Animating in FCE

I'm an Adobe Premiere user trying to transition to FC. One function in FC that has baffled me is how to animate clips (moving them, scaling them, applying filters). What seems like it should be intuitive, isn't. The instruction manual doesn't make it clear. Is there a tutorial somewhere that I can download that will simply give me a step-by-step walk through of the animation features and how to use them?

Ian,
I'm not that familiar with Premier. So forgive me if I'm redundant. Remember you basics of motion and you can use just about any program. All movement is based on an X, Y and Z axis. X is left to right, Y is up and down and Z is diagnol (sp). Using keyframes you move you video up, down, left, right from one point to another. The scale function allows you to make the image larger and smaller.
Keep in mind that when using scale you will get pixelation when making video larger. This is not necessarily true of still graphics if they are imported at higher than a 72dpi ration.
That's the basics. Time to read.

Similar Messages

Animation in FCE movie

Hello, and HELP
I've been working on a 7-minute company video. I've animated sections of it in Flash CS4 - the logo; customer map, etc. I've tried every-which-way to export the movie, and bring it into FCE. My last attempt converted a png.mov to flv with DVKitchen - and the bit looks great when I bring the clip in, but as soon as I render it, it looks like crap. How can I get the best results with an exported Flash movie??

I set the size of the flash animation to 1920 x 1080, to match the screen size in FCE. The Flash file is set at 29.7, also to match. Best I could get so far is to export a Quicktime movie using Animation; millions of colours; best.
Once it is in FCE, I export the whole movie using Quicktime default - which also seems to work best.
Any animation I am bringing in to FCE ends up being less-than....
I feel a bit lost in the woods here, walking in circles, trying the same things over and over again.... and wishing I knew someone who know more!! Thanks for your time!

Animations and FCE 3.5

I have been searching the internet and I can't find an answer.
I have Final Cut Express 3.5 and I want to add animations into my video.
The animations I want to add would be similiar to a movie introduction credits (ie- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang).
I do not know if you add the animation to your video in FCE, or do you add the video to your animation in an animation program.
Also, what would be the best program for this. I have Flash, but I hear it's hard to work with Flash and FCE. What are your thoughts on Blender?
Sorry for all the questions, and thanks in advance.

You will have to get FCE4 to use AVCHD.

Aliased edges to shapes animated w/ FCE distortion filters

I'm creating a sharp edged shape in Photoshop at 720 x 480 res w/ .9 aspect ratio and importing it into FCE. When I animate it using FCE’s distortion filters like Wave, Ripple, Whirlpool, etc. the edges of the shape become stepped, most noticeably where they curve or slant. I've tried exporting the shapes at a higher resolution and feathering them first by .2 pixels but the aliasing is still obvious. Is this something I will have to accept if I want to use these filters on an imported graphic or is there something else I can do to smooth the edges?

Thanks for your reply, Ian. The video does appear smoother in its final format (DVD) but I also discovered that I had an improper setting for my Playback Output Video under Easy Install and when I switched back to the default settings for DV-NTSC, edges displayed considerably smoother. In addition I found that importing a higher resolution graphic (1080 x 720) worked better w/ the distortion filters and gave me smoother edges yet. I am interested in experimenting w/ using the De-interlace filter per your suggestion. Thanks for the tip.
Jack

Jagged pics when animated in FCE

Hi all.
I have JPG and TIF files that I've imported into my project.
As long as they're static, they look fine.
What I'm trying to do though is do simple animation.
Each pictures is 4 seconds.
The pic goes from 0-100 opacity for the first second, stays at 100 for 2 seconds and fades back out for the last second.
At the same time I have animated horizontal movement using a beginning and ending key frame.
The animation works, but looks horrible.
The pics are completely jagged like every other horizontal line is offset.
I've tried searching online and in this forum, have tried different combinations of filters and no luck.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks for the replies all!
Ian - Yes I tried the deinterlace filters, did not help.
Tom - I'm looking at it on the monitor, and if I export it to an MOV it looks the same.
Ross - I'll give it a try when I get home.
Thanks again.
Steve
20" Core Duo iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9) MacBook Core Duo 2

