Quality AE animation in FCP

Cees Mutsaers

Cees Mutsaers

Veteran
I made an animation of logo's in AE and exported it as "animation" in a mov container. When I play the exported mov file in any player it is razor sharp. However when I import this mov file in FCP and place it in a Prores 422 HQ timeline the animation is already blurry when I play it the timeline (looks like it is interlaced). How is this possible ? What do I do wrong when placing it in the timeline ??
 
In the "viewer" of FCP the mov file looks fine but on the "canvas" the mov file looks like crap (interlaced or very low res) ?? Isn't this very strange ??????


Cees Mutsaers said:
I made an animation of logo's in AE and exported it as "animation" in a mov container. When I play the exported mov file in any player it is razor sharp. However when I import this mov file in FCP and place it in a Prores 422 HQ timeline the animation is already blurry when I play it the timeline (looks like it is interlaced). How is this possible ? What do I do wrong when placing it in the timeline ??
Click to expand...
 
Yes, definitely don't export in the animation codec, it looks wretched once composited. There's a lengthy, drawn-out explanation for that and frankly I don't remember what it is, but suffice it to say, the animation codec just doesn't play well with others.

If I were you, I would put a color solid behind the logo in After Effects and export in ProRes, bring it into Final Cut and Key it. I know it's a lame workaround, but it's literally what I've had the most success with.

Hope it helps,
Joe

p.s. By the way, before you try that, put an in and out in your FCP timeline to export the animated part only and export it. There is a theory that FCP resolves this when it actually exports as opposed to when it renders. There is a possibility that mixing the codecs just means that FCP isn't rendering your animation at 100% until it exports. For my curiosity's sake? Thanks!
 
What I do for animations is I export two .movs, one RGB that matches my sequence settings and one alpha that matches my sequence settings. I use travel matte luma in FCP and it works fine and is less RAM intensive than using the Animation codec. This technique is actually backed up by people like Kevin P. McAuliffe and other notable editors.
 
Hi, I never used this "travel matte luma" procedure. Can you point me to a link on internet where I can read how to do this exactly in FCP ?


mmka1985 said:
What I do for animations is I export two .movs, one RGB that matches my sequence settings and one alpha that matches my sequence settings. I use travel matte luma in FCP and it works fine and is less RAM intensive than using the Animation codec. This technique is actually backed up by people like Kevin P. McAuliffe and other notable editors.
Click to expand...
 
Exporting the animated part does not give a better quality unfortunately. I will try the the other way you suggested with keying.


JoeRawlins said:
Yes, definitely don't export in the animation codec, it looks wretched once composited. There's a lengthy, drawn-out explanation for that and frankly I don't remember what it is, but suffice it to say, the animation codec just doesn't play well with others.

If I were you, I would put a color solid behind the logo in After Effects and export in ProRes, bring it into Final Cut and Key it. I know it's a lame workaround, but it's literally what I've had the most success with.

Hope it helps,
Joe

p.s. By the way, before you try that, put an in and out in your FCP timeline to export the animated part only and export it. There is a theory that FCP resolves this when it actually exports as opposed to when it renders. There is a possibility that mixing the codecs just means that FCP isn't rendering your animation at 100% until it exports. For my curiosity's sake? Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
Export from After Effects using prores444 with RGB + Alpha and then there is no need for a key
Prores is 10 bit, Animation is 8 bit

When a video is playing in the viewer it is using the codec that it is compressed with.
When it plays in the canvas it plays with the codec that the timeline is set to.
Command 0 to check timeline codec is not an interlaced one

Let us know how it works out
 
Thanks for the tip. I will have a look.


J Davis said:
Export from After Effects using prores444 with RGB + Alpha and then there is no need for a key
Prores is 10 bit, Animation is 8 bit

When a video is playing in the viewer it is using the codec that it is compressed with.
When it plays in the canvas it plays with the codec that the timeline is set to.
Command 0 to check timeline codec is not an interlaced one

Let us know how it works out
Click to expand...
 
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