best way to crop a shot?

[Chris Pickle]

I have several shots that I reframed on my FCP timeline. I'm now outputting new 1080s to conform and I'd like to do the reframes from my 4k files so that I don't lose resolution. What's the best way to do that?

I tried something in Clipfinder, but I couldn't figure out how to get the small window to maintain the aspect as I dragged it around. Plus I need to have a bigger view so that I can match the reframes.

Thoughts?

Thanks

[Ben Brainerd]

Where are you finishing the project? Color? Or did you do everything in FCP?

If you're going to Color, or another grading suite, you're better off doing all of the resizing/cropping there.

If you're *done* after FCP, I'd say your best bet would be to fire up RedCine and do your crops there. RedAlert/Clipfinder are a little tougher to use for cropping then RedCine

[Chris Pickle]

Where are you finishing the project? Color? Or did you do everything in FCP?

If you're going to Color, or another grading suite, you're better off doing all of the resizing/cropping there.

If you're *done* after FCP, I'd say your best bet would be to fire up RedCine and do your crops there. RedAlert/Clipfinder are a little tougher to use for cropping then RedCine

I'll likely use Color, but I'm just planning to send my 1080s there. I know, I should probably send the Raw there instead. I'll have a look at Redcine for the crops.

Thanks!

[Steve MacMillan]

REDCODE and I believe image sequences (unlike most other codecs) have their motion tab resizes baked in while rendering in Apple Color. This works well for static shots, and is broken for keyframed motion tab changes. As of Color 1.5.1, it does not set the proper resize at the start of the clip, bakes in an incorrect resize, and then roundtrips the keyframes. Best to remove the keyframes and re-apply after round tripping.

In spite of the feature claims, I find still images still have to be baked before sending to Color as well. I find when grading REDCODE in Color, that it is really hard to match the gamma with vfx clips imported in any other codec, and stills.

Does anybody have any tricks for a 1 to 1 match, pasting grades from REDCODE to anything else?

STeve

[Chris Pickle]

So I spent some time with Redcine. It seems a bit clunky. I wish there was a better way to crop images in Clipfinder or Redrushes.

[Brandon Kraemer]

Generally speaking, I transcode to 2K out of Redcine before going to Color. If I am punching in on my 4K original so much that I need to transcode that shot in 4K, I do so selectively, then conform it to the correct scale on my timeline before sending to Color. I do not rescale shots in Color, for a variety of reasons.

[Steve MacMillan]

If you wish to relink to R3D files for the highest quality grading in Apple Color, you will have to either resize in Color or wait until after you have rendered out your graded clips.

Redcine would be useful, if you decided to transcode to another codec before grading. Not so much for a R3D grade in Color.

STeve

[James Page]

In FCP, edit with low res proxies, then, before you output, use the "relink file" option to link with the higher res proxies.

[Chris Pickle]

ok, so does anyone have an idea on how i might blow up a shot without using colour? can redcine read the rsx file so that i don;t have to do all that stuff there?

Thanks

[Steve MacMillan]

There are lots of ways to blow up a shot. Its just that when you do, you have to save it out as something else. The R3D file is a read only format, the RED camera is the only device that can write a R3D. So once you bake the clip, you lose the ability to grade native R3Ds. RedCine will reframe in the shot window and then you can output to your choice of formats. I don't believe it reads RSX files.

The easiest thing is to offline with ProRes or proxies and resize in FCP's motion tab. Then grade in Color and let color bake them straight off the R3Ds. You just have to be careful with keyframes.

STeve