What’s the recommended workflow when sending rendered content from a PC to Apple FCP for editing / color grading? Our editor prefers we not send frames because of the high data rate (ie slow transfers) but there doesn’t seem to be a good intermediate codec that’ll maintain high quality from PC to Mac.
Could use the good ol Quicktime Animation codec but that’s so old I’d assume there is a better way now…
Any suggestions?
ive gone from max to smoke and AE. but never fcp or premiere. smoke naturally can handle anything i throw at it
I also only send out frames for use with aftereffects. PNG with alpha off unless they need the alpha instead of background.
The problem with sending a compressed format is that after editing it they will be compressing the same footage a second time.
Are you sending the files via the internet or are you referring to data transfer to HDD or editors internal transfer rate?
I generally use mp4- divx, or ffd and the internal codec h.264 for stuff i’m sending via web (but people need the codecs installed to view them- otherwise flv or embedded flash ) I never do that for editing though - either raw frames or uncompressed.
The h.264 seems to be used quite a lot in digital video cameras.
Not sure what the ‘best’ codec is for editing/recompressing? Also depends on what the editor has access to.
Here is an article on quicktime codecs if you’re going that route http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?185996-The-best-codec-for-editing-and-visual-effects-(windows)
One of the posts on this link says that it’s better to keep the same codec if you’re going to recompress http://www.photography-forums.com/re-best-codec-dv-editing-if-there-such-thing-t38452.html so maybe see what format/codec your editor will be exporting to.
bit off topic- but this camera looks pretty cool http://www.ikonoskop.com/dii/ shoots uncompressed HD video.
I often use quicktime FotoJPG with 95% quality when sending out footage for editing.
That codec is used by some stock footage studios like Artbeats.