Let’s look at how these additions enable using RED footage in Final Cut Studio, how you set them up, and how they can benefit you.
FCP already lets you use the QuickTime Proxies made by the camera or by RED Alert, and you can use the RED tools to render REDcode to ProRes422 HQ (and nowadays, in REDrushes and REDline, you can even preserve the audio while doing so [update: REDCine 3.1.8, released 28 Jan 2009, also embeds camera audio in its QuickTimes]).
Arguably, we don’t need anything more. However, consider these points:
As to why stay raw when the final product will render out as a 2K ProRes, uncompressed, or DPX sequence?
RED highly recommends a 4-core or 8-core MacPro, and all I can say is: it can’t hurt. In these distressed times, though, not everyone can pony up the scratch for a fire-breathing Octocore, or even a hot-sauce-snorting Quadcore. Right now, I’m using a tea-sipping Dualcore: a 2.33 GHz Core2Duo 15” MacBook Pro. While you might not choose to cut long-form RED projects on such a machine, it’s very common to use a MacBook Pro as a field ingest station, and more folks than you might imagine have main machines of this class. If your cutting station is blessed with more cores, read on; consider that your performance will only be better.
Once you’ve installed the RED add-ons, you’ll see some new options integrated into FCP and Color. In FCP, the Log and Transfer window shows REDCode clips.
The Log and Transfer Import Preferences has an entry for the RED FCP Log and Transfer plugin (scroll down in the Import Preferences window to see it, or drag the window a bit larger, as I’ve done in the screenshot):
You can choose ProRes422, ProRes422HQ, or REDcode-native importing. The ProRes options are just what you’d expect; FCP will read the RED’s R3D files and transcode them to ProRes. The native setting is just that: the R3D file essence—the 12-bit, wavelet-compressed raw data—is rewrapped as a self-contained QuickTime file, and placed in your Capture Scratch directory.
Now how much would you pay? But wait, there’s more… the “gears” dropdown menu has a RED FCP submenu, letting you choose a “look” to apply to the imported footage:
“Native” uses the settings in force when the clip was recorded: the color space, gamma, color temperature, and tint set up for monitoring (some folks on REDuser.net report that clips recorded with “raw” monitoring come across with REDspace gamma and color). The other presets apply different preset color balances; very handy if you shoot, as I prefer, with the camera always set to 5000K, so that the false-color level meter can be relied upon (the purple “overload” color only works for non-raw viewing modes at color temperatures close to 5000K… but I digress).
You can also create a “look” file in RED Alert—with some limitations. The look file is the same .RLX preset you normally save and load in RED Alert (one of RED’s free utilities), but the RED FCP plugin only pays attention to the “ISO” and “Matrix” parameters; any curves you create are ignored, as are color space, gamma, denoise, and OLPF Compensation settings.
Trust me: If you shoot something in REDspace, Log and Transfer it into FCP, and then try to match it to a REDRushes or REDCine rendering of the same clip transcoded with Rec.709 gamma, you can easily drive yourself mad trying to make the two versions look alike, because they just can’t be matched with simple level, gain, and gamma tweaks. If, on the other hand, the RED-rendered clip uses REDspace just like the camera was set for, you can quickly match one to the other with just a couple of adjustments.
When you Log and Transfer a RED clip, it gets treated differently depending on its size:
Note, therefore, that if you shoot 4K HD (3840x2160) it’ll import as 1920x1080, ready to drop into a 1080p timeline with no further rescaling needed.
Wow great article, will have to read again - maybe a few times.
Phill
Posted by Synaptic Light on 01/28 at 03:06 AM
Why does “Detail: Standard quality half-res decode to 2048x1152” appear to be the sharpest?
Posted by Kendal Miller on 01/28 at 01:32 PM
“Wow great article” - Thanks, Phill!
“Why does ‘Detail: Standard quality half-res decode to 2048x1152’” appear to be the sharpest?
Funny, isn’t it?
I’m not privy to the details (pun intended) of REDcode decoding, but in looking at a variety of shots, I might hazard a guess that “Half Standard” decode just pulls out 2K data and doesn’t attempt to perform any low-pass filtering on it (since REDcode uses wavelet coding, you can literally pull out half-res, quarter-res, or any other inverse-power-of-two subsampled set of data). Transitions are a little bit sharper as a result, but diagonals are a bit more jagged and tonal transitions overall seem a bit harsher, a bit more coarse.
