Interoperability issues btwn FCP and Color

Moseph

Moseph

Veteran
I just recently upgraded to the new FCS and I actually have Color now! I've been experimenting with it lately and it's definitely capable of doing way more than what one could do in the simple 3 way color corrector, but I'm having a couple issues.

So to preface my problem, I'm working with HDV 30F source material and transcoding to Prores 422. Not HQ or LT. My sequence preset is Apple Prores 422 1440x1080 30p. No rendering is necessary when I drag files into the timeline, which is strange because I thought that the Prores formats were full-raster, and the 30F is recorded into a 60i stream.

But anyways, I'll send the clip (really the sequence, but just with one clip in it) over to Color, do my correction and grading, and render them. Here's where the trouble begins. Color is rendering the clips not in the same settings as my capture scratch, but as Apple Prores 422 HQ 1920x1080i. Obviously I can't just bring that into my sequence like I should or would like to be able to. I have to bring it in, then export it to the desired settings, and re-import it.

So is there something way off about my capture settings that the source footage isn't going to 1920x1080? Something else I've noticed is that the capture scratch files aren't treated as Quicktime movies by the Finder, meanwhile the usable version of the clip from Color (imported to FCP and exported as 1440x1080) is. They both have the exact same dimensions and codecs, but no preview comes up for the capture scratch; Finder says it's a doccument. Or is the problem some setting in Color that's causing it to render differently?
 
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> I thought that the Prores formats were full-raster, and the 30F is recorded into a 60i stream.

When you capture HDV as ProRes via firewire, it isn't full raster...it is anamorphic. Only when you capture via a capture card, or import tapeless footage to ProRes is it full raster.

>Color is rendering the clips not in the same settings as my capture scratch, but as Apple Prores 422 HQ

Did you have the settings in Color set to render to this codec, or to the "native codec?" If you didn't choose native, then it will render to the codec chosen. Kwoff is right on this one.
 
Well, it WAS on Prores 422 HQ, but now that I found it, it's on regular Prores 422. However, the problem still remains about the resolution. I can change it to 1440x1080 no problem, but I can't change the pixel aspect ratio to 1.33 so that it doesn't turn into a 4:3 video.

I did a bit of research and it looks like there's a bug in the capture settings in FCP 7 where there's no option to uprez to full 1920x1080 while capturing HDV / transcoding to Prores 422.

EDIT - Shane beat me to that second part.
 
When you get the clips back from COLOR, check them all as Anamorphic. Or when you render, can't you choose the aspect ratio? The RESOLUTION PRESET...or just below that, you can manually change the width and height.

FCP capturing HDV to ProRes the way is not a bug, it is how it does it.
 
Well, I was pretty much trying to work around having to render anything within FCP, but it's not a big deal, not compared to the problems I was having before. For some reason, now that the codec is the same, FCP properly displays the 1920x1080 in the 1440x1080 timeline.

Or I could just wait to grade all of my clips till after everything is cut, and then make a new 1920x1080 sequence just to bring the project back in so it can be exported. That seems like the most logical way to do it to me, it would keep everything more organized rather than to have a color project for every clip that goes through it.
 
Color ALWAYS outputs at the full HD resolution when any ProRes format is chosen. And if you have mixed footage codecs, I.E. motion graphics, juice drops etc... sometimes you can't choose the original format, and your only choice is to use the full raster Pro Res output.

I find that the best Color workflow is to transcode all your footage to a full raster ProRes format from capture. Before ANY editing is done. Then when it comes back from Color, all the other graphics don't shift in location or scale. And be sure all the graphics export in the full HD resolutions too. It saves you, or any other editor working on your footage a bunch of headaches and even time in the long run.

That's just my experience. We shoot DVCProHD, and we have to deal with the same funky resolution issue when processing through Color.
 
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