Results tagged “final cut studio” from Final Cut Studio, Avid, Adobe, and Video Streaming

During NAB 2009 GeniusDV will be providing private video post production training in Las Vegas from April 19th to April 22nd. During these four days you will have the opportunity to schedule a two hour customized one on one training.

We will have certified instructors on hand to create customized work flows for your specific needs. The Final Cut Studio, Adobe Creative Suite, as well as the Avid line are all applications we will be providing training. We will also be providing work flow consultation. We can assess your workflow, and make valuable recommendations that will save you both money and time.

Previous GeniusDV students will be receiving the first opportunity to schedule training. Now until March 27th we will be scheduling for those who have already recieved training from GeniusDV. On March 28th we will begin open enrolement. Click here to arrange for a training session, or to request a time slot upon open enrollment.

With the growing popularity of Final Cut Studio, some of us are forced to learn how to use multiple editing platforms. Sometimes, you may find a machine that has both Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Studio installed on it.

Creating a photo montage to the beat of music in Final Cut Pro can be much easier with a couple simple steps. The first step is to establish the beat of the music. Before doing this you will want to make sure your audio is ready for Final Cut. Once in your sequence you will want to set markers in the audio track to the beat of the music. By playing the music, and hitting the "M" key to the desired interval, you will create a template for your montage. If you have limited ability in this regard, another option is to load the audio into the Viewer, and apply the Markers visually, by looking at the wave form in the Audio Tab.

To avoid any issues with your audio, you will want to convert your audio files to AIFF. An easy way is to export using the Quicktime Conversion.  I had always done this in iTunes, but just discovered an easier way.

I locate the audio file I need in the finder, and drag it into the Viewer. If you don't know where it is, use the Spotlight to locate it. Once your audio file is in the Viewer, you will Export Using Quicktime Conversion. This is a good function to map to a key, because we are often exporting thru the Quicktime Conversion. When the Quicktime Conversion window pops up you will want to choose the location you want the converted to go to, and change the Format from Quicktime to AIFF.

When iTunes did the conversion it would put the converted file into the same folder the source was from. Using this method we can skip the step of moving the file from where it was saved to our Project Folder.

Have you ever noticed when you render motion effects in Final Cut Pro that the quality isn't always up to par? You may also notice a 'stutter effect' when zooming in and out of clip elements.

Apple's SoundTrack Pro provides some amazing functionality when it comes to removing noise elements from clips.  You can send clips directly from Final Cut Pro into SoundTrack Pro. SoundTrack Pro will then automatically update your Final Cut Pro sequence once you save your changes.

SoundTrack Pro provides a couple different ways of removing noise.  One method involves sampling a noise print and then simply removing the buffered noise from from a selected area within the audio editor. 

To do this, navigate to the Process Menu -> Noise Reduction -> Set Noise Print.  Select an area of noise within the audio editor.

Then navigate back to the Process Menu -> Noise Reduction -> Reduce Noise.  A reduce noise pop-up menu will appear. 

Use the this box to reduce the amount of noise by adjusting the noise / threshold slider.  I've also found that by slider the Tone control all the way to the left helps bring back some of the bass into a person's voice.  Otherwise, the voice may sound a bit 'tinny' if you crank up the threshold too high.

Another excellent way to remove noise is to use the spectrum analyzer.  The spectrum analyzer button is located in the upper right protion of the editor editor window.

This will bring up the audio spectrum for that particular file.  You can actually remove specific sections of the audio spectrum without removing an entire area!

 

 

 To do this, hold down the option key and highlight areas of the spectrum where noise elements exist.  Then press the delete key.  That's it!  Now, using this method might take a bit longer instead of removing entire areas with the traditional noise-print method, but I've found this produces incredible results for those tough areas.

 GeniusDV provides a SoundTrack Pro training course as part of its 11 day Final Cut Studio training class.

 

 

 

 

 

Good media management in Final Cut Pro is not difficult to maintain, but it is not really a function of Final Cut Pro. There will certainly be some people who will have issue with what i am about to write.

Having an organized project folder in the Finder is 50X more important than having everything in the File Browser. I'm actually going to repeat that; Having an organized project folder in the Finder is 50X more important than having everything in the File Browser.

Think of the File Browser and the Finder as one in the same. For those of you who use Motion you know that the Motion Filer Browser is a mirror of the Finder. Final Cut Pro has developed a bad reputation for media management as compared to Avid, but the reality is that it is not that Final Cut Pro doesn't manage media poorly, it really doesn't "manage" it at all.

Whenever you import a file into Final Cut Pro, it knows where it came from, and maintains the link. What happens all too often is that files get reorganized in the Finder after they have been imported into Final Cut, the link is broken, and in many cases the name in the Browser does not match the name in the Finder. Hello NIGHTMARE.

