FCP to after effects

Aschu

Aschu

Well-known member
I searched for this and haven't really gotten far so I figured why not just post it.

I'm new to after effects and am in need of help. I have a video cut up and basically finished except for titles and keying. I want to key in after effects. How do I get the footage from fcp to after effects and back?

Next. The keying needs something under it so that it isn't just a black background, duh. So do I put that footage in after effects too, so that I key it and then the background footage is there?

Thanks.

Aaron
 
this is great. I have one problem. I don't have the option they show to import ae in my after effects->file->import menu.

Now what?
 
no sir. I was wondering if it was necessary. Is that the only way to be able to import fcp to ae?
 
Yeah -- that is the most reliable way to get to AE and back. Expensive, but if you use it twice you'll get your money's worth out of it.

CaptM
 
What exactly do I need to buy? Do I just need import or should I get a bundle of things?

Thanks.
 
Aschu said:
this is great. I have one problem. I don't have the option they show to import ae in my after effects->file->import menu.

Now what?
Click to expand...
Are you on a mac or pc?
Just the other day I too was looking for a solution to this and I found a pretty good free one in my opinion.
It doesn't go back to FCP but for my use at the moment, I don't see the need.
http://www.creative-workflow-hacks....o-after-effects-scripting-without-the-hassle/

Im not sure if it works on PC, on MAC I know it does.
 
Aschu said:
What exactly do I need to buy? Do I just need import or should I get a bundle of things?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
You may not need to buy anything. It depends on the complexity of your sequence. If the shot you want to composite is as simple as a foreground element and a background element then it's easy enough to export the individual elements. The same can be said for titles, you can export your opening seq as one clip and composite the titles in AE. You should export and render the files uncompressed to retain quality.

Automatic Duck is intended for moving complex scenes between apps. For the simple stuff it's overkill and unnecessary.
 
milksac said:
it's easy enough to export the individual elements. The same can be said for titles, you can export your opening seq as one clip and composite the titles in AE. You should export and render the files uncompressed to retain quality.
Click to expand...


Ok. So I have it edited in fc, in what way do I export it so it's compatible with ae? Do I do the script running as suggested before?
 
Just mark the scene or clip that you want, export an uncompressed QT and import into AE. What have you tried doing so far that isn't working? What's the issue with migrating scenes to AE?

How tall is your timeline, i.e. how many video tracks? one track, 2, 4, 12 ?
 
2 video tracks.

Ok so I did export it as QT uncomp. and it can load it to ae. my problem now is this. I apparently need to add the background clips in ae and not take them from fcp, if I am figuring it out correctly. If I exported the fcp project as is, the background was already placed, but since exporting makes it one clip, when I use keylight it shows black and not the background i was hoping for. So export the main video track that will be the foreground and then add the background in ae after I have the first clip in. Then keylight as I see fit, export and throw it back into fcp?

Am I missing anything?
 
oh and i would just like to add this. I spent all afternoon learning this program so I could key out what i wanted somewhat decently and after eight hours of work i took a dinner break. I saved it by command-s and the quit it. Apparently it didn't feel like saving.
 
milksac said:
Automatic Duck is intended for moving complex scenes between apps. For the simple stuff it's overkill and unnecessary.
Click to expand...

While it's definitely uber-useful for moving complex edits from FCP to AE, I wouldn't go as far as calling it overkill for simple stuff. One of my favorite features of Auto Duck is the ability to have handles in AE. Makes doing time ramping stuff, tweaking the edit, etc in AE a breeze, and much more complicated to bring that over by rendering clips from your timeline.
 
Aschu said:
2 video tracks.

Ok so I did export it as QT uncomp. and it can load it to ae. my problem now is this. I apparently need to add the background clips in ae and not take them from fcp, if I am figuring it out correctly. If I exported the fcp project as is, the background was already placed, but since exporting makes it one clip, when I use keylight it shows black and not the background i was hoping for. So export the main video track that will be the foreground and then add the background in ae after I have the first clip in. Then keylight as I see fit, export and throw it back into fcp?

Am I missing anything?
Click to expand...


I usually render out of AE a fully composited result (in the case of keying that would be the forground and desired background all rendered to the output clip), so that when I bring that into FC Express it is just a simple clip. I choose the render options in AE to match what I can do in FCE "natively" so that FCE does not mark the clips as 'need rendering' aka. red lines above the clips in the sequences...

If I want 'quick' titles I use the Boris tools in FCE...
 
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