One of the most enchanting aspects of the DV revolution is the world of digital media elements that you can mix, match, and manipulate freely to spice up your video. Final Cut Express is exceptional in the wide latitude of digital file formats it accepts. You can import most types of QuickTime-compatible files into an FCE project, including video clips, still images, and sound files.
Apple’s QuickTime web site contains a complete list of supported file formats at www.apple.com/quicktime/products/qt/specifications.html.
Here’s a list of common FCE-supported QuickTime formats:
Graphics: BMP, FlashPix, GIF, JPEG/JFIF, Photoshop (PSD), PICS, PICT, PNG, QuickTime Image File (QTIF), SGI, TARGA (TGA), and TIFF
Video: AVI, QuickTime Movie
Audio: AIFF, Audio CD Data (Macintosh), Sound, and Wave
Other: Macromedia Flash (video only)
You can import an entire folder or an organization of multiple folders in a single operation. When you import a folder, Final Cut Express imports all files it recognizes in the folder, as well as all recognized files in any subfolders. Folders are imported with their internal hierarchies intact.
Copy or move the file (or folder) that you want to import into the desired media folder in your project (Figure 6.1).
In the Browser, select a destination for your incoming file by doing one of the following:
To import files or folders into the top level of a project, click the project’s Browser tab.
To import files into a bin within a project, double-click the bin to open it.
Do one of the following:
Choose File > Import; then choose Files (or Folder) from the submenu, select the items, and click Open.
In the Browser or any Browser bin window, Control-click and then choose Import File (or Import Folder) from the shortcut menu.
Drag the desired files or folders directly from your Desktop (Figure 6.2) to a project tab or a bin within the Browser (Figure 6.3).
Drag the desired files or folders from your Desktop to an open sequence in the Timeline. This places a clip reference to the media in the Timeline but does not place a reference in the Browser.
The default format for imported still images is a clip containing 2 minutes of identical video frames, with a duration of 10 seconds between In and Out points (Figure 6.4). If you edit still images into a sequence, they won’t be visible on your NTSC external monitor until they are rendered.
Figure 6.4. Imported still images have a default length of 2 minutes of identical video frames, with a duration of 10 seconds between In and Out points. The source media files for still-image clips don’t occupy 2 minutes’ worth of drive space; you generate media only for the portions you render.
Final Cut Express supports all QuickTime- compatible graphics file formats. Check the QuickTime readme file or Apple’s QuickTime web site for a complete list of compatible file formats.
Tips
Final Cut Express does not import EPS files.
Large images take longer to insert and longer to open in projects because FCE must scale them before displaying them. Really large images should be scaled in a graphics program prior to importing.
Still images and generators are assigned a duration at the time they’re imported into Final Cut Express. You specify the default duration for still images on the Editing tab of the User Preferences window.
No matter what duration you set, your Final Cut Express clip references a single still image, so you won’t create large, full-length video files until you render or export your stills at their edited lengths.
The default still duration is applied at the time you import the still into Final Cut Express. If you have imported a still image and want the duration to be longer, you must modify the preference setting and then re-import the still.
To change the default still duration:
Choose Final Cut Express > User Preferences; or press Option-Q.
On the Editing tab of the User Preferences window, enter a new default duration in the Still/Freeze Duration field (Figure 6.5).
Click OK.
Adobe Photoshop is the industry-standard tool for creating graphics elements for use in Final Cut Express. Its file format compatibility with Final Cut Express makes importing your artwork’s layers and alpha channels easy.
When you’re creating graphics for use in a video program, keep your final format’s requirements in mind. Remember that video has title-safe requirements, a different pixel aspect ratio, and a different tolerance for color and contrast levels than still graphics do.
Images that look beautiful in print or on a computer screen may not display well on a television monitor. The NTSC broadcast video standard cannot tolerate extreme contrast shifts on many of the colors that you can create and display in Photoshop.
Photoshop comes with an NTSC Colors filter that you can apply to your artwork to make it color safe for TV sets, and FCE has a Broadcast Safe filter that performs a similar function.
