Color back to FCP

I have been grading two films in Color, Shot in HDV, edited in HDV from FCP using multiclips (don't go there re Multiclips and color. Lots of prep needed before sending sequences to color) anyway. First film sent back to color no problem, second film send to color, export bar appears momentarily but no sign of the film in FCP! Can anyone explain?

Nelson Brann wrote:
A brilliant guy (Andrew Balis) told me to send my sequence to Color then send it right back to FCP before I do ANYTHING.
I'm not sure if I'm getting slightly off-topic.
Currently I suggest an additional step. After doing the roundtrip as Andrew suggests - follow up with a full render of the entire sequence and then send THAT back to FCP. I've had Send To fail after rendering that worked on a quick roundtrip - this additional step reveals quirky non-obvious problems.
It also came in useful once when Color crashed after a "real" render and lost the green render bars. Since I had kept that initial sequence in FCP I still had a good timeline referencing the rendered clips.
Just some thoughts that occurred while reading this thread...
- pi

Similar Messages

PROBLEM SOLVED "export clips from Color back into FCP & add transition"

If I have two clips that you cannot place a transition in between here is the only thing that worked for me.
I discovered this problem after I exported my movie clips from FCP 6 to Color and imported the color corrected files from Color back into FCP 6. I could no longer add transitions to any of my clips unless I made the following changes.
1. 1st check to see if the video clip has an audio track underneath it. If they are not linked Select the audio and the video track to be linked, hit Command "L" and you will see an underline under the audio and video name to show that they are now linked. Do the same for the adjoining video and audio track.
2. Next select all of the clips after the video clip you just selected by typing "tttt" this changes to the "Select All Tracks Forward Tool". Click on the track after the video track you just linked and it will select all of the tracks thereafter. Hit the "A" button to change back to the selection tool and move all of the selected tracks away from the previous video/audio track.
3. Next type "RR" this will change to the "Ripple" tool. Now click on end of the video track on the previous video clip and type -15 (for negative 15 frames). Then click on the beginning of other video clip to the right that you linked and type +15 (for plus 15 frames).
4. Type "tttt" to change back to the "Select All Tracks Forward Tool" the hit the "A" button to change back to the selection tool and drag all tracks back together again.
5. You may then drag and drop your transition in between both video clips.
I hope this helps someone...this is the only thing that worked for me!!!
Number1talent

I am working with mostly DVCPro ftg, with a few clips in MiniDV. I did have roughly 10 clips with speed changes, but they exported fine two weeks ago, when I did this the first time. (Actually, it didn't keep the speed changes, but it did export with media to FCP).
The clips do have reel numbers and seem to be of the right length per clip but there's just no picture and no assoicated media with which to relink the clip.
I'm on Color 1.5.3
Any possible ideas? Thank you for your help...

Audio Synch from Color back to FCP

I am sending a short sequence with 8 clips or so to color, adding a color fx to half of the clips, rendering all of the clips, inc. the ones without an effect added, and sending back to fcp. When I open the new color sequence, the audio is out of synch by a few seconds. Any ideas why?

Any ideas why?
Not really, but it has been a continuing problem. You're sure it is the audio that is out of sync, and not the video? (Just checking) There are a lot of complaints, especially with HDV about frame drift.
Best solution is to lift the audio from the previous timeline and paste it into the graded (from COLOR) sequence. Even when a mixed stereo final is part of the workflow, it almost never comes back the same, so most, if not all, users avoid sending and retrieving audio as part of the COLOR roundtrip. In my experience, even if it somehow mysteriously lands back in sync, the pan settings are all slammed over to one side.
So we all just pull the original audio forward from the previous sequence and Apple can go onward in its delusional mindstate.
jPo

Send from Color back to FCP

At the point of sending color corrected files back to FCP from Color a window entitled "Send To Sequence Option" come up with the message: "Change graded Final Cut Pro sequence to match the Quicktime export codec?"
I'm using Apple Intermediate Codec in my FCP project and want to keep re-compression to a minimum. Being new to Color I'm not actually sure what is a stake here. If I press "No" does that mean my work within Color will be wasted or will if actually keep the color corrected footage in the Apple Intermediate Codec? I'm not anxious to switch codecs if I don't have to.
Anyone have info on this?

