-
FCP scaling or Motion
Hi everyone,
I have some DV 4:3 footage that eventually needs to be 16:9.Is it better to distort to 33.33 and resize to 133 in Final Cut.
Or is it better to go to motion and resize it in there. I have never been happy doing it in FCP, basically is Motion’s scaling better than FCP’s.
All the best
NickMac Pro
FCP 6.0.5
AJA IO
London, UK -
12 Replies
-
Hi Dave,
not wishing to be cynical, but I imagine those apple folks thought they would sell more products with 2 apps rather than one, even if they did the same thing. Or course motion has lots of features that FCP doesnt have, but i bet a lot of the processing is based on the same code.Basically i would like to know if someone has seen a difference. I have tried here but dont have a decent monitor to check. For what is worth i think FCP does a better job…..
I hope it’s not a case of the emperors new clothes.
thanks
NIck
Mac Pro
FCP 6.0.5
AJA IO
London, UK -
To make a 16 x 9 from a 4x 3 in FC you don’t need any resizing, just crop up and down.
Motion will make a better job if set in 16 or 32b.
You can also use “Lanczos” in Motion. the most professional resizing tool in FCS 2.
Rafael -
Hmmm …other than the “polishing turds” analogy I think I’d have to disagree with Dave on this one. Certainly the logic seems flawed, in that Motion’s scaling is not going to be better simply because Apple gave the app the capability of performing such a function. But I haven’t done a side by side comparison either so I’m afraid I can’t give you the definitive answer you’re seeking. FWIW, like you Nick, I also find FCP’s scaling to be preferable for this, and round tripping out to Motion would seem to be rather a long winded affair with likely not enough advantage to make it worthwhile. You might also gain some advantage over FCP from scaling/arc’ing the footage using Compressor’s Advance Format Conversion presets but once again I would doubt that you would see enough real benefit and unlikely that such a benefit would be outweigh the ease and advantage of scaling and framing directly in the Canvas window.
Just another 2c for your consideration.
Andy -
Thanks for your thoughts Andy.
Rafael, thanks for your tips, although i would have to disagree with your cropping suggestion. That would make a 16:9 letterbox rather than 16:9 anamorphic version, sorry i probably should have stated that i wanted it all anamorphic. I will have a look at Lanczos (great name!), and try the 32bit motion version.
thanks guys
nick -
Hi Nick,
if you drop a 4×3 clip in a 16 x9 sequence you will get an Anamorphic movie. The picture is croped by FC in the canvas.
In Motion you need to crop the 4 x3 movie too.
No otherway to do it.
rafael -
Hi Rafael,
To get the right aspect ratio, the shot needs to have the distort/aspect set at 33.33, and needs to be scaled to 133, of course that will crop off the top and bottom. Whether FCP does this or not, that is what needs to happen. If you know another magic way to stretch the picture without the people in it looking short and fat please let me know
regards
nick -
Hello Rafael, What do you mean by “lanzos” in motion? The motion tab scaling in FCP is crap. Compared to what an Avid DS can do in terms of scaling a shot up. I can’t push an HD shot past 120% where the math the AVID is using can go closer to 200 percent before getting crappy and soft.
Thanks,
James
-
I’ve always found Adobe’s After Effects to be superior at scaling. Might be worth a try.
Lon Keller
Chief Editor / Producer
Sundog Studios -
Hi James,
Lanczos is a filter for up-scaling, inherited from SHAKE. You will find it in the “Image Units” in Motion.
If you want to get any good from FC on scaling:
– Set your sequence to a codec better than the original.
– Set “Render all YUV in High Precision
– Render Motion Effects: BEST.
Cheers,
rafael -
I just did a bunch of these using Compressor. It did a fantastic job…much better than FCP or Motion.
In the Geometry pane, you can use the presets or select custom to change the degree and location of cropping.
You must turn on the Frame Controls and set the resize to Better or Best to get improved results.
Be ready for a long render time though.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up