Quickstart Guide to Using Final Cut Pro in the VMIL

Ben Grosser

Former Manager, VMIL

Introduction
Saving Files and File Management
How to Capture Video
Simple Editing
Adding Effects (Transitions) to Your Sequence
Adding Titles
How to Export Final Sequences to Quicktime
How to Import Numbered Image Sequences
How to Export Numbered Image Sequences
How to Save Final Sequences on Videotape
Settings Check
Troubleshooting Checklist
References

Introduction

Final Cut Pro (hereafter referred to as FCP) is a powerful, yet simple-to-use video-editing program available in the VMIL. It is particularly suited to editing movies for Quicktime export. While it lacks some of the real-time features of the Avid system, it has a whole-host of other features the Avid does not have, making a useful addition to our video editing capabilities.

This document will not serve as a replacement for reading the Final Cut Pro manual or using its online help. However, this document will describe how to perform some of the most common tasks in Final Cut Pro, as it relates to VMIL users and the lab’s particular setup. As you work through a particular task in this document, please consult the manual, or ask a consultant if something remains unclear.

In addition to this document, you may also be interested in using our Final Cut Pro Training CD-ROM. Please see a VMIL staff member to check this item out.

Figure 1: The Final Cut Pro 1.25 Interface

What is FCP Good For?

Videotape to quicktime.
Quicktime to videotape.
Making quick changes to an existing movie.
Turning still images into quicktime.
Capturing stills from videotape.
Capturing stills from quicktime.

Anything else you might think of…

FCP can accomplish most any editing task, including those that the Avid can do. However, some applications may lend themselves more towards one or the other. If you aren’t sure which system is best for solving your problem, please contact a VMIL staff member.

Usual Sequence of Events

Depending on your starting point, your project will usually work within this flow:

1. Capture or import footage

2. Edit captured clips into a sequence (cuts-only edit).

3. Add effects, transitions and titles

4. Print to video or export to quicktime

How to accomplish each of these four items is outlined below.

Saving Files and File Management

All media files (video and audio) should be saved to one of the ‘Media’ drives. There are four drives on the desktop, labeled Media A, B, C and D. Please create folders within these drives with your name on it, and place any saved files within these folders. This way we can contact you about your project if we need to, and you can also more easily keep track of all the resources for your project. You may also use folders on more than one drive if your project requires it.

How to Capture Video

Choosing a Video Source

The first thing to address when capturing video is which device you plan to capture from. Our FCP system is setup with the ability to capture easily from miniDV or VHS/SVHS tape, using the decks attached to the system.

The normal operating mode of FCP will have the JVC miniDV deck on, and the analog->DV converter off (see ‘Settings Check’ for other information on default settings and setup). This is how you want it if you also intend to capture video from miniDV. However, if you want to capture footage from VHS, or any other source you might plug into the analog->DV converter, you need to turn off the deck you aren’t using, turn on the deck you want, and then start FCP. If, at any time, you wish to switch which deck you are using to capture from, you will need to go through this same process again:

1. Save all work and close FCP.

2. Turn off the device you aren’t planning to use (either the JVC DV deck or the converter).

3. Turn on the device you are planning to use (i.e. converter and VHS deck, or miniDV deck).

4. Start FCP and load your project, or choose File->New Project to start up a new project.

Some Notes about Audio During Capture

There are two sets of speakers on Winogrand. One set (the black Yamahas) is connected directly to the mini-DV deck. These speakers are used when capturing from or recording to mini-DV. They are also used as the normal speakers when doing editing operations in FCP and while viewing video on the external NTSC monitor.

You may notice that the other speakers (small labtec’s) also playback audio when doing editing or even when doing capturing. Normally, when using mini-DV exclusively, it will not be necessary to turn on the small speakers (i.e. keep their volume turned down). However, when capturing from any other format, or if not viewing video on the external monitor (and thus, not audio on the Yamaha speakers), you can hear the audio via the small Labtecs.

Also, when watching a Quicktime movie, or anything else outside of FCP, the audio will come out on the small Labtec speakers.

As for audio levels, no level adjustment is necessary or possible when capturing from mini-DV or VHS/SVHS. The audio data is transferred as-is, digitally, over firewire.

Capturing Clips from mini-DV

All video capturing takes place from within the ‘Log and Capture’ tool. To load this, go to File->Log and Capture. Once in this tool, you will be presented with controls for the deck, for logging and capturing clips, and other settings.

Figure 1: Log and Capture Tool

Note that if you experience any hardware differences from the way things are described here, please check the troubleshooting sections at the end of this document to verify you have things setup correctly.

Easy: Now

The easiest way to capture video is to hit play on the deck control, wait until it gets to a place you want to capture, and then hit ‘Now’. This will start a capture that will continue until you hit the ‘Esc’ button. There is no need to set audio levels, as the firewire transfer is an exact digital copy of what is on your DV tape.

Once you’ve hit ‘Esc’, the system will pause the deck and bring your clip up in a new viewer. You can play or save this clip as you choose. Drag the clip to the browser in the lower-left if you want to add it to your current project.

Continue in this fashion until you have captured all the footage you need to compile your project.

Medium: Clip

As you review your tape using the deck controls, at any time you can use the ‘i’ and ‘o’ buttons on the macintosh keyboard to set In and Out points on the tape. This will set precise markers that indicate exactly what part of the tape you want to digitize when you select the ‘Clip’ button. This will avoid any mistakes of not hitting the button at precisely the right time, ensuring you get just what you ask for.

Note that this mode will only work if you have continuous timecode on your miniDV tape! If you do not have continuous timecode, FCP will get confused when it hits a timecode break, and will stop capturing. If you do not have continuous timecode, you can always capture clips using the ‘Now’ ‘method. For more information about timecode, see ‘What is Timecode?’ at http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/help/timecode/.