Stuart:
I am having the same trouble and am really mystified. I am working on an XDCAM EX 1080p24 35Mb timeline in FCP. I send all my files to Color, do corrections, and when I am ready to send my graded timeline back, I am asked whether or not to "change graded Final Cut Pro sequence to match the Quicktime export codec?"
Here's the mystery - if I click "yes", the sequence sent back to my browser in FCP is a 10 bit uncompressed sequence which will not play back smoothly for editing. Worse, if I click "no" the sequence comes back in what appears (according to sequence settings) to be an XDCAM EX 1080p24 35Mb timeline, but it also stutters, hesitates and won't play back, just like the 10 bit sequence, making editing impossible. (No rendering is necessary on this sequence when it is sent back from Color).
I have no problem playing the original XDCAM files on their timeline, but no matter what I do, I can't get my XDCAM files to come back to me graded from Color and play smoothly on their new sequence timeline even though Settings says it is exactly the same kind of timeline as the original.
Does anyone have any idea what is happening here and is there something I am doing wrong?
Thanks, Rick

Round Trip and Render issues - Color back to FCP

Graded, rendered, send to FCP. Looks good on the timeline, minor issues with some variable speed clips and sound (for some unknown reason) but i had duplicated timelines and was able to gather everything onto one timeline and each clip plays back fine, but i can't really get a good read thru, the timeline after about 5-7 secs will start to hold up. I think maybe its having a problem playing back the rendered files off the internal harddrive and the firewire 800 drives I use for capture scratchs. So I export a self-contained movie file and it won't play without stopping in either quicktime or FCP. I can't figure out what the problem may be or how to fix it. My next call is apple support but i figured maybe one of you esteemed gentleman may be able to see the tree in my forest. Thanks, Steve

Michael Trauffer wrote:
but i figured maybe one of you esteemed gentleman may be able to see the tree in my forest.
I see a lot of trees here, so I'll grab my chainsaw and start swinging away
I appreciate that, as here in south louisiana we keep our chainsaws oiled and ready to roll
Graded, rendered, send to FCP.
I follow you up to this point. I'm assuming you're using XDCAM EX footage?
Yes
Looks good on the timeline, minor issues with some variable speed clips and sound (for some unknown reason)
I should point out here that it's been documented on numerous occasions in this forum that Color doesn't necessarily play well with variable speed clips. The Color User Manual has a section on page 75 that shares some steps that should be performed before sending a sequence to Color. One of those steps is baking a variable speed clip into a quicktime movie.
Gotcha, I actually did that to solve that issue.
but i had duplicated timelines and was able to gather everything onto one timeline and each clip plays back fine,
Sorry, I can see how this can be confusing. What I meant to say that is when i had the weird audio issue (it sounded as if the stereo pair were out of sync with eachother, giving it a wierd audio reverb even though i could not visually identify from any information available on the timeline) I then overwrote those audio files and that fixed it. But all this was on the initial sequence timeline that i had loaded from color after the grading.
but i can't really get a good read thru, the timeline after about 5-7 secs will start to hold up.
Define "read thru". If the sequence is dropping frames, it sounds like a bandwidth issue with your scratch disks, or a hardware setup problem.
Yes dropping frames is exactly what it was doing...I am running a quad-core xeon with 2.8ghz, with 4 daisy-chained firewire 800 drives.
I think maybe its having a problem playing back the rendered files off the internal harddrive and the firewire 800 drives I use for capture scratchs.
How many drives do you have designated as capture scratches?
I have one folder on one of the 800 drives designated for this project. In color I chose a different 'render Directory' on the internal hardrive (i believe it was a default)
What specific drives are you using?
Lacie 500gb drives
If by "internal harddrive" you mean your system drive, this is a big no-no. I can only assume here, but I think you're working with ProRes material at this point. Depending on your specific Mac, the internal drive may not be up to the task. If you consider that that drive is running your entire OS, plus any open application, plus Final Cut Pro, plus accessing the render files, plus any other source material that you may have stored on that drive, you're asking that one drive to do a whole lot of work.
I get that. But should i change Color's render directory to somewhere in the project folder on the Lacie Drive?
So I export a self-contained movie file and it won't play without stopping in either quicktime or FCP.
A self-contained movie file of what?
The sequence.
How are you exporting?
FCP export > quicktime Movie > What are your sequence settings?
Xdcam 720p30 project settings based on xdcam clips, 1280 x 720
Open the file in Quicktime Player, and press Command I to open the Info Window. Make a note of the format information and post that information here.
I wish i could and I will when i get back to the office after dinner.
Chainsaws can get pretty heavy after a while. I'll take a break here and see if I hit anything of value.
I think you did...but confirm for me. Color's render directory, whats a better place for it? And thanks for the quick response it is duly appreciated.