Importing animation for best quality

Hi. I'm preparing a 15' video (dvNTSC standard) to be burned to a DVD and played on tv monitors at an awards ceremony for my company. The first 6" or so will be an animated sequence which I have created on an older mac running OS 9.22, using Carrara Studio 3. What is considered the best format for importing animation into FCE 3.5 that will give the highest image quality? I've rendered the animation @ 640 x 480px as a QuickTime Movie using photo-jpeg compression (best quality) and this doesn't look bad but I thought I would get better results generating a Pict Sequence w/ no compression @ 720 x 534px and batch processing the stills in Photoshop adjusting the height to 480px so that the images will retain their correct proportions when imported into FCE. Is there another approach I could take? There is a dvNTSC and animation codec in Carrara that I've tried but the imported animation plays in FCE as black frames. Thanks for any suggestions.
stopmotion
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7) Using FCE 3.5

PICT sequence would be the best quality until it's compressed in FCE ... Final Cut uses a slightly different scaling algorithm for resizing still image to adjust for pixel aspect ratio ... 720x540 for DV material, rather than 534.
Tom,
Thanks for your reply. I'll go w/ a PICT sequence for my exported animation. That's very interesting about the 720x540 ratio. I did get the the 720x534 ratio from a book on FCE I was reading and was wondering if there was any basis for the verticle pixel dimension of 534 the author quoted.

(Former or present users of Premiere 6.5 and FCE 3.5

Hi,
Aside from the HD, any benefit or reason to move to FCE 3.5?
I use 6.5 and it has been a solid performer for me. I create my videos in 6.5 and burn them with iDVD. I will be getting a Macbook around the beginning of the year, and I don't think I will be able to use 6.5 with the new OS. I have invested a lot of time in learning 6.5, so I have not been interested in learning a new program.
I would appreciate any comments on this.
Thank you

I liked Premiere 6.5 as well and there were a few things I preferred over Express like Batch Capture and Audio Mixer and being able to import Video only .. tho these are available in FCP. Latest version of FCE allows you more keyframing options now
What I DO like about FCE is the ability to work with sequences and have multiple projects open at one. I personally prefer the Motion Keyframes (animation) in FCE over Premiere. The Voice Over tool is also pretty cool. I like the smooth integration with programs like Livetype and Soundtrack and iDVD and iTunes. Integration with Photoshop is about the same as with Premiere; very easy.
Mostly I moved to FCE because of the instability of working on a PC based system but at this point I would still opt for FCE. Also good to note that Final Cut has a greater "professional" rep than Premiere; don't know if I've ever seen an ad for a Premiere Editor. True, most places are looking for Final Cut Pro, but FCE is a great, affordable place to start

Interlacing for Stills/Animation?

hello guys, hows it going, just a quick question.
So basically i've made a 2D animation in FCE HD consisting entirely on stills/jpegs (1920x1850).
Now, i burned a dvd using toast just to check how it looked (exported as quicktime) and there seems to be a slight jittery-ness/flicker to the video pretty much through out the whole thing when played on a TV. on some of the frames it's slightly worse but only in certain areas of the image.
So searching through the forums i found a bunch of stuff about interlacing and i just wanted to know if you guys could confirm if this may be the issue?
I.e. Should i be be applying the de-interlace filter to the whole animation? if so do you know which of the De-interlace settings would be best?
thanks alot for your help.

Hello, so yeah i just looked through the forum a bit more and found a similar thread where you say that the VGA Display Adapter will only mirror the desktop, so i guess i'm stuck a little.
just to make it a little quicker for could you tell me what the difference is on the flicker filter settings? i really have no idea how that filter works.
for example, if i have a long hold on one jpeg/image where nothing moves (i.e. 10 secs) is there a flicker filter setting that would particularly suit?
similary if i have a bit of fast movement made up of say 20 jpegs at 00.02 seconds each, i.e. say a person walking across the screen, then should those jpegs be applied with a different flicker setting?
thanks for all the help.

A few questions on FCE. Advice please.

