Setting with a custom 16x9 Frame Size of 640x360?
Maybe I'm thinking too much...or not thinking at all.
How bout shining a little light in this dark closet!
lmr
Elmer Lang
H2E Productions - "Better Than Water"
http://elmerlang.com - 60+ Films Strong

if I captured such footage, what Sequence Settings would one use?
DV Anamorphic
If DV Anamorphic, doesn't that stretch things out?
Yes ... DV 16:9 is recorded squished into a 4:3 frame so it needs to be stretched back out to 16:9 to display accurately
So maybe a Custom choice in Frame Setting of 640x360?
No, just use the DV Anamorphic Easy Setup
What is the reasoning for the DV Anamorphic Seq Setting to use the 3:2 Aspect Ratio (default) over the 4:3? Isn't the 3:2 converted to 4:3 when exported to dv tape, etc? But what about for internet, would 4:3 Ratio Aspect in Anamorphic (for eventually 640x360 internet movies) be a good choice?
But would that only be appropriate for Internet and if I had any hopes of other uses would 3:2 still be wisest?
What got me thinking (if you can call it that) was that I placed an animation from Archive.org in a DV Ana 3:2 Sequence. To fill the screen, Scale had to be 113, Clip Aspect Ratio: 13. Then I changed the settings to 4:3 aspect ratio and the clip fit perfectly (Scale: 100, Clip Aspect Ratio: 0).
So why not use a non-Anamorphic Seq Setting with a custom 16x9 Frame Size of 640x360?
Maybe I'm thinking too much...or not thinking at all.
How bout shining a little light in this dark closet!
A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing! You are trying way too hard.

Sequence settings advanced tab

I'm working on PAL DVCAM 16:9 in FCP 7. Looking at the advanced tab in compresson settings (within sequence settings) does anyone know if it matters whether 4:3 or 16:9 is selected. I've been working foir a while always in 16:9 and have only recently noticed the setting. Printing to tape and exporting a quicktime it doesn't seem to make a difference except that when I play a 16:9 .mov in QT player with 4:3 selected that's how it plays until I adjust then save presentation settings in QT player. On the one hand its an 16:9 picture (anamorphic) on the other hand it's only got the same pixel count as a 4:3 frame. Don't want to discover a problem down the line that I just don't happen to have bumped into yet.

It is just yet another way to toggle between aspect ratios. You can also tick the anamorphic column in the browser, or choose an anamorphic easy setup.

Anamorphic sequence settings problems w/ a little XML thrown in

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