SCANNING PICTURES TO FINAL CUT PRO

I don't know if this is the best place to post this but I am scanning pictures to put into final cut pro to do a montage, what is the best dpi to use for scanning pictures, when I put it in final cut I need to enlarge them a little but then it seems to pixalize the picture.

to Ymir
'Just like this site to tell you how to build a clock when you simply ask what time it is.'
well its 15 degrees centigrade here, what time is it with you?
so how does this help Bill when he asks for some help with scanning?
well it would help to provide the correct measuring system for a start. In this case it would be pixels for the frame size he is using and definatly not dpi
'I make photo montages all the time and I scan at 72 dpi.'
Your workflow may well end up with an adequate result for your situation, but how can that possibly help anyone else? Stating you scan at 72dpi is meaningless when you know nothing about the posters requirements or set up.
what is being scanned, a transparency a print?
what size is the original?
what is the optical resolution of the original?
what equipment is being used?
what is the final frame size required, is it SD or HD-DV NTSC or PAL?
To Bill I would suggest; simply scan the originals to produce a file at the video frame size your working on; for example, if it is for PAL DV video it would be 720x576 or 720x480 for NTSC DV. You may want to scan for a larger frame size to allow for enlarging or positioning the image.
refer to the Final Cut Pro Manual vol III page 339 which explains all the above.
G

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I am trying to import scanned illustrations into Final Cut Pro (6) as layered photoshop images, however when I try and animate the image is blurred.....please help!

I am trying to import scanned illustrations into Final Cut Pro (6) as layered photoshop images, however when I try and animate the image is blurred.....please help! Will I need to create the photoshop files as a certain size/resolution? I am working to 4:3.....

You should take your question to the Final Cut Studio forum. This is FCPX.

Picture-in-Picture within Final Cut Pro.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to display 2 videos playing simultaneously within FCP.
I believe it may have something to do with frames but I can't seem to solve my problem.
For example:
I would like to have a video playing, then I would like that video to shrink down smoothly to about a third of the screen and have a separate video playing in the space that the last video was playing.
A pretty good example is the RT Extreme video one the the FCP site: http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/quicktours/
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.
Final Cut Pro 5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

1. Put the video that shrinks on Track 2.
2. Put the other video clip underneath it on Track
1.
3. Animate Track 2 using motion keyframes. When track
2 shrinks, it will reveal track 1 behind it.
So you need to use motion in order to accomplish this or is there a way to do this directly within FCP?

SCANNING PICTURES FOR FINAL CUT

I have looked at all the post on resolution and dpi and it seems like I never really get a good answer or a million different ones, if somebody who really knows what there talking about can tell what is the best dpi to use when scanning a picture for a montage and I use all different sizes of pic form 1x1 to 5x7 size pictures but when I put them in final cut burn on to a dvd and play on an hd tv there really pixalized I have scanned at 300dpi and there bad but when I scan at say 1200 dpi or 2400 dpi then they look great but it takes so long to scan at that rate, what am I doing wrong. thanks for the help

I have worked with picture scans very little, but I remember going through your exact problem. From what I can remember, we scanned the images at a very high resolution using "VueScan" software - which will help tremendously in your scanning clarity. I don't know how it works, but it is beautiful! We scanned the images i believe around 900dpi. Many will argue its way to high, but for my project, we wanted to fly trough very precise details in the photos using the Ken Burns effect (more on this later).
After scanning (which did take some time), they were imported to photoshop for cleaning, levels, etc. Once they were beautiful, they were saved as photoshop files uncompressed and imported into another beautiful application called "Photo to Movie." Using this, I created all the pans and zooms, then exported it using the quicktime DVCPRO HD codec. Imported straight into FCP as a clip and BAM!, looked fantastic. I bypassed FCP handling of the still image which saved me much hassle. If you are going to be doing any pans or zooms, I would strongly advise you use this workflow. I would also recommend doing some minute zooms in and out just to keep things interesting, but that's up to you. Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense or need clarification. I will do my best.