Hello. I used iMovie 06 HD few days ago to combine a series of quicktime movies into one (with added music and titles). I was able to do it easily without any help. The only problem is that the characters in the animated titles looked fuzzy. So, I went out to buy iMovie 09 hoping that the problem would have been fixed in the new version.
I have tried iMovie09 for a few hours. I am completely lost even I have read the manual and watched the tutorial. First, I cannot import Quicktime movies nor movie created by iMovie 06 HD. Second, it seems that there are less control in title animations. In iMovie 06 HD, I could change several aspects (such as moving direction) of the title animations. I cannot do it under iMovie 09. Moreover, it seems that my favor title animation type "Bouncing Across" is gone in iMovie 09.
In my case, is it better to go for Final Cut Express? Can anybody please check if FCE has "Bouncing Across" title animation? Does FCE has the problem of outputing movie files with degraded/fuzzy characters in the titles? Finally, do you expect FCE 5 to be out soon (say next week)? Thanks.

Hi there,
The fuzzy titles would be something to ask about on the iMovie forums. Personally, I would never use iMovie '09 because of how many features and how much versatility was lost in the revamping of iMovie HD.
As to FCE, there are several ways to create titles. You can either use the normal Text tool, the Boris 3D plugin (this is very powerful for creating titles), or the companion program LiveType to create the titles. Titles should not look fuzzy if created correctly.
Can anybody please check if FCE has "Bouncing Across" title animation?
Here's the thing to understand about FCE: it works in a way that is completely different from the iMovies. There are very few pre-made animations, but FCE gives you the power to create your own animations. Both FCE and LiveType (which comes with it) have the ability to "keyframe" your text, video, etc. In essence this means you define for the program how you want the text to look at a certain time, and how you want it to look at a later time or times. FCE then creates the animation between the two keyframes. I just looked at the "Bouncing Across" title in iMovie HD, and that same look can be created by keyframing in either FCE or LiveType.
Finally, do you expect FCE 5 to be out soon (say next week)?
Unfortunately, we are not allowed to speculate about future Apple products on this forum as it violates the [Terms of Use|http://discussions.apple.com/help.jspa#terms] for the Apple Discussions. However, FCE is generally a selection of parts of the "big-brother" program, Final Cut Pro. So it is safe to assume that there won't be another version of FCE released until at least a few months after the release of Final Cut Studio 3, whenever that may be.

Change canvas size in Final Cut Express?

I completed an animation in FCE before I realized that I did something foolish: My animation frames are shot in HD (1920x1080), but I failed to set my canvas size, which is NTSC. Now, when I export my animation, the video size is distorted.
Is there a way to change the canvas size of a movie so that it applies to existing sequences? Or, can a sequence's dimensions be changed? And, if not, can anyone recommend a workaround? I'm dealing with several thousand individual animation frames, so starting from scratch isn't an option for me.

You can't. FCE is a fixed resolution editing application, either DV or HD at 1080 or 720.

Final Cut Express 3.5 vs 4.0

Hi All
I new to both FCE 3.5 and 4.0. I'm intending to upgrade from iMovie. My intention is to upgrade my video editing techniques from current iMovie. At the same time, I desire to have those nice title effects and animation that FCE offers (it is important to me). I understand that FCE4 seems to be lacking in these effects and has lesser options than 3.5.
Is this so ? I really need to hear this from users in this forum who has that experience.
Where can I go read/ visit to have a comparison on the effects in FEC 4.0 and 3.5 ?
Appreciate your reply.
Jojos

There is very little difference between FCE 3.5 and FCE 4.
If you are shooting AVCHD you must use FCE 4.
FCE 4 also has around 50 new FxPlug effects which may or may not be any use to you.
Regarding titles, I believe you are referring to LiveType that comes bundled with FCE.
FCE 4 only has about 90% as much LT media as FCE 3.5.
However, a lot of FCE 3.5's is repetitive so the situation is not quite as bad as it may sound.
FCE 4 should have plenty to keep you happy.
You can only get used versions of 3.5.

Here's A Free Alternative To After Effects!

