Resolution/Sidebars From Motion to FCP

Hey guys,
Absolute noobie here, so please bear with me; I am following the tutorials on the apple FCS DVD and am onto the Motion section, i have done the whole 'send to montion' on the "Blue Horizon" bit and I've just done command save and popped back into FCP.
My problem now is that my end clip in FCP has the vertial black bars on the side, so the clip is squished in the middle (nothing has been trimmed, its simply been squashed smaller than everything else. there are no black bars on the top or bottom). I'm not sure if i followed the tutorial incorrectly (i redid it twice) but i always end up with the same thing.
Could anyone help me as to why its out of whack? and how do i fix it

Welcome to the discussions. Search is your friend:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3874114&#3874114
Patrick

Similar Messages

Animation not carried over from Motion to FCP

In my FCP project, I sent a clip to Motion. In Motion, I imported another motion file of a car with spinning wheels that I made earlier and used that in the new Motion clip, along with some additional animation. Now, when I go back to FCP the car is visible, the additional animation is also visible, but not the spinning wheels. Is it not possible to embed Motion files within Motion?
When I export the clip from Motion directly to a QuickTime movie, everything is fine. But I'd rather don't go that route because it's much easier to move between FCP and Motion automatically.
Can someone please enlighten me? Thanks!

I'm guessing Final Cut is not referring back to the Motion file correctly. If that is the case here's a fix.
Open your Motion file back up (recent projects if you aren't sure what it is) and resave it by a different name somewhere you can easily find it. Alternatively you can export is a ProRes4444 clip if you don't want to have to render it on your FCP timeline.
Return to the clip in Final Cut. Control-click on the clip that should be a Motion document and pick "Reconnect Media." Point Final Cut to the resaved/exported Motion file you created. You may have to uncheck the box about showing only media with the same reel name. Hit Connect.

Export/Import From Motion to FCP

Hello
I'm new to this forum and have just recently begun working in the film and video industry. I am also new to the Apple community. So please excuse any misuse of terms as am not fully integrated into the business yet. I have created a background that has a lot of motion as well as an emitter in it and duplicating the sequence didn't seem to be the way to go. So I looped the sequence to run for 90 minutes. I am trying to decide if there is a need to export the file from motion as a quicktime file or should I just import the motion document into FCP and overlay my text elements (also created in motion) on V2. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
By the way thanks to Patrick for all you great "fun with" projects they have been a great help in learning Motion.

Thanks for your input. What I'm building is a sponsor loop for a banquet. I needed a 90 minute graphics bed over which to apply my text and logo elements. I ended up modify and existing 15 sec clip from the motion library tossing in an emitter and looping it for 90 minutes.
The problem was the sheer size of the file and the time it took to render if FCP. I ended up exporting the file as an 8 bit uncompressed QT movie so I wouldn't have to rerender it in FCP. It took about 2 1/2 hours but in the end it worked out.
Here is a follow up question. I have finished the text and logo element that goes over the bed but when the time comes to import the Motion file into FCP I have to render every time I put it into the timeline. I realize that the first time it appears it's necessary but is there a way to get around that having to let the thing render over night as this clip will be copied 44 times and each copy takes about 6 minutes to render.
I was thinking about exporting it as a QT file from motion just like the background but then I can't get the title sequence to appear over the backgound the way I would like as a QT element compared to Motion element. Tranparency issues.
Any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Flicker/Pixelized movie after importing from motion into FCP

Hello, I captured a clip from HDV tape via Firewire using log and capture in FCP, then exported the clip to Motion where I applied filiters. I made a movie from Motion and imported it back in FCP. The movie required rendering to play and it now has a flicker and is grossly pixelized. Anyone know what could be causing this?

The render requirement is not surprising - all motion clips require rendering. How are you viewing your clip? You can't judge by what you see in the canvas...
Patrick

Export Problem from Motion to FCP

When I export an animation from Motion and import it into Final Cut, the clip plays faster than it did in Motion. It's as if it's playing at a higher frame rate. I know the project in Motion hasn't been rendered, but it plays too fast in the export. I've checked the export settings and I've got it on 29.97. anyone had this problem? I'm kind of new to FC Studio and Apple, so maybe I'm doing something wrong.

ram preview your work when in motion, and in your preferences, limit the playback speed to project frame rate. this way, you can see how fast your actual project is playing.