How do I put a picture in Final Cut Pro X's Stats title?

Hey! How do I put a pictures on these two little gray boxes, on the Stats generator?

In the Title tab of the Inspector, under Published Parameters, there are two drop zone wells. Click in one and then select your source clip from the browser or Time line…then the other.
Russ

Picture Quality & Final Cut Pro 5.0

I just finished a big project using FCP - I really like the program, but the picture quality is less than perfect. In fact, it's pixelated, especially where there is motion. I've tried upping my monitor's refresh rate, but that hasn't seemed to resolve the problem. Does anyone have advice for me? Is this a known issue with FCP or Quicktime, or is this more likely a hardware problem?
Thanks,
Craig

Shane's Stock Answer #2: Blurry playback
ONLY JUDGE THE QUALITY OF YOUR MATERIAL ON AN EXTERNAL NTSC MONITOR, OR AT LEAST A TV.
1. Disable overlays on the canvas
2. Make sure you've rendered everything (no green bars at the top of the timeline
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24787
Video playback requires large amounts of data and many computations. In order to maintain frame rate and be viewable at a normal size, only about one-fourth of the DV data is used in displaying the movie to the screen. However, the DV footage is still at full quality, and is best viewed thru a TV or NTSC monitor routed thru your camera or deck.
Shane

I have been using Final Cut pro v6 without any problems but recently had to reinstall. Since then I can't open and view all my Quicktime clips. They appear white in timeline which means you can hear audio but not view picture. Any tips?

I have been using Final Cut Pro without any problems - v6 - for ages. I recently had a hardware issue and had to reinstall the software. Since then I can't open most of my QT clips in my fcp project. They appear as white clips - audio only no pictures. There are a few QT clips you can view as regular thumbnail images and they play ok. What's the issue? I have fcp v6.0.6 and QT v7. Any thoughts on what to do next?

Yes I did software updates which updated fcp to 6.0.6 and QT to version 7.7. That's as far as updates have taken me although i have requested daily updates. I forgot to say the clips don't play in QT view either. Again sound but no pictures when they are played.

How can i make a picture from a video file with final cut pro x?

how can i make a picture from a video file with final cut pro x?

Go to the "share" menu, select "save current frame"

Final Cut Pro-Two Pictures Question

Is there a way to have two pictures in the same shot (not a transition from one to another). For example, have two pictures in opposite corners in which you zoom in from one to the other?
Thanks.

Of course. Place them in the timeline, one above the other (as a connected clip), resize and reposition them.
Set keyframes and let FCP X generate the movement in between.
I suggest you take a look at one of the video tutorials, like the one at izzyvideo, to familiarize with the basic operations of FCP X: http://www.izzyvideo.com/final-cut-pro-x-tutorial/