Harder: Batch

Batch capturing allows you to log a series of clips on any number of tapes, without actually digitizing them. Then, when you have set in and out points for all the clips from all of your source tapes that you want, you can then ask for a ‘batch’. FCP will then instruct you to insert tapes as it needs them, and will proceed to capture the clips you logged. Again, as with ‘Clip’, you need to have continuous timecode on your tapes for this to work.

If you are interested in using Batch Capture, please see the FCP Manual for more information, or ask a VMIL consultant.

Capturing Clips from VHS or SVHS tape

If you want to capture media from VHS or SVHS, you will need to use the SVHS deck (Panasonic AG-5700) next to Winogrand. Please follow the instructions under ‘Choosing a Video Source’ above to setup the hardware correctly.

In the Log and Capture tool, check Device Control and turn it off. Make sure the analog->DV converter is set to ‘Analog IN’. Finally, to view your video on the external NTSC monitor, you will need to turn off ‘Line/RGB’ (4^th from left button, top row – at the bottom front of the monitor). Remember to switch this back after all digitizing is done from VHS/SVHS. If you have any other problems, please check the section labeled ‘Things to Check Before Recording’ in the ‘Settings Check’ section of this document.

Once you have your tape inserted and the proper equipment powered on, you can proceed with capturing. If you do not have timecode on your tape (this will be the case for most everyone), then you will only be able to use the ‘Now’ mode for capturing on the fly. For instructions on using this mode, please see the section titled ‘Easy: Now’ above.

If you want to do either clip or batch capture from your VHS tape, and it does not have timecode, you have the option of dubbing that VHS tape to a mini-DV tape that does have timecode. Please see a consultant if you are interested in this option (note that this would be done using equipment in the video rack, not using the decks attached to Winogrand).

Capturing Clips from your own Camcorder

If you want to capture media from your own camcorder, this is possible. First, you want to determine if your camera has a firewire connector. This may also be called i.Link (Sony), or IEEE-1394 (the official name for the specification). If your camera does have a firewire connector (most any digital video camera from the last couple years will have one), then you are likely in luck. FCP will capture from, and control most cameras with a firewire port.

If you have a firewire port, do the following:

Make sure FCP is not loaded (save all work if need be before closing it).
Power off the analog->DV converter.
Power off the JVC miniDV deck.
Pull the firewire cable from the back of the converter and plug it into your own camera.
Power the camera on and start FCP.

Once you have done this, you should be good to go with the normal setup. Note that you will not get any playback to the external video monitor while digitizing with your own camera.

Follow the instructions under ‘Capturing Clips from miniDV’ for further instructions on capturing media.

Capturing Clips from Any Other Source

If your source media is neither VHS, SVHS, nor mini-DV, and you do not have your own camera, then you will have to dub your source media to one of these formats. Other formats the VMIL can read include:

BetaSP (not Betamax!)
DVCPRO
DVCAM
DVD
PAL VHS
LP and EP mode VHS (in addition to SP)

If your source is not one of these, you can always bring in your deck and ask a consultant to help you hook it up to the rack for dubbing, or you may also be able to outsource a dub. Please ask a staff member if you need assistance.

Once you have dubbed your media onto either SVHS or mini-DV (mini-DV is highly recommended over VHS!!), you can follow the appropriate instructions above for capturing media from that source.

Simple Editing

A Couple Terms

Clip: Source audio or video material captured from a tape. In the ‘Browser’ below (figure 2), clips are distinguished by a clip icon (i.e. any of the clips in ‘Bin 2’)

Sequence: Sequences are built by specifying in/out points of clips and adding them together. In other words, a sequence isn’t actually new material, but a series of pointers to a clip. Consequently, one cannot delete original clips after building a sequence – the sequence would then have no original media in it. In the ‘Browser’ window below (figure 2), sequences are distinguished by the sequence icon (i.e. any of the Sequences such as ‘Sequence 1’, ‘Sequence 2’, etc.).

The Primary Components

Figure 2: The Browser

Figure 3: The Viewer

The Browser

The browser window (usually lower-left-hand corner) is the place where you organize your clips and sequences. You can create folders (‘bins’) and organize clips into different locations. You can drag clips from the browser into your sequences.

The Viewer

Viewers are media playback windows. Any clips can be opened in its own viewer. One viewer shows up at the top left by default. Double-clicking a clip in the browser will load it into the viewer. You can use viewers to review your media, set in and out points for splicing, and other operations.

The Canvas

The canvas looks a lot like a viewer. Its main difference is that it loads sequences, not clips. Whatever sequence you are currently building can be viewed in the canvas. It usually loads in the top-right-hand corner.

Figure 4: The Canvas

The Timeline

The timeline is a graphical representation of the current state of your movie. You can drag clips into the timeline to add them to your sequence. You can grab the edges of clips and drag them left or right to change their length. You can grab clips and drag them to other tracks. You can shift-select groups of clips and drag them wherever you want, creating black space or a new ordering. The timeline usually fills most of the space on the bottom of the screen.

Figure 5: The Timeline

Creating a New Sequence

The first step in getting going with editing is to create a new sequence. This can be done by choosing File->New->Sequence, or by pressing Command-N. This will be the ‘canvas’ upon which you create your movie. The sequence will appear in the browser and likely also in the canvas (although it will be black as you haven’t added anything to it yet). If it doesn’t load into the canvas, double-click it in the browser.

If you need to, you can create as many sequences as you want, and eventually use sequences as source material to compile new sequences.

Adding Clips to a Sequence

The first step in adding media to your sequence is to decide what part of that media you want included in the sequence. You do this by loading media into a viewer (double-click in the title in the browser), and then setting In and Out points. These points mark the selection of the media you want to work with when you do splicing operations into your sequence.

To set an in point, play/scroll the video to the beginning of where you want to start using material and press 'i' on the keyboard. You will see a small marker on the viewer's timeline. To set an out, scroll to where you want the out and press 'o'. This has now defined a selection within this clip. Based on these in/out points, whatever splicing you do will only use the material between these two points. These two points can be changed at any time by simply selecting new in/out points using 'i' and 'o'.

