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timeline video quality
Please help,
I’m importing some text animations I created in aftereffects into a project on final cut express HD. When viewing my animations in the viewer window they look crisp and clean, once I lay them into my timeline, they becoome pixelated and not crisp at all. When rendereing out my animations in aftereffects I made sure the size was 720×480, and my project in final cut xpress is set to DV-NTSC (720×480).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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9 Replies
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Was the aspect ratio from AE in DV 3.2 or NTSC 3.4? Your timeline is most likely 3.2.
Hope this helps-
Matthew
Quad 2.5 G5
OSX 10.4.X
Ram 4GB
FCP 4.5/AE 6.5/DVDSP3 -
What codec did you use in After Effects? Does the material need to be rendered when you put it into the FCE sequence? Are you looking at the output on a video monitor?
All the best,
Tom
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD
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I’ve rendered the animation out in several way in aftereffects. the aspect ratio of my FCE project say NTSC-CCIR 601, it’s at a size of 720×480. the ways I’ve rendered it in aftereffects is by setting the composition size to 720×480 with an aspect ratio of 3:2, then I tried switching it to square pixels at the same rate, then at 720×540. I’ve rendered it as an animated gif, I’ve had it render upper and lower fields at a time…and it still loofs fuzzy when I get it into FCE. It looks great in the viewer, it’s when it’s on the canvas it gets fuzzy. I did notice that the % size in the middle top of the canvas window is set for size of window which is 75%. But in the viewer it’s 76%. I don’t know if this makes a difference but it won’t let me change it by one anyway. Please help.
Thanks
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Yes it was 3:2, I’ve rendered the animation in AE a few different ways like changing the composition settings to square pixels, and making the composition 720×540. I’ve also tried to render the animation out as an animated gif. But in Final Cut Express it still looks the same once it hits the timeline. It’s almost like the resolution is at half. Similar to AE when you turn the resolution down. I know everything is saved at it’s best resolution, and when I open up the animation as a quicktime movie on my desktop it looks beautiful, and when I import it into FCE it looks great in the viewer window, but when I lay it down on the timeline the image isn’t of it’s highest quality. I’m running out of ideas, I’m hoping someone out there can say something that I haven’t tried already.
Thank you for any help you may have.
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You need to render in AE to the DV specification. There is a comp preset for that in AE. That’s what you should use, nothing else, unless you need to carry transparency, then you should leave the other settings but set the codec to Animation.
One more time, are you looking at the FCE output on a video monitor?
All the best,
Tom
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD
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No I’m not looking at this on an external monitor, but I exported a piece of the sequence (thinking that it was just the computer) to my desktop as a quiktime reference and then made a quick dvd of it. When I loaded the DVD back onto the computer, the animation was still distorted. The codec is set to animation. The DV setting is on
DV NTSC 720×480 which is what the setting is in Final Cut express. -
If you’re exporting using Animation because you need transparency you’re moving a lossless high resolution image to FCE. There you’re compressing it to DV. Then you’re compressing it again to MPEG-2 for the DVD. Yeah, it’s not going to look as good as the original Animation. That’s why you have to work with a video monitor. That’s the only place where you can tell what the material really looks like.
All the best,
Tom
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD
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Thanks a lot for your help Tom on this matter. I am rendering the effect in AE as DV. Plus it is also happening with Live type. If you are importing graphics from sources such as after effects or live type. should the set up always be DV NTSC? are there any other preferences that you could think off that would improve the quality. Also when I output it to idvd, I output it as a quicktime movie. It seems all the graphics made outside FCE aren’t as clear. If I’m making animations at DV-NTSC 720×480 with an aspect ratio of 3:2 what should my setup be in FCE?
thank you
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LiveType and After Effects are different. In LT you should use the DV setting for the project.
The project itself should be imported into FCE. No rendering or output needed. The material gets rendered in FCE into DV. FCE only edits in DV or HDV. Those are the only two setups you can use.
You export QuickTime Movie from FCE to go to iDVD.
Look at your work on a video monitor while you’re working.
All the best,
Tom
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD
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