Final Cut Studio Workflows
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1 Contents 5 6 10 11 12 14 14 An Introduction to the Apple Post-Production Applications Overview of the Apple Post-Production Applications Using This Document Sample Final Cut Studio Workflow Editing the Movie Encoding the Movie Authoring the DVD 17 17 18 21 23 23 24 26 27 27 27 28 29 29 30 30 31 32 33 34 34 35 35 Using Apple Applications for Your Final Cut Pro Projects Using Soundtrack Pro With Final Cut Pro Working With a Single Clip From Final Cut Pro Working With Multiple Audio Tracks From Final Cu
37 37 38 38 39 40 40 41 45 45 46 47 48 49 50 50 51 53 53 54 4 Using Apple Applications for Your DVD Studio Pro Projects Turning Your Final Cut Pro Project Into a DVD Importing Your Final Cut Pro Project Into DVD Studio Pro Making an HD-Based DVD From Your Final Cut Pro Project Using Motion in Your DVD Studio Pro Project Importing a Motion Project for a Motion Menu Making Changes to a Motion Project Already in DVD Studio Pro Creating and Importing a Motion Project as an Alpha Transition Using Soundtrack Pr
1 An Introduction to the Apple Post-Production Applications Apple has created a family of professional audio and video applications that work together seamlessly in even the most demanding post-production workflows. The Apple post-production applications deliver powerful editing tools, revolutionary sound design, real-time motion graphics, next-generation DVD authoring, and award-winning compositing tools.
Overview of the Apple Post-Production Applications Each of the Apple post-production applications provides industry-leading postproduction tools that give you all the power you need to complete even the most challenging projects. Final Cut Pro The scalability and performance of Final Cut Pro make it the ultimate movie editing application. You can work with virtually any format, from DV and HDV to DVCPRO HD to uncompressed 10-bit HD video.
Soundtrack Pro It is critical that your movie’s audio deliver a polished and complete experience that complements the video. Soundtrack Pro gives you the tools to handle every aspect of creating your soundtrack: Â A powerful Waveform Editor for graphically editing your audio files and processing them using destructive or nondestructive actions. The Waveform Editor is also able to analyze and repair your audio files, and supports AppleScript to automate common tasks.
DVD Studio Pro DVD Studio Pro is software for authoring DVD-Video titles. Video from Final Cut Pro and Motion, music and other audio from Soundtrack Pro, and still images from applications like Adobe Photoshop can be easily orchestrated into a DVD that can be played on a DVD player or a suitably equipped computer.
When used on computers with either DVD Studio Pro or Final Cut Studio installed, Compressor also includes AC-3 and distributed encoding capabilities. Â The AC-3 encoder is used for encoding a variety of audio channel configurations, such as stereo or 5.1 surround sound, into Dolby Digital audio streams suitable for use with DVD Studio Pro. Â Distributed encoding, which divides your encoding tasks between multiple systems, reduces the amount of time required for your encoding tasks.
Logic Pro Logic Pro is a complete music workstation studio you can use for recording, arranging, mixing, and producing music projects. Logic Pro allows you to build musical arrangements using MIDI and software instruments alongside audio recordings of acoustic instruments and vocal performances, Apple Loops, and other prerecorded audio files. Logic Pro can import and export individual audio files using a variety of formats.
Sample Final Cut Studio Workflow This section provides a sample workflow for a movie project to be distributed on DVD. It includes the most common situations you will encounter. See the following chapters for more information on the workflow options you have. About Roundtrips Between Projects Project roundtrips refer to the ability to embed and open application project files while working in another application. Many Apple post-production applications can directly import project files from each other.
Editing the Movie The first part of creating this sample project is to edit the movie. As you edit your movie in Final Cut Pro, you can use the other Apple post-production applications to enhance your project. Step 1: Capture and edit in Final Cut Pro Capturing and editing your project’s video and audio will occupy most of your time. Being familiar with your sources before starting this process can help reduce the amount of unused video and audio you capture, saving time and hard disk space.
Step 4: Clean up the audio and add effects in Soundtrack Pro In addition to using Soundtrack Pro to create an original soundtrack for your movie, you can use it to work with existing audio in a variety of ways. Two of the most common are cleaning up a clip’s audio and adding an effect to a sequence. Cleaning Up a Clip’s Audio Soundtrack Pro includes a Waveform Editor for working with a clip’s audio.
See “Converting a Video Clip to a Different Video Standard” on page 28 for more information. Encoding the Movie Once you have completed your movie, you need to encode the movie’s video and audio in DVD-compliant formats. Using Compressor to export the movie is the preferred method since it provides the most options and highest quality. Another advantage of exporting using Compressor is that you do not need to render your sequence first—it will automatically render as necessary during the export.
