Kicking the tires of the Premiere Pro CS4 XML import
By S Simmons. Filed in Adobe Premiere Pro, Editing, Mac software |
I couldn’t let the day go by without trying the XML importing capability that was added in the Adobe Premiere Pro 4.0.1 update to take and edit from FCP, export an XML and then import that edit into Premiere Pro CS4. The skinny? Not too shabby for a first try, both for Adobe’s implementation and my attempt.
From Final Cut I took a simple edit with 3 layers of video and audio. The original FCP timeline looked like this:
And the Premiere Pro CS4 XML import of this sequence:
That’s not bad. Dissolves are right, disabled clip is disabled, everything looks like it’s there. Premiere doesn’t have an indicator for a through-edit like FCP does. Of special note is that this is a 23.98 HD ProRes edit. Premiere Pro was able to relink to the ProRes QuickTime files as well as render in the ProRes codec for playback in the Premiere Pro timeline. Makes since as ProRes is an installed codec on the system. I have no idea if this is officially support btw.
You even get a nice little text file that imports into Premiere Pro to let you know what may have gone wrong in the import:
The above sequence had a number of color corrections from Magic Bullet Looks that didn’t translate and they were noted in the report. I’d call that a successful first test from FCP to Premiere Pro. But then when I went to send that edit to After Effects it crashed. We’ll have to troubleshoot that one later. A simple, single layer SD edit was able to successfully go from FCP to PPro to AE. I think this is something a lot of people might be looking for as a workaround if you don’t have Automatic Duck. Theoretically it’s possible but something wouldn’t let me HD sequence work. Maybe it didn’t like the ProRes files.
Tags: Premiere Pro
Friday, November 21st 2008 at 5:08 pm
This is excellent. I was wondering if it would work. Thanks for this! Great article!
Friday, November 21st 2008 at 10:02 pm
It does work pretty well. I did a very similar test. I didn’t use any third party filters or effects, but my test had issues with speed changed clips. I guess if I were going to be sending to AE in this way, that would be where time remapping would be done anyway. I’m happy with it.
Saturday, November 22nd 2008 at 2:33 am
Good Post Scott. i did my own tests last night and blogged about it.
http://blogs.digitalmediaonlineinc.com/digitalbasin/entry/20081120
I went from Mac FCP to Windows Premiere, 4 layers of video, 6 streams of audio and it came up perfect with no errors and no anomalies.
However i haven’t repeated with ProRes yet – I used Dv and HDV QTs. At the International Film School Sydney where I teach we have both CS3 and FC2 and often Use ProRes in both, however i have noticed odd things about ProRes in premiere. Strange crashes, odd performance issues. Not major problems but odd quirks. I think it’s a case of PP supporting ProRes as a QT codec but not officially supporting ProRes as a working space. Better success for cross-platform intermediate format work has come using DNxHD and of course much will be better again with Cineform – who look to have full FCP support very close to launch.
Im really excited by these updates – I sincerely want my Utopia of moving any project to any application at any time I want. Not there yet, may never be, but getting closer.
cheers
Mike
Saturday, November 22nd 2008 at 6:31 am
Yea I think the ProRes media I was working with might have thrown a few kinks in there. It was all that was loaded at the end of the day plus I was very curious to see if it would work at all. That’s one thing Premiere is missing is a good, high-quality HD codec like ProRes or DNxHD. All things in good time I guess.
Wednesday, November 26th 2008 at 6:46 am
Hmm i have been hunting around for somehting like this but going the other way.. basically i need to import a premier project ( stripped down one layer video no audio ) so that i can recapture in FCP. any suggestions? i try to export an edl form premier but get a error importing edl error on the FCP end… on mac for both by the way
Wednesday, November 26th 2008 at 7:56 am
Jennie, I haven’t heard how to go the other way other than an edl. A simple edit should work but of course FCP has never been strong in it’s edl support. Maybe look at Automatic Duck? Nice email btw ….