At least, that’s what it looks like, even if I have the mechanism entirely wrong—which is quite possible, grin.
“Half High” does look softer, but fine details are a bit smoother, especially on the diagonal. And “Full” decoding is even smoother than “Half High”, while looking nearly as sharp as “Half Standard”; it’s clearly the best (even if you have to squint to see it). In real life it’s not clear that the increase in quality is worth the longer rendering times: for a feature, sure, no worries, but for an episodic TV show on a tight schedule? How many MacPros can you afford to throw at it?
Even so, image quality is subjective. The sharper image may not be as accurate, but it may be more pleasing, depending on the subject and on your preferences. There isn’t a right answer, just what’s right for you. At least the RED preferences let us choose between Standard and High.
Posted by Adam Wilt on 01/28 at 05:45 PM
“The sharper image may not be as accurate…”
Indeed. I have participated in image quality shootouts where quite literally, one man’s aliasing artifacts is another man’s sharpness. It’s certainly a case where you need to judge a moving image (to see if that sharpness ends up sparkling, indicating aliasing), rather than bet the farm on one still…
thanks again for the great article -
Chris
Posted by Chris Meyer on 01/30 at 10:31 AM
Adam, any chance you can get your PVC overlords to supply a “print” link?
Articles like this are perfect to print out for my commute.
Even better would be a pdf link to send to my Kindle (though all your pretty pictures would get seriously mangled).
Anyway, thanks for the article.
Patrick
Posted by Patrick Inhofer on 02/07 at 12:16 PM
My PVC overlords tell me it’s on the to-do list. Until then, copying content to a word processor and printing it to a PDF is probably your best pathway to portability.
Posted by Adam Wilt on 02/07 at 01:53 PM
Whew .... I don’t know how anyone can look at the less that 24fps playback frame rates of RED proxies and “native” RED QuickTimes and call that acceptable playback frames rates for an edit. I can’t even rough cut and barely view footage with that kind of choppy playback…. much less do any kind of real editing. And I’m doing this on a Mac Pro with all 8 cores humming!
As someone who sits in from of RED edits for days and weeks at a time it’s transcode to ProRes for the offline 100% of the time. I just can’t handle it any other way!
Posted by Scott Simmons on 02/09 at 11:19 PM
“I don’t know how anyone can look at the less that 24fps playback frame rates of RED proxies and ‘native’ RED QuickTimes and call that acceptable…”
Grin. I said adequate, not acceptable (or desirable!)—and I sure wouldn’t want to do it on anything longer than a :30 spot with about 12 shots in it!
But even there, I’m coming around to your way of thinking; I’m working on ProRes versions of the clips now, and trying to decide whether to do a 1-light grade in REDCine and then doing my final cut with the ProRes, or whether to just Log & Transfer ProRes copies as offlines and then conform a REDCODE timeline thereafter (using various matchback tools, or just the Media Mangler), or do other things altogether.
Why all this madness? I’m using this :30 as a workflow development and testing tool for longer-form work coming up; I want to try working through many (if not all) of the possible transcoding pathways and offline/online workflows and get a feel for the speed / quality / simplicity tradeoffs.
I’ve been spoiled enough by FCP in the past few years that I don’t want to return to the bad old days of the offline / online dichotomy. I’ve gotten used to ingesting both SD and HD video in high quality, editing with it, and outputting finished product—so much nicer than cutting 3/4” dubs linearly, or tape-splicing 16mm workprint and adding grease-pencil dissolve marks! So I’m trying to find a way (or several ways) to preserve that WYSIWYG simplicity with no loss in quality while working with R1 files. It may NOT be that simple, but I’m stubborn, and I learn interesting things along the way…
You say you’ve got an 8-Core MacPro. What sort of playback frame rates can you get out of that beast with REDCODE-native files?
Posted by Adam Wilt on 02/10 at 01:44 AM
I can get decent 24 fps playback on the Mac Pro about 3/4 of the time. That’s a single layer only, Unlimited RT, quality set lower. It might work fine one day and literally the next day it drops frames. But that goes back to my point that IMHO you can’t do “real” editing in Unlimited RT. Started adding transitions or fx or grouping a music video or multicam shoot and wham! No more even Unlimited RT.
If you had the fasted Mac with the fasted hard drives on a very slim system with no background processes and no internet surfing then you can get decent playback though I don’t think it’s acceptable for anything other than a simple single layer edit.