Once you have your in/out points set, you can add that selection to your current sequence. You can do this by clicking on the video itself and dragging it one of two places. First, you can drag it to the timeline and place it where you want. Or, you can set an in point on the sequence, and then drag it over to the video in the canvas. When you do this, a menu will pop up that will allow ‘insert’, ‘overwrite’, ‘replace’ and ‘fit to fill’, among other options. Drop the video onto the option you want and it will perform the edit.

Changing the Length of a Clip in a Sequence

Once you have a rough-cut of clips organized into a sequence, you can perform finer editing on it. To change the length of clips, simply grab its edges in the timeline and drag it to where you want. Or, you can delete portions using in/out points if you prefer (see the next section).

Deleting and Lifting from a Sequence

There are two different kinds of deletes one can do in a sequence. One is known as a lift, and the other is called a ‘ripple delete’. Why the ‘ripple delete’ is called what it is, I don’t know. It is the equivalent of a regular ‘cut’ in Avid Media Composer.

A lift removes the selected material from the sequence, and leaves a gap (black space) in its place. This is especially useful if you want to pull out the video or audio, but want to leave the other tracks below/above it intact. To perform a lift edit, set in/out points and press delete (or Command-X, or Sequence->Lift). When doing a lift edit, make sure you don’t have a segment selected, but just in/out points over the sequence. If a segment is selected (i.e. it is highlighted in brown), a lift edit will remove the entire segment.

A ripple delete removes the selected material and closes the gap. To perform a ripple delete, select the portion using in/out points and then press shift-delete (or Sequence->Ripple Delete).

Adding Effects (Transitions) to your Sequence

Do You Really Want a Top-Right Page Peel?

At this point, you have a ‘cuts-only’ edit. However, you may want to add a transition such as a dissolve or a wipe. Be aware, however, that regardless of how fancy these transitions may look, an overabundance of them may distract viewers from your content. If you watch any type of video-based media (be it TV commercials, sitcoms, dramas, box-office movies, etc) you will notice that almost every change is a simple cut--very few dissolves, even less wipes, etc. A lot of these transitions are more common in commercials, which are probably the primary user of most of the wipes and 3D effects out there.

Adding a Transition

That caveat aside, to add a transition, click on the ‘Effects’ tab in the browser. This brings up a listing of all of the effects you can add. FCP has a huge variety of effects, not limited to transitions. Transitions can usually be added to the end of a clip, centered over the end and start points of two adjacent clips, or at the beginning of a clip. Grab a cross dissolve and drag it onto the edit point between two clips. You will see that it highlights both clips, indicating that it will affect both. If you drag a bit to the left, it will lay it on the end of the first clip.

Note that if nothing happens when adding a transition, you may have insufficient source material for the transition to affect. For example, if you were adding a cross-dissolve, which used 15 frames on each side, but you were adding that transition to between two 10-frame clips, the source material would be insufficient to blend between them with 15 frames in and 15 frames out.

This is the general method for laying down transition effects. If you aren’t happy with the default settings, effects can be edited for fine tuning—allowing you adjust their timing, placement, etc. See the manual or ask a staff member if you need help with this.

Rendering the Transition

All effects in FCP are not real-time. This means that the computer cannot calculate the effect fast enough to play it for you without thinking about it first. (We hope to alleviate this problem with a new board due out soon that does real-time effects). If you play your sequence with unrendered effects, the screen will show you ‘Unrendered’ when it hits the effect.

To render your effect so that you can see it play, select the effect in the timeline, and hit command-R for ‘render effect’. This will take some time, depending on the complexity of your effect. Once it is rendered, you can play the effect back in real time. Be aware that if you make any modifications to that effect, you will have to re-render it.

You can also render all effects at once choose Sequence->Render All. Remember that this may take some time. Strategies for managing renders in a project are outlined in the FCP documentation in Chapter 10.

Adding Titles

While a title is classified as an effect, it is one of the most commonly requested features in the VMIL, so I will address it separately here.

Creating the Title

To get a title, you will need to browse to the ‘Generators’ section of the effects browser. Select Text to bring up the text generator window. Click the Controls tab to set any settings for your text you want, like font, size, style, etc. You also type the content of the text here as well. Text generators can only contain one type of font, so if you need multiple fonts in a title, please use multiple text generators.

Click back on the Video tab to see what your text looks like. To get the title into your sequence, select in/out points to specify a length, and then drag the video onto the Canvas’ video. Here you can drop it in with an overwrite or insert edit, or if you want the title to be on top of existing video, use the ‘superimpose’ option.

Creating Titles/Graphics in Other Programs

If you want a complicated text graphic in your video, you might consider creating the graphic in a program such as Adobe Photoshop (available on all machines in the lab). When creating this text, start with a blank document that is 720x540 in size, at 72dpi. When you have completely finished your work, resize the document to 720x480. The new document will look a little scrunched – don’t worry. When you import the file into FCP and display it on the video screen, it will look normal. (This is because digital video uses a non-square pixel size, which gets stretched to square when displayed on a video monitor or TV).

Making Sure Your Title is Viewable on a TV

This subject applies to any video content you create, but is especially important for titles. Standard televisions do something called ‘overscanning’. This means that they don’t actually show you the entire content of the video image—it overscans, forcing the edges of the picture off-screen. This is done to accommodate differences in tube technology and video playback, so that viewers don’t see gaps around the screen.

Overscanning makes for a nice picture, but can be frustrating to people who create titles that look great on the computer, but then get cutoff when they play them on a TV. To make sure your titles don’t get cut off, you can turn on the Title Safe Overlay. To do this, select the viewer and go to View->Title Safe. This will show you two white boxes overlaid on your video. The outer box is the Safe Action overlay. Keep any action that must be seen by the viewer within this box. The inner box is the Safe Title overlay. Keep any titles within this box to assure that they won’t get cutoff when displayed on another TV.

How to Export Final Sequences to Quicktime

If your final output destination is the computer and not videotape, you will need to export your sequence to Quicktime. Quicktimes are playable on nearly every computer, including laptops, from within presentations, and over the WWW through a browser.

