Setting the Anamorphic Flag to tell FCP how to treat your footage.
Traditionally, effects were recorded to DigiBeta tape in two cuts. The first cut was the hold-out, which defined the alpha channel and the second cut was what went into the matte. However, creating an alpha channel from tape is not obvious. However, it’s easy to do and this article shows you how to do it.
Here’s a conversation between Peter Tours, of TNT Video Services, and Tony Lauria, of AJA Technical Support, on the best way to ingest footage using AJA video cards. (Reprinted with permission.)
Need to find some new fonts — or looking for a way to add them to your system? Here’s how.
It’s late at night, you are wrapping up a project. Just when you think you can go home, you discover that your final export from Soundtrack Pro, doesn’t sync with your final export from Final Cut Pro. Grrr!! Now what? This article explains a very nifty technique that solves that problem in short order.
The simplest definition of rendering is to convert an effect or image from its native format to match the video format of your timeline.
Getting the most from old 8mm film is the subject of this article. Here are six steps you can use to improve the look of your film transfers.
64-bit memory addressing is new with OS X 10.6. But what does this really mean? And what does it mean for Final Cut Studio (3)? In this short, moderately technical, article, we take a look a this new term and what it means for the future of video editing.
Here’s a short article that explains what you need to know about 64-bit memory support, along with some software you can use to toggle between 32-bit and 64-bit modes.
It’s a simple question, but not necessarily a simple answer. This looks at the differences between the two video formats.
Stereoscopic 3D video is not just for theatrical release. Cable and satellite channels, even YouTube, now display images in 3D. In this musing, I reflect that even if 3D isn’t the future, we can make money on it now – without spending a ton of money.
One of the common problems that inexperienced Final Cut editors run into is audio that slowly drifts out of sync. While the problem may appear to be within Final Cut Pro, the cause is actually due to mismatched audio sample rates between the video you shot and the way you are capturing it. What makes this worse is that many consumer cameras default to an audio sample rate of 32 kHz, while Final Cut expects 48 kHz. In this step-by-step tutorial, I’ll explain what an audio sample rate is and how to change your Final Cut settings to capture your audio accurately.
As 2010 draws to a close, three quick observations on technology for the coming year.
There are four ways inside DVD Studio Pro to control how 16:9 video plays back on a 4:3 monitor. This article describes what you need to know and provides suggestions on which one is best to use.
The problem is that both 16:9 and 4:3 SD video have exactly the same number of pixels. This is true in both NTSC and PAL. And, sometimes, you need to convert from one to the other. What’s the best way to do this? What’s the fastest? Why is it necessary? This article answers those questions.
Are you having problems getting Final Cut to render? It may not be a software problem. Eric Solstein sent us this cautionary tale on the problems of heat. If your system is acting up, read this article.
Even an iSight camera can be pressed into service for capturing video when nothing better is available. This tutorial shows you how fast and easy this can be.
What do you do when you have hundreds of hours of material to capture? Well, first, you have a number of decisions to make. This short article outlines what you need to know before you start.
Final Cut Pro is, most often, used for editing after the recording is complete. However, there are some situations where you need to record live and edit as soon as you can. This article talks about that and provides options to consider. There’s also some relevant reader feedback.
HDV is the latest video format craze, but it isn’t like DV; or any other video format we are used to working with. This article explains how HDV is different and what you need to know to use it successfully.