Short Division

FCPX Send To Motion App

admin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:43:09 +0000

I love Final Cut Pro X, but there are still a few features missing. I wanted to be able to send edited clips from my FCPX timeline into Motion 5, without having to setup the project, lookup the in and out points, and replicate that in Motion. So I made an app that lets you send a clip from Final Cut to Motion.

Just export your project as .fcpxml (File > Export XML), drag it onto the dock icon, select the clip you’d like to export, and it’ll create and open a new Motion project, setup with the right length, clip, and frame rate. It’s not perfect, but it saves a lot of time setting up projects and copying information by hand.

Please let me know if you run into any issues – it’s a beta app. I’d like to continue development on this plugin, and eventually submit it to the Mac App Store. If this app is useful to you, please donate using the button below!

Shot on a DSLR

admin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:40:06 +0000

I wanted a “credits logo” to show off projects that were shot on a DSLR, sort of like the Edited on Final Cut logotype. There didn’t seem to be any available, so I thought it’d be fun to make one. Here’s what I came up with –

Download the logos with or without the text here – feel free to use them!

Using the Canon 50mm f/1.8 with DSLRs

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:35:00 +0000

If you have a Canon 5d Mark II, then you probably already have a 50mm lens that you use frequently. If you instead have a DSLR with an ASP-C instead of a full frame sensor (like the Canon t3i or 7D), you may be unsure about getting one. The Canon 50mm f/1.8 is very affordable for it’s speed (compare to the 35mm f/2.0 at $376), but with the 1.6x crop factor on ASP-C cameras, it’s actually an 80mm lens, not a 50mm.

I’ve been using the 18-55mm kit lens on my Canon t3i for about a year, but finally decided to buy the 50mm f/1.8. After using it for a few weeks, here are the pros and cons I’ve seen as of yet.

Pros

Bokeh for your buck – if you want to crush your backgrounds into pretty little circles, you can’t do it cheaper than this.
Low light – wide open, it performs beautifully in low light. You can easily shoot at night with just a few street lamps. If you do most of your shooting after dark (due to working during the day), even inside with lights, it’s an incredible improvement.
Smooth focus for video – the only thing I have to compare this to is the 18-55mm kit lens, but there’s much less jitter when you’re trying to change focus in a shot. Also, the focus ring stays in one place, no moving in and out, which makes focusing a little easier, and means you could attach a follow focus.

Cons

It’s a telephoto lens – that given, it’s been pretty usable as a general purpose lens so far. If you already enjoy shooting closer to the 55mm end of your 600D kit lens, then you probably won’t have a problem with it. You will have to move back further (1.5ft at minimum), which could introduce more shake, so keep that in mind.
Difficult to keep in focus – when shooting with the aperture wide open, very little is in focus at any given time. So if you or your subjects are moving, it’s quite a task to keep them sharp, especially if you don’t have a follow focus (which I don’t). Also keep in mind that you simply can’t focus on anything closer than 1.5ft/0.45m. Magic Lantern has some great features to assist with focus (peaking and magnification – during recording), so you’ll definitely want to look into those.

All in all, my opinion is that for the money and the aperture, it’s worth buying as a second lens. I’ll try to keep this post updated as I shoot with it, and maybe discover more pros and cons.

I put together a quick test video using the 50mm with my Canon t3i – as you can see, it’s difficult to keep in focus. I had it set to f/1.8, at night, with just a few street lights.

Flight Control

admin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:57:42 +0000

Be sure to stick around for the effects breakdown at the end.

Audio Crossfades using L-Cuts in Final Cut Pro X

admin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 04:58:14 +0000

Until recently, I’ve been doing audio crossfades in FCPX by detaching the audio of one track, dragging it under the next clip, and fading each audio track. This works pretty well, but since the audio is detached, it can get out of sync. Turns out there a better way, using L-Cuts and J-Cuts. I’m sure most people already know about these, but if you don’t, I made a graphic explaining how to use them in FCPX.

Double click on the audio track of one clip
It drops down – notice it’s still attached to the clip
Drag the audio clip under the other clip
Fade the audio on both clips – you now have a nice crossfade
If you like, you can double clip on the audio track again to collapse it back, keeping the crossfade/L-Cut intact

It’s fun and simple!

One more audio tip – right click on the audio fader to change the type of fade (linear, s-curve, +3db and -3db).

Credit to John August’s post on Final Cut Pro X which had a reference to using J-cuts and L-cuts instead of detaching audio. They were also mentioned in this helpful video about FCPX.

PFHoe 3D Tracking Tips and Tricks

admin — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 03:32:25 +0000

I’ve been doing a lot of 3d tracking using the Pixel Farm’s PFHoe - it’s fantastic for the price ($99, or $199 for Pro), but it’s a limited version of its more $840 cousin, and you do start to notice those limitations. So here’s a few tips that might help my fellow low budget match movers.

