Waveform Art Filter

The Waveform Art filter is a thoroughly useless piece of code for Final Cut Pro pre-X, that basically takes your image, and puts a crappy version into your waveform monitor.

Try it out

To try out the Waveform Art filter, download it here, and then copy it to /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Pro System Support/Plugins. It will appear in the Waveform Art folder in your Video Effects.

What it does

Here’s the normal waveform for the built in Circle generator-

And here is the same circle, with the Waveform Art filter applied-

This works best with large text and simple shapes. Complex images don’t translate well, as it is a black and white image, and has rather poor resolution (only 256 horizontal lines). Also, you may want to bring up the display brightness to better see the image.

Threshold

You can also change the Threshold parameter to tweak the image. Here’s a picture of me with the threshold at 60, 90, 120, and 150.

Randomize

There is also a “Randomize” parameter, that attempts to distort the image in the canvas, while leaving an image in the waveform monitor. Due to the constraints of how the waveform works, it can’t be nearly as distorted as I would like. I was hoping to have a jumble of noise that reveals a secret image in the waveform monitor, but I don’t think it’s actually possible. The final image also suffers some quality loss. Here’s the circle with Randomize checked.

Let me know if you actually find a use for it!

Add file types to Compressor Droplets

Compressor Droplets can be extremely helpful- but recently I ran into an annoying issue with them. You can’t just drop any file on to the droplet- this is a good thing if you accidentally drop, say a text document, on to the droplet. But it’s frustrating when you can’t drop something legitimate onto the droplet.

Why won't it let me drop?

I ran into this with .caf files, a perfectly legitimate audio file, that I knew Compressor could actually handle from past experience. Whenever I tried to drop a .caf file onto a droplet to convert it to a .aif, nothing would happen. I could open up the droplet, and drag in the .caf, but what’s the point of a droplet if you can’t drop?

It turns out there is a solution. Right click the droplet and choose “Show Package Contents”. A new Finder window will pop open with all the guts of the droplet. Open up the file “Contents/Resources/Info-Stomplet.plist” in a text editor. I prefer TextWrangler, but TextEdit should work.

Next, find the line that includes “CFBundleDocumentTypes”. Under that, it will have an “array” node, and then a “dict” node. Select from that to the next “dict”, about 13 lines. Copy that, and paste right before what you had selected. Edit it as follows-


<dict>
<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
<array>
<string>motn</string> // UPDATE to the file extension you want the Droplet to support
</array>
<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
<string>Motion Project</string> // UPDATE to the name of the file type
<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
<string>Viewer</string>
<key>LSTypeIsPackage</key> // REMOVE if not a package
<true/>  // REMOVE if not a package
<key>NSPersistentStoreTypeKey</key>
<string>Binary</string>
</dict>

Save the file. Now, open up the Terminal, which is located in /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app. Type “touch”, and then a space. Drag the droplet from the Finder into the Terminal. The command should now say something like “touch /Users/username/Desktop/droplet.app”. Hit enter. This command reminds the application to update.

You should now be able to drag other files on to the droplet.

See? Making movies is easy.

Note that this doesn’t mean that Compressor will actually be able to use the file. It only means that you can make the Droplet try to submit it. For instance, if you try to turn an AIFF into a image sequence, that won’t work.

An April Fool’s Joke for FCP

If you’re still looking for that perfect April Fool’s Day joke, this may be just the thing you are looking for.

Imagine this- your hapless assistant editor is editing away, la-de-da, when all of a sudden they come across an offline clip.

To do this- go to your Applications folder. Right click on Final Cut Pro.app, and choose “Show Package Contents”. A new window will appear, with the guts of Final Cut.

Navigate to Contents/Resources/English.lproj/, and find Localized.plist. Make a copy of this file somewhere- you will want to restore this to the original after the joke is over, and have a backup in case something goes wrong.

Find the line “DrawString(“Media Offline”, 0, -r[2].v/10, r[2].h/320*4, dest, kWhite, 1)”. You can change the “Media Offline” to anything you want.

You may also want to change the text size in the line above, “SetTextSize(48*r[2].h/320)”. Only change the “48″- the rest scales it so it looks the same across all formats.

Disclaimer- you are messing with the inner coding of your livelihood. Be careful. Keep a backup, and restore after the joke is done. Remember this may show up while a client is in the edit bay. Please don’t blame me if this all goes horribly wrong. Also, I know this works on FCP6, haven’t tried it out on 7. Let me know.

And yes, I realize this would be much cooler if it was for the unrendered effect. However, that code is apparently stored in “Localized.rsrc”. I attempted to change that file, and Final Cut refused to launch, and then launched without any labels on any of the windows. Below is the save dialog I was presented with. I was able to fix everything because I had a backup.

Let me know how it goes for you!

Readable Timecode Window Burns in Compressor

One of my clients does a lot of shooting, and needs rather quick turnaround on timecode window burns. We could set up the DVD recorder, and play out through the Kona card, but that is real time, and occupies an edit suite for the entire time. Final Cut has a timecode reader filter, but it has long render times, again hogging up a suite.

So I turned to Compressor, to see what it could do. It has a timecode generator filter as well, but it is lacking one major thing- readability. There is no built in background, bar, or shadow that ensures it will be readable no matter the background. White text may disappear on a beach shot, for instance, and black text will disappear on dark night shots.

So I figured out how to use the Watermark filter in conjunction with the Timecode generator to give that transparent background.