I frequently hear friends talking about how useful After Effects is in conjunction with video editing apps such as Premiere, FCE and FCP but must admit I am pretty clueless as to what can actually be done.
Anyway, if you wanted to give AE a try but couldn't afford the price, I am told that Blender is a viable, free alternative.
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

Ian R. Brown wrote:
.. How do you do it?
this is a 'ready made' 3D mesh you get on some .. StarWars fanatics sites
they re-create the whole stuff from SW in 3D-data.. my app is called Carrara, and afair, it cost as a special offer (old version) ~49$.. with a strong €€€ a fortune. the GUI is hillarious (but less than Blender), many many presets.. e.g. the 'space' you see; the planet later was changed into an 'Earth' (see link below).
in Carrara you have to add 'paint' and 'surfaces'.. quite easy.. that hoover bike, my son rides on is basicly a jetski.. with some 'thrusters' added etc.
what costs a lot of time is animating parts, as a droid lifts his arm etc... and rednering times..phew.. mostly over night.
mostly, I simple done keyframe animations in FCE; an excellent trick: let the 3D app render a semi-transparent drop shadow.. that adds a lot of 'realism'.. as in the 'landing' scene.. that is the actual park nearby, where my son like to sleigh in winter.. and our church, etc.pp.
here's another leftover from this project, another 'test' .. which reminds me to clear my 'Homepage'...-
in the final movie, you can even see my son sitting in that X-wing (or whatever it is called...) - a simple photo as 'surface' on some cubical inside the fighter...-
.. you can spend months on such project.. I did

Using animated Keynote graphs and charts in FCE

Hello all-- Question that I've not really seen answered. I'm trying to create an animated bar chart, which looks great in Keynote. I've given it a green background so I can chromakey it out, and saved the animation as a QuickTime movie, with compression set to "None." (It's also at 25 fps and in the PAL dimensions.)
However, when I import it into FCE, and chromakey it, it looks horrible with lots of green around the edges, no matter how I fiddle with the settings.
Can someone suggest a better method to doing this? I can't afford $500 for the Data Animation plugin from Digital Anarchy (and this is kind of a one-off anyway), but this looks really unprofessional.
Any suggestions?
thanks,
chris

Try this: if you can present the animation in Keynote then use a screen-recording/screencast app like iShowU to record the Keynote animation as a mov file. Then import that into FCE. I have been doing that with iMovie & plan to upgrade to FCE once I confirm there are no major issues between Leopard and FCE. I hope this helps!

Car spinning graphic animation maybe best done in FCE?

My initial concept for a project I am working on that shows an actual photographed car spinning around, was to use the 'bank' of cameras taking stills approach which I could duplicate by shooting the car in the studio with a white cyclic floor and background and simply dolly the camera around the car. I want to use an actual car and not a 3D rendering like this example:
http://www.anistock.com/3d-animation-of-car-spinning-dpi4824.html
My initial concept also supposed that this would be best handled in Flash, but now that I'm becoming more familiar with FCE, I do think FCE could be the software to do the job.
Anyone have experience with this type of animation using photo stills or frames extracted from a movie? All input is appreciated for tutorials or other insights into making this work.
TIA,
Ken

Hi -
This is a very ambitious project to attempt, and I think once you try it you will understand why the effect is done with 3D models of the cars.
Even if you can find a studio with a large enough cyc wall, lay curved dolly track, maintain a perfectly consistent speed throughout the dolly, how do you avoid seeing the camera rig in reflective parts of the car? How do you light so that there is no change in the reflection of lighting in the glass windshield as you dolly around the car?
I would think that even in the most optimum lighting/shooting/stage set ups, you would still need to spend a substantial time doing frame by frame retouch of the shot (extending and making the background uniform, removing the dolly tracks from the shot, etc.)
Even if you do it with a still camera bank, there is substantial retouching involved:
http://vimeo.com/4405211
But I don't mean to discourage you. It is certainly possible. If you simply want to do the spin portion of the demo clip you showed, that would make it easier as you are dealing with fewer source frames. It is just quite a challenge.
MtD

FCE can no longer read my project...

So everything was all well and good and today I tried to open an FCE file and I get the message: "This project is unreadable or may be too new for this version of final cut."
The project is using HDV Apple Intermediate Codec 720p30. There is no live action footage it was all After Effects HD renders using the Animation codec. I've never had a problem with this type of footage before.
It worked fine yesterday, and I made it with my version of final cut express. The only conceivable thing I can think of that might have messed things up is a .psd file I added to the project yesterday. I've never had a problem with that before though. If anyone knows how I can fix this or at least open the project please let me know. Thanks.

Hi(Bonjour)!
Here's a link about corrupt project in Finat Cut Pro:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/restore_corruptedproject.html
Sometimes it solve the problem.
Michel Boissonneault

Animating in FCE

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