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Slow motion in FCPX disappointing

I'm extremely disappointed in the retiming in FCPX and Motion 5! I have a simple shot of a dog jumping over a fence and I have tried all the retiming tools in both FCPX and Motion 5 and the results are unacceptable. I've tried normal, frame blending and optical flow. With normal and frame blending, the video in the timeline plays ok once or twice and then gets jerky or psychedelic. With optical flow, the motion is smooth but it looks like someone on an LSD trip. I also tried everything in Motion 5 from behaviors to keyframes, using the program's various blending options and the results are similar to FCPX and unacceptable. Even if it's playing ok in the timeline, it still looks aweful when exported with Export Media with Current Settings.


Out of frustration, I went into Premier CS6 and used their simple retiming tools and find the results are acceptable.


Overall, I'm very happy with FCPX and use it for most of my editing but now it looks like I have to open up Premier to get acceptable retiming.


Anyone else have these problems? Any FCPX solutions other than paying $$$ for Twixtor?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3), 15" non glare screen

Posted on Jul 22, 2012 6:55 AM

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8 replies

Jul 22, 2012 8:27 AM in response to Steve Sweitzer

I do retiming in FCP X all the time and find it one of the best, as good as Twixtor. Several reviews online show it's as good as the new Twixtor. Are you running FCP X 10.0.5 on Lions 10.7?


The absolute BEST way to get slomo is to shoot at a faster frame rate, like 60fps (progressive works the best). Then drop it into a 24fps (progressive) Timeline, an use the Conform Speed function in the Retiming shortcut menu. Then slow down from there.


Check out this example.

http://www.fcp.co/forum/13-made-with-final-cut-pro/7692-bmx-slow-mo-w-gopro-and- fcpx

Jul 23, 2012 6:59 PM in response to BenB

Yes, I'm running FCPX 10.0.5 on Lion 10.7.4 on a MacBook Pro 2.2 GHz Core i7 with 8GB memory.


Your example is the kind of thing I'm trying to accomplish. The footage was handed to me to edit so I don't have the option of shooting at a faster frame rate, although I will try this in the future.


The timeline matches the footage and is 1280x1080/ 29.97 fps NTSC 1080p. Codec DVCPRO HD 1080i60, Linear PCM


I've seen many other people who don't seem to be having the problems I'm experiencing and I don't understand what it looks fine when processed with Premier.


You can see and example at:

http://youtu.be/kCyWahDTpc4


Thoughts?

Jul 24, 2012 5:44 AM in response to Steve Sweitzer

You say that the timeline is 1080p but the codec is 1080i

That does not match.

I'm pretty sure you can get away with putting p footage in an i timeline but not the other way.

So if you have interlaced footage you need to be in an interlaced timeline.


As an experiment why don't you start a whole new project and import one of the clips into that project. Confirm your clip properties and make sure they match the project.

In FCP7 when you start a new sequence and add a clip, FCP asks you if you want to match the sequence settings to match the clip.

Hopefully that hasn't been lost in FXPX - it's a bullet proof way to make sure everything matches.

Good luck

g

Jul 24, 2012 5:57 AM in response to Goldfish

In FCP7 when you start a new sequence and add a clip, FCP asks you if you want to match the sequence settings to match the clip.

Hopefully that hasn't been lost in FXPX - it's a bullet proof way to make sure everything matches.

Good luck

g


When you create a project in FCP X, you can choose to let it get the settings from the first clip you drop into it.

Slow motion in FCPX disappointing

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