Step 1: Create motion menu backgrounds in Motion The menus in your DVD can be simple, static images or full-motion video. In both cases, you can also add audio to the menus. The only requirement for a menu is that it has the necessary buttons to make it clear how to access the tracks, slideshows, and other menus on the DVD. For example, you can use Motion to create a motion menu background from a small part of the movie.
Step 3: Create menu audio in Soundtrack Pro Adding audio to your menus, even those using still backgrounds, is an easy way to make the DVD more enjoyable. Soundtrack Pro includes an extensive set of Apple Loops from which you can quickly create royalty-free audio clips that are perfect for a menu’s audio. You can also add effects to the audio, which can be useful for motion menus that need audio to coincide with actions such as buttons dropping into place.
1 Using Apple Applications for Your Final Cut Pro Projects The Apple post-production applications provide invaluable tools to enhance your Final Cut Pro projects. Final Cut Pro by itself is a complete editing solution.
You can take several approaches to working with your Final Cut Pro project’s audio in Soundtrack Pro; the method you choose depends on your situation: Â Do you need to work on a single clip? Final Cut Pro includes several methods you can use to open a clip in the Soundtrack Pro Waveform Editor, where you can analyze and process the audio using a variety of powerful tools.
To send a clip to the Waveform Editor: 1 Control-click the clip in either the Final Cut Pro Browser or Timeline, then choose Send To > Soundtrack Pro Audio File Project from the shortcut menu. A dialog appears prompting you to save the clip as a Soundtrack Pro audio file project. 2 Enter a name or use the default name and click Save. The project opens in the Soundtrack Pro Waveform Editor. 3 Modify the audio as needed. 4 Choose File > Save to save the project with the changes.
Opening a Final Cut Pro Audio Clip Directly in the Soundtrack Pro Waveform Editor Opening an audio clip from Final Cut Pro in the Soundtrack Pro Waveform Editor using the Open in Editor command opens the original audio clip in the Waveform Editor. Any changes you make destructively modify the file when you save it. Note: The Audio Files setting in the External Editors tab of the Final Cut Pro System Settings window determines which application opens when you use the Open in Editor command.
To modify a clip using a Soundtrack Pro script: m Control-click the clip in the Final Cut Pro Browser or Timeline, choose Send To > Soundtrack Pro Script from the shortcut menu, then choose the script you want to use from the submenu. You can select multiple clips in Final Cut Pro to edit using the script. When you send multiple clips to a Soundtrack Pro script, each clip is opened, edited, saved, and closed in sequence.
To send a group of clips or a sequence to the Multitrack Editor: 1 Select the sequence in the Final Cut Pro Browser or select the clips in the Timeline. 2 Control-click the selection, then choose Send To > Soundtrack Pro Multitrack Project from the shortcut menu. A dialog appears with several settings. 3 Select Open in Soundtrack Pro Multitrack Editor to open the project in Soundtrack Pro once it is saved. 4 Select Include Background Video to include the sequence’s background video with the project.
After you have finished making changes, save the project and use the Export Mix command to export a new audio clip (using the same name and location as the one opened in the Final Cut Pro project). This ensures that this new version of the audio file automatically appears in the Final Cut Pro project. Exporting a Clip or Sequence From Final Cut Pro to Soundtrack Pro Final Cut Pro includes the ability to export a clip or sequence for use in Soundtrack Pro.
Exporting a Clip or Sequence From Final Cut Pro to Motion Final Cut Pro clips and sequences can be exported as Motion projects using the Send To Motion Project command. This command is useful when you want to do either of the following: Â Send captured media to Motion from the Final Cut Pro Browser. Â Send items or a sequence from your Final Cut Pro project to Motion for animation work.
What Properties Are Exported? When you select clips to send to Motion, the following properties are retained with the exported project.
Importing a Motion Project Into a Final Cut Pro Project Whether or not you have Motion installed, you can import Motion projects into Final Cut Pro in the same way you would import other media. To import a Motion project into Final Cut Pro, do one of the following: m Drag the Motion project into the Final Cut Pro Browser or Timeline. m Choose File > Import > Files, then select the Motion project in the dialog that appears and click Choose.
Making Changes to a Motion Project Already in Final Cut Pro While working in Final Cut Pro, you can open a Motion project clip from the Browser or Timeline in order to edit it in Motion. Important: This requires Final Cut Pro and Motion to be installed on the same computer. To open a Motion project clip in Motion, from within Final Cut Pro: m Select the clip, Control-click it, then choose Open in Editor from the shortcut menu.
To export from Final Cut Pro to Compressor: 1 In the Browser, select a sequence you want to export. 2 Choose File > Export > Compressor. Compressor opens with the sequence you exported from Final Cut Pro as a source in its Batch window. 3 Select a preset to apply to the sequence. In some cases you will be able to use a preset that exactly matches your needs, but in others you will need to either modify a preset or create a custom preset. The preset defines all aspects of the conversion.
