Photo import scale bug????

Hi everyone.

Let's say I have a photo that is 3600x2400. When I would import that into a FCP 7 timeline, the image would fit to the 1080 height in the Canvas frame.

When I check the scale in the motion properties, the scale is about 45%, which is fine since I would want to a little motion control on the image anyway.

However, in FCP X, when I bring in a photo into a project, the inspector says that that image is at 100%, which is impossible because my project is 1920x1080 and the photo is 3600x2400.

It seems to scale ok, but I would not want to go much over the "actual" 100%, which I am not sure what that is.

Project settings identical in both 7 and X.

Any thoughts?

Jonathan

Jonathan-

Take a look at the photo's Spatial Conform setting in the Inspector. By default it's set to "Fit," but if you change it to "None" then 100% will correspond with the actual size of the image.

Cheers,
Bill

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your answer on this.

I see what you say about switching the Spacial Conform, but what is confusing is the Scale does not follow that change. For me it stays at 100% whether the change is Fit, Fill, or None.

So when Spacial Conform is set to none, scale should be 100%, if it is set to Fit, it should be about 45%, and Fill Guessing 60%

It would be nice if those two things were synced.


Jonathan

I agree it's a little confusing, and I too expected it to behave the way it did in FCP7. Scale is set to 100% of what your spatial conform is set to as opposed to 100% of the frame size. Scaling it above 100% will not degrade the image quality as long as you don't exceed the image's size.

It seems like the best plan in your case is to set all of your stills' spatial conform settings to "None" and then scale them from there- it's the most effective way to know the true frame size. You can use the timeline index to locate all your stills and change the settings globally.

Hi Jonathan,

Although there must be some secret reasoning behind this behavior in FCPX, I think we all agree that when a still or an image gets scaled down or up to fit the project frame size the scale slider in the Inspector should reflect this scaling and not show the fitted size as 100% when in reality it is smaller or bigger.

So I agree this is a bad "feature" and I suggest you submit feedback to Apple. I'm sure they've heard this before

-Ronny

Thanks guys. This really falls into the really makes no sense category!

I think at this point I'm on a first name basis with the feedback people.... :woohoo:

Tell them I said hi. They're probably tired of me too.

(and I agree that it doesn't make much sense!)

Feedback sent. I'm sure there will be a FCP X update by the end of today

Never stop posting feedback. The FCPX team is extremely helpful and they are very attentive to user response.

But the list is long (as with every software) and the nastiest and most common bugs will get priority. So I'm afraid we may have to wait awhile for this one to get sorted out

-Ronny