Exporting back to FCP after keying in After Effects
by Steve
on
Nov 5, 2007 at 12:35:56 am
I have a project I am currently working on in FCP and want to bring the selected edits into After Effects for Keylight (green screen) work. My footage was correctly lit and the files were given to me as DVCPRO HD 1080i60 at 24 frames.
I want to take the edited footage from FCP and key them in After Effects using Keylight because it's a much more powerful keyer. How would you export it back to FCP? Do I make movie using the DVCPRO HD settings? Animation Settings? Could I just export the alpha channel that Keylight made and apply it to my clip in FCP? How would you do it?
Re: Exporting back to FCP after keying in After Effects by Dave LaRonde on Nov 5, 2007 at 3:12:50 pm
[Steve]"How would you export it back to FCP? " Don't export, render using AE's Render Queue. In AE, the terms "render" and "export" have two different meanings.
"Do I make movie using the DVCPRO HD settings? Animation Settings" Use the Animation Codec set to bext quality, RGB+Alpha, Millions of Colors+, with either a Straight or Premultiplied Alpha Channel.
Which do you make: Straight Or Premultiplied? It depends on how you have FCP set up. If you do two renders, rendering BOTH kinds, you know you'll get it right. You'll also know which one to use in the future. But if you're impatient or willing to take a gamble, I'd render Straight only.
Re: Exporting back to FCP after keying in After Effects by beenyweenies on Nov 5, 2007 at 4:54:13 pm
Your best option is to do the full composite in After Effects and export the finished, ready-to-use clip in either its native codec (DVCPRO HD 1080i60 24fps) or 8 bit/10 bit uncompressed.
If it were me, I would opt for the 10-bit uncompressed option. The files are much larger and more processor-intensive, but it insures that you don't incur a generation of quality loss. DVCPRO HD is only around 14MBps (aka 100 megabit), and, while it can reasonably handle one level of export (from FCP to AE) without too much quality loss, it WILL lose quality on a second pass (when exporting from AE).
Re: Exporting back to FCP after keying in After Effects by RayRayT on Nov 5, 2007 at 8:25:57 pm
Good point beenie weenies ...
I agree, since you are doing a composite with Keylight, a full "render"(loose term of course) would be the best solution for you. I was referring to when you decide to make little graphics like lower thirds, and overlays into FCP.
Good Luck with you project, green screen is tough sometimes.
