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Very high quality digital pan and zoom for time-lapse (need advice)
Hey guys,
So I have found myself in a bit of a bind here and I was looking to see if I could get any input or ideas from the collective consciousness of “The Cow”.
I am nearly done putting the final touches on the edit for a feature I have been working on for over 2 years. There are sections in the movie where there are time-lapse sequences, and I want to do some digital pans and zooms to give the sequences some more movement.
I know the first choice is always the motion tab in FCP, and it works very well for me, as I am able to pretty much get all I need out of it, except for one thing. Quality.
My online edit is in DVCProHD 720p and my timelapse files are anywhere from 3216×2136 to 4288×2848 and are in ProRes 422 HQ. I want them this big so when I do the zoom and pan effects I have a lot of room to play with, with no quality loss.
The problem I am finding is that once everything is all set and the zooms and pans look great, after its rendered out, the scaling algorithm FCP uses just makes the final rendered sequence look like crap, its blocky with aliasing. Its suitable for the web, but we are planning a theatrical release so I want the best quality I can get.
I have tried simple keyframing in Motion 3, and the final output is actually very good, the problem is, that its near impossible for me to fine tune it in real time because the playback is incredibly sluggish, and I have tried RAM preview and every possible thing to allow me to work in real time, but I believe since the source ProRes files are so big its slowing it all down. Its not like Final Cut where I can just render and watch, which makes Motion a pain in the ass for this kind of work.
Does anybody have any suggestions, either for FCP or Motion, possibly something I am doing wrong, or maybe a plug in that can help?
Much appreciated!
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8 Replies
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Couple options.
1. In FCP try changing the Motion Tab render setting to Best (found in sequence settings) this might help a little, but don’t expect too much2. Go back to Motion. For better realtime playback for editing the move you want to achieve lower the display canvas resolution and change the render setting to Draft and make sure Motion Blur is turned off. This will give you heaps of realtime. Add your keyframes, once you are happy with the movement and are ready to render, change the render setting back to Best. Some might tell you Normal is good enough, but not when dealing with high-res images. Best will help reduce that ugly video-noisy too sharpish look. Also, keep off Motion Blur unless you are specifically wanting it.
Another thing I would consider if you decide to go with Motion is importing the stills as an image sequence rather than the Prores files you created from them. The Prores codec can have undesired effects on things when using non-broadcast standard frame dimensions.
Colin McQuillan
Vancouver, B.C.“Live, love, laugh and be happy.”
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Try the free Pan & Zoom plugin, I really like the animation curves that can give the real life acceleration/deceleration. You might have a problem with using a file that is larger than 4K though – it depends on your graphics card.
https://www.noiseindustries.com/fxfactory/panandzoom/
There is a tutorial too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh_kBe0Dkcw
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Colin thank you.
I set the motion render settings in FCP but that didn’t help much, so I went over to Motion 3.
Per your suggestions I lowered the render settings to draft etc. This helped, but I still need to do a RAM preview to watch it in real time, but at least it works in RAM preview now. Since I am new to Motion I guess RAM preview is to Motion, as Render is to FCP?
Also, since I want to do a final output to ProRes 422 HQ in 720p I didn’t know exactly what to set my project properties as, so I put it in 16-bit float, so that when I export it in ProRes the 10-bit is preserved.
I have a feeling I am doing this wrong, do I even need 16-bit float? Will 8-bit work fine? If i use 8-bit and export to ProRes when I am done will the exported ProRes file still have the 10-bit color space?
Thanks for all your help!
Also: Peter, I did try that plug in, the problem is that it only works with still images not video files (unless I am doing something wrong)
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Cody, how are you changing the render settings in FCP?
Make sure to go into “Sequence Settings (command-zero)>Video Processing>Motion Filtering Quality:Best” Also make sure to force your renders, (option-R), rather then let FCP try to play your effects in real-time.
I do a lot of panning and zooming with oversized stills (granted, they aren’t mov’s) and I can much better results in FCP then what you are describing.
For sure a higher end tool would work better, but you should not be getting blocky renders, considering your very high res source material.
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Matt I actually did have it wrong, but I did what you suggested and the quality is still not anywhere near what Motion 3 can do its probably because its not a still image and a full on movie sequence.
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Thanks for the followup Cody.
Motion uses better math, so I’m sure it would beat FCP in dealing with both stills and MOVs.
In your situation I would probably work out the timing and scaling of the effects within FCP (for speed) and then do the final renders in Motion or Nuke or After Effects (for quality). It might save you some iteration time.
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Matt,
That would save me a lot of time, how would I go about doing that specifically? So i can set things in the motion tab in FCP and then transfer those exact settings to Motion? When I transfer to Motion, how do I do that, and wont it just take the crappy job FCP did and just re-render it out?
It would definitely help me as it is hard to edit these sequences with the digital moves separately in motion, sort of just guessing how it will fit into the sequence in FCP where the main edit/timeline is.
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Hey Cody, I’m not a Motion expert, so I’m not sure if you can translate keyframing info like that between it and FCP.
My approach would honestly be way more unsophisticated. I’d probably muck about in Final Cut until I got the timing working and approved by the powers that be. Then I’d take note of the start and end frames and the start and end scale and translate settings of the effect and match that in my compositing app of choice. Pan and Zooms usually aren’t very complicated, so re-creating the start and end keys would be pretty fast. Then I’d massage the ease-in and out controls if necessary.
If the effect was more complicated, I might export a reference movie from FCP and overlay that at 50% opacity for matching purposes in my compositing app.
Hope that helps,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto
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