Tip
Photoshop’s NTSC Colors filter is a fine tool, but it’s easier to use the Broadcast Safe filter in Final Cut Express once you’ve incorporated the Photoshop files into your sequence. For more information, see Chapter 16, “Filters and Compositing.”
The best way to preserve image quality in digital image formats is to maintain the same frame size and resolution from beginning to end. You will get best results by creating your art with the required pixel dimensions in mind, but if you create artwork on a computer for display on broadcast television, you’ll find that you must jump through a few hoops.
The native frame size of DV is 720 by 480 pixels. However, if you create your artwork in Photoshop at that size, your image looks squeezed when it is displayed on a TV monitor after printing to video. This is because pixel aspect ratios in the computer world and the broadcast television world are different.
Computer monitors use square pixels, where each pixel’s height equals its width. NTSC television monitors use a system that has a non-square pixel aspect ratio of 1.33:1, where the height is just a little bit greater than the width.
To accommodate the difference between these two frame sizes, you must create your full-frame graphics elements at a slightly larger size than your target resolution and then size them down to the target resolution in Photoshop before you import them into Final Cut Express. (Target resolution refers to the actual pixel count of an image’s frame size in its final delivery, or target, format.)
To create a Photoshop file at DV-NTSC target resolution:
In Photoshop, choose File > New; or press Command-N.
Enter a width of 720 pixels, a height of 534 pixels, and a resolution of 72 pixels per inch (Figure 6.6).
Figure 6.6. In the New dialog box, enter a width of 720 pixels, a height of 534 pixels, and a resolution of 72 pixels per inch.
This ratio of 720:534, or 1.33:1, is the proper proportion for creating text and graphics that will look the same on your NTSC monitor as on your computer monitor.
Create your image file (Figure 6.7).
Save the file as your original image file. Use this original graphics file to make any subsequent changes to the artwork.
Choose Image > Image Size (Figure 6.8).
In the Image Size dialog box, uncheck Constrain Proportions.
In the Pixel Dimensions section, enter a width of 720 pixels and a height of 480 pixels (Figure 6.9).
Click OK.
The vertical aspect of the image shrinks, which makes it look squashed (Figure 6.10).
Save the file as your production graphics file. Use this production graphics file in your project.
If you need to make changes to the artwork, use the original graphics file, which has the unaltered aspect ratio; then, when you’re ready to save, repeat steps 4 through 9.
Tips
You don’t have to import an entire full-screen image if your image uses only a small portion of the frame. Position your elements in full-screen format, resize for the pixel aspect ratio difference, and then crop the artwork.
If you’re planning to zoom in on the image you’re preparing, you should import a file with pixel dimensions that will allow the tightest framing to fill the entire video frame without scaling the image above 100 percent.
You can import a variety of file formats, but the most common are the native Photoshop format (for images with multiple layers) and the standard PICT format (for single-layer images with alpha channels).
You can also resize imported graphics clips and sequences in Final Cut Express, but you’ll get better results using Photoshop’s bicubic scaling for resizing because it uses a better resampling algorithm.
FCE Protocol: Updating Photoshop Files in FCE
It’s easy to import Adobe Photoshop files into FCE, but if you need to change to a Photoshop file you’ve already used in a sequence, there are some hoops to jump through. Get ready to jump...
When you import a multilayer Photoshop file into your project for the first time, Final Cut Express constructs a description of this file that includes the number of layers and the frame size of each layer.
First hoop: It’s not always easy to get Final Cut Express to update its description data of your Photoshop file. If you revise your existing image in Photoshop and save changes in the original file, you may not see the changes reflected when you return to Final Cut Express. FCE protocol dictates that the original proxy description of your Photoshop file is used.
How do you get FCE to refresh its memory and update your Photoshop file’s description? Here are some suggested workarounds:
After you’ve revised your Photoshop file, rename the file when you save your changes and then re-import it into FCE. Because you’re re-importing the file with a new name, FCE will create a new description for it. The good news? Your Photoshop file revisions show up in FCE. The bad news? Now you have to manually replace the file with the revised file everywhere you’ve used it.
