FCPX - I want to finish off with 25fps but I've filmed in 50fps - I'm slowing the video down by half so what should my initial FPS settings be?

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shippo_uk Author

Level 1

28 points

FCPX - I want to finish off with 25fps but I've filmed in 50fps - I'm slowing the video down by half so what should my initial FPS settings be?

Hi all

This is melting my brain a little.

I have some 720p 50fps video footage that Ive added to my event library.

I will place it in my project and then I'm going to retime it to half the speed as I want it slowed down.

I want the video to output in the end to 25fps

So should I set the initial project settings to 25fps or 50fps?

I assume it should be 25fps and it doesnt matter what FPS events I add to the project and it doesnt matter if I speed them up or slow them down?

Can anyone advise please?

................arrrgggghhhh, my brain

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Dec 16, 2011 7:41 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Dec 16, 2011 7:43 AM in response to shippo_uk

Select the clips you want to slow down and in the Retime menu choose Conform.

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Answer 2

shippo_uk Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 16, 2011 7:44 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom Wolsky wrote:

Select the clips you want to slow down and in the Retime menu choose Conform.

What? This wasnt my question but it maybe related, could you expand on yoru answer please?

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Dec 16, 2011 7:50 AM in response to shippo_uk

Then I misunderstood your question. You have 50fps media that you want to be slomo. You want to output 25fps. You edit your media in a 25fps project. The material you want to take advantage of the high frame rate you select and apply the Conform function.

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Answer 4

shippo_uk Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 16, 2011 7:58 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Hi

Apologies but I'm still a little confused.

In my case, does CONFORMING do EXACTLY the same thing as retiming.

As I just CONFORMED it and it adds the retiming line and shows that its slowed it down to 50%. (which was what I was going to do anyway)

So is it EXACTLY the same thing (in my case)?

Thanks

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Answer 5

Dec 16, 2011 8:11 AM in response to shippo_uk

Just in case you don't know how to Conform, select the clip and go where the arrows point.

Click on image to enlarge.

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Dec 16, 2011 8:07 AM in response to shippo_uk

No.

You have a 25fps project. You put a 10 second 50fps clip into the timeline. It's still 10 seconds long. FCP effectively discards every other frame. If you use retime to change the speed FCP will frame blend using the frames in the timeline. If you Conform FCP will use the reall number of frames that make up the clip, applying it frame for frame to the project timebase, effectively halving the speed. Whether you can tell the difference between the two is another matter, and depends a lot on content. Conform should always look better, and it will be processed better than retiming.

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Answer 7

shippo_uk Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 16, 2011 8:07 AM in response to Ian R. Brown

Hi

Thanks for the image, but I know where the conform option is.

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Answer 8

shippo_uk Author

Level 1

28 points

Dec 16, 2011 8:13 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom Wolsky wrote:

No.

You have a 25fps project. You put a 10 second 50fps clip into the timeline. It's still 10 seconds long. FCP effectively discards every other frame. If you use retime to change the speed FCP will frame blend using the frames in the timeline. If you Conform FCP will use the reall number of frames that make up the clip, applying it frame for frame to the project timebase, effectively halving the speed. Whether you can tell the difference between the two is another matter, and depends a lot on content. Conform should always look better, and it will be processed better than retiming.

OK. Thanks for that. It was confusing me after I tried out CONFORMING like you suggested as it still states RETIMED on the project. I guess maybe it should state "Conformed to 50% Slower" instead perhaps?

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Answer 9

shippo_uk Author

Level 1

28 points

Feb 17, 2012 11:20 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom Wolsky wrote:

No.

You have a 25fps project. You put a 10 second 50fps clip into the timeline. It's still 10 seconds long. FCP effectively discards every other frame. If you use retime to change the speed FCP will frame blend using the frames in the timeline. If you Conform FCP will use the reall number of frames that make up the clip, applying it frame for frame to the project timebase, effectively halving the speed. Whether you can tell the difference between the two is another matter, and depends a lot on content. Conform should always look better, and it will be processed better than retiming.

Maybe I should have written a new post for this new question, but I guess its related.

This time I'm still working with (different) 720p 50fps video footage that Ive added to my event library.

I will place it in my project and then I want to retime it to twice the speed as I want it sped up.

I don't really know what FPS I want the video output to be in the end? Something nice and smooth though would be good. (This is a music video with lots of multicam angles that I will put on youtube, but may possibly one day be seen on actual TV)

So should I set the initial project settings to 25fps or 50fps or 100fps?

If I set it to 25fps and conform its going to slow it down though isn't it?

If I set it to 50fps and conform its going to keep it as it is isn't it?

If I set it to 100fps and conform its going to speed it up to double the speed?

So should I set the project to100fps and then conform?

Or just set it to 25fps and retime it?

Can anyone advise please?

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Answer 10

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Feb 18, 2012 5:57 AM in response to shippo_uk

You can't set the project timebase to 100fps, so that's out. Nor would you want to. It's just a huge waste of bandwidth. (Shooting at 100fps for slomo is a different matter.) Set it to 25fps. Conform the 50fps media to slow it down. Use the retiming functions to speed it up. It's much easier to speed up than slow down.

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Answer 11

Feb 18, 2012 6:20 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

I've conformed 720p 60 to 720p 24 fps.

I've taken the same footage and retimed it to 40%.

In the testing I've done, I can't tell the difference. At least not frame by frame, or playing back.

I'm assuming that's the case, since FCP X doesn't have to create any new frames. In both cases you are looking at the same number of frames for the same amount of time. Correct? So theoretically, you probably shouldn't see a difference in quality. Correct?

There might be reasons why you'd choose one method over the other. If you want to combine 100% and 40% media in the same timeline, then wouldn't retiming be a better option? If it is, I'm not sure why I'd ever bother conforming 60 fps to 24 fps vs. retiming to 40%.

But, I'm probably missing something here.

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Answer 12

shippo_uk Author

Level 1

28 points

Feb 19, 2012 3:24 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Tom Wolsky wrote:

You can't set the project timebase to 100fps, so that's out. Nor would you want to. It's just a huge waste of bandwidth. (Shooting at 100fps for slomo is a different matter.) Set it to 25fps. Conform the 50fps media to slow it down. Use the retiming functions to speed it up. It's much easier to speed up than slow down.

So, set my project to 25fps, conform my 50fps clips in the timeline to 25fps, then retime by 200% quicker?

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Answer 13

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Feb 19, 2012 3:30 AM in response to shippo_uk

So, set my project to 25fps, conform my 50fps clips in the timeline to 25fps, then retime by 200% quicker?

Don't bother conforming it, if you're going to speed it up. If you edit the 50fps media into a 25fps project, it will be made into 25fps. When you conform it, it goes back to being 50fps in a 25fps project, so twice as long and half the speed.

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