Export from Motion to FCP

I am editing a few title card for a project that will eventually return to FCP. I built title cards in Motion and now I getting prepared to export. Obviously, I want the graphics & logo to look as good as possible and I wanted to know what codec to export on to best integrate to FCP?
The FCP sequence settings are 1280x720, pixel aspect ratio: Square, frame rate 59.94. Any good advice to a novice? Animation? ProRes HD?
Thanks.
best,
brighamcottam
ps. I will also be doing it for lower 3rds if that changes anything.

Patrick Sheffield wrote:
Why not just bring the Motion project (.motn file) directly into FCP?
No export necessary.
Patrick
Yar, this works if the OP's workflow is adapted to the procedures. Just personally, mine is not. Deeply rooted habits from Ye Olde After Effects: I like having the rendered movies available as media.
To the OP's other question about the codec choice, Animation vs ProRes. The only reason to use Animation is if you know why you're using it: alpha. If you need the alpha and you want to stay in ProRes territory, you must use 4444. The last of those fours represents the alpha channel.
bogiesan
Message was edited by: David Bogie Chq-1

Fuzzy video upon round trip export from motion to FCP

I'm using Motion 4 to add master template lower thirds to my FCP video. When I bring a clip from final cut into motion (send to>Motion) then send it back to FCP after I add my text, the video itself looks as if it has taken on a slight blurriness. I checked that my project settings were the exact same by going to project properties in motion and making sure everything matched up with my sequence settings in fcp. They did. Am I missing a step here? I'm tempted to not roundtrip through motion because of this. Instead I'd like to just open the master template in FCP and use that. The reason I don't is because I do not have control over font color and other adjustments.
Can anyone suggest a fix or point out what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.

See if this post helps:
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=13075996
Patrick

How to get printed manuals with upgrade to FCP from Motion?

I upgraded my standalone version of Motion to FCP 5.1 Universal through the mail and wondering how I can get the printed manuals. I realize it's not practical for Apple to mail 40 pounds of books and that the same text is probably on one of the DVDs but reading a physical book makes learning easier than reading on screen.
Has anyone been able to upgrade from Motion to FCP and get the printed books?
Thanks,
DAN
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

David,
Apple provides manuals with most of it's software. I KNOW THIS OCCURS FOR A FACT! Thanks for posting your doubts and other notes but I don't think they are really being crafted towards helping at this point.
I was actually hoping others might have found solutions rather than looking for salt to rub into the wound. But to help you and the others you have spoken with to understand possible solutions I'm hoping might remedy the problem here are a few that suggestions:
- Call Apple Customer Support and get them to exchange the misrepresented product through the mail for what was represented.
- Walking into the Apple store and confronting the sales people with the issue and getting them to exchange the product.
- Working through Consumer Affairs and getting them to eiother refund or exchange the product.
- Calling a local TV station to report the fact that Apple shows one product on their web site and in their stores while selling something different with a the same name that is incomplete.
- Working through the Better Business Bureau to file a complaint against Apple for the misrepresentation and getting them to replace the product for the abused customers.
- Emailing the support folks at Apple and getting a emailed voucher in return which will allow users to exchange the product int stores.
I can think of dozens of ways Apple or other organizations could help resolve the situation.
Printing a color manual at Kinko's seems like a ridiculous expense to me. I cannot afford it and I appreciate you not consistently saying it's a viable solution. I'm actually a bit surprised that you keep responding with no help, confusing unrelated comments, and insist on further irritating the situation.
I hope my multiple attempts to help you understand what my issue is and possible solutions that people might offer has helped clarified things for you. If you have any further comments though please reserve them so others who may have had actual experiences similar to mine with possible solutions might be able to read this thread without having to see me explaining things over and over.
Thanks,
DAN

Can't open quicktime movie that I exported from Motion 5 and can't import to FCP

Can't open quicktime movie that I exported from Motion 5 and can't import to FCP 7.
I exported (with current settings) from Motion 5 now i can't view my movie with QT Player an FCP
won't recognize it.
That's the message I get ?
I'm running Mac OSX but still on FCP 7 (upgrading to FCP X is NOT an option)
Thanks a lot for any sugestions
luxbud

Thanks TOny
i think it was just a problem during the export. i tried a second time and it just worked fine

