Recently I have noticed a few bugs with our FCS2 system.
We are using Final Cut Studio 2 with an AJA 10bit Kona LHe card equipped MacPro 2×3GHz Quad running OSX 10.4.9.
1. Importing PSD into FCP
Until about a month ago I was able to import PSD files into FCP as a layered sequence. Now I don’t seem to be able to get that to happen – the file only comes in a flattened file. Not sure why
My workaround for now is to open the PSD file in Motion as a layered comp. I think this is actually a better way to lay up gfx anyway – Motion is much faster for controlling the layers. Props to Dr Gormley for the tip!
2. Problems playing out Motion projects in FCP
For me one of the coolest things of working with Motion in FCP is that you can jump back and forth between the two and the embedded Motion project will update.
But, now when I render the Motion clip and put it out to a VTR, it plays out bizarre – sometimes with a heavy PINK cast to it.
To workaround this I changed the FCP sequence setting from ‘Render 10-bit Material in high-precision YUV’ to ‘Render in 8-bit YUV’. This seems to allow me to get SOMETHING to tape that is not screwed up – but means we are not going to tape in 10bit.
The other way around this is to simply render a QuickTime out of Motion – but I really like the flexibility of the embedded comps in FCP – good for working with clients.
3. Magic Bullet Colorista – no likey 10-bit sequences either
The Colorista plugin is awesome and I use it quite a lot. But it seems to be another hater of the 10bit YUV render setting in FCP. Sometimes I render the clips with Colorista on them, and it will produce some random artifacting to the clip, sometimes random bright noise in some areas.
Workaround: Changing the fcp sequences’ render settings to 8bit fixes this
So I am going to suss this out and find some solutions/explanations – I will blog back about this as I go.