A Case Study Question in the Use of Stills with Final Cut Pro

Believe it or not, for the last week I have been reading endlessly about pixels, resolution, aspect ratio, Photoshop resizing, the bloody battle over the usefulness of the term "dpi" in video discussions, and generally about what one should do in order to use still images in a film edited in Final Cut Pro. And yet, though I have a PhD from an Ivy League university, and can understand a lot of things, I am sorry to say I am still at a loss.
Much of the discussions of photos on forums like this one are either quite technical or broadly philosophical. But my questions are completely practical and specific. I am not a photographer or a printer, nor am I an experienced editor. I am just a fairly smart person trying to use photos in his film. So I am going to ask some specific questions and hope for specific answers, without any philosophical waffling or technical mumbo jumbo.
I have one of those HP all in one printer/fax/scanner machines. I am told this device, while not fancy, is perfectly adequate to the task. Some of my photos I scan with this device from prints. Some of them I get from other people. (I have stopped downloading photos from the web, as the quality is nearly always poor.) I have Photoshop Essentials (not Photoshop). I am making a 90-minute HDV documentary, 16x9. The doc is mostly HDV footage with a still here and there. I want to be able to move on the photos (zoom, pan, etc.). I want, obviously, for them to look good. My sense is that the work flow is: (a) scan the photo (or obtain from some source as a digital file); alter the photo in some way in Photoshop; and (b) import the photo into your FCP project.
Question #1: If I have a 6x8 print, what settings should I scan it in with -- is it possible there really is no difference between scanning in it at 72dpi and 300dpi? Is it really all about the dimensions of the image? Isn't a photo whose dimensions are enlarged in Photoshop to make it available for panning and zooming in my sequence going to look fuzzier and more pixelated if it was originally scanned at 72dpi than at 300dpi? Also: Does it matter if I save it as a jpeg or tiff? Bottom line: What settings do I use in my scanning software when I scan a photo for this purpose?
Question #2: Once I have the image file on my hard drive, I suppose I now have to load it into Photoshop Elements and do something to it. What is it exactly I am using this program for? I'm going to take a wild guess. I use PS Elements to (1) crop the photo so that it has a 16x9 aspect ratio, and (2) resize it so that I can do pans and other Ken Burnsy moves on it in FCP. Bottom line: What exactly do I do in PSE to the photo and what settings do I use to both (a) make it available for moves and (b) not injure the quality of the photo by increasing its dimensions?
(In passing, I will say that I have done experiments that show that if I increase a photo's dimensions to, say, 4000 pixels by 2000 pixels, the photo's quality definitely and obviously suffers. I don't understand how a picture can be increased in size without losing sharpness. So, what am I doing wrong? Is this a function of it having been scanned in improperly to begin with?)
Question #3: If I am obtaining a photo from an outside source -- say, a professional photographer -- what are the specifications I ask for in both a hard print and a photo file? If the former, what dimensions do I ask for? If the latter, do I specify resolution and dimensions and file type?
These are my questions. At this point, I really don't want to know WHY any of this is the way it is. I just want someone to say: "Do this; do this; and then do this."
Thank you very much.

Studio X is absolutely correct; while DPI has no meaning in the video world, it often has significant meaning in scanning (and, of course, printing). If your scanning program only allows image size adjustments in DPI, then you'll have to adapt to that ... keeping in mind that the scanner's DPI setting directly relates to pixel resolution. And it is pixel resolution (not DPI) that will make all the difference in the world for images used in video. You can test this yourself by scanning an image at 1000 x 1200 @ 72 DPI and again at 1000 x 1200 at 300 DPI. They will look identical on TV or projection as long as the pixel resolution remains the same.
As an example, my Epson scanning software allows me to adjust image size by DPI or pixel resolution. Wanting to maintain the correct aspect ratio for the image area that I'm scanning, I adjust the DPI setting which in turn adjusts the pixel resolution automatically. But it doesn't work the other way around; if I adjust the pixel resolution settings manually, the DPI setting does not change. Your software may vary.
As Jim Cookman suggested, a scan setting of 300 DPI works well for most images ranging from 3 x 5 to 4 x 6 (typical snapshot size) in a DV Sequence. I may scan smaller images at 400 or 600 DPI and larger images (8 x 10 and up) at 150 DPI. Other size images fall in between those numbers. But I'm constantly watching the pixel resolution numbers to make sure I'm getting what I'll need to support the animation I intend to apply to the images once in FCP. Also bear in mind that I don't always scan the entire image. I only scan the area of an image that I intend to use in my program.
So the answer is that it all depends on your scanner's software and how far you plan to push into an image once in FCP. Do a few experiments ... you're a bright fellow so it shouldn't take long for you to find the formula that suits your purposes.
I haven't edited an HD Sequence using images yet, so I cannot offer definitive pixel resolutions for you there.
On to your specific questions:
1. See above. There is no one correct answer It all depends on what you intend to do with the image once it's in FCP. If you only plan to push in about 10%, you won't need much higher resolution than the equivalent of your FCP Sequence resolution. If you plan to push in further, you'll need a higher resolution to support that move.
2. I've been doing these for many years (SD Sequences only) and I've never loaded them into Photoshop first. I import the entire folder into FCP and drop it on the Timeline so I can see what the images look like on TV; unless your program is for CD-ROM or web delivery, that's where it counts. When you place them on the Timeline, FCP will automatically scale to your Sequence settings and pixel aspect ratio. If I see that some of them need adjustment using an external editor such as Photoshop, then and only then do I use that program. And by the way, if you have a vertical image and a 16 x 9 aspect ratio in FCP, how do you propose to crop it to fit? Perhaps you meant another term instead of "crop."
3. If it's a print, it won't matter what size they supply because you'll control the image size when scanning. If it's a file ... once again, the size (pixel resolution) depends on what you intend to do with the image once in FCP.
I really don't want to know WHY any of this is the way it is. I just want someone to say: "Do this; do this; and then do this."<<</div>
With that attitude, how did you ever earn a PhD from an Ivy League university? But if that is truly all you want, you might consider hiring an experienced editor to do it for you.
-DH

