Graphic Quality FCP6

[Scott Aubuchon]

I'm really struggling here... Why do my graphics I bring in from Photoshop look like crap?

http://www.sacreativeservices.com/fo...third_crap.png

Now, before you tell me to check the obvious, I will give you some background:

Footage = HDV
Timeline = Apple ProRes 422
RT settings = High
Motion Filter quality = Best

My footage looks great, my motion graphics look awesome, its just when I dump a static image into the time line, it looks all wonky. This is not a canvas issue, because its still there when I render.

I am not using low quality JPGs either, only TIFF/TARGA or PSD.

When I create the graphics in Photoshop, I use 1440x1080 with a PAR of 1.333...

What am I doing wrong?

FYI... I just tried motion file (which the graphic looked perfect in motion) and then dropped the motion file in the FCP timeline and it still looked as bad as above!

[Andrew Kimery]

Since you are using a ProRes timeline, which is full raster, have you tried making the gfx 1920x1080 square pixels? Also, red is a problematic color for video so maybe de-saturating the red a bit or using a different color might yield better results.


-A

[Scott Aubuchon]

I have tried 1920 square, but with the same results...

I have tried desaturated and its still really poor quality.

Any other suggestions?

[David W. Jones]

Is the problem with the output from your computer monitor or your video monitor?

[Scott Aubuchon]

Both, the problem is present everywhere... but the end result will be computer based, the project is not intended for TV distro...

[Scott Aubuchon]

Anyone have any thoughts? I am really stuck here...

[Steve Oakley]

yes

inspect the clip settings via selecting the clip and hitting command 9

do they match the TL settings via Command 0 ? if not, there is the problem. are you using a TL preset, or did you go and create a new one.

also, trash FCP prefs, plist, POA and OBJ cache

there is a settings mismatch here somewhere. It looks like FCP is scaling a smaller image to fit a larger one.

[Scott Aubuchon]

Here are my sequence settings:

http://www.sacreativeservices.com/fo...eq_set_422.png

And here are the image properties:

http://www.sacreativeservices.com/fo...p_hd_image.png

It looks like they are both the same... I will have to try and trash my prefs later this afternoon.

Thanks,

SA

[Steve Oakley]

your problem is using 1440. make the graphics 1920. the artifacts you see are from scaling the graphic up in size. if your source material is DVCpro or HDV which is 1440 _native_ pixels, the codec can still hand off 1920 to FCP or another app. since what goes on internally with FCP is not documented, this is an assumption. regardless, source video material gets handled by FCP in such a way as 1440 scales to 1920. once you place 1920 based graphics in, the problems will go away. its also possible you may need to change your TL settings to 1920.

[Scott Aubuchon]

Ok... I tried that earlier and it yields the same results. Although, I did not change my TL settings to 1920.

I will try this later tonight and see what happens.

I appreciate the help.

SA

[Nate Weaver]

Is that pic above the entire frame scaled down, or a section?

You might be looking at scaling artifacts for the canvas window, and not the true output.

[Bill Davis]

Looks to me like you have two problems.

First the resolution on your graphics is way low as evidenced by the jaggies between composited elements. Whatever your program is SAYING, that raster looks no better than 72dpi or so - based on what I'm seeing. It's like your program is rendering the low rez PREVIEW graphic - rather than a final high-rez graphic. This can sometimes happen if you drag and drop elements instead of actually IMPORTING them to your timeline as the full rez file.

Second, you're clearly not benefiting from using Alpha Channel gradients at the graphics edges to composite them over the video raster.

Most graphics programs should do this automatically. Again, this looks like you're getting low rez pict files, not the actual high rez graphics with Alpha mattes.

To my eye, something's definitely wrong in your export/import workflow.

Make sure your Photoshop files have transparent backgrounds, then try saving them as TIFF files and when the program asks you if you want to save the Alpha Mattes information in the TIFFS definitely say YES.

But I can't tell more than that just by looking at it.

Good luck

[Scott Aubuchon]

Bill... I appreciate the response, but I don't believe what you explain is the issue. I am not working with low res files and I am not dragging an dropping.

FYI-- I trashed my FCP preferences and it still looks like crap...

Here are the to files I have been testing: (both versions give the same result)

(1440x1080 PAR=1.33 TARGA)http://www.sacreativeservices.com/fo...f/HDV_1440.tga
(1920x1080 PAR=1.0 TIF) http://www.sacreativeservices.com/fo...f/HDV_1920.tif

Can someone maybe verify if they are bad in some way? You can see my timeline settings above (1440x1080)

And here is an example of it side by side in FCP:

http://www.sacreativeservices.com/fo.../side_side.png

and it looks the same after I render/export... Please, someone tell me I am missing something really stupid :P

[Steve Oakley]

well I thought I had the Ah-HA Moment but no. one thing is the image you are using is 16bit rather then 8bit. I saved it back out as 8bit, but got the exact same result. I can repro your problem which means your setup is probably ok. the bad news is it looks like a FCP bug.

FCP is somewhere double scaling the image it seems or doing something weird with deinterlacing the image when it should not. I tried this on a G4 laptop with ATI video chip.

one other question. if you render the video, does it still look the same ? reason I ask is that FCP reduces res on some operations, and thats what may be going on here. when I rendered it, it actually got worse. FCP deinterlaced the image and it got even more jaggy.

here is a possible workaround - create a motion project, drop the straight TIF into motion, and then apply the motion project as the title and see what happens.

[Scott Aubuchon]

Originally Posted by Steve Oakley

one other question. if you render the video, does it still look the same ?

Yes... rendering produces the same results

Originally Posted by Steve Oakley

here is a possible workaround - create a motion project, drop the straight TIF into motion, and then apply the motion project as the title and see what happens.

Yeah... tried the motion path and I still had poor results.

I'm plumb out of ideas...