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Pixelated / aliased text in After Effects CC
Hi folks – longtime lurker here in need of your wisdom.
I am creating some motion graphics in After Effects, and my text is rendering out jagged, pixelated, and ugly. I have trawled the internet for solutions, and none of the usual fixes are working.
I initially thought that the problem was bringing the text in from Photoshop, but recreating it natively in After Effects looked the same. Continuously Rasterize is on, my text layers are scaled to 100%, vertical & horizontal scale are at or below 100%, I’m using square pixels, and Fast Previews is turned off. I even did 15-hour renders of these 200-frame sequences using ray-traced 3D, and there was no difference. I finally thought it could be an issue with this specific font (Knockout), but after playing with that, it appears to be a universal problem.
The only thing I haven’t tried yet is bringing the text in from Illustrator, which I plan to try once the Creative Cloud goes back online (it’s having some issues today).
I have been able to get close by adding a subtle fast blur, but I would prefer a solution that doesn’t drop the quality.
For the record, I am using a freshly-updated After Effects CC on a Mac running OS 10.8.5, with updated drivers for my video card (an Nvidia GeForce GT 650M).
Thank you!
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17 Replies
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When you say “rendering out,” do you mean in your final output render or just how it’s displaying within After Effects? Or both?
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It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too. -
Hi Jeff,
Both, unfortunately. I’ve output it with the Lossless preset (Animation codec) and in the Avid DNX codec. -
The first two things that come to mind are the layer quality setting (make sure it’s best and not draft) and alpha settings if you’re rendering with an alpha (try premultiplied instead of straight).
These are both not likely but they’re the first things that come to mind without more information.
Darby Edelen
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Can you post a screenshot of the affected text?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Thanks, Darby. The layers are set to best quality. I just did a test with straight alpha, and unfortunately it looks different but still jagged.
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Here you go, Walter: https://imgur.com/0Bk9pkQ
As you can see, the white text is pretty acceptable – it’s the bigger red text that really looks wonky.
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What are your comp settings? I’m particularly interested in the pixel aspect ratio.
Also, red text is always a huge problem in motion graphics. It has been since the invention of color TV. If you get get away with a slightly less saturated red, try that too.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Comp settings are just the HDTV 1080 29.97 preset – 1920×1080, square pixels, 29.97 NDF.
Thank you for the color advice. I like it a bit less saturated, though of course the shape is the same.
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The chroma subsampling inherent in many compression schemes can tear up text edges. Do you see a difference between your comp viewer and your final output?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
It looks like there is a bit of a difference – both are wonky, but here’s a side-by-side: https://imgur.com/a/0TLax
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