Exporting to AE for Color Correction

Hello,

I have a client whose film I edited on FCP 6. He now wants to take it for color correction on After Effects run on a PC.
The project is a PAL project.
What I did was export QTs in a number of ways...as export to QT using the same settings as the sequence.
I also did export as DV-Pal using QT-conversion and I made an H.264 version using the same method.

Are any of these good enough quality to do color correction on? or is our best bet just printing a clean copy to tape?

thanks

Hi Harriet,

Of course, when you say "export QT" you mean you export the timeline as cuts and without any titles, right ? Because you don't want to send a video that has effects, transitions or titles to color correction.

As to the format: if your original footage is DV PAL and you have worked in an FCP DV PAL sequence your best choice is to send him a QT using same settings as the sequence. This will be axactly the same quality as printing a clean copy to tape.

Making an H.264 version of the DV PAL sequence is useless because you introduce an extra conversion pass which will make you lose quality.

Best wishes,

Ronny

hey Ronny thanks for your prompt reply,
the copy that i made him is a clean copy of course, no effects, no titles.
the thing with DV PAL is that, first time I exported a QT movie it was just by using Export> QT. but then I got a phone call from the director telling me that the AE guy was not able to open the QT on his PC!! he said he was getting soem 204 error. so I thought it must be a codec thing. so I exported a DV PAL, but then he calls again telling me that it looked very pixelized in AE!! so now i really don't know what the problem is. maybe best thing would be to print to tape?

any idea why the error and the pixelization?

Hi Harriet,

What format is the original footage ? Is it DV-PAL ?

Best wishes,

Ronny

yes, DV PAL

Okay, I thought you had converted NTSC footage to PAL which could have explained the pixelization.

If this is possible for you, the best way to send a video from FCP to AE cross-platform is either to export the video as an Animation file or as an Uncompressed 8-Bit file. You can find these codecs in the export settings when exporting your timeline using QT conversion. Both these codecs are platform-independent and can be used either on Mac or PC. Unfortunatley, these codecs also create HUGE file sizes so I don't know if this is possible for you to store and send such big files file to the AE guy.

If you can't send such files, then your best option is to make a DV PAL tape from your project. But first check if the AE guy has a deck with which he can capture the tape.

Best wishes,

Ronny

thanks a lot Ronny, you helped a lot. I sent the AE guy a tape and now waiting to hear back from him. apparently it might be after all his monitor that is causing all the problems!!

Perhaps I don't understand the politics of your situation, but why would you not color correct in FCP or Color?