Exporting from FCP for AE...

[finchy]

hey, im quite inexperienced with importing and exporting video footage into AE, and im just wondering what settings you would use to export from FCP into AE in full quaility, i have tried alot of different settings but when i have rendered the clips back out of AE and then into FCP it is never the full quality that it started as...

thanks for any help!

[lhdor]

You will need Automatic Duck to get your footage from FCP to AE. Then from AE I would recommend using the render queue, have as Animation "+" and preserve RGB.
http://www.automaticduck.com/products/ (http://www.automaticduck.com/products/)

[finchy]

thanks for the help! but there has to be another way to retain the quality of your footage when going between FCP and AE..? i know of alot of people who do this regularly and don't own such software..

[lhdor]

You could export out of FCP Uncompressed 8 or 16 bit but the file size would be huge,

[aalleexx]

you dont need automatic duck to get back and forth from AE and FCP
just export in the same codec that you are working (I always export a referene movie) with and then in after effects render in the same codec, alaways stay with the same codec and make sure that on project settings in after eefects make sure the "match legacy color" is checked so that the color matches in fcp

took me a long time to get this right, but that is the bes way with no need to re render once its back in fcp and there will be no visible quality loss

[cproductions]

Ok call me stupid but, I need a step by step instruction to get from AE to FCP. I don't have Automatic Duck yet because it's just too expensive. So if you wouldn't mind to dumb it down for me...lol... I want to send my project to FCP...i know how to do a reference file and then once i do that....i go to file and then import in AE? Where do I go after import?? and then once the video is in AE i hit render in AE and then I go to FCP and hit open and put it back into my timeline??? Is that right??? I want to make sure i get all this stuff down pat. Sorry if it sounded hard to follow??


Thanks...

[lhdor]

Are you asking what happens to your footage after you imported into AE?

Once you are done with your footage in AE you send it to the Render Queue (not file export) click on the output module and set it to Animation (+) and reserve RGB. Then render the movie out. Once you are done then Import into FCP.
Here is a thread you should check out too
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/202/879623 (http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/202/879623)

[cproductions]

Thank you, because I want to eventually buy automatic duck...but I'm not doing that many in depth effects right now so i didn't see the need for automatic duck at this point in time. Will this way of doing things ( render queau) allow me to do enough effects for the purposes of documentaries and news stories and also allow me to export to DVD studio like I have been doing?

[lhdor]

IMHO, I find that the render queue is the most reliable way to export out of AE. I have had issues rendering out as H.264 but I just export the way I mentioned above then use FCP to compress h.264. Other than that I haven't had any issues.
If you are using it more for graphic then compositions, why not use Motion? Now I love AE more than Motion but it's just an easier round trip.