FCP not reading templates correctly from Motion (Urgent)

Hi all,
I am trying to work in FCP (6.06) with templates created in Motion 3.0.2 But FCP seems to be seeing video drop zones as text layers!?
If I use a pre-existing template (or one I have created), when I bring it in to FCP I get the correct amount of input dialogue boxes for the amount of layers in the template, but regardless of whether they are drop zones or text layers the control dialogue box in FCP looks the same and I am unable to actually get anything to appear correctly on the timeline. It's driving me nuts!!
Also: when I have a template on my FCP timeline I am unable to save the project! I delete the template from the timeline and am able to save the project again...
Even weirder: I'm getting the same result on two machines!!
Any Ideas what could be causing this!? (i've tried software update and re-start)
Best
GK

Thank you to those who replied. By further process of elimination I have discovered that Motion does not recognize the ProRes 4444 Alpha Channel. When using a clip with the Animation Codec, it reads the alpha channel perfectly. The ProRes 4444 Clips I exported from Motion with Alpha work perfectly in After Effects ... so clearly Apple has a bug to fix

Sending from motion back to FCP

I highlight a sequnce or clip and SEND TO "Motion" and choose inbed content,
I make my effects and FILE<SAVE in motion and FCP reads a change. The video i sent was anamorfic DV 16/9. In motion I edited the fotage in 16/9 . when FCP reads the saved motion project it makes the clip squeeze to 4/3 in FCP. then i have to go into item properties and check the anamorfic box. Is there a setting that stops this switch of ASPECT RATIO's?
Does everybody have to do this when working in anamorfic DV?

I've heard this a number of times - You've just gotta set the anamorphic flag by hand. If you report it in FCP/Motion feedback, perhaps it'll get bumped up in priority...
Patrick

Crashing when rendering video from Motion

I'm using the most up-to-date versions of both Motion and FCP. Whenever I try to render a rather complex piece of video from motion, FCP crashes after having done a little more than 50% of the rendering. Has anyone else had a similar issue with this? If so, is there something I should try to make it not do this?

I've had that problem, and its usually due to your machine. I've found motion struggle a lot when trying to work with HD graphics on a comp that is just not built for it. Try setting your viewing settings to be in lower resolution so that you're able to see what you're doing, it'll just look crappy until you export it. I've had luck with that.
good luck!
austin

Combing Keynote, Motion and FCP. Best Strategy?

Ok Im trying to do a project where Im using Keynote content, Motion content and FCP content.
My final screen delivery will be on a flat screen plasma monitor with a native resolution of 852 x 480.
I am going to be playing this back as a looping Quicktime movie from a Mac to the plasma screen. The screen will be functioning essentially as a computer monitor.
The piece will only be about 3-4 minutes max run time.
The video I've shot is standard DV resolution: 720 x 480.
I am building the whole project at 852 x 480 so I dont have to scale up the video to fit the final screen size vertically.
I was intending to piece it all together in Motion.
(Exporting Quicktime renderings from Keynote and Final Cut at high resolution and placing them on the timeline in Motion...)
Now, with Motion and FCP's ability to transfer files back and forth, am I using the best strategy? Should the whole thing be assembled in FCP? Or is Motion just as good for assembly.
(I want to use Motion because I find it's interface way easier to push around than FCP and much less cryptic...)
Is there any slicker way to bring in Keynote material than to do the exporting to Quicktime thing?
Any advise I could get from all you motion gurus out there would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Well after actually starting in on the real construction of this project it has become very obvious it must be assembled in FCP.
Now that I have resolved myself to that fact, I have a few issues:
I've exported all my Keynote stuff in Animation Codec.
Is that better than H.264? (Seemed to be slightly sharper on type edges)
I tried setting up the sequence to have H.264 compression but it refused to accept any imports.
I changed it back to NTSC DV Codec and it accepted to imports no prob.
Must all FCP projects use DV codec?
You cant tell them to use a different compression system?
(This is one of those areas of FC that I find utterly mysterious.)
When I bring the Keynote clips into my FCP document, they look crunchy.
And they stumble on playback.
Is that just temporary in the editing environment.
The video plays back pretty clean...
Can I get all the files to play back cleanly in FC as Im working on them?
Will the compression used in my sequence be ignored upon export to the Final Quicktime?
And what's the deal with the frame rates on the Keynote files.
Even though I specified 29.97 on export, when I get info on the files theyre all over the place (20fps, 24fps...)
Is that a problem?

