Our project is shot in DV PAL which has a frame size of 720×576. However, we’re using the footage in anamorphic aspect ratio and discovering that exporting to other formats has interesting side effects.

FCP handles the anamorphic aspect ratio as easily as clicking a checkbox. When exporting a QuickTime movie it will always have a frame size of 720×576 (the native resolution). If you want to create a QT Movie for viewing in anamorphic (1024×576 display size) the footage must be run through Compressor (or QuickTime Conversion) and specify the larger size. It’s not automatically done for you.

The business of handling anamorphic footage is becoming a problem for our visual effects shots. Some artists request TIFF sequences rather than QuickTime Movies and unfortunately TIFF export will render the image in anamorphic’s 1024×576 frame size which produces unwanted artifacts when scaled back down to 720×576.

After some experimentation I discovered the way to force a TIFF export to the native size is unchecking the Anamorphic setting on the clip. Strangely, this produces an image of 768×576 rather than the desired 720×576. Is this OK? I’m waiting for my VFX Supervisor to tell me.

A related bug with TIFF export is the handling of file names. Although Apple warns against the use of special characters in clip file names (i.e.: /, ?, *, etc.) it does nothing to stop you from using them. I haven’t encountered any issues with forward slashes until I began exporting TIFFs. These special characters must be removed during the TIFF export process but QuickTime Movie files are exported without error.

This was observed using FCP 6.02.

Final Cut Producer recently posted suggestions for using Final Cut Pro on a laptop using external hard drives for storing media. I thought it was worth saving and throwing back a comment or two.

USB hard drives (version 1.x and 2.x) cannot be powered by the USB bus - there isn’t enough power pushed down the cable. You must use the device’s A/C adapter.

In contrast, many FireWire hard drives can be used without an A/C adapter because the FireWire specification includes sending power down the cable. This is handy for making backups, storing your iTunes library, etc. but I’d stick with A/C powered drives for video editing or any other serious work.

Web badges…they’re everywhere. It’s nice to see a consistently sized graphic image replace boring text links although they can become like those super-annoying animated GIFs when overused.

In any event, I couldn’t find a scuba diving logbook badge so I created one with images borrowed from Google Images, Photoshop, and Brilliant Button Maker. Download, use, enjoy.

In January I designed an icon for one of my favorite (and indispensable) Mac applications: PhatMac. I offered it to developer Cameron Silver to use as he saw fit and the latest release (0.6.1) on April 22nd rolled it in.

With every passing day there is more and more support for the Mac platform but PhatNoise is one of the hold-outs. Without Cameron’s hard work I’d have to boot into Windows to sync my music.

If you’ve been waiting for the Layout Planner Pro beta I’m happy to announce it’s ready for user consumption. Please visit LayoutPlanner.com to request access to the beta program and create a user account. In about 24 hours (if faster if I can get to it) you’ll be given access to the download area where you can grab Windows and Macintosh versions.