4 Configure the destination setting. By default, the new file is saved at the same location as the original. 5 Configure the output filename if you prefer something other than the default name. 6 Click Submit. Once Compressor finishes, you can import the scaled clip into your Final Cut Pro project and add it to the sequence without needing to render it. Using LiveType With Final Cut Pro As with Motion, Final Cut Pro includes support for exchanging clips and sequences between Final Cut Pro and LiveType.
Making Changes to a LiveType Project Already in Final Cut Pro Although you can perform normal editing tasks with a LiveType project in Final Cut Pro, the LiveType title contents cannot be changed from within Final Cut Pro—LiveType title settings can only be changed in the LiveType application. Final Cut Pro provides a quick and easy way to open LiveType projects directly in the LiveType application to make changes to your title.
To export a partial sequence for LiveType and create a title over it: 1 In the Final Cut Pro Timeline, set In and Out points to define the section of video you want the LiveType title to appear over. 2 Choose File > Export > For LiveType. 3 Name the sequence portion you are exporting, then click Save. 4 In LiveType, choose File > Place Background Movie to import the sequence exported from Final Cut Pro and place it in the second track.
How Imported Clips Are Arranged in Shake Regardless of how you move Final Cut Pro clips into Shake, the way they’re assembled in the newly created Shake script depends on whether they were sequentially arranged within a single video track, or vertically superimposed using several video tracks. Imported Final Cut Pro clips are arranged within the node tree using Select and MultiLayer nodes: Â Clips edited sequentially within the same video track are connected to a single Select node.
Sending Clips From Final Cut Pro If you want to send one or more selected clips (or a single sequence) from Final Cut Pro to Shake, you use the Send To Shake command in Final Cut Pro. To send one or more clips or a sequence from Final Cut Pro to Shake: 1 Arrange your project’s Timeline so that you are able to select only the clips you intend to send. 2 Do one of the following: Â Select one or more clips you want to export in the Timeline. Â Select a sequence in the Browser.
The placeholder QuickTime clip in your Final Cut Pro project corresponds to the media that will eventually be rendered out of Shake—specifically, from the FileOut node appearing at the end of the generated Shake script. The timeRange of Scripts Generated From Final Cut Pro The timeRange Global parameter in the Shake script that’s created by the Send To Shake command is automatically set with the appropriate range of frames for the media to which it refers.
Importing Final Cut Pro XML Files Into Logic Pro You can export a sequence or group of clips from Final Cut Pro as an XML format file, and then import the XML file into Logic Pro. To export a Final Cut Pro sequence as an XML file: 1 Select a sequence in the Final Cut Pro Browser to export. 2 Choose File > Export > XML. 3 Choose the XML format to use from the Format pop-up menu, then click OK. The default choice is “Apple XML Interchange Format, version 2.
1 Using Apple Applications for Your DVD Studio Pro Projects It doesn’t matter how good your movie is if nobody can see it. The Apple post-production applications provide invaluable tools to help you author your DVD Studio Pro project. DVD Studio Pro makes it fast and easy to create professional DVDs in a variety of styles. Every aspect of authoring is customizable, but when you’re in a hurry, you can modify one of the included template designs to finish your DVDs even faster.
Importing Your Final Cut Pro Project Into DVD Studio Pro Exporting your movies from Final Cut Pro to Compressor to create high-quality DVDcompliant assets for DVD Studio Pro, including downconverting HD sources, provides you with more encoding flexibility than importing the movie directly into DVD Studio Pro. Compressor creates MPEG-2 video, both for SD and HD projects, H.264 video for HD projects, and Dolby Digital AC-3 audio.
You can either export your DVCPRO HD–based project from Final Cut Pro using Compressor (as described in “Exporting Your Movie Using Compressor” on page 27) or export a QuickTime movie of the project and import it directly into DVD Studio Pro. As with SD Final Cut Pro projects, the advantage of going through Compressor is that you have more control over the encoding process. You can choose whether to create HD MPEG-2 or H.
Importing a Motion Project for a Motion Menu You import Motion projects into DVD Studio Pro in the same way you import most assets. To import a Motion project into DVD Studio Pro, do one of the following: m Drag the Motion project into the DVD Studio Pro Assets tab or Menu Editor. When the Motion project is dragged into the Menu Editor, you can choose how DVD Studio Pro uses the project from the Drop Palette that appears.
Creating and Importing a Motion Project as an Alpha Transition DVD Studio Pro includes an Alpha Transition feature. Alpha Transitions make it possible for you to create customized transitions for use in your menus, tracks, and slideshows. All transitions have a start and end frame, based on where the transition is being used.