First, I made a graphic for the watermark, a transparent 720×480 with a simple black bar near the bottom. It should work for 16×9 or 4×3. You can download my .psd here – no use in reinventing the wheel, as it took a bit of tweaking to get it positioned correctly.

To make the preset, open up Compressor, and duplicate the MPEG-2 6.2Mbps 1 Pass preset from the DVD: Fastest Encode 90 minutes folder. Here’s how to do it in Compressor 3.

You can do this with the 120 or 150 minute presets if you want, but I rarely get a tape longer than 90 minutes. The preset is set up fine as is – we want to take a look at the filters tab in the Inspector window.

Turn on the Watermark filter. Hit the “Choose…” button, and choose the tcwb.psd file you downloaded earlier. Change the position to Upper Center, and make sure Scale by is set to 1, and Alpha is set to .5.

Now, turn on the Timecode Generator filter. Set the position to “Lower Right – Title Safe”. Leave the Alpha at 1. Change the Text Color to white. Click “Select Font…” and up the font size to about 50. You can change the font if you wish, but make sure it is readable.

Important note- Compressor applies the first filter in the list, and then moves down the list. You’ll probably need to move the Watermark Filter above the Timecode generator – otherwise, the watermark will be in front of the timecode, and make it hard to read.

Save the preset, and you’re ready to convert away. To make it really easy, set up a droplet. I used Final Cut Server to make a watch folder, so my edit suite is completely free for other work. The only thing left is to burn the DVD.

Making XDCam duplicates with correct timecode

Recently, I’ve had to make duplicates of XDCam Masters from a variety of different media- some XDCam, HDCam, DVCPro. Now, making XDCam masters is a pain, especially when you have 100′s of clips on a single disc. There’s no quick and easy way of doing it. No way of batch exporting. No way of simply dragging a .mov onto the disc. You can drag .mxfs onto the disc, but there isn’t a way of batch exporting to mxf. Not only that, but since other people are using these discs as masters, they need to match the timecode of the window burns you’ve given out.

And then there’s this problem:

So what I used to do was this

1. Insert clip into a new sequence.
2. Apple-0 to bring up sequence settings.
3. Set the starting timecode of the sequence to the starting timecode of the clip.
4. Change the audio outputs to dual mono.
5. Export to XDCam.

This method was very error prone, and took forever. One day, I realized I wouldn’t make the deadline for getting the disc out if I did it my normal way. So, I clicked around in Final Cut until I came up with an unlikely solution- Multiclip Sequences. Here’s the simplest way I’ve found to quickly export to XDCam from any source media, while maintaining timecode-

First off, it takes a bit of setup.

1. Go to your User Preferences, and go to the last tab, Audio Outputs.
2. Duplicate the Stereo Monitor: L+R preset.
3. Set up the new one like this:
4. Hit OK, and make sure there is a check mark next to the new preset. From now on (until you change it back), all new sequences will have a dual mono output, prefect for exporting to XDCam.

Now you’re ready to go. To make things easier, I added buttons in the Browser for “Make Multiclip Sequence” and to export “Sony XDCAM” (It’s the second one on the button bar list- the first is to import.) You can also make shortcuts to these commands, and I even set up Spark to hit that shortcut key, then hit enter on the screens that follow.

So now, to actually export-

1. Select the Clip you want to export to XDCam.
2. Make a Multiclip Sequence using the shortcut or button bar. Default settings are fine.
3. A bin with a multiclip and a new sequence called “Multiclip Sequence x” will appear in the browser.
   
4. The new sequence has the right timecode, and if you check your sequence settings, you’ll see the audio outputs are correct.
5. Notice that for some reason, the last frame is cut off. If you’re giving raw footage, this likely won’t matter, but you may want to open the Multiclip Sequence, and type “v” (to select the closest edit- your playhead should be at the very end of the timeline) and then “]” to move the edit 1 frame forward.
6. Now, you should be able to export your new Multiclip Sequence to XDCam perfectly with correct timecode.

Of course, it’s helpful if you have already transcoded the files to the XDCam codec- do it overnight in Compressor, and then the hands on portion will go much faster.

I hope this helps!

Visual Enhancement Pro Filter

I’d like to announce “Visual Enhancement Pro” filter. Visual Enhancement Pro in itself is not a revolutionary plugin- it simply is a reapplication of the state of the art technologies used by CSI units and top secret spy agencies. It allows you to enhance several parameters to get an image that is impossible with other enhancement tools, all within Final Cut.

Watch the video below for more info. You can download and install the plugin here.

I plan on adding more features in future releases, including:

• License plate enhancement
• Rotating around subject in 3D from single camera
• And more! Let me hear your suggestions.

Thanks to Tim Stotz for his help.

Quality of blank DVD media

You’ve heard warnings of bad DVD media, most likely. But how can you tell whether your stack of DVDs is a dud or good? Evidently, you can’t tell by a brand- you have to do some sleuthing to see if it’s good or not.

Sadly, this method only works after you have bought that stack, but at least you can tell whether to get the same kind again.

First, you’ll need to insert your blank media into your Mac (this method only works on Macs, and I can only say that it works on Leopard). Open up the System Profiler by choosing “About the Mac” from the Apple Menu, then hitting the “More Info” button. Then, choose “Disc Burning” under “Hardware”. This will bring up something like this:

What you’re looking for is the Media ID, which is highlighted in orange above. Take that code, and go to http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm. Search for the ID on the page (you may need to remove spaces), and see if it comes up under 1st, 2nd, or 3rd class media. Hopefully it’ll be under 1st class.