Archive for Final Cut Pro

Reading Quicktime Timecode in After Effects Redux: A Solution

August 29, 2006 at 10:07 pm · Filed under After Effects, Final Cut Pro, OSX, Quicktime

When we were last talking about reading timecode from FCP sourced Quicktime’s I followed a tangent into Spotlight and other OS X technologies. Well, recently I revisited this problem for another project I’m working on and I think I’ve got a working solution for reading embedded timecode in After Effects on OS X.

timecodereader is a command-line utility that takes a path from After Effects via system.callSystem() and returns either the embedded timecode or the string . Right now the included .JSX script just writes that information to the console, but there are a lot of cool uses for Quicktime timecode in productivity scripts.

How to Use timecodereader

Download the zip archive, and either compile a new binary from the included XCode project or move the already compiled binary from build/release to a local binary directory. Since this is a command line tool you will want to move it to a location in your Path statement so you can use system.callSystem(“timecodereader ” + String(thisItem.mainSource.file))” instead of system.callSystem(“/path/to/timecodereader ” + String(thisItem.mainSource.file)) .

Update 09-09-2006: Lloyd Alvarez points out at aenhancers that AE preferers ~/bin/timecodereader when we set up as below. I’ve adjusted the enclosed script.

In the default Bash shell

export PATH="$PATH:~/bin"
echo 'PATH="$PATH:~/bin"' >> .profile


will setup a path to bin in your User directory. Move the enclosed script to your Scripts folder, select a Quicktime file in the Project window and we’re done.

When I run the script, I get these results (The 1:00:00:00 timecode is due to the fact that I’m using writeln to write to the console so the previous lines scroll up until they are out of view).

After Effects Project Window with Quicktime selected
After Effects Info Window with timecode displayed

I’ve tried timecodereader with quite a few Quicktime’s but obviously there might be a few that aren’t handled well, so consider this a beta release. The compiled binary is a universal binary so it should work on both PowerPC and Intel platforms. One gotcha, is that if you have a codec that is not compiled for the supported platform you might get a dyld returns 2 log message that might futz with your script. You can either work around it via string handling or remove the codec since it won’t work anyway. You’ll need to turn on Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network and turn off Enable JavaSript Debugger so we can eat the errors.

timecodereader requires After Effects 7, and OS X 10.4+

Updated file: 09.09.2006

Fixed a problem with external Hard Drives and Mounted Volumes. After Effects does not add /Volumes/ to drive paths like OS X, so /Volumes/MyHardDriveName is reported as /MyHardDriveNameI’m basically checking all mount points and adding /Volumes when appropriate, unfortunately the response is a bit slower if you have disk images or a lot of volumes mounted. If anybody knows anything faster send it my way.

Also. I’m using metadata checks for com.apple.quicktime-movie to check whether the file is a quicktime file. This only works on volumes that are indexed, so it might not work on mounted server volumes. I can add alternative QT detection if anybody finds it useful or necessary.

Zip Archive of Binary, Script and XCode Project

Comments (10)

When you apply a filter can make a big difference

June 5, 2006 at 6:52 pm · Filed under After Effects, Beginner, Final Cut Pro

I was browsing around Apple’s Tech Note website when I ran into this technote. Apply the Broadcast Safe filter last in Final Cut Pro. The article discusses the importance of applying the Broadcast Safe last in a filter stack to insure that you really are limiting the colors in a sequence to broadcast safe colors.

The idea of a pipeline is one of the trickier ideas to master for new users of image processing applications. In image processing each new operation like a blur, composite operation or color adjustment is applied and then passed to the next operation. In the example that Apple gives above, a Proc Amp operation applied late in the pipeline could boost the color levels outside of a safe range even though Broadcast Safe filter was applied in the stack. I’ve often found when you’ve got a visually unexpected output, moving the filter arrangement will restore some sanity to the expected output.

Additionally, as applications like After Effects transition to 32 bit float environments you’ll see additions to pipelines like HDR Compander which can compress and decompress the pixel pipeline to work with 8 and 16bit effects.

It is important to get a strong conceptual understanding of core concepts like image processing pipelines. These ideas become even more important with programs moving to 32 bit float color and using pixel-level operations via the GPU like in Apple’s Core Image. Finally, I really recommend that you keep up with what Stu Maschwitz posts at Prolost. He writes about really hard tech like color space and image processing but with attention to form and artistry I can only aspire to.

Comments (1)

Using Batch Export in Final Cut Pro

May 23, 2006 at 8:27 am · Filed under Final Cut Pro

I love using batch media programs like Cleaner and Compressor. They allow you to set up a workflow and accomplish a lot of work unattended. What I didn’t realize until just recently was that there was a great little mini-batch processing program built right into Final Cut Pro.
Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (15)

Moving toward reading FCP source timecode from imported Quicktimes in After Effects

May 9, 2006 at 8:59 am · Filed under Advanced, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Scripting

A recent thread on aenhancers discussed reading source timecode from Quicktimes imported from Final Cut Pro captures in After Effects. Seems like a perfectly reasonable request, there could be a bunch of situations where this information would be useful in an After Effects project. Problem is, it doesn’t seem really easy to grab that data. When you view the timecode track in the imported quicktime, the timecode is in reference to the source Quicktime not the source tape from the capture.

Correction

Mark Burton posted on the thread mentioned above that actually the timecode is written to the Quicktime. He offered a link to Sebsky Tools as an example of an app using that info. I simply misread the Quicktime player info. There is still useful info from Final Cut we can access and I think the ideas in this article are interesting so I’m leaving it up with this correction. Thanks Mark.

At least until Apple decides to put that information into the captured Quicktime We’ll need to find a workaround way to read FCP info and that’s what I’m going to cover in this post.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (6)

MOVING BETWEEN FINAL CUT PRO AND AFTER EFFECTS: THE SCRIPTING OPTION

March 9, 2006 at 3:02 pm · Filed under After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Intermediate, Scripting

With the release of Automatic Duck as a free product there really isn’t a great reason to use this script except as an example of XML parsing and Comp creation from parsed properties. For general FCP to AE workflows I’d recommend downloading Automatic Duck Pro Import AE 5.0. Depending on what happens with FCPX I may write new tools for import from FCPX to AE.

Update 04.17.2007

I’ve posted a small application and tutorial at Final Cut Pro to After Effects Scripting without the hassle for those that find the scripting presented here a little daunting. The following article covers the steps and ideas encapsulated in the application if you’re more interested in the process for learning to script After Effects and Final Cut Pro yourself.

I work a lot in Final Cut Pro and After Effects. They are both really strong programs and more than once I’ve had reason to move projects, art, text, etc. between the two programs.

Until recently, the only option you had to do this kind of interchange was a product called Automatic Duck (which I highly recommend btw) and in previous versions you still had to use Avid’s interchange format and jump through a few hoops to move between the programs.

Now with Final Cut XML and more robust scripting available in After Effects you can finally flow between the two programs with relative ease. In this first installment, I’ll outline a simple workflow for getting clips in a FCP sequence into a AE project. In future posts I’ll go over text elements, filters, generator items etc., but all of these follow the same general development cycle and will just be elaborations on a theme.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (32)

« Newer Posts