Use FCP or Cleaner for Quicktime Compression?

You now need to decide which program you want to do your quicktime compression. If what you are after is a quick, easy solution, I suggest letting FCP do the compression. If you want lots of control, need to crop, or have a bit more time to wait for a better compression, you might consider using Cleaner (formerly Media Cleaner Pro) for the compression. Cleaner also allows export to MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and RealVideo formats as well, while FCP does not.

Exporting to Quicktime Using FCP

To export a quicktime from FCP:

Click on your sequence in the Canvas
Select in/out points for your selection (select the entire sequence or clear the in/out if you want the whole thing)
Select File->Export->Quicktime
Click ‘Options’

For the following settings, please note that these are general suggested settings. There are plenty of other options for each of these settings that will produce excellent results. The suggested settings will produce a small, good-quality quicktime for use on the web. The Sorenson codec is compatible with Quicktime versions 3 and 4 on Mac’s and PC’s.

Under ‘Video Settings’, select

Compressor: Sorenson
Quality: Medium
Frames/Second: 15
Key Frame Every: 45 sec
Limit Data Rate to: 150k/sec

Under ‘Sound Settings’, select

Compressor: None
Sample Rate: 22,050
16-bit
Mono

Exporting to Quicktime Using Cleaner

In order to use Cleaner, you will need to first export your movie in some form, so that Cleaner can read it. To do this, you will export the movie without any additional compression so that you aren’t compressing the media twice. To export:

File->Export->Final Cut Pro Movie

Setting: DV-NTSC 48khz
Quality: Hi-Res
Include: Audio and Video (if applicable)

And save the file on the hard drive.

This movie will be readable by Cleaner by doing File->Open from within Cleaner. Use Settings->Wizard to bring up the settings wizard to guide you through the process. If you need more control, you can use the Advanced Settings instead of the wizard—allowing you specify every little detail about how your movie will be compressed. For more information on using Cleaner, see the Cleaner manuals, the Terran website, or ask a staff member for help.

How to Import Numbered Image Sequences into FCP

FCP will not import numbered image sequences directly. To import an image sequence, you will first need to use Cleaner 5 to convert the sequence into a Quicktime movie readable by FCP.

In Cleaner:

File->Add Image Sequence to Batch
Select first file in sequence
Select Frame Rate (30 fps usually)
Select Ok. (You may need to wait a few seconds here for long sequences)
Double-click on the sequence in the main window to preview it.
Windows->Settings Wizard
Select DV Camera
Continue
Hit the ‘Play’ button in the main window
Name the output file for saving

You can now open this saved file into FCP and add it to your browser for use in any FCP sequence.

How to Export Numbered Image Sequences from FCP

You can also export numbered image sequences from any FCP movie. To do so, do the following from within FCP:

Mark an in/out point in your sequence
File->Export->Quicktime
Format: Still Image
Click Options
Select a format for your image
Click ok, give it a filename, and save.

How to Save Final Sequences on Videotape

Saving your sequence on videotape can be easy or a bit more complicated, depending on your needs.

Using print to video

Use File->Print To Video If you don’t need to explicitly specify the location on the tape where your sequence will be written. This option brings up a dialog where you can set some parameters, including color bars, black, countdown, etc. Once you have set these to your liking, hit OK. After that, FCP will ask you to cue your tape and hit record on the deck. When ready, hit OK again to start recording to tape.

recording the timeline directly

An even easier solution is to simply play the sequence while recording on the tape. There is no loss in quality when doing this as compared to Print To Video, but you lose the possibility of using color bars, black levels, countdowns, etc.

To record the timeline to tape: cue your tape, set in/out points in your sequence, press record on the deck, then select Mark->Play In/Out. Let the deck record until the sequence is done.

Things to Check Before Recording

If using the SVHS deck for this, you may want to set the external monitor so that it shows output from the VHS deck. Press the ‘Line/RGB’ button on the monitor to switch it from component input (from the DV deck) to line input (from the VHS deck). You might also want to insert a pair of headphones into the deck so you can hear the audio as you set the levels.

Make sure you have the correct deck powered on and ready to go. You may need to do one test run to set audio levels (on the SVHS deck only).

Settings Check

The screen captures below outline the correct settings for sequences and general setup. If you have any questions about whether the settings are correct, please compare the settings windows to these. The first window is obtained from Sequence->Settings. The rest are from Edit->Preferences.

Please note that ‘Enable Device Control’ in the Device Control settings dialog may not be enabled, depending on which device you are using to capture video.

Figure 6: Sequence Settings

Figure 7: Preferences->General

Figure 8: Preferences->Device Control

Figure 9: Preferences->Capture

Figure 10: Preferences->Sequence Presets

Figure 11: Preferences->Scratch Disks

Troubleshooting Checklist

Check all settings (see ‘Settings Check’)
Make sure you aren’t using an LP-mode miniDV tape. The JVC miniDV deck will not read LP-mode tapes.
Restart Final Cut Pro.
Restart Winogrand.
Power everything off (including firewire devices), then power on firewire devices, then power on the computer.
Sacrifice an old copy of Microsoft Windows to the Apple gods.
Ask a staff member for help.

References

www.2-pop.com

www.apple.com/finalcutpro/

For an explanation of timecode, please see: http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/help/timecode/

PowerStart CD-ROM (Final Cut Pro Training) from Straight-Scoop, Inc.