Color graded sequence won't export back into fcp as an xml or send to

Hi,
I've finished a film and graded it. when everything is rendered, I export using either send to or as an xml. Both stop at around 50%. on the xml I get the following report.
I started out at a 20 min sequence then a ten minute sequence now I'm down to 5 minutes. i've got a 146 minute movie to grade and get back into fcp.
Any help much appreciated.
Cheers
Peter
Mon, Jul 20, 2009, 14:07 - Errors Found Importing moral conflict 15min sequence.xml
<xmeml>: Unknown element <sourceprojecturl> encountered.( line 4 )
<sequence>: Unable to create new <sequence>.( line 5 )
<sequence>: Unable to create new <sequence>.( line 5 )
<sequence>: Unable to create new <sequence>.( line 5 )

The order of execution is confusing me.
On your first attempt, you tried sending the entire 146 minute project, graded and rendered it. Correct?
On Send To FCP, the XML failed... (hardly surprising)
This is where I get lost. Are you creating new, shorter versions, grading them and attempting to round trip the short sequences? and... if this is so, how are you differentiating these from the original monster failure? Do you have new render directories, paths, XMLs? Once an XML has been sent, it must not be re-used or re-sent or it will start appearing as ambiguous clones with conflicting path references.
And 146 minutes is too long for any single subject unless it is a remake of Warren Beatty's "Reds" or "Spending a little over two hours on a beach with Jessica Alba" so make it shorter... ;-P This is an undocumented feature of COLOR. No, really!
jPo

Sending back to FCP from Color no clips no sequence

So I am sure i am missing the blindingly obvious but would appreciate some help.
I am new ish to color but have read the manual and taken the Macpro video 1.5 training DVD to try and get up to speed.... Here is my problem:
I am sending a multiclip sequence to color (1080i pro res render). The clips appear in color and i am able to grade and render all OK.
When i send back to FCP i get a new sequence and new bin labeled with the clips.
however the sequence is empty and the bin contains a bunch of off line media. I can locate the new clips using finder but they are roughly 4 times the size of the original....
Any help appreciated

What version COLOR? Multiclip is advertised to be functionally supported by COLOR 1.5, but it is not supported in any previous version. I am not familiar with the MacPro training DVDs, so I'm not assuming that it is tied to the current version.
When you say that they "render all OK"... are you sure about that? Why are the new clips about 4x the size of the original? That doesn't register as "OK" with me....
It could be a codec issue (doubt it) and it could be a speed remap issue (why not compound a known problem with another one?) and then it could be a renderqueue misdirection...
jPo

Color wont send back to FCP- crashes

Really big problem here. Just finished a rather large grade project in color- about 6mins long, but many many cuts. Have rendered the clips in color, and am trying to send it back to FCP for the master.
Problem is- color keeps crashing. Soon as i hit "send to FCP" color quits.
In need of some urgent help!
Thanks-

Only one way to do this -
Re install Color 1.0 (I got a second internal drive and did a system FCP 2.0 installon to it - then I copied the color 1.0 ap to a separate directory on my main drive so I had both 1.0 and 1.01 on there)
Open the graded rendered project in 1.0 and try send to FCP - it should work - Apple broke this in the upgrade and seem to be too busy with I phones and Leopards to fix it.