The whole offline - online thing? Yea, know what you mean. Everything new is old again huh?
Posted by Scott Simmons on 02/10 at 07:43 AM
8 core indeed - the lotto tickets are looking more enticing, lol
I have a MBP and trying to do something in RED Alert is an exercise in madness. I seem to remember Scott saying something about RED Rushes taking forever (twitter)? Sorry if I miss quoted you. One 2K layer in FCP is not too bad, even Shake was relatively smoothish when keying.
But I am forced to work with the 2K or 1K proxies (offline?)
My question us how do you go back online to 4K? Maybe with the final output being web/dvd/blu-ray you don’t need to go back to 4K, but then what is the point in starting with 4K if you can only use the proxies and output at 2K or less? Well like you say the 2K images derived from the 4K ones is better, if that is what u meant by: “That’s the advantage of supersampling; 4K of data in a 2K frame looks better than 2K of data in a 2K frame.”.
Personally I would prefer to edit and key in 4K, but I have go offline to 2K because Shake and FCP and Color only do up to 2K
Something to see in FCS3? But then again how can you monitor 4K? You would need to down convert or used some really specialized equipment.
hmmm
Posted by Synaptic Light on 02/10 at 08:12 AM
“[Y]ou can’t do ‘real’ editing in Unlimited RT. Started adding transitions or fx or grouping a music video or multicam shoot and wham! No more even Unlimited RT.”
Not as such, no; it’s add / render selectively / play, much like doing stuff in tape-to-tape: program, preroll, perform, review. It works—not quickly, true, but it works. But yeah, for multicam it’s hopeless. Online using ProRes422HQ, or offline with ProRes or DVCPROHD and then conform REDCODE.
“[T]rying to do something in RED Alert is an exercise in madness.”
Well, we all need our exercise…
“[H]ow do you go back online to 4K?”
Currently the only ways are outside the FCP/FCS universe, using REDCine, Scratch, SpeedGrade, or the like.
But do you really want to? (That’s a rhetorical question; the practicality and financial tradeoffs of a 4k finish vs a 2k finish are topics too large for a mere comments section.)
“But then again how can you monitor 4K?”
You’re in luck: Sony is having a blowout sale on B-stock and demo SXRD 4k projectors. You can get a DVI-equipped 5,000 lumen SRX-S105, normally $78,000, for only $39,000 if you buy before March 20.
Piggy banks throughout the post world are quivering in terror at this news.
Posted by Adam Wilt on 02/10 at 10:52 AM
“I seem to remember Scott saying something about RED Rushes taking forever (twitter)? “
I have had problems with REDrushes crashing when I give it a very large batch to render. It’s fast when it works though!
Posted by Scott Simmons on 02/10 at 04:57 PM
cool, I am still to Try REDrushes
Sony 4K cameras, hmmm, glad my interest worries about them and not my budget - at half price is still a big investment.
Looking forward to try Redrushes and REDCine
and learning (which get accelerated because of you guys - thanks)
Phill
Posted by Synaptic Light on 02/10 at 11:00 PM
Adam,
Good article. Finally had the time to sit in front of my computer and digest.
“All my 2048x1152 REDcode clips are shrunk to 93.75% to fit into a 1920x1080 sequence.(I’m sure that someone will add a comment telling me what I should have done to avoid this problem… please!)”
1080/1152 = 93.75
But the aspect ratios are the same, yes? I’m thinking this is probably originating in Color with that mystical “resolution preset” project preference which is trying to fit the 1152 width onto a 1080 frame. For all its complexity Color sometimes has an IQ of 40.
Like you say in the follow up article - probably an issue that the ProApps folks have to fix.
- pi
Posted by Patrick Inhofer on 02/12 at 09:51 PM
“1080/1152 = 93.75”
Yes, indeed: that’s the shrinkage that FCP put on the 2K clip originally to fit it into an HD sequence. I just didn’t expect to see Color apply that same shrinkage to the 1920x1080 clips it renders out when it exports the sequence back to FCP.
As I note in the follow up article, 2K ProRes clips are not treated the same way; they get rendered to 1920x1080 but are placed in the exported sequence at 100%, so it appears to be Color getting confused by some of that RED “mysterium”, grin.
Posted by Adam Wilt on 02/12 at 10:00 PM