Final Cut Pro Documentation

Final Cut Pro for Macintosh, by Lisa Brenneis

DV Companion for Final Cut Pro (online documentation)

Author

Benjamin Grosser

Former Manager

Visualization, Media and Imaging Laboratory

Last updated: 12/2000

Imaging Technology Group
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
405 N. Mathews, Urbana, IL 61801

Date Issued: 19 Dec 2000

Imaging Technology Group ITG Home Page Microscopy Suite User Information Calendars Equipment Software Techniques Policies Fees Helpful Links Contacts Visualization Laboratory About User Information Calendars Equipment Software Policies Fees Contacts Technology Development Bugscope Chickscope Remote Microscopy Virtual Microscopy 3D Reconstruction Visualization Web Atlas Publications Technical Reports News Forums Papers Exhibits Image of the Week Gallery Magazine Covers Movies ITG Developed Software ITG in the Media ITG People Search Advanced Search Search Help	Quickstart Guide to Using Final Cut Pro in the VMIL Ben Grosser Former Manager, VMIL Introduction Saving Files and File Management How to Capture Video Simple Editing Adding Effects (Transitions) to Your Sequence Adding Titles How to Export Final Sequences to Quicktime How to Import Numbered Image Sequences How to Export Numbered Image Sequences How to Save Final Sequences on Videotape Settings Check Troubleshooting Checklist References Introduction Final Cut Pro (hereafter referred to as FCP) is a powerful, yet simple-to-use video-editing program available in the VMIL. It is particularly suited to editing movies for Quicktime export. While it lacks some of the real-time features of the Avid system, it has a whole-host of other features the Avid does not have, making a useful addition to our video editing capabilities. This document will not serve as a replacement for reading the Final Cut Pro manual or using its online help. However, this document will describe how to perform some of the most common tasks in Final Cut Pro, as it relates to VMIL users and the lab’s particular setup. As you work through a particular task in this document, please consult the manual, or ask a consultant if something remains unclear. In addition to this document, you may also be interested in using our Final Cut Pro Training CD-ROM. Please see a VMIL staff member to check this item out. Figure 1: The Final Cut Pro 1.25 Interface What is FCP Good For? Videotape to quicktime. Quicktime to videotape. Making quick changes to an existing movie. Turning still images into quicktime. Capturing stills from videotape. Capturing stills from quicktime. Anything else you might think of… FCP can accomplish most any editing task, including those that the Avid can do. However, some applications may lend themselves more towards one or the other. If you aren’t sure which system is best for solving your problem, please contact a VMIL staff member. Usual Sequence of Events Depending on your starting point, your project will usually work within this flow: 1. Capture or import footage 2. Edit captured clips into a sequence (cuts-only edit). 3. Add effects, transitions and titles 4. Print to video or export to quicktime How to accomplish each of these four items is outlined below. Saving Files and File Management All media files (video and audio) should be saved to one of the ‘Media’ drives. There are four drives on the desktop, labeled Media A, B, C and D. Please create folders within these drives with your name on it, and place any saved files within these folders. This way we can contact you about your project if we need to, and you can also more easily keep track of all the resources for your project. You may also use folders on more than one drive if your project requires it. How to Capture Video Choosing a Video Source The first thing to address when capturing video is which device you plan to capture from. Our FCP system is setup with the ability to capture easily from miniDV or VHS/SVHS tape, using the decks attached to the system. The normal operating mode of FCP will have the JVC miniDV deck on, and the analog->DV converter off (see ‘Settings Check’ for other information on default settings and setup). This is how you want it if you also intend to capture video from miniDV. However, if you want to capture footage from VHS, or any other source you might plug into the analog->DV converter, you need to turn off the deck you aren’t using, turn on the deck you want, and then start FCP. If, at any time, you wish to switch which deck you are using to capture from, you will need to go through this same process again: 1. Save all work and close FCP. 2. Turn off the device you aren’t planning to use (either the JVC DV deck or the converter). 3. Turn on the device you are planning to use (i.e. converter and VHS deck, or miniDV deck). 4. Start FCP and load your project, or choose File->New Project to start up a new project. Some Notes about Audio During Capture There are two sets of speakers on Winogrand. One set (the black Yamahas) is connected directly to the mini-DV deck. These speakers are used when capturing from or recording to mini-DV. They are also used as the normal speakers when doing editing operations in FCP and while viewing video on the external NTSC monitor. You may notice that the other speakers (small labtec’s) also playback audio when doing editing or even when doing capturing. Normally, when using mini-DV exclusively, it will not be necessary to turn on the small speakers (i.e. keep their volume turned down). However, when capturing from any other format, or if not viewing video on the external monitor (and thus, not audio on the Yamaha speakers), you can hear the audio via the small Labtecs. Also, when watching a Quicktime movie, or anything else outside of FCP, the audio will come out on the small Labtec speakers. As for audio levels, no level adjustment is necessary or possible when capturing from mini-DV or VHS/SVHS. The audio data is transferred as-is, digitally, over firewire. Capturing Clips from mini-DV All video capturing takes place from within the ‘Log and Capture’ tool. To load this, go to File->Log and Capture. Once in this tool, you will be presented with controls for the deck, for logging and capturing clips, and other settings. Figure 1: Log and Capture Tool Note that if you experience any hardware differences from the way things are described here, please check the troubleshooting sections at the end of this document to verify you have things setup correctly. Easy: Now The easiest way to capture video is to hit play on the deck control, wait until it gets to a place you want to capture, and then hit ‘Now’. This will start a capture that will continue until you hit the ‘Esc’ button. There is no need to set audio levels, as the firewire transfer is an exact digital copy of what is on your DV tape. Once you’ve hit ‘Esc’, the system will pause the deck and bring your clip up in a new viewer. You can play or save this clip as you choose. Drag the clip to the browser in the lower-left if you want to add it to your current project. Continue in this fashion until you have captured all the footage you need to compile your project. Medium: Clip As you review your tape using the deck controls, at any time you can use the ‘i’ and ‘o’ buttons on the macintosh keyboard to set In and Out points on the tape. This will set precise markers that indicate exactly what part of the tape you want to digitize when you select the ‘Clip’ button. This will avoid any mistakes of not hitting the button at precisely the right time, ensuring you get just what you ask for. Note that this mode will only work if you have continuous timecode on your miniDV tape! If you do not have continuous timecode, FCP will get confused when it hits a timecode break, and will stop capturing. If you do not have continuous timecode, you can always capture clips using the ‘Now’ ‘method. For more information about timecode, see ‘What is Timecode?’ at http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/help/timecode/. Harder: Batch Batch capturing allows you to log a series of clips on any number of tapes, without actually digitizing them. Then, when you have set in and out points for all the clips from all of your source tapes that you want, you can then ask for a ‘batch’. FCP will then instruct you to insert tapes as it needs them, and will proceed to capture the clips you logged. Again, as with ‘Clip’, you need to have continuous timecode on your tapes for this to work. If you are interested in using Batch Capture, please see the FCP Manual for more information, or ask a VMIL consultant. Capturing Clips from VHS or SVHS tape If you want to capture media from VHS or SVHS, you will need to use the SVHS deck (Panasonic AG-5700) next to Winogrand. Please follow the instructions under ‘Choosing a Video Source’ above to setup the hardware correctly. In the Log and Capture tool, check Device Control and turn it off. Make sure the analog->DV converter is set to ‘Analog IN’. Finally, to view your video on the external NTSC monitor, you will need to turn off ‘Line/RGB’ (4^th from left button, top row – at the bottom front of the monitor). Remember to switch this back after all digitizing is done from VHS/SVHS. If you have any other problems, please check the section labeled ‘Things to Check Before Recording’ in the ‘Settings Check’ section of this document. Once you have your tape inserted and the proper equipment powered on, you can proceed with capturing. If you do not have timecode on your tape (this will be the case for most everyone), then you will only be able to use the ‘Now’ mode for capturing on the fly. For instructions on using this mode, please see the section titled ‘Easy: Now’ above. If you want to do either clip or batch capture from your VHS tape, and it does not have timecode, you have the option of dubbing that VHS tape to a mini-DV tape that does have timecode. Please see a consultant if you are interested in this option (note that this would be done using equipment in the video rack, not using the decks attached to Winogrand). Capturing Clips from your own Camcorder If you want to capture media from your own camcorder, this is possible. First, you want to determine if your camera has a firewire connector. This may also be called i.Link (Sony), or IEEE-1394 (the official name for the specification). If your camera does have a firewire connector (most any digital video camera from the last couple years will have one), then you are likely in luck. FCP will capture from, and control most cameras with a firewire port. If you have a firewire port, do the following: Make sure FCP is not loaded (save all work if need be before closing it). Power off the analog->DV converter. Power off the JVC miniDV deck. Pull the firewire cable from the back of the converter and plug it into your own camera. Power the camera on and start FCP. Once you have done this, you should be good to go with the normal setup. Note that you will not get any playback to the external video monitor while digitizing with your own camera. Follow the instructions under ‘Capturing Clips from miniDV’ for further instructions on capturing media. Capturing Clips from Any Other Source If your source media is neither VHS, SVHS, nor mini-DV, and you do not have your own camera, then you will have to dub your source media to one of these formats. Other formats the VMIL can read include: BetaSP (not Betamax!) DVCPRO DVCAM DVD PAL VHS LP and EP mode VHS (in addition to SP) If your source is not one of these, you can always bring in your deck and ask a consultant to help you hook it up to the rack for dubbing, or you may also be able to outsource a dub. Please ask a staff member if you need assistance. Once you have dubbed your media onto either SVHS or mini-DV (mini-DV is highly recommended over VHS!!), you can follow the appropriate instructions above for capturing media from that source. Simple Editing A Couple Terms Clip: Source audio or video material captured from a tape. In the ‘Browser’ below (figure 2), clips are distinguished by a clip icon (i.e. any of the clips in ‘Bin 2’) Sequence: Sequences are built by specifying in/out points of clips and adding them together. In other words, a sequence isn’t actually new material, but a series of pointers to a clip. Consequently, one cannot delete original clips after building a sequence – the sequence would then have no original media in it. In the ‘Browser’ window below (figure 2), sequences are distinguished by the sequence icon (i.e. any of the Sequences such as ‘Sequence 1’, ‘Sequence 2’, etc.). The Primary Components Figure 2: The Browser Figure 3: The Viewer The Browser The browser window (usually lower-left-hand corner) is the place where you organize your clips and sequences. You can create folders (‘bins’) and organize clips into different locations. You can drag clips from the browser into your sequences. The Viewer Viewers are media playback windows. Any clips can be opened in its own viewer. One viewer shows up at the top left by default. Double-clicking a clip in the browser will load it into the viewer. You can use viewers to review your media, set in and out points for splicing, and other operations. The Canvas The canvas looks a lot like a viewer. Its main difference is that it loads sequences, not clips. Whatever sequence you are currently building can be viewed in the canvas. It usually loads in the top-right-hand corner. Figure 4: The Canvas The Timeline The timeline is a graphical representation of the current state of your movie. You can drag clips into the timeline to add them to your sequence. You can grab the edges of clips and drag them left or right to change their length. You can grab clips and drag them to other tracks. You can shift-select groups of clips and drag them wherever you want, creating black space or a new ordering. The timeline usually fills most of the space on the bottom of the screen. Figure 5: The Timeline Creating a New Sequence The first step in getting going with editing is to create a new sequence. This can be done by choosing File->New->Sequence, or by pressing Command-N. This will be the ‘canvas’ upon which you create your movie. The sequence will appear in the browser and likely also in the canvas (although it will be black as you haven’t added anything to it yet). If it doesn’t load into the canvas, double-click it in the browser. If you need to, you can create as many sequences as you want, and eventually use sequences as source material to compile new sequences. Adding Clips to a Sequence The first step in adding media to your sequence is to decide what part of that media you want included in the sequence. You do this by loading media into a viewer (double-click in the title in the browser), and then setting In and Out points. These points mark the selection of the media you want to work with when you do splicing operations into your sequence. To set an in point, play/scroll the video to the beginning of