Quicktip Day 28: Turn off Video Scopes Playback

Quicktip #28 (February 28, 2009) Turning off realtime video scopes for better playback

The realtime updating of the video scopes that was added to Final Cut Pro a few versions back is very handy:

But on occasion I’ve noticed that having the realtime scopes might affect playback quality and frame rate in the Canvas. It doesn’t seem to happen often but if it does then the realtime playback can be turned off in the pop-up menu in the timeline:

Some people just find the realtime playback annoying so that might be another reason to turn the realtime playback off as well.

Quicktip Day 27: Promote to Avid Advanced Keyframes

Quicktip #27 (February 27, 2009) Promote to Avid Advanced Keyframes

In the old days, to keyframe Avid effects you had to open the effect in the Effect Editor and add keyframes in the Record monitor. This could quickly become confusing with lots of keyframes added to different parameters. Recent releases of Avid Media Composer will allow you to promote a number of effects to Advanced Keyframes. Just look for the promote to advanced keyframes button in the corner of the Effect Editor:

Clicking this button will open up the keyframe editor that has a timeline for each parameter in the effect. The image below shows the ever useful 3D Warp:

With the advanced keyframe editor open you can turn on different effect parameters and twirl down the disclose triangle and see animation curves that will be familiar to anyone who has done animation keyframing via curves before. Right+click (or control+shift+click on a single button mouse) on a curve and there are many more options for working with the curves and their keyframes.

Quicktip Day 26: Saving EDL Comments in Avid

Quicktip #26 (February 26, 2009) Making EDL comments in an Avid EDL

If you are sending an edit to online via an EDL you can add comments for the online editor that can appear in the EDL. First select a clip you want to add comments via Segment mode:

Then click on the edit sequence name above the record monitor and choose Add Comments…:

Type in your comments in the Comments window:

Those comments will show up in the EDL:

If you can’t see the comments make sure the Comment box is checked in the Comments tab under EDL Settings.

Quicktip Day 25: Access Custom Avid Effects

Quicktip #25 (February 25, 2009) Access Custom Avid Effects

Any titles you have generated in Avid or custom effects you have saved to a bin will show up in the Effect Palette for use just like any other Avid effect:

These are available in the float Effect Palette as well as the tabbed Effect Palette in the main project window.

Flipping those upside down 35mm adapter images

As nice as a 35mm depth of field adapter is one big disadvantage of such an adapter, at least the affordable ones, is they flip the image and that image is recorded upside down. It’s upside down on your tape or your file and it’s upside down on the camera’s LCD monitor. Options and hacks abound for dealing with the upside down image but probably the most common way to “right” your footage is to do it in post. I’ve been editing my footage shot with the GT35pro adapter in both Final Cut Pro and Avid so this is how I deal with the upside down footage.

There’s two easy ways to flip your footage over in Final Cut Pro, in the Motion parameters tab of each clip or by applying a Flop filter. If you bring a clip into FCP’s Viewer then all you have to do is change the rotation to 180 (or -180, both work) and the clip will then be right-side-up:

If you have a lot of clips in the timeline you can copy that clip, select all those clips in the timeline and Paste Attributes > Basic Motion to apply that rotation to multiple clips. Another way is to apply the Flop filter (Effects > Video Filters > Perspective > Flop) and then choose Both from the parameters pop-up menu:

One problem with these methods is that you have to apply the filter in the timeline or bring all the clips into the Viewer to change the rotation. You could make a timeline with all of your master clips, apply your flipping method, then drag these clips back to the Browser to create new master clips but no matter which method is used something has to be done unless you want to edit upside down.

The problem with the above methods is that it takes a bit of time. What would be better is a batch process. I’ve been using a handy little tool called rotateClips from spherico that uses Final Cut Pro’s XML export functionality to automatically add the 180〫rotation or the Flop filter:

From the spherico website: “Just export bins, a sequence, clips or even a complete project as XML and drag the XML(s) onto the programs icon, after a few seconds the conversion is done and you can import the newly created XML into FCP. All clips are either rotated or flopped.” The tool works well and is a nice option for flipping an entire edit’s worth of master clips before you begin. According to the rotateClips developer, it’s an older tool and hasn’t been updated to run under Leopard but I have used it a number of times without any problems. There is a free demo on the site that is limited to 15 clips. If you work with a lot of 35mm adapter footage then rotateClips is a very useful tool to have in your editor’s toolkit.

The process is a bit different in Avid. While you can add the Flip-Flop effect to an individual clip in the timeline the easiest thing to do is add the effect to a black video track above your edit. Avid allows you to add effects to a blank video track and then all the media under that track will reflect the above effect:

This is perfect for something like a music video or multicam concert where most of your editing takes place in the Record monitor / Timeline since clips loaded into the Source monitor are still upside down. I’ve never found a way to apply an effect to an Avid master clip and have that reflected in the Source monitor. That would be a great addition to a future Avid release!

Since the HV20 shoots HDV my first step after capture is to always use Compressor to transcode the footage to 24p ProRes 422 for FCP or DNxHD for an Avid project. It would be perfect if Compressor allowed for the flipping of the image during that conversion process ... but since Compressor does not it’s other options to the rescue!

Quicktip Day 24: Apply Saved Avid Effect to Multiple Clips

Quicktip #24 (February 24, 2009) Apply Saved Avid Effect to Multiple Clips

You can apply a custom effect you’ve saved to an Avid bin by first selecting all the clips you want to apply the effect to via either of the segment modes and then double-click the saved effect in the Avid bin:

You will then have that effect applied to all of the clips you selected:

Quicktip Day 23: Saving a Custom Avid Effect

Quicktip #23 (February 23, 2009) Saving a Custom Avid Effect

If you have an applied effect that you have perfected in Avid and you want to save that to use on other clips, first open the Effect Editor and then grab the effect icon in the effect editor:

Click and drag the icon into a bin to save it:

You can custom name the effect and then apply it like you would any effect from the Effects Palette.

Quicktip Day 22: slate buttons to increment numbers

Quicktip #22 (February 22, 2009) slate buttons to increment numbers

Clicking the little slate buttons in Final Cut Pro’s Log and Capture tool will increment the clip information in their respective rows. Keep the check boxes checked and FCP will automatically increment the last number or letter for each new clip.

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