Jagged Text from Motion to FCP5

Hi.. still having trouble with jagged text from Motion 2.1.2 to FCP 5.1.2 (OSX 10.4.8), PAL DV 720 x 576. Would very much appreciate some insight. I have done a butterfly animation with some lense flares and text. Concept is butterflies come in from off screen and land on attractor to reveal text message with lense flare behind. Views great in Motion on fit to screen, resolution fine. But import as .mtn to FCP and text very disappointing, very noticeably having trouble with resolution, even noticeable on Viewer and Canvas, but really awful in full screen Digital Cinema Desktop Review because the text is so obviously not 576 lines. Something is happening in the import to destroy it despite trying everything I could see in this forum. I can actually count the lines on full screen, enough to estimate I am only getting approx 230 vertical lines instead of 576.
In both Preferences/Presets and Project Properties PAL I have set Broadcast SD 720 x 576, Pixel Aspect Ratio PAL D1/DV 1.07 , Lower (Even), 25 fps. Under Project Properties I have additionally tried 16 bit, and under Render, set anti-aliasing to Best, and tried switching on and off Dithering, and also increased motion blur to 50. I have also switched off interlacing (to None) in both Motion and FCP as one forum comment suggested. In FCP I import the clip as a .mtn file, and change properties to Premultiplied Black and Lower/Even line order prior to dragging into Viewer and then Canvas. But the Motion text already looks jagged in both these screens before I even render in the timeline. I learned a while back under Avid XPress Pro to give text gentle movement diagonally in order to create the illusion of higher resolution than if motionless. But once in FCP, it "wobbles" very noticeably as the application attempts to blur the distinction between the 230 vertical lines on the screen. As I mentioned above, it plays perfectly in Motion on a full screen, with no obvious degradation in vertical resolution, but it's very disappointing once in FCP.
In FCP I have tried just about every setting, but nothing so far addresses this problem. The main settings are 720 x 576 CCIR 601/DV PAL (5:4) Pixel Aspect Ratio CCIR 601 (720 x 576). I've been careful to also check Sequence Settings in addition to User Prefs, Audio & Video Settings and also System Settings. Under Sequence Settings/Video Processing I have tried RGB, YUV 8 Bit and high precision YUV in case that made a difference. I also did several exports to Quicktime .mov, including trying Lossless + Alpha, but no difference, and in any case that work around loses ability to update on the fly if something is chnaged in Motion.
Perhaps I have missed something obvious. I would very mcuh appreciate any assistgance before I go back and delete the text from Motion and do it in FCP instead. I really hope tht others have found solution which works within Motion. I have enjoyed crteating the animations and it will be a great product if I can do the text within Motion and export without loss to FCP.
Thanks heaps...

Thank you so much for all your replies and interest in my problem - very helpful. I have just come up for air (after several long nights of editing) and the project went out on time, RUN LIVE FROM MY MBP. Your replies saved me a lot of time, pointing out that the resolution was actually ok (for SD), but I just wasn't seeing it on FCP because it was only showing one field, and scaled at that. I firstly tried playing back with the Canvas settings suggested by Mark and it appeared as smooth as it did within Motion. Then I tried viewing on an external monitor via Firewire - all resolution great (at least for SD).
Typically I publish on DVD, but the above tests gave me enough confidence to print to DV tape as a backup (and I loved the user interface - so easy to add bars and tone etc). But I took the risk of running my MBP live at the event, complete with my SATA RAID ) drives and the M-Audio 1418, which I found worked really nicely daisy chained off my DSR-11 deck. This produced far better sound for the live event and gave me enough comfort that I could always run directly off the DSR11 if any of my computer gear failed. The second advantage was that it allowed me to cue precisely synchronised with the live drama, from which the butterflies flew onto the screen - exactly on time as the talent opened the gift box on stage. If you've tried to cue from dvd or dv deck you'll know what I mean. Some consumer dvd players go to sleep if the standby period is too long, and the DSR11 creeps along frame by frame to save tape wear, which can really get in the way of live events. Also, I foudn that the DSR11 needs to be cued at time code prior to the intended start point in order to allow adequate sound buffering.
But with my MBP set up - it was the easiest incorporation of video in to a live event that I had ever done. It worked flawlessly - all I had to do was hit the MBP space bar as the talent guestured with her hand out of the gift box onto the screen - butterflies flying out exactly on time.
Thanks again everybody.