where you want to start using material and press 'i' on the keyboard. You will see a small marker on the viewer's timeline. To set an out, scroll to where you want the out and press 'o'. This has now defined a selection within this clip. Based on these in/out points, whatever splicing you do will only use the material between these two points. These two points can be changed at any time by simply selecting new in/out points using 'i' and 'o'. Once you have your in/out points set, you can add that selection to your current sequence. You can do this by clicking on the video itself and dragging it one of two places. First, you can drag it to the timeline and place it where you want. Or, you can set an in point on the sequence, and then drag it over to the video in the canvas. When you do this, a menu will pop up that will allow ‘insert’, ‘overwrite’, ‘replace’ and ‘fit to fill’, among other options. Drop the video onto the option you want and it will perform the edit. Changing the Length of a Clip in a Sequence Once you have a rough-cut of clips organized into a sequence, you can perform finer editing on it. To change the length of clips, simply grab its edges in the timeline and drag it to where you want. Or, you can delete portions using in/out points if you prefer (see the next section). Deleting and Lifting from a Sequence There are two different kinds of deletes one can do in a sequence. One is known as a lift, and the other is called a ‘ripple delete’. Why the ‘ripple delete’ is called what it is, I don’t know. It is the equivalent of a regular ‘cut’ in Avid Media Composer. A lift removes the selected material from the sequence, and leaves a gap (black space) in its place. This is especially useful if you want to pull out the video or audio, but want to leave the other tracks below/above it intact. To perform a lift edit, set in/out points and press delete (or Command-X, or Sequence->Lift). When doing a lift edit, make sure you don’t have a segment selected, but just in/out points over the sequence. If a segment is selected (i.e. it is highlighted in brown), a lift edit will remove the entire segment. A ripple delete removes the selected material and closes the gap. To perform a ripple delete, select the portion using in/out points and then press shift-delete (or Sequence->Ripple Delete). Adding Effects (Transitions) to your Sequence *Do You Really Want a Top-Right Page Peel?* At this point, you have a ‘cuts-only’ edit. However, you may want to add a transition such as a dissolve or a wipe. Be aware, however, that regardless of how fancy these transitions may look, an overabundance of them may distract viewers from your content. If you watch any type of video-based media (be it TV commercials, sitcoms, dramas, box-office movies, etc) you will notice that almost every change is a simple cut--very few dissolves, even less wipes, etc. A lot of these transitions are more common in commercials, which are probably the primary user of most of the wipes and 3D effects out there. Adding a Transition That caveat aside, to add a transition, click on the ‘Effects’ tab in the browser. This brings up a listing of all of the effects you can add. FCP has a huge variety of effects, not limited to transitions. Transitions can usually be added to the end of a clip, centered over the end and start points of two adjacent clips, or at the beginning of a clip. Grab a cross dissolve and drag it onto the edit point between two clips. You will see that it highlights both clips, indicating that it will affect both. If you drag a bit to the left, it will lay it on the end of the first clip. Note that if nothing happens when adding a transition, you may have insufficient source material for the transition to affect. For example, if you were adding a cross-dissolve, which used 15 frames on each side, but you were adding that transition to between two 10-frame clips, the source material would be insufficient to blend between them with 15 frames in and 15 frames out. This is the general method for laying down transition effects. If you aren’t happy with the default settings, effects can be edited for fine tuning—allowing you adjust their timing, placement, etc. See the manual or ask a staff member if you need help with this. Rendering the Transition All effects in FCP are not real-time. This means that the computer cannot calculate the effect fast enough to play it for you without thinking about it first. (We hope to alleviate this problem with a new board due out soon that does real-time effects). If you play your sequence with unrendered effects, the screen will show you ‘Unrendered’ when it hits the effect. To render your effect so that you can see it play, select the effect in the timeline, and hit command-R for ‘render effect’. This will take some time, depending on the complexity of your effect. Once it is rendered, you can play the effect back in real time. Be aware that if you make any modifications to that effect, you will have to re-render it. You can also render all effects at once choose Sequence->Render All. Remember that this may take some time. Strategies for managing renders in a project are outlined in the FCP documentation in Chapter 10. Adding Titles While a title is classified as an effect, it is one of the most commonly requested features in the VMIL, so I will address it separately here. Creating the Title To get a title, you will need to browse to the ‘Generators’ section of the effects browser. Select Text to bring up the text generator window. Click the Controls tab to set any settings for your text you want, like font, size, style, etc. You also type the content of the text here as well. Text generators can only contain one type of font, so if you need multiple fonts in a title, please use multiple text generators. Click back on the Video tab to see what your text looks like. To get the title into your sequence, select in/out points to specify a length, and then drag the video onto the Canvas’ video. Here you can drop it in with an overwrite or insert edit, or if you want the title to be on top of existing video, use the ‘superimpose’ option. Creating Titles/Graphics in Other Programs If you want a complicated text graphic in your video, you might consider creating the graphic in a program such as Adobe Photoshop (available on all machines in the lab). When creating this text, start with a blank document that is 720x540 in size, at 72dpi. When you have completely finished your work, resize the document to 720x480. The new document will look a little scrunched – don’t worry. When you import the file into FCP and display it on the video screen, it will look normal. (This is because digital video uses a non-square pixel size, which gets stretched to square when displayed on a video monitor or TV). Making Sure Your Title is Viewable on a TV This subject applies to any video content you create, but is especially important for titles. Standard televisions do something called ‘overscanning’. This means that they don’t actually show you the entire content of the video image—it overscans, forcing the edges of the picture off-screen. This is done to accommodate differences in tube technology and video playback, so that viewers don’t see gaps around the screen. Overscanning makes for a nice picture, but can be frustrating to people who create titles that look great on the computer, but then get cutoff when they play them on a TV. To make sure your titles don’t get cut off, you can turn on