Comparing video quality of AVCHD BluRay discs using Final Cut Pro Share vs Compressor

Up front, I will admit to being a newbie when it comes to using Final Cut Studio 3 and would appreciate some feedback from the Apple forum experts.
I have spent a lot of time trying to determine how to achieve an optimum group of Compressor 3.5.2 settings so that the playback video quality of an AVCHD BluRay disc is equal to or better than one created by using the simpler auto settings of FCPro Share, version 7.0.2.
When using Compressor’s auto/default maximum settings, I experienced the same error message reported in:
Error MessageDuring Creation of Blu-ray Disc in FCP and Compressor 3.5
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12073794#12073794
I have since made some Compressor AVCHD Discs with smaller bit rate settings and compared video quality with a single FCP Share AVCHD disc. Both seem to be equal in providing a very good video when viewed on my new Panasonic DMP BDT 310 BluRay player. However, the Compressor AVCHD discs show some motion artifacts not present with the FCPro Share version, especially when scrolling text or when objects are moving through the field of view, and visible artifacts are seen from a stationary chain link fence and other lattice work in the background of the video sample.
My sample video used for the comparisons between Compressor and FCP Share discs is a 21 minute duration home movie, originally captured from a mini DV, Canon HV30 1080i camcorder using ProRes HQ encoding(1440x1080), and dragged into FC Pro 7.0.2 timeline where 10 chapter markers have been inserted.
To create an AVCHD disc using FCPro Share, Markers are used to set the IN and OUT points, Select IN to OUT from the timeline, pull down File Menu Share, Select Create BluRay from options in pop out Share pane, and designate output device along with picture files for Background, Logo, and Title options. When these are completed, click on Export. My 21-minute video required almost two hours for encoding including about 10 minutes for burning. This accomplished on an iMac 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
To prepare this same 21-minute video for use with Compressor, I again Select IN to Out from the FCPro timeline, but this time use File Export as a QuickTime Self Contained movie including Chapter markers. Then Open Compressor, choose Create BluRay from Template pane, right click on the down arrow in the Batch window and load the QT self contained movie file. From there I went to the Inspector window and tried various combinations of bit rate settings along with Frame Encoder options such as Better or Best motion parameter controls.
I have tried the following combinations of Bit rate settings along with varying Frame Encoder controls and burned an AVCHD disc for each example:
Example A
Compressor set to 6 Mbps Average and 8Mbps Maximum, Frame Encoder settings OFF. Approximately 4 hours to encode although the time remaining estimator indicated a larger value of ~7 hours; not an accurate estimator at all.
Example B
Compressor set to 6 Mbps Average and 8Mbps Maximum, Frame Encoder settings ON, using “Better (Linear Filter) and Better (Motionadaptive)” settings. Approximately 4 hours to encode, not the 13 hours that were estimated.
Conclusion: Comparing A & B Compressor versions, Disc B showed some improvements in reducing motion artifacts over Disc A.
Example C
Compressor set to 13 Mbps Average and 15 Mbps Maximum, Frame Encoder settings ON, using “Better (Linear Filter) and Better (Motion adaptive)” settings. Multipass checked. DeInterlace was checked. Unknown hours to encode; about 8 hours done overnight..
Conclusion: Disc C showed some minor improvements reducing motion artifacts over Disc B
Example D
Compressor Auto settings,i.e., 15 Mbps Average and 17 Mbps Maximum, Frame Encoder settings ON, using “Better (Linear Filter) and Better (Motion adaptive)” settings. Multipass checked. Approximately 12 hours to encode, done overnight. Inserted disc next morning after the overnight encoding was completed, and a few minutes later an error message pane appeared that the maximum bit rate had been exceeded. This message was consistent with the Apple posted thread referenced above. Unfortunately the long overnight encoding was wasted.
It seemed to me that the best Compressor settings for suppressing the motion artifacts were displayed by the disc burned in Example C, i.e., 13/15 Ave/Max Mbps with“Better” Motion settings in the Frame Encoder.
However, when this disc was compared to the AVCHD Disc burned using the FCPro Share, the latter still seemed much better. I do not know what the auto bit rate values are as set in FC Pro, but for me, the quality is quite good AND the motion artifacts are significantly reduced, especially evident with the scrolling text.
Sorry about this long post, but I thought the detail would be necessary for the experts, and maybe helpful to others trying to get started in this BluRay arena. Did I misuse Compressor? I think the sample video exported as a self contained QT movie was the right thing to do? Not sure where I went wrong.
Thanks in advance for Feedback and Recommendations. For now, I’m going to stay with the simpler process using Final Cut Pro Share function.
BoBo