Only one angle is playing in multi clip sent back to FCP from Color

2 camera Multiclip edited and rendered in FCP 6, sent to color, played ok after color adjustment.
Rendered in color, and sent back to FCP; second angle in the clip is blank (black).
tried different settings in color prior to sending, same result.
The multi clip plays ok in FCP prior to sending to color, and plays ok in color prior to sending to FCP.
Any idea what is being missed here to make second camera show?

The fix you can try is to Media Manage the project exporting the active Multiclip selection as independent. With that, you might even be able to create a new COLOR prj and import color corrections, so not much repeated labour.
jPo

Going back to FCP from Color...use original format or ProRes422?

OK, so I've color graded all 5 reels for my feature film and am finally ready to send back to FCP and reassemble! I'm hoping Shane Ross can jump in here too since he's been SO helpful up to this point :-) So I have two different formats which I've graded seperately...720p DVCPROHD stuff (99%) of film and two scenes which were HDV 1080p24. So far when I've sent back my DVCPROHD clips I've rendered out of Color using ProRes422..but my Resolution Presets: and Width & Height settings are what I'm most concerned with. What I've done when sending back to FCP is use Apple ProRes 422 with Width 1280 and Height 720 and changing my Resolution Preset from 720 x 576 DV PAL to 1280 x 720 HD to match the Width and Height settings (not sure if I should leave this at 720 x 576 DV PAL??). However, the clips show up in FCP as 133%..so obviously upscaled. So now I'm going to export the DVCPRO stuff to Compressor to upscale to ProRes422 1920x1080 to bring back and match with the HDV 1080p24 footage before FINAL export to compressor again. Should I not be sending the Color clips back to FCP upscaled to 133% with my Color settings...since I will then again be upscaling in Compressor? Or will it really make that much of a difference? And also, should I check the Broadcast Safe circle in Color when sending back to FCP? I didn't color correct with the Broadcast Safe on so should I now to be on the safe side?
Thanks!
David

Ok Shane, So actually just went over my Color outputs and I did render everything as ProRes 422 at 1280x720 ...and the clips back in FCP are scaled at 100% so that's good...for some reason I remember having some that came back at 133%...maybe that was just a couple clips somewhere that were wrong...I'll figure that out...but I didn't check Broadcast Safe on the renders so I guess I can go back and re-render with broadcast safe on...so we did shoot 720p HD and I AM going back still in HD from Color.
Now I'm having another issue with the HDV 1080p24 stuff...which is actually only 20 shots of the entire film. But for some reason I'm noticing that they are interlaced when viewing on my FCP timeline, which my settings are HDTV 1080i 1920x1080...now when I export the scene out to Compressor as a ProRes 422 1920x1080 .mov it actually looks great on my computer monitor...no interlacing that I can tell, looks great. However, if I drop it onto my FCP 1080i timeline then there is interlacing again...and worse, when I make a SD DVD it is also interlaced...most noticable an actor's shirt, there is a bit of Moire effect going on...this must be because I'm downconverting to 720x486?? So I've been killing myself trying to figure this one out. Doesn't appear that deinterlacing in Compressor helps any either. Is my only option to blur it out with a gaussian blur of around 2? (the HDV clips do show as 1080p24 in FCP) Not sure if the interlacing would be gone if I were to burn a bluray since it's a higher resolution?? My settings in FCP are 1920x1080 HDTV 1080i (16:9) Pixel Aspect: Square, Apple ProRes 422 BTW.
There's also quite a bit of color blurring when watching from a burnt DVD from DVD Studio Pro...wish it looked as good as it does on my LG LED 32" screen with Matrox mini...man, do DVD's really look this bad? REALLY considering going and buying an external BluRay burner today
So if I could just get this interlacing problem resolved somehow...

Color changes my IN/OUTS and sends a BLANK sequence back to fcp

hi everyone, Please help if you know, I am very frustrated
i finished editing a music video HDV 1080i - 5 minutes long... a lot of the clips have variable speeds.
i sent the sequence to color and a lot of the clips are different than the ones in final cut. (what is weird is that the thumbnail on the color timeline has the right icon) but the video that plays is different, and when i go to render it, it shows its length as 1hr or so even if the edited clip is a few seconds long. so i can't even render it to check it out.
with all that, when i render and send back to FCP i'm getting a blank sequence (that is IF i get it to show).
NOte: i tried deleting the corrupted files before sending back and nothing good :s
Please let me know if there is something in the settings that i need to change, my project is due in a couple of days and i'm dying here! i hope FCS doesn't let me down this time.