Check out the manual – I’m not used to software having manuals (seems to be a video thing) – turns out you really need to read this one. It’s hard to find some features without it.
Know about the keyboard shortcuts – if you don’t read the manual, however, know that the spacebar brings up a secret menu in most steps, holding option while dragging zooms the viewport, and holding shift while dragging pans it.
You do need to mask out moving objects – while it doesn’t have a built in way to make masks (I’ve been using Motion 5 – $50), not adding them really messes up the track.
Keep some sort of cube in the shot – since PFHoe doesn’t allow you to set the focal length, you’ll need to estimate it using a cube (it also helps with estimating the ground plane). If you’re doing tracking on a green screen, you’ll want to put a box on it somewhere, or a box with a box on top if the floor isn’t in the shot. I ended up taping several together and covering it in tracking markers.
If you’re tracking with a green screen – you’ll need to put tracking markers on it, and you’ll need to have something in the shot to demonstrate parallax, like a mic stand. There’s a really great 25 minute tutorial on placing tracking markers on the samples page for this course (it’s the second one down).
If you’re shooting with a DSLR – don’t keep your apature wide open if you have tracking markers setup, you want them all to be in focus at once. You’ll also want to have you shutter speed higher than normal, probably at least 100 to reduce motion blur (also mentioned in this video).
Check your start frames – if you’re noticing slippage in your 3d software you didn’t notice in PFHoe, make sure that the footage in your 3d program (if you have a video background on your camera for example) has the same start frame as the tracking data you imported. This is especially a problem in Blender.
If you use Blender – know that it doesn’t work in the latest version, 2.5. It does, however, work in Blender 2.49, which means you import it into that version, save project, and then open it in the new version. It’s a pain. I’ve started developing a script that would let you import directly from 2.5, but haven’t been able to get some of the left-right handed conversion to work (so take a look if you’re good with python and math).

Also speaking of Blender, libmv is currently being integrated thanks to Google Summer of Code. So we’ll have open source match moving right inside Blender (you can check it out on the tomato branch). Seems to work pretty well so far, should be interesting to see how it compares to PFHoe.

My wife with our tracking marker setup.

Feel free to comment with your own tips!

How to Boil Water

admin — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 04:21:34 +0000

In case you didn’t know (many people do not).

Watch How I Soar

admin — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 03:49:46 +0000

Bit of fan art.

Some Birds

admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:33:56 +0000

3x digital zoom on the Canon t3i (with the kit lens) – outside the CVS in downtown Freeport.

I think the bird in that second shot didn’t like me.

Cheap Sliders for DSLRs

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:41:53 +0000

Cheap-ish, that is. I’ve been looking at sliders for fun (you’d think I could find something better for recreation), and thought I’d make a collection of the more reasonable ($100-$1000 range) sliders on the market. Jump over to the full post to see them categorized by manual, crank, and motorized sliders.

Manual Sliders

These are generally the cheapest. They don’t have a crank to move the camera, so you slide it along manually.

IndiSlider Mini
$99-$169 – 24″ (.6m)
No Drag Control
Issues: Can wobble forwards and backwards, but there’s an simple work around, move the slider instead of the camera, and apply forward pressure.

–

Kessler Pocket Dolly Basic
$499 – 38″ (~.9m)
No Drag Control

–

Crank Sliders

Instead of sliding these along the track manually, there’s a crank at the end. I’m guessing this would help keeping the motion smooth. Some have drag settings to help slow it down.

DitoGear CrankSlider
$983-$2,525 – 39″ (1m – available up to 2m)
Crank – Drag Control

–

Kessler Pocket Dolly
$629 – 38.5″ (~.9m)
No Drag Control

–

Kessler Philip Bloom Pocket Dolly
$1,095 – 41″ (1m – available as short as .7m)
Drag Control

–

Motorized Sliders

These are beautiful, but expensive. You can control and reproduce motion on these sliders via a remote. This is useful for compositing multiple shots, one on a green screen, and one as the background. Where they really shine, however, is with moving timelapses.

Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly
$895 (the $447 price is a 50% pre-order) 72″ (~1.8m)
Issues: this is a kit, it doesn’t come assembled, but apparently it’s pretty easy. The controller doesn’t look quite as nice as the DittoGear model.

–

DitoGear OmniSlider
$1,894-$2,525 – 39″ (1m – available up to 2.5m)

–

Summary

Although I’d like to get one of the motorized sliders on of these days, my wife seems to think the $2k could be better spend upgrading our furniture collection (I know, it surprised me too!). And considering I only really need one of these for doing smooth shots outdoors (I have a normal dolly that works great on smooth surfaces), I’ll probably end up getting the IndieSlider Mini.