Asset Folder Motion projects and movies used as Alpha Transitions within DVD Studio Pro are handled differently than Motion projects and movies used in menus and tracks. When opened, DVD Studio Pro checks for transition asset folders located in specific areas of your hard disk. Any folders it finds that contain appropriate Motion projects or movies are automatically added as Alpha Transitions, and become available for use in any DVD projects you author.
In the above example with the spinning DVD flying by, you would most likely want to be able to see the start or end frame video through the DVD’s hole and around its edges. For this to happen, there must be an alpha channel for DVD Studio Pro to know which parts of the asset movie video should appear and which should be ignored. There are two ways to provide this alpha channel: embedded with the asset movie or as a separate asset matte movie (described in “Asset Matte Movie,” below).
The asset matte movie is required only when an asset movie that does not include an alpha channel is used by the transition. Having a separate asset matte movie is particularly useful when the asset movie is normal video (as opposed to an animation). The asset matte movie must have the same name as the asset folder, followed by “-matte,” and can have an extension. For example, if the asset folder’s name is Spinning DVD, the asset matte movie could be named Spinning DVD-matte.mov.
Using Soundtrack Pro in Your DVD Studio Pro Project Authoring a DVD has several specialized audio requirements that Soundtrack Pro is well suited to support: Â Audio for menus: An easy way to make your DVD menus more engaging is to add audio to them. You can add audio to all motion and most still menus.
5 Choose File > Export > Export Mix. 6 Enter a name for the file. 7 Set the Bit Depth to 16-Bit or 24-Bit and the Sample Rate to 48 kHz. 8 Click Export. This saves an audio file that is linked to the project file previously saved, which is useful if you need to make any changes to the audio file later. Important: The following requires DVD Studio Pro and Soundtrack Pro to be installed on the same computer.
To send a Motion project’s audio to Soundtrack Pro: 1 Click the Audio tab in the Motion Project pane. 2 Select the audio track to send to Soundtrack Pro. 3 Choose Edit > Send Audio to Soundtrack. 4 Enter a filename, choose a destination, and click “Save as Soundtrack Audio.” This creates a Soundtrack Pro audio project, with the file extension “.stap,” that automatically opens in the Soundtrack Pro Waveform Editor with the Motion video, so that you can apply actions and paste in sound effects as needed.
To export all Soundtrack Pro tracks, busses, and outputs at once: 1 Make sure that no tracks are selected. 2 Choose File > Export > Export All Mixer Objects. A dialog appears with settings for the exported tracks. 3 Configure the export settings. For use on a DVD, choose either the 16-bit or 24-bit audio bit depth setting, and choose a 48 kHz sample rate. 4 Click Export. An individual AIFF file is exported for each unmuted track, bus, and output.
4 Choose a preset to use from the Preserve Video or Encode Video pop-up menu (depending on which you selected). You can modify the preset or create a new custom preset by clicking Edit Presets. This opens Compressor. 5 If you are exporting a multichannel audio file, click Edit Channel Layout to open the channel assignment dialog, choose the physical output channel for each channel in the exported file, then click OK. 6 Click Export.
About the Compressor Workflow Methods Compressor includes two workflows you can use: Â Normal method: You use the Compressor windows to configure all aspects of the encoding process. You can choose from preconfigured settings, known as presets, or create custom settings. You can also configure a batch of files for encoding. The batch can include multiple source media files or can have a single media file with encoded outputs using multiple formats.
Making AC-3 Files With Compressor How you make the AC-3 file depends on whether you are using a single audio file as the source or multiple audio files (as is often done for surround sound audio). Using a Single Audio File You can use the methods described in “About the Compressor Workflow Methods” on page 50 to encode an AC-3 stream from a single source file, with Compressor automatically assigning the audio channels.
Using Multiple Source Files With Channel Identifier Codes Compressor includes the ability to automatically assign audio files to the surround sound channels if they contain channel identifier codes in their filenames. The channel identifier codes appear before the file extension (if present), as shown in the following example: Example filenames Channel Indentifier MyMovie-L.aif Left front -L MyMovie-R.aif Right front -R MyMovie-C.aif Center front -C MyMovie-RL.
To export multiple Final Cut Pro audio files for AC-3 encoding: 1 Enable the audio tracks to export. Be sure to disable tracks that should not be exported, since Final Cut Pro will combine all enabled tracks into a single stereo file. 2 Choose File > Export > Audio to AIFFs. 3 Configure the output file and click Save. Note: Be sure to export using a 48 kHz sample rate.
Making Changes to a LiveType Project Already in DVD Studio Pro Although you can perform normal DVD authoring tasks with a LiveType project, the LiveType title contents cannot be changed from within DVD Studio Pro. LiveType title settings can only be changed in the LiveType application. DVD Studio Pro provides a quick and easy way to open LiveType projects directly in the LiveType application to make changes to your title.