If your file has the same number of layers and those layers have the same frame size, you should be able to select the Photoshop clip wherever you’ve used it in your sequence and then use the Reconnect Media command to manually re-introduce the clip and the Photoshop source media file.
Second hoop: FCE uses the frame size data it recorded when you first imported your Photoshop file in all effect calculations that use x, y coordinates—motion paths, scaling, warp filters, and so on. However (get ready to jump...), FCE does not include transparent pixels when it calculates a Photoshop layer’s frame size. Say you’ve created text on a transparent background in Photoshop, imported your file into FCE, and then applied effects. Should you need to revise your text, when you return to it, you’ll find that the frame size of your text layer has changed. Even if you successfully reconnect your revised Photoshop file to your FCE sequence, FCE will use the data description from the original import (with the old frame size) to calculate your effects. The result? Your text effects will look distorted, and you’ll briefly consider quitting the business.
There’s a workaround for this dilemma. It’s not pretty, but you can save yourself some headaches down the road by anticipating changes to your text. Again, get ready to jump...
When you build your original Photoshop file, place a single nontransparent pixel in each corner of the frame (Figure 6.11). You’ll need to do this for each and every layer. FCE will use the rectangle created by those four placeholder pixels to calculate the frame size. You can change text to your heart’s content inside the bounding box created by the four corner pixels, and your FCE frame size will not change. So if you can reconnect your Photoshop file, your effects will be calculated with the correct frame size data.
Figure 6.11. Place a single nontransparent pixel in each corner of each layer of your Photoshop composition. If you revise your Photoshop text later, those corner pixels will maintain a constant frame size, and when you re-import or reconnect your revised Photoshop file, FCE will recalculate your previously applied effects with the correct frame size. Hey—it’s a workaround.
Final warning: Once you’ve imported a layered Photoshop file into FCE, you should avoid adding or subtracting layers in the file.
FCE identifies a Photoshop layer by its position relative to the file’s bottom layer. Increase the total number of layers in the Photoshop file, and FCE will ignore any layers numbered above the previously topmost layer. Deleting a layer from a Photoshop file that you’ve already imported could yield a variety of unpleasant results, so you should re-import any file with changes to the layer count.
The best workaround? Once you’ve imported your Photoshop graphics, don’t change your mind. Or get ready to jump...
Final Cut Express preserves the layers in a layered Photoshop file, importing the file as a special type of sequence, known as a layered graphic sequence. Each Photoshop layer is represented by a clip on a track in that sequence.
Double-click a Photoshop file sequence to open it in the Timeline, where you can choose individual layers to manipulate. Each layer is found on its own video track.
When you place a layered Photoshop file into your FCE sequence, you’re actually nesting it: placing a sequence within another sequence. Sequence nesting is a powerful tool, and knowing the rules that govern the behavior of nested sequences will help you plan your work better. See “Working with Multiple Sequences” in Chapter 4.
To view individual layers in imported Photoshop files:
In the Browser, double-click the Photoshop file, which appears as a sequence (Figure 6.12).
Figure 6.12. A layered Photoshop file appears as a sequence when it’s imported into Final Cut Express. Double-click the sequence icon to open the file.
The Photoshop file opens as a sequence in the Timeline. Individual layers appear as clips aligned on separate video tracks (Figure 6.13).
Tips
Once you’ve opened your multilayer Photoshop file as an FCE sequence, you can drag individual layer “clips” out of the sequence and drop them in the Browser. You can then use the individual layers as independent graphics clips.
To import a layered Photoshop file as a clip instead of a sequence, flatten the image in Photoshop before importing it.
Because imported layered Photoshop files appear in FCE as sequences, your Still/Freeze Image Duration preference will set the total length of the imported file, with no allowance for handles. If you want to increase the file’s length after you import, you’ll have to open the Photoshop file sequence and extend the length of the individual layers inside (Figure 6.14). Extending the length of multiple-layer clips in one operation is a terrific use for the Extend edit. See “To perform an Extend edit in the Timeline” in Chapter 11.
