Screencasting with Snapz Pro and Final Cut Pro

I’m working on another screencast, and for the first time I’m using Final Cut Studio. (Previously I just used QuickTime Pro, cut+paste and lots of re-takes.)

Unfortunately Final Cut Pro sneers at those who would build lowly Web-distributed QuickTime movies. (Oh come on, wouldn’t you prefer to build a DVD?! Print to video?!! What fun is video production when you don’t have to deal with weird physical formats?)

It took me a while to debug how to get Snapz Pro X 2.0.3 to get along with Final Cut Pro 5.1.1. Here’s a configuration that actually works, to save you the pain I just went through. I’m sure there’s better settings, but at this point I’m happy just to get something working. Later on I’ll explore optimizing things.

First, abandon all hope of generating .mov files in Snapz Pro X that can be directly imported into Final Cut Pro. I don’t know what the deal is, but Snapz Pro X is simply unable to spit out movie files with a frame rate greater than 10 fps, and Final Cut Pro can’t seem to deal with anything lower than 23.98 fps.

The resulting mismatch means Final Cut Pro will demand rendering all your clips, all the time before you can play them on the timeline. This is a productivity killer. So we’ll record+save with Snapz Pro X to one format (Animation @ 8fps), immediately convert it to a Final Cut Pro-happy format (Component @ 30fps), and then import that.

Audio will also cause Final Cut Pro to decide it needs to render everything all the time. I tested this by creating a movie, importing it into Final Cut Pro and trying to play it. No deal, it needed rendering. I then opened the same movie file in QuickTime Player Pro, deleted the audio track, and re-imported. It played without rendering. It appears the mere presence of audio makes Final Cut decide it needs to render.

Snapz Pro X: Recording:

• First position your mouse as where you want it in the very first frame of your shot.
• Selection style: Fixed size.
• Width: 1024 Height: 768 (this is 4:3, which Final Cut Pro likey).
• Camera mode: fixed camera.
• Framerate: 8.
• Scale: 100%.
• Microphone track: off (voiceover done in Final Cut Pro)
• Mac audio track: off.
• Cursor Visible: on.

Snapz Pro X: Saving:

• Save only the video track.
• Compression type: Animation
• Frames per second: 8
• Key frame every 500 frames.
• Depth: Millions of Colors
• Quality: Best

Snapz Pro X to Final Cut Pro conversion:

• This is the step that sponges Snapz Pro X’s scent off the movie so Final Cut Pro accepts it as one of its own. It’s a space-hogging process, ballooning a 192 MB file to a 39 GB file. No wonder: not only are we adding frames, I don’t think the Component format is compressed at all.
• Compression type: Component Video
• Frame Rate: 30 fps
• I recommend creating a Compressor droplet to process the export since you’ll be doing it often.
• Obviously your sequence settings will need to match the 1024x768 Component @ 30fps:

At this point you’ve convinced Final Cut Pro you’re a Professional by sacrificing large swathes of your disk space to it, and it will allow you passage into its Edit Heaven. The Voice Over tool is particularly handy. Output format is your choice, but I’m partial to H.264 @ 8fps:

Final tidbit: I’ve found it’s surprisingly acceptable to record at 1024x768 and deliver at 800x600. That’s good news for both your bandwidth bill and folks on smaller screens.

Monday, September 25, 2006
06:49 PM