Thank You, Brad, for responding; glad to hear I'm not the only one having similar Compressor issues.
You may have hit on something. Perhaps Compressor's use of H.264 encoding was the reason for my motion artifacts? And perhaps Final Cut Pro Share retains the 1440x1080 quality as it burns the AVCHD BluRay disc?
I had Toast 10 for less than 30 days a couple of years ago, and was lucky to get a refund.
What version of Toast do you have? Wondering if new Toast 11 has improved previous bugs, especially upgrading its Chapter text, pictures, music. I would go back to Toast if it came close to mirroring DVD Studio Pro, or even iDVD capabilities.
Thanks,
BoBo

Best video format to export from final cut pro to encore

hi, i'm using final cut pro and no matter what format i export my video in, be it quicktime, mpeg2 or avi, there's still a slight degradation of picture quality when i import it into encore. mpeg2 by far suffers the least. but is there a best video format i can export from final cut to adobe so dat there's minimal loss in quality?

Sure, export it as an uncompressed AVI or QT file.

Artifacts in Final Cut Pro

Let me first start off by saying that I am new to the Shake realm but have been a long time editor with Final Cut Pro. With that said, I am running Final Cut 5.1.1 and I sent a clip from my timeline to Shake to use the smoothcam node. After I tweaked the clip in shake I rendered the file out node but when I view the clip in Final Cut Pro there are artifacts all over the screen. It almost looks like the video is interlaced. I put the de-interlace filter on both the original and the shake composite but it didnt do much. Any ideas?

Well, to me that after picture looks like feeding interlaced material to smoothcam without telling it. It's analysing the frame like it's progressive material as opposed to dealing with each field as a frame. At least to me, that's what it looks like.
As to the difference between SmoothCam and Stabilize, SmoothCam does an optical flow analysis of the material, then calculates movement and counters it to the degree specified. With Stabilize, you pick up to 4 tracking points, then track them, then use that to lock down the shot. If you still want movement, but want to remove jumpiness, you have to process the tracking curves to allow movement, but remove glitchiness.
Patrick

How Can I do an export that from Final Cut Pro 7 that is specific to these settings?