This takes us back to the issue at hand; editors who do not properly prepare a Project Folder before ever launching Final Cut. If you create a template of what your A typical Project Folder will look like, and always start with that, your life will become much easier.

The example to the left is what a list view in the Finder looks like of a decent Project Folder before any files have been added. By creating this Project Folder structure once and saving it with empty folders you will be able to start from it each time you start a project.

By preparing an organized Project Folder, you will keep yourself disciplined not to put files where they don't belong. Whenever you need something for a Final Cut Project You can go straight to the Finder.

Taking a still image and giving it subtle motion is often referred to as the Ken Burns effect. Ken Burns is one of the most famous documentary film makers of all time. When faced with not having any video footage of what he was documenting Ken Burns would move across a still image, creating the illusion of camera motion. This works very well with inanimate objects like a landscape. When using this effect on people it becomes immediately obvious that the individuals are still. Nevertheless it is a classic and often used technique.

When producing a photo montage with Final Cut Pro, the Ken Burns effect is the best way I know to give your production life. This can be a very simple and systematic process. By bringing in all of your photos at once, and getting them rearranged into the desired sequence, you just go thru the images from beginning to end applying the Ken Burns effect to each one.

 

What is AVCHD?, and what exactly is HDD? 

AVCHD is a combination of AVC (Advanced Video Coding) and MPG2.  Some of the newest cameras now support AVCHD which records to a hard drive.  You may see the term HDD, which simply refers to (Hard Disk Drive).

To simplify, this technology records High Defination Video within an MPEG-2 transport stream directly to a hard-drive.  In fact, the Sony HDR SR12 is completely tapless!  It contains a 120 gig hard drive, which is enough storage to record over 20 hours of high defination footage without stopping.  It also has the ability to take 10 megapixel still images.

 

User's of Final Cut Pro can use the Log and Transfer tool to bring these clips into their editing system.  You must have one an intel based MAC, and you must be running the latest version the Final Cut Studio software.  The conversion process is close to real-time, but it can be automated. 

Also, Final Cut Studio converts the video stream to Pro Res 422 which is approximately 4 times the original size of the file(s) that sit on the camera.  To make sure you have sufficient space on your hard drive before ingesting the media.

Unfortunately, users of Avid Media Composer will have to convert the footage using a third party software product.  I am hopeful Avid will adopt AVCHD technology in their Media Composer product line soon. As a professional alternative,  Media Composer supports P2 media in it's native format.

GeniusDV teaches the AVCHD workflow in it's Final Cut Studio 5 Day training class.

 

Knowing when to use Soundtrack Pro vs when to bring a sound effect directly into Final Cut Pro is an aquired skill. In most cases if you are only bringing in one to three effects,. it is easier to just bring the sound effect right into Final Cut. An great way to accomplish this is to set your Spotlight to just search for music, preview the different options in Finder, and then drag the desired effect right into Final Cut. You can drag the effect directly form Finder into your Sequence, but if you may want to bring it into the File Browser first. Soundtrack Pro is great for assembling multi track audio, but if you only need one asset from Soundtrack Pro, you may want to consider this work flow.

If you are a Final Cut Pro or Avid user, you may be wondering about which software provides the best video encoding options.  If you are serious about encoding videos for the web, you'll want to invest in some video compression software.  Some of the more popular video encoders include: Apple Compressor, Sorenson Squeeze, Episode, and Procoder.

Derrick Freeman, from GeniusDV provides an exlcusive interview with Web Video Universe on how the pros and cons of these compression products.

Apple's LiveType is an amazing title tool that is bundled with Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Express.  A lot of users are missing out on LiveType's amazing functionality.  Now granted, you can use Apple Motion for similar effects, but sometimes it's actually easier to build your composite directly in LiveType. This sample animation was done entirely in LiveType.

LiveType is so easy to use and powerful, that I've seen Avid editors use LiveType to increased functionality within their Media Composer or Avid Xpress software.

 

LiveType supports 5 different tracks.  This track types include: Titles, Graphics, Objects, Textures and Video. You can even integrate Digital Juice backgrounds directly into LiveType for access to additional textures or ojbects.  You can also purchase additional LiveFonts, objects or backgrounds from LiveTypeCentral.com. Or, you can hire GeniusDV to show you how to create your own effects.

 

 

 

Each track is assigned it's own color within the Timeline window for easy reference.

Interested in Learning more about LiveType?  Check out these short tutorials:

LiveType Tutorial for Creating an Animated Mask

Creating an Animated Glow through a title with LiveType

LiveType training is included as part of GeniusDV's 5 Day Final Cut Studio course.  You can also hire a personal GeniusDV for a customized LiveType course.