Couple of reasons, maybe.
The "COLOR changes my ins and outs" is usually related to a Variable Time Remap, or some kind of fps incompatibility. Sometimes its the result of nested sequencing, which is in a way related to Multicllip -- all of which are deal-breakers as far as a round-trip is concerned. Final Touch used to re-create the entire source clip, but only insert the selected frames where it thought they should be, which was usually wrong, but there'd be a half an hour of black to wade through. Now it renders the entire source clip, and "you figure it out", is what it tells Final Cut, and sometimes it actually works, but only with constant speed remaps, so there is some math involved instead of pure guesswork.
But trouble shooting:
First, check to see if the media is properly rendered somewhere, anywhere, by using the FInder and Quicktime Player, that is, take Final Cut out of the mix as a possible error element. Try doing a Reveal in Finder on one of the Black clips that you have... "follow the money".
If you can find it, if it exists, if it looks okay, then its time to sort out what Final Cut wants or where it expects to find the media. Maybe in a wrong directory? But if there is no media, anywhere, that is another issue, but I'm betting that it does exist.
There is a correct sequence of events in loading the RenderQueue, in that your target folder must be selected or created beforehand, otherwise everything will go to the pre-existing default directory. Then the XML created by the Send To Final Cut request will specify the folder that you subsequently created -- which, of course will be blank. This is a big, big problem that might be solved by moving the whole works into the created folder where you thought everything was going. maybe.
You MUST do an explicit "SAVE", not an autosave, after Render, to prompt COLOR to remember that it has done the render. If you don't, there is a good chance you will be doing it all over again.
jPo
Message was edited by: JP Owens

Color not sending transitions and filters back to FCP 7

Hey People!
I'm currently editing a 30 minute doc for broadcast in Final Cut Pro 7. Before sending to color, I duplicated the master and made it into two 15 minute halves.
I left all transitions and effects intact, which I usually do. I only use cross dissolves. All video is on Track 1.
After correcting the first half I sent it back to FCP without an issue. Transitions and filters remained.
When I finished up with the second half and sent it back to FCP - there were no transitions or filters.
I've tried re-conforming and re-rendering but with no luck.
Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

First off, there's no need to break it up into two sections. Color in FCP 7 handles 30 min sequences just fine. I've done 48 min ones fine.
So you exported an XML from FCP 7, and imported that into Color to reconform, and send back, and it didn't help? What codec are you sending to Color...?

Keeping my Set Ins & Outs when roundtriping Color Project back to FCP

After rendering my color grades and sending the project back to FCP, I'm loosing my previously set Ins & Outs on the clips in my timeline. For instance, some of the clips in the timeline will have shifted, the timeline is still showing the correct amount of the clip, just the wrong portion of the clip? So I have to go through and Slip edit the clips back into the wright spot.
Am I doing something wrong or is this common.
My Workflow:
1)Working on ProRes Files in FCP 6.0.5
2)Set my in & out point on a clip
3)edit into my timeline
4)play with my speed and ramping of the clips & get thing dialed in
5)Send To Color
6)Color Grade all the clips in timeline
7)Render Color (to original format)
8)Then Send To FCP
9)**This is where I'm finding that I the clips are all in the right order and have the right amount of time in the timeline, it's just showing the wrong portion of the clips. Not all of them, just some.
Any Ideas

rupeman wrote:
Color w/ Time ReMaping Seems to work for me 98% of the time. Out of this 1min project with 13 clips all with special Time Remaping curves only 3 came back out of place.
Ya, well - that doesn't scale well.
The habit you build now you'll use on a 30 minute show. 98% will suddenly overwhelm you. Build good habits now and you'll never have to break them later (or have your client break your fingers as the drop-dead deadline fast approaches and you're tinkering with the slip tool).
And yes, I've had my knuckles rapped a few times before I took this advice to heart.
Good luck!
- pi

Sending Color project back to FCP

Hello Guys,
I am completely new to Color, so I apologize for this silly question.
After grading my footage in Color, I am sensing it to Render Queue for render.
When it's done I go FILE/SEND TO/Final Cut.
First, it asks me if I want to change graded FCP sequence to match QT export codec.???
So that's the first problem, I have no idea what exactly that means??? (I had sent it from FCP to Color in ProRes and set Color Project Settings also to ProRes) so what should I change?
But the main problem is: When I send it back to FCP, footage looks exactly as it looked before being sent to Color. No grade changes. So I am wondering ... what do I miss?
Thank you for any advise.

