Graphic Quality FCP6

[Steve Oakley]

this is weird.

the problem is your TIF file. I went into PS and created some text and circles, then saved out a TGA with alpha. they looked fine in FCP. copy and pasted a chunk of your image into the same file, and back in FCP it was messed up. there is something weird about it, most likely because it started as a 16bit image. what I can suggest now is to redo the image entirely in 8bit and then all should be good.

whats odder is that the problem is only really on one side of the image and looks like a premult problem of some sort that doesn't show up in PS, but in FCP there is some color transform going on that brings it out.

[Scott Aubuchon]

Wow... I wish I was getting the same results... I still cannot get any versions, whether it be 8/16 bit, tiff/targa or whatever to import properly.

[Steve Oakley]

try reinstalling QT, which ever version you are on as QT is ( should be ) handling the image import. go to apple and get the stand alone installer. if you want to go back to 7.3.1 find Pacifist via google which will make it easier. if you have a 3rd party video IO card, I'd also reinstall that after doing QT. hopefully this cures it.

[Scott Aubuchon]

Well... I really appreciate your helpful advices, but... it did not work.

I was successful in downgrading to 7.3.1 and I removed all third party plug-ins to QT, but still looks all messed up.

[Steve Oakley]

hmmm. well this is all the standard quick painless things to try. this is coming down to the more painful.

1. reinstall the OS via Archieve and Install which will keep all your fonts and other 3rd party bits plus prefs. takes about 40 minutes and is fairly painless.

2. reinstall FCP only

3. reinstall PS

update FCP, OS, PS.

now one point here. the image you posted up also messed up for me. a new image I created here worked, and I'm posting it back. the text and circles I made look clean here, lets see if they look clean for you.


won;t let me UL..... email me & I'll send it direct

[Scott Aubuchon]

Ok... so I went through the process of reinstalling, still no luck...

I am starting to heavily lean towards bug, unless someone can prove otherwise.

is nobody overlaying graphics in FCP? I would think this would be a known issue with a workaround.

[Andrew Kimery]

Scott,

I grabbed the examples you posted and dropped them into a ProRes 422 1920x1080 sequence (both 60i and 23.98) w/some DVCPro HD footage. There was a slight difference between looking at the source image in the viewer and looking at the rendered image in my timeline, but nothing as bad as what you seem to be seeing.

I'm running FCP 6.0.2, QT 7.3.1, and 10.4.11 on a dual 2ghz G5.


-A

[Scott Aubuchon]

Ok... I whipped up a short screen cast that shows what I am doing. Maybe I am doing something totally incorrect... which is causing my troubles.

check it out (~7mb - 1920x1200 - MOV):

http://www.sacreativeservices.com/fo..._hdv_still.mov You may want to save it off, it might hose the browser because of its size.

Andrew, is this how you did it?

[Andrew Kimery]

Originally Posted by Scott Aubuchon

Ok... I whipped up a short screen cast that shows what I am doing. Maybe I am doing something totally incorrect... which is causing my troubles.

check it out (~7mb - 1920x1200 - MOV):

http://www.sacreativeservices.com/fo..._hdv_still.mov You may want to save it off, it might hose the browser because of its size.

Andrew, is this how you did it?

After looking at your movie it looks like you and I are seeing the same results. The stills you posted looked a little worse, but that just must have been compression from making the still image. Have you tried exporting a test QT and/or looking at it on a TV/b'cast monitor to see if it still looks messed up?


-A

[Scott Aubuchon]

Yes, I have rendered it out and viewed on both computer and broadcast monitor with no difference in quality.

[Steve Oakley]

Ok, I can both repro and fix a related problem, sort of.

I placed the TGA file into a ProRes 1440X1080 project. TGA was 1920X1080

when I placed Generators->Color Solid (FXplug) under the TGA in V1, I got an FCP error "Your graphics card can not render this in a sequence of this size" and I had what looked like low res render. what the $#@#$!!!!! I removed the Color Solid and replaced it with Generators->Color (AE api) and everything was good.

what graphics card is in the machine ? do you have another card to swap out ? apple never says exactly what its rendering on the graphics card, but maybe this is the problem - GPU vs CPU rendering. wouldn't be the first time. the laptop is 128mb Vram, what about your card ? now I want to try this on my X800 256mb in the G5. I'll email you the project file

[Zalee Isa]

This article might help you in some ways:
http://www.rippletraining.com/engine...n=docs&doc=418

[Aric Mannion]

I only do this stuff in after effects, but I do struggle with final cut and graphics once and a while. Is your video interlaced? If you check your sequence settings try your fields set to none. Export it to h264 or whatever and don't bother looking at it in the canvas at all. And I guess setting motion quality to best could help...

[Duncan Craig]

Have you tried switching effects handling off?

I always have some problem or other like this on every project. Sometime I'll try to get to the bottom of it. It's always something different however.

Have you tried rendering to a self contained quicktime in motion and use that in FCP?

Good Luck.

PS I never use tiffs, always PSD or tga

[Scott Aubuchon]

Originally Posted by Steve Oakley

what graphics card is in the machine?

I have the Geforce 7600 GT (iMac version)... Hopefully my new MacPro arrives soon, which will have the 8800 card.

I will try what you suggest later tonight, my real job is getting in the way! :P