Hello!

I am about to undertake a new job handed to me when our previous video
editing person passed away unexpectedly. I work for a children's
non-profit organization (learning disabilities) and we have been
producing a fair amount of videos on DVD for the generally interested
and for our large membership base.

In short, I will undertake the challenge of transforming 40 hours of
digital video into (hopefully) twenty-90-minute videos (mostly
training). The film was taken using a Canon GL2 camera and I'll be
capturing the DV via firewire to a new Intel iMac (2Gig Ram, 500Gig
HD).

I have done some video editing and production so I'm not a complete
novice. And I'm lucky because the cameraman who took all the video
above was a fine camra editor himself and knew when to
stop/start/cut/pan, etc., while vtaping which makes the final editing
job much easier. I will transfer the film into a video editing
program, clean it up where needed, add titles and credits, additional
sound track and some dubbing then somehow place our logo so it faces in
and out of the video in the lower right hand corner every 45 seconds or
so.

To do all of the above I am looking at Final Cut Pro Express HD
(Universal Binary release). I'd like to ask those of you with video
editing experience, especially with FCP or FCPExpress, for your advice,
assurance and any tips you care to offer before I start this project.

As noted, I'm comfortable with the video production editing and process
(a lot of iMovie), even the DVD setup, process and burning. What I
haven't done via video production is to add that company logo
throughout a film. We've seen some of our video 'lifted' and used
without our permission and want to avoid the legal litigation involved.
For those with FCPExpress experience: can you tell me if the process
of adding such a logo is an easy thing to do with FCPE? That is, does
FCPE offer the ability to float text or a logo image over the frames
during the editing process or during the final exporting process? Do
you know if I can fade that image in/out say every 45 seconds or so?

I have been experimenting. When using iMovie I can float a title as
opening or closing credits but I can't slap a logo or text in that
right hand corner. To put that logo in that position I must turn to a
background transparent graphic imposed over the movie and re-recorded
through QuickTime Pro. I'm hoping FCPE will make it easier so I don't
have to reprocess the finished film.

Comments, advice or guidance greatfully appreciated. Pardon my
cross-posting but I'm trying to reach as wide an audience as possible.
Thanks!

Lisa

I haven't used Express, only FCP itself, but a look at the specs says
you aren't missing much that you'll need.

You'll find it a steep learning curve at first, but worth it in the
end. FCP is easy to use and generally as intuitive as a complex editing
system can be - FCE is the same but slightly cut down. I've used lots
of different editors and this is my personal one of choice. Comments
like that tend to start endless people explaining at length why their
system of choice is better - so if they do, just accept it as similar
to men comparing cars and football teams in a bar.....

Putting on a logo will be easy if you have the logo prepared in an
appropriate format by whoever builds it. It needs to have an alpha
channel - part of the picture which is invisible but shows the system
where to cut the shape - but your graphics person ought to be able to
supply in the right format. Leave the logo till all the editing is
finished then just put it on a track above the video and the holes will
be magically cut. Put fades where you need them. If you don't know how
to do that yet, you'll soon learn 'cos it's pretty easy.

Good Luck

Bernie

Bernie wrote:
Thank you Bernie. It was very nice of you to respond so quickly and so
informatively. I do appreciate the advice.

Lisa

Lisa Greene wrote:


This is how I do it in FCP. Your mileage may very for FCPE.

After you've finished editing, and your ready to "export" your timeline
to your target format. (For example, you're exporting to MPEG-2 for
authoring a DVD). You can add in a logo via compressor. (Compressor is
a batch utility for transcoding to another format).

Select your timeline sequence. Choose export to Compressor. When your
file comes up in compressor, click on "setting", and take a look at the
Inspector window. Under the description you'll see 6 icons. Select the
4th which is "filters". Under the list choose "watermark". Under that
you can choose Position, Scale, Alpha, and the file you want to use. I
used either Adobe Photoshop files, or Adobe Illustrator eps or ai files.

Once you do this, this encodes your watermark into your target file.

This is pretty useful because you dont have to worry about incorporating
your logo into the timeline, and rendering it out, which takes up your time.

