Monday, May 19, 2008

Final Cut Pro to YouTube

Richard Harrington | 05/19- 04:10 PM

Learn how to get the best YouTube videos from Final Cut Pro

What people tend to forget is that you are sending YouTube a master for them to compress; therefore, send the highest quality you can, that fits within their limitations. YouTube.com is well know for being the busiest video-sharing site, but unfortunately, YouTube uses the much older Sorenson Spark codec for their video encoding. This was the “improved” video format for Flash 7 but is based on the very old H.263 video conferencing codec. Even when new, this was an old, inefficient codec.

Many people send YouTube an already compressed video, and are disappointed when they see the quality that results on YouTube. That’s because most of the information was first thrown away by the encode before upload, so there was little quality left to be encoded to Flash 7.

The goal is to give YouTube a master that they can use for encoding:
• YouTube has two limitations: no more than 10 minutes per video and no larger than 100 MB per video.
• YouTube converts everything that is uploaded to Flash 7 video at 320X240 (although they’ve started to also do 640X480 in H.264).
• Remember the good old days of VHS distribution? You wouldn’t give the duplicator a VHS copy of the show to duplicate. No, you’d give them the highest quality master you could. Therefore, to get the best quality from YouTube, give them a high quality “master” that is close to 99 MB.

Here’s how to pull this off:
1 Use QuickTime Pro or Final Cut Pro to exports to .mp4 with H.264 video.
2 Export as MPEG-4 with H.264 and set the size to 320X240. There is no point providing more resolution than YouTube’s finished size. By going direct to that size means that you can devote bandwidth to making that master look great, instead of sending excess size that will be scaled down. The bonus is that you get to control de-interlacing and scaling.
3 From here on there are two choices: calculate the maximum data rate that will keep the file under 99 MB, or use some general purpose settings.

Thanks to Phil Hodgetts for this guest tip.

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

NLEs Are Still Too Expensive?

Terence Curren | 05/18- 07:54 AM

There has been a lot of noise lately from some folks that even the new Avid hardware pricing is too high. As someone who is in this game for the long haul, this really rankles my feathers. Avid has lowered their pricing by around 50 percent, while delivering a product that greatly increases speed and performance over the existing Adrenaline line. When I try to explain that time is money and the time you save with this gear equals money in the bank, I just get “but FCP is cheaper” as the standard response. So I thought I would follow this new group of editors to their future world…

Monday, May 12, 2008

Two Compleat Idiots Discuss RED Post

Adam Wilt | 05/12- 05:12 PM

On exposure, grading, free vs. paid-for tools, NDs, and the “revolution”

Art and Adam discuss the aftermath of the Wii spec spot and Art’s venture into RED post…

Monday, May 12, 2008

The Compleat Idiot’s Guide to RED Post on a Budget

Art Adams | 05/12- 11:03 AM

Written by a complete post idiot, these RED tips may make your life slightly easier

This is by no means a definitive manual on how to post RED footage. Rather, this is how I managed to work with R3D footage while creating a spec spot using the RED. Your mileage may vary. I expect to be flamed repeatedly regarding my handling of this shoot’s post process, but from the ashes I hope to extract some knowledge as to how to do it all better next time.

We did not record any sound on the shoot, so that part of the post process is not addressed. Yay!

For behind-the-scenes action, see Adam Wilt’s post on the shoot itself.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Fun With A Mac, Some Programs, and a Music Video - Do It Again!

Scott Gentry | 05/11- 10:25 PM

You may want to play this video again and again to see all the tools they used....

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Final Cut Pro – The Dividing Line

Richard Harrington | 05/08- 07:19 PM

When dragging tracks in the Timeline, where you drag is as important as what you drag

When dragging tracks in the Timeline, where you drag is as important as what you drag. Careless dragging may result in an unintended overwrite edit when you intended
an insert edit.

If you look closely at the Timeline, you’ll notice that it’s divided by a thin gray line. When dragging, look to see which region you enter to determine the edit type.

When dragging from the Viewer or a bin, use these tips:

* Dragging to the upper-third of the track results in an insert edit.
* Dragging to the lower two-thirds of the track results in an overwrite edit.

Several different options are available when dragging within the Timeline.

When dragging in the Timeline, use these tips:

* Dragging in the Timeline horizontally results in an overwrite edit by default.
* Dragging in the Timeline horizontally results in an insert or swap edit when you hold down the Option key.
* Dragging in the Timeline vertically results in an overwrite edit by default.
* Dragging in the Timeline vertically results in an insert edit when you press the Option key after you start to drag.
* Pressing the Option key and then dragging in the Timeline vertically results in a cloned copy added to the Timeline via an insert edit.
* Pressing the Option and Shift keys and then dragging in the Timeline vertically results in a cloned copy added to the Timeline directly above the clip.

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.

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