You import digital audio files into Final Cut Express just as you do any other digital media. You can import files in any QuickTime- supported audio format.
You can capture audio at its originally recorded sample rate and use it in the same sequence with audio recorded at other sample rates. When you play back the sequence, Final Cut Express converts the sample rate in real time for any audio clips whose sample rates do not match the sequence settings.
Letting Final Cut Express convert the sample rates in real time is not always the best solution, however, as real-time sample-rate conversion is optimized for speed, not audio quality. You can convert the sample rate of your nonconforming audio by using the Export feature in Final Cut Express to make a copy of your audio file at the correct sample rate, or you can wait until you’re ready to export your final product. FCE will sample-rate-convert your nonconforming audio tracks using a higher quality, non-real-time conversion during the audio mixdown rendering process. See Chapter 19, “Creating Final Output.”
To import an audio CD track into an FCE project:
In the Finder, double-click the audio CD icon to open it; then drag the desired .aif audio files into your project’s media folder (Figure 6.15).
Rename the files so you can remember where they came from.
Follow the steps outlined in “To import files or a folder” earlier in this chapter (Figure 6.16).
If you are using a lot of material from audio CDs in your FCE projects, consider using Apple’s free iTunes, an audio jukebox application. Here’s how to set your preferences in iTunes to convert 44.1-kHz audio to 48 kHz as the application imports the CD audio track directly to your project’s media folder.
To convert audio in iTunes:
Open iTunes; then choose iTunes > Preferences and click the Importing icon.
In the Importing pane, choose AIFF Encoder from the Import Using pop-up menu and Custom from the Setting pop-up menu (Figure 6.17).
In the AIFF Encoder window, specify the following (Figure 6.18); then click OK.
Sample Rate: 48.000 kHz
Sample Size: 16 bit
Channels: Stereo (or Auto)
Back in the Preferences window, click the Advanced icon.
In the Advanced pane, the iTunes Music Folder Location field shows the currently selected destination folder for the CD audio you’re about to import. Click the Change button (Figure 6.19) and navigate to your project’s audio media folder. Click Choose and then click OK.
In the iTunes playlist window, choose the tracks you want to import by ensuring that their check boxes are marked; then click the Import button (Figure 6.20).
The CD audio tracks are converted to 48-kHz AIFF files and appear in the destination folder you specified in step 5, ready to be imported into your FCE project (Figure 6.21).
Final Cut Express HD can import, open, and edit movies created in iMovie 3, 4, or 5. When you import an iMovie project, the clips in the Browser are linked to the original source media files you captured in iMovie.
iMovie uses a different DV encoding method, which produces files in DV Stream format. DV Stream differs from FCE’s DV-NTSC (or DV-PAL) format, so you’ll encounter a little extra work and a couple of limitations as you continue to work on a project that originated in iMovie 3, 4, or 5:
Once you’ve imported the project, you must render all its media to convert it to an FCE-compatible DV format.
Your DV Stream iMovie files do not have timecode tracks, so you cannot recapture any media that originated in iMovie. Don’t throw away your iMovie media files once you’ve rendered; you’ll need them if you plan to continue editing.
Final Cut Express may not play back your iMovie DV files in real time unless you render them first.
Your imported iMovie project won’t include any iMovie sound effects, titles, transitions, effects, or iDVD chapter markers.
To open an iMovie project:
Choose File > Open.
Select the iMovie project you want to open (Figure 6.22).
The iMovie project appears on a project tab in the Browser. The project contains the iMovie sequence plus the individual clips from iMovie’s clips shelf.
Double-click the sequence to open the iMovie project sequence in the Timeline.
Choose File > Save Project As and save your imported iMovie project as a Final Cut Express project (Figure 6.23).
Render the sequence if necessary.
Tips
Final Cut Express versions 1 and 2 do not support iMovie HD projects. If you try to open an iMovie HD project in these earlier versions of FCE, you see a file error message.
Final Cut Express will not allow import of an iMovie project unless iMovie is also installed on your computer. If you try to import an iMovie project and FCE does not find iMovie installed, you’ll see an “Unrecognized file” error message.