Like I said.. mileage may very with FCPe.

Take care.

-bill

"Lisa Greene" wrote ...
(snip)

OUCH! That seems to me to be real annoying. If I were doing it I would
leave the logo on continuosly, but make it semi-transparent just like a
commercial TV station "bug"

I can do it easily with my software, I don't know how yours works, sorry.
BUT, I might say to put the (properly sized) logo in the "top" video channel
... the channel that take priority over all other channels .. then reduce the
transparency of that channel to the appropriate amount.

--
Richard Amirault N1JDU Boston,
MA, USA
n1jdu.org "Go Fly A Kite"

Kill Bill wrote:
This is a great tip, thanks.

I have a program called Graphics Converter which has a steep learning
curve. I created a text logo but very unhappy with the effect it
provided. Since then I have worked up maybe twenty graphical logos for
review by our board members. I used a Windows graphics program called
Embellish (no longer available but a nice program) to do the work.
Once a logo is selected I'll bring it into the Mac system and see if I
can work with it. Q: Would it be possible to create a small logo using
the paint program in Appleworks? BTW, I don't quite get the "alpha"
requirement noted earlier. That has come up before and I was unable to
get a clear answer.

If it will treat the logo as a watermark then I should be ok.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here. I found with earlier
work that incorporating it into the timeline and rendering the video a
second time was tedious and the process I was using (QTPro) did not
give me the result quality I was looking for and one of the main
reasons for moving to FCPe (we think FCP would be overkill and too
costly).

Well at least I know you are doing it with FCP. I would like some
confirmation from an FCPe user who is or has done something similar.

I thank you so much for you assistance. Help from others always gives
me confidence that it can be done and you've accomplished that.

Lisa

Richard Amirault wrote:
I agree somewhat. Our original intent was to add a logo in that right
hand corner just as you see on PBS or etc., but someone in the group
(board member) brought in a piece of video that displayed the logo
every now and then and it was a watermark type logo. I'm trying to
convince these folks that a watermarked logo continously would be best
if they are seriously concerned about frame theft or misuse.

What software are you using that makes it so easy? iMovie has this
excellent feature that allows for adding text in a group of frames and
works somewhat like a comic bubble without the bubble itself. Words
can be added. It doesn't have an option to place a logo in a
left/right hand corner (and iMovie is limited in other ways which is
why I want to move to FCPe).

Somewhat technical but I think I 'get it' and thank you for offering
the info.

Lisa

In article <1149208848.483110.282240@y43g2000cwc.googlegroups .com>,
"Lisa Greene" <Lisa4720@yahoo.com> wrote:

GraphicConverter <http://www.lemkesoft.de/> is an amazingly inexpensive
and invaluable Mac program. It does have a learning curve, and I
wouldn't recommend it for professional logo creation.
'Graphics Converter' and 'Graphic Converter' appear to run on Windows
only. You are running your program on a Mac, right?

leo

--
<http://web0.greatbasin.net/~leo/>

Lisa Greene wrote:
Hi Lisa,

I think your logo question got answered so I might mention a couple of
other things.

You should get an external firewire drive or two for your projects.
You don't want to edit on your startup drive.

While FCE is likely adequate for most of your needs I would at least
look at the full Studio for the simple reason that it gives you so many
more tools, certainly on title creation and definitely in regard to
DVDs.

Good luck!

Craig

http://www.pro-tape.com

Apple Pro Video Reseller - Pro Applications Training - Authorized
Service Provider

In article <leo-65B007.20001801062006@sn-indi.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net>,
Leonard Blaisdell <leo@greatbasin.com> wrote:

Didn't know there was a Windows version of GraphicConverter, but need
to add that GraphicConverter has been available to Macs for many years!
Last updated Mac version was GraphicConverter Classic 5.8.1. Made
available 03/10/2006. at VersionTracker's web site. It's shareware, and
here's the link to it:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/1870

Cheers,
Martin

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Leonard Blaisdell wrote:
:-) That is the program I was advised to purchase. So far it hasn't
been
of too much value but perhaps down the road... What would you recommend
for professional logo creation? I'm on a budget so I don't want to go
to far
beyond my immediate need.