Best workflow for image (LOGO) from Illustrator to FCP?

Greetings to all. I am struggling with this -- I want to bring my company logo into FCP 5.1.4, FROM Illustrator to FCP. Easy enough? Not for me.. as I have two issues:
1. My imported image looks great in the viewer, but jaggies in the Canvas.
I understand that for DV NTSC 48k, my frame size is 720x480 -- but in another post, I read that it is best to export as 720x540, .tif (another person said 720x540 jpeg, because jpeg embeds sRGB proile -- but that will be part of question #2) -- the square pixel vs. 4:3 pixel issue...
My Illustrator image is all vector art, and all fonts are outlined before export. I am saving as high-res (300 dpi). I tried saving as tif, jpeg, pdf. I tried bringing the PDF into photoshop, and saving as a psd. I tried opening pdf. No matter what I tried, the image looked perfect in the viewer, but like doo in the canvas. A tif, file size 720x540, 300dpi looks correct in the viewer, but jaggie in the canvas.
YES, the green "render" bar was visible in the timeline -- of course, that must be the problem -- but then I rendered the still clip, and there was no difference. I made sure the render indicator in the timeline was "dark grey" -- but yet, the imported still image from illustrator looks jaggie and not good enough for production in the canvas.
WHAT AM I DOING WRONG HERE?
2. Color space -- regardless of the jaggies issues, my imported still image from illustrator is all washed out when imported.
Regardless of file type. Yes, file set to RGB. Yes, gamma set to 2.2 (also tried setting imported still gamma to defualt - "source" - no change)
My LCD display (mac book pro C2D 17") is calibrated, using a Spyder2. Gamma is set to 2.2. My print output from illustrator (saved as pdf x-1/a) ALWAYS prints as expected.
If I add a color correction filter, and juice up the saturation, I can try to make the still image look close, but this shouldn't be the case, YES?
My expectation is that a still image in illustrator or photoshop should look the same in FCP.
What kind of newbie error am I making? What am I missing?
Thank in advance for any guidance.
Jeremy

Jeremy Roberts wrote:
I have been sending jobs to print (magazine ads, web, general print) for ages, and my printed materials come in as expected -- that is, within a few % points of my display -- which is what we are expecting -- and also EXTREMELY close to proof prints, using a reasonably high-end inkjet printer, with correct paper profiles... that is to say, that although I am no expert in color management by any means, I have what I need so that what I see on screen is very close to what is printed on a local printer, or a million dollar press.
CAN I EXPECT to achieve anything close to this with video?
When you print something on paper, you get to see exactly what it will look like and that's exactly how your customers will see it too. With video, there are infinite variables affecting this such as incorrectly calibrated displays; cheap TV components; the difference between CRTs, LCDs and computer displays; the size / resolution of the display, etc. There are so many variables that it will look different on every screen. All we can do as content producers is calibrate to a common standard, achieved through a properly-calibrated broadcast monitor.
But if your film has a single use in mind, such as a trade show, it is better to ignore the above advice and use the display device it will end up on as the monitoring device, if you can.
I am not near my FCP machine right now, so I can't try the test -- but I will try to revert my display color profile to stock apple LCD, and see what this brings. I know that FCP has simply NOT looked correct to me on my machine.
What do the "big guns" who are using FCP and having to use pre-defined creative print elements, created in AI or Photoshop or whatever -- all color matched for print, what do you guys do when you need to integrate this into FCP?
ARE FCP editors using Apple's 1.8 gamma (I guess you must because FCP uses it regardless of your colorsync profile, per the above article). ???
I set it to Source and have had no problems because I create still images on the same machine with the default gamma of 1.8. I think what happened was you created the images in Photoshop with a colorsync profile of 2.2 on the monitor but perhaps a different profile embedded (if any). When you brought it into FCP, FCP automatically assumed it was created at a gamma of 1.8 and boosted to 2.2 but as the images was not created at 1.8, it was already very bright to begin with and so was boosted x2. That's my theory.

Resolution/Sidebars From Motion to FCP

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