Thanks for your help jPop.
I didn't use smoothcam. I sent my video from FCP to Color and then I applied a tracker to the pan&scan to do a tracking on the face of my character. I tried importing the "raw" files directly into Color without going through FCP and it did produced a file in the render file. The tracking was there but the image was cut in two... The frame is separated in two parts horizontally, making some kind of tile effect. First time I see something like that.
I found this on the online user manual of Color:
"Animating Pan & Scan parameters is not recommended for projects you’ll be sending back to Final Cut Pro, since neither keyframes nor tracker data can be sent back." :s
I'm going to try again with uncompressed video to see if that makes a difference. Do you think I could use the video that Color send to the render file and import that in FCP? If it is not cut in two...
Best wishes

I just LOVE Color Correcting in FCP X

Don't ask me about the technical stuff but for some reason, I can now get great color (colour really) from some clips I shot back in 2006. The stuff I shoot these days is usually very consistent but these old clips muddy and have severe colour casts.
The new Color Board in FCP X seems to cope really well.
Being able to drag either of the four buttons to the colour that needs adjustment, slide it up or down for a rough adjustment, and then a tiny bit to the left or right to perfect the job is so user-friendly.
I disliked the old color wheels on FCP Studio, where it all seemed much less precise unless you were able to move a mouse in a perfect circle.
Anyone else have any thoughts on it?

My on-going off-and-on project has been editing and moving my old home movies to DVD so they can languish away digitally instead of as VHS tapes. (This includes quite a few Super-8mm films which were converted to VHS in the mid 80s, so its still all VHS.)
Sprinkled in with this are more current home movie projects such as "How we spent our year" Travelmentaries (commonly called vacation movies), and an annual DVD of our Boy Scout Troop outings for the year.
First I have to say, this has all been hobby and goes along in fits and starts. FCP 3 got old and clunky when it had to be pushed thru Rosetta like a meat grinder, and I messed with iMovie until FCE 4 came along. If I had dedicated myself, probably would have finished all the VHS stuff long ago, but mostly worked on stuff when it occurred to me that peeps in the Super-8 stuff, for instance, might actually enjoy seeing it all again 40 years later. And the color correction stuff was tedious and wearing, making anticipation of the next project less inviting.
In all this, doing a limited amount of color correction and sharpening worked pretty well. But I have to say that having all the parts (color, saturation, exposure) right there working the same with the same 4 "grab and drag" method has actually made the whole job far less imposing.
The one thing I miss about the color wheel, however, is that whatever color over-tinted the clip, dragging the "button" directly away from it pretty much settled the problem. For instance, if shot inside with the yellowish incandescent tinting, blue was the color needed, and it was opposite yellow.
It took a bit to get used to the color bar's method of removing yellow in maybe light tones area and adding a little blue, perhaps, in the mid-tones. But I also quickly found that by playing with the exposure in either area, I can sharpen those old fuzzy VHS tapes -- something I never noticed was happening until I tried it. The sharpen effect works pretty good as a start (used unsharp mask in FCE), but the color bar really sharpens things up, if not overdone.
Personally, I find I am anticipating spending lots of time on my "restoration" projects now, all because of the ease of use and power of FCPX. I finally finished one I started (converting the VHS tapes to DV) in 2009, although in all fairness, it was an extra four hours left over after having processed at least as much at the time. (To make things less intimidating, I have also moved the VHS player and now convert the tapes directly to disk using an otherwise now unused Canon DV camera as an AV to DV convertor.
But I am certainly one of those apparently targetted by Apple with the new FCPX at the expense of losing their loyal professional base. And the Color Bar's ease of use is a major part of that.

Color back to FCP

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