Yes, it is a Mac-only program.

In article <1149223511.636215.65430@h76g2000cwa.googlegroups. com>, Lisa
Greene <Lisa4720@yahoo.com> wrote:

Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand.

If you want to do professional work, you need a professional app.

Check around for an older version of either app, perhaps on eBay or a
reseller. You don't need to use the latest.

I believe Illustrator 7 and Freehand 8 will run on OSX, but
double-check. I could be off by a version or two.

In article <1149223511.636215.65430@h76g2000cwa.googlegroups. com>,
"Lisa Greene" <Lisa4720@yahoo.com> wrote:

I don't know. I'm not a professional artist. But I'm sure that someone
in these groups will recommend a proper solution. I'm just sure that
GraphicConverter isn't it. Great as it is for other things.
Any solutions I could naively suggest cost a pile of dough. The gimp is
free, but I don't have a feel for it although I've used it for simple
stuff. I'm less than a novice with it.

leo

--
<http://web0.greatbasin.net/~leo/>

"I don't quite get the "alpha" requirement noted earlier. That has
come up before and I was unable to get a clear answer. "

I tried to find a reasonably non-technical description of this from
Google but so far failed, so....

Obviously a picture on a computer disc is just a load of numbers, and
the computer knows from the type of file what to do with it - in this
case display it as a picture. Image files come in numerous varieties -
..bmp. .jpg, .tga etc. Each one has it's different uses and qualities,
and each carries information in addition to the actual visible picture.

Several formats - .png, .tga - allow for an extra invisible picture
layer called an alpha channel which is the same size as the main
picture. Image manipulation programs such as Photoshop let you paint
(or whatever) on the layer. One of the main uses for this is to make
mattes - areas of the main picture to be cut out and made invisible
when the image is combined with video in FCP or whatever.

So if you have a logo/image making program, and Photoshop is the best,
you can design the logo on black, and then tell the alpha channel layer
to be black where the main picture is black, and white everywhere else.
The you save the picture as a targa (.tga) file, and when you put it on
a track in FCP, it automatically cuts out the shape of the logo. If
you have some greys in the alpha channel, you get semi-transparent in
the video.

Given that you want to fade it in and out every so often, I recommend
you put the logo on in FCE after everything else is done, just before
you play it back out to tape.

On 6/02/2006, Bernie posted this:
Thanks for the explanation - I never knew either, and what you wrote is
very clear. It will help the OP as well :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino)
letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")

In article <1149194111.798022.181520@f6g2000cwb.googlegroups. com>,
"Lisa Greene" <Lisa4720@yahoo.com> wrote:

Lisa,

You haven't mentioned what part of the country you live in, but my
advice would be to check around and see if one of the many Final Cut
users groups is in your area.

Meeting others that do the same kind of work you do is a great way to
get your questions answered in person, and unlike these newsgroups
(which are wonderful for what they do!) you can possibly hook up with
others with more experience and they can help you over these kinds of
workflow and file conversion issues.

As an example, if you just need a logo prepared as a ³bug² it seems a
little silly to learn Photoshop, GraphicsCoverter, or even something
simpler like OmniGraffle just to do that once. Meet some people in your
area and I bet you can find someone who will be happy to spend the 10
minutes it would take to prepare a logo for alpha insert for you.

You already have a LOT to do with the footage you need to assess and
beginning to learn all the skills necessary to be competent at basic
editing!

So my advice would be to concentrate on learning editing basics, and
look for help on the small distracting things like this.

Good luck.

In article <1149208848.483110.282240@y43g2000cwc.googlegroups .com>,
"Lisa Greene" <Lisa4720@yahoo.com> wrote:

Yes, make the background black. Bring it into FCE and place it
above your video on the timeline. Now the magic, choose Composite
Mode from the Modify menu. Choose Screen, the black will disappear.
You can try the other modes for different effects.

You need to read the manual on importing stills to get
the correct aspect ratio on the video.

Hope this helps