the Title Safe Overlay. To do this, select the viewer and go to View->Title Safe. This will show you two white boxes overlaid on your video. The outer box is the Safe Action overlay. Keep any action that must be seen by the viewer within this box. The inner box is the Safe Title overlay. Keep any titles within this box to assure that they won’t get cutoff when displayed on another TV. How to Export Final Sequences to Quicktime If your final output destination is the computer and not videotape, you will need to export your sequence to Quicktime. Quicktimes are playable on nearly every computer, including laptops, from within presentations, and over the WWW through a browser. Use FCP or Cleaner for Quicktime Compression? You now need to decide which program you want to do your quicktime compression. If what you are after is a quick, easy solution, I suggest letting FCP do the compression. If you want lots of control, need to crop, or have a bit more time to wait for a better compression, you might consider using Cleaner (formerly Media Cleaner Pro) for the compression. Cleaner also allows export to MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and RealVideo formats as well, while FCP does not. Exporting to Quicktime Using FCP To export a quicktime from FCP: Click on your sequence in the Canvas Select in/out points for your selection (select the entire sequence or clear the in/out if you want the whole thing) Select File->Export->Quicktime Click ‘Options’ For the following settings, please note that these are general suggested settings. There are plenty of other options for each of these settings that will produce excellent results. The suggested settings will produce a small, good-quality quicktime for use on the web. The Sorenson codec is compatible with Quicktime versions 3 and 4 on Mac’s and PC’s. Under ‘Video Settings’, select Compressor: Sorenson Quality: Medium Frames/Second: 15 Key Frame Every: 45 sec Limit Data Rate to: 150k/sec Under ‘Sound Settings’, select Compressor: None Sample Rate: 22,050 16-bit Mono Exporting to Quicktime Using Cleaner In order to use Cleaner, you will need to first export your movie in some form, so that Cleaner can read it. To do this, you will export the movie without any additional compression so that you aren’t compressing the media twice. To export: File->Export->Final Cut Pro Movie Setting: DV-NTSC 48khz Quality: Hi-Res Include: Audio and Video (if applicable) And save the file on the hard drive. This movie will be readable by Cleaner by doing File->Open from within Cleaner. Use Settings->Wizard to bring up the settings wizard to guide you through the process. If you need more control, you can use the Advanced Settings instead of the wizard—allowing you specify every little detail about how your movie will be compressed. For more information on using Cleaner, see the Cleaner manuals, the Terran website, or ask a staff member for help. How to Import Numbered Image Sequences into FCP FCP will not import numbered image sequences directly. To import an image sequence, you will first need to use Cleaner 5 to convert the sequence into a Quicktime movie readable by FCP. In Cleaner: File->Add Image Sequence to Batch Select first file in sequence Select Frame Rate (30 fps usually) Select Ok. (You may need to wait a few seconds here for long sequences) Double-click on the sequence in the main window to preview it. Windows->Settings Wizard Select DV Camera Continue Hit the ‘Play’ button in the main window Name the output file for saving You can now open this saved file into FCP and add it to your browser for use in any FCP sequence. How to Export Numbered Image Sequences from FCP You can also export numbered image sequences from any FCP movie. To do so, do the following from within FCP: Mark an in/out point in your sequence File->Export->Quicktime Format: Still Image Click Options Select a format for your image Click ok, give it a filename, and save. How to Save Final Sequences on Videotape Saving your sequence on videotape can be easy or a bit more complicated, depending on your needs. Using print to video Use File->Print To Video If you don’t need to explicitly specify the location on the tape where your sequence will be written. This option brings up a dialog where you can set some parameters, including color bars, black, countdown, etc. Once you have set these to your liking, hit OK. After that, FCP will ask you to cue your tape and hit record on the deck. When ready, hit OK again to start recording to tape. recording the timeline directly An even easier solution is to simply play the sequence while recording on the tape. There is no loss in quality when doing this as compared to Print To Video, but you lose the possibility of using color bars, black levels, countdowns, etc. To record the timeline to tape: cue your tape, set in/out points in your sequence, press record on the deck, then select Mark->Play In/Out. Let the deck record until the sequence is done. Things to Check Before Recording If using the SVHS deck for this, you may want to set the external monitor so that it shows output from the VHS deck. Press the ‘Line/RGB’ button on the monitor to switch it from component input (from the DV deck) to line input (from the VHS deck). You might also want to insert a pair of headphones into the deck so you can hear the audio as you set the levels. Make sure you have the correct deck powered on and ready to go. You may need to do one test run to set audio levels (on the SVHS deck only). Settings Check The screen captures below outline the correct settings for sequences and general setup. If you have any questions about whether the settings are correct, please compare the settings windows to these. The first window is obtained from Sequence->Settings. The rest are from Edit->Preferences. Please note that ‘Enable Device Control’ in the Device Control settings dialog may not be enabled, depending on which device you are using to capture video. Figure 6: Sequence Settings Figure 7: Preferences->General Figure 8: Preferences->Device Control Figure 9: Preferences->Capture Figure 10: Preferences->Sequence Presets Figure 11: Preferences->Scratch Disks Troubleshooting Checklist Check all settings (see ‘Settings Check’) Make sure you aren’t using an LP-mode miniDV tape. The JVC miniDV deck will not read LP-mode tapes. Restart Final Cut Pro. Restart Winogrand. Power everything off (including firewire devices), then power on firewire devices, then power on the computer. Sacrifice an old copy of Microsoft Windows to the Apple gods. Ask a staff member for help. References www.2-pop.com www.apple.com/finalcutpro/ For an explanation of timecode, please see: http://www.itg.uiuc.edu/help/timecode/ PowerStart CD-ROM (Final Cut Pro Training) from Straight-Scoop, Inc. Final Cut Pro Documentation Final Cut Pro for Macintosh, by Lisa Brenneis DV Companion for Final Cut Pro (online documentation) Author Benjamin Grosser Former Manager Visualization, Media and Imaging Laboratory Last updated: 12/2000 Imaging Technology Group Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 405 N. Mathews, Urbana, IL 61801 Date Issued: 19 Dec 2000 Copyright © 1997, Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, All Rights Reserved.
The ITG is part of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois.
Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Imaging Technology Group 405 North Mathews, Urbana IL 61801 USA Phone: 217.244.0170 FAX: 217.244.6219 Email: I T G