Hi
I am current trying to export out a movie from Final Cut Pro 7 but the settings that are required are very specific and I was going to try it through compressor as well but I wasn't sure if that would work either.
Here are the settings:
HD:
1 Video CODEC                 XDCAMHD50
2 Wrapper format           QuickTime Self-Contained
3 Bit rate                              50 Mbit/s Constant Bit Rate (CBR)
4 GOP                                   Long GOP
                                             Closed GOP
5 Time code                       Must include embedded time code. Start-timecode: 10:00:00:00
6 Movie version               UK Home Video Version
7 Delivery time                 As per contract. Supplier to specify filename, delivery format and estimated time of arrival via email at least 60 days before                                                           transmission unless otherwise specified in contract. This should be accompanied by an IMDB link.
1 HD video format           720 line progressively scanned (720p) @ 50Hz (25 FPS)
                                          1080 line interlace scanned (1080i) @ 50Hz (25 FPS)
2 Resolution                      1280 x 720
                                           1920 x 1080
3 Aspect ratio                    Content should be 16:9, however 4:3 will be accepted on exception (such as for older movies shot in 4:3)
4 Graphics                           Must be within 16:9 safe graphics area (EBU R95-2000)
5 Chroma format              4:2:2
1 HD audio format           24 bits/sample 48 kHz sampling rate
2 Track layout                    Track 1 – 2.0 Stereo L mono
                                            Track 2 – 2.0 Stereo R mono
                                            Track 3 – L
                                            Track 4 – R
                                            Track 5 – C
                                            Track 6 - Low frequency effects LFE
                                            Track 7 – L Surround
                                            Track 8 – R Surround

First of all, what are your sequence settings? Looks like they want stereo AND dolby 5.1 audio tracks embedded in the quicktime (I've delivered a few films like this). Do you have a surround sound mix?
You will almost always have more options and control in compressor over fcp so that's the way I'd go, but not sure compressor will give you the ability to match these specs.
Do you understand about safe zones for graphics? If not, post back.
I don't see any option to set the GOP in xdcam in compressor. This may be built in to the xdcam format.
I don't see any option for 720 xdcam hd in compressor.
There are many other tools available for this kind of work, but they may be out of your price range. You might want to just find a facility with experience in deliverying this sort of thing.

Quicktime playback error and Final Cut Pro

Hi,
I'm having a problem watching a quicktime movie that I made in Final Cut Pro. I'm working on a project at school and the computers there are all G5's. I put the film together at school and I exported the movie using the default settings in Final Cut for quicktime for the web at the medium bandwidth level. Part of the assignment is to post a clip from the film on for playback on the net. The film is playable on computers with quicktime 7 installed, like the ones at school or my PC which has the latest version of quicktime on it. But on my Ibook I only have quicktime 6.5.3. I have an older Ibook, it's a G3 700Mhz running OSX version 10.2.8. The latest version of quicktime requires 10.3.9+. When I click the link for the clip it loads on a new page and then gives me an error message saying quicktime is missing a component and it's not available to download, I click ok and the video appears as a white box with the playback controls at the bottom. The audio works fine but there's no picture.
Is there an update somwhere for quicktime 6 that will fix the problem?

How to Identify the file*, video and audio** format of a movie or sound file
In QuickTime Player
Open the file
Window menu > Show movie info
Look in the Format: field
Note that QuickTime Player may fail to display any audio information for some files.
In MPlayer OSX:
Show the playlist window if it isn't already visible.
Drag the movie file into the playlist window.
Select the movie in the list
Click the "i" button for info
In VLC
Open the movie in VLC
Window menu > Info
Click the black triangles so that they point down
Note that VLC does not display the file format, only the format of the content (audio and video) within the file. A file ending in .divx for instance, is probably in actuality an avi file but VLC doesn't show that information - MPlayer will and QuickTime Player will - if - QuickTime Player will open the file to begin with.

SCANNING PICTURES TO FINAL CUT PRO

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