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Using full resolution of large still image
Alright…I have an NTSC DV Sequence – 720×480
I have an image that is several thousand pixels wide and tall…I want to do a basic pan and scan on that image. From what I read in the user manual…a basic import…drop clip into timeline…double click…then go into the motion tab and scale up to 100%. This achieves what I want…but the quality of the image is reduced, it’s blurry.
I’ve checked the quality settings…everything seems to be set correctly. The image looks fine in the clip monitor…but in the record monitor…its blurry.
Strange thing…when I click “motion blur” or “drop shadow” the image updates and looks perfectly clean…but requires render even though I’m not applying any settings to those…just turning them on with a check box…turning off the check box returns the image to it’s original blurry state. This can’t be right!?
I rebooted…can’t seem to understand why this isn’t working.
Jason
Macbook Pro – Mac OSX 10.5.6 – 4GB RAM – Final Cut Pro 6.0.5 -
12 Replies
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How large is the image? You give the specs of the video format you’re working in, so why not specs the image? It doesn’t need to be more than two or three times the size of the format you’re working in. You can either treat the image and prepare it for video compression in a graphics application or do what you’re doing in FCP.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop” -
also, when you’re looking at the still, what is its center postion (in the motion tab). If the y axis isn’t an even #, it may look blurry. This is due to the interlacing of NTSC video. As a rule of thumb I ALWAYS set both x and y axis to even numbers when messing with center positions and keyframing. Consistancy forms habits, you know….
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[Tom Wolsky] “How large is the image? “
It doesn’t matter what size…it’s doing it with JPG images of 3008×2000 – 3264×2176 – 2177×2996 (those are the 3 images I’ve been using and having problems with)
I understand that I don’t NEED to have it 3-4 times larger than the SEQ…I’m trying to understand what FC is doing so I can be more prepared when I have to work on a Final Cut system. I’m natively and AVID editor forcing myself to work with Final Cut to broaden my capabilities!
Further testing has shown that I can’t seem to replicate the problem when I use a sequence of a HD resolution. It is only having the problem with SD SEQs.
🙂 Thanks!
-Jason
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Depends on the content and the compressor. Very large images that have a lot of sharp, high contrast edge detail that have to be scaled and compressed with a high compression codec like DV don’t behave well. You can either prepare them in Photoshop to mitigate this, or do the sort of thing you were doing in Final Cut. HD uses much newer and better codecs and are less susceptible to these issues particularly because they don’t have to be scaled as much, big difference between 3264 and 720, not so much between 3264 and 1920.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop” -
Center’s points are both even numbers…still no difference.
-Jason
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You are ABSOLUTELY right…I changed the compressor of the sequence to *animation* and it cleared up perfectly…I didn’t realize the compressor of the sequence had that kind of impact. Makes sense though!
-Jason
Thanks for your help!!!
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Glad to see you got it worked out. Just wanted to add that choosing ProRes 422 is a much better option than Animation unless you need an alpha channel on export.
File size is way better and quality is near identical. I learned that from these forums and thought I would pass it on.
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sure…good note.
I used animation because I knew it was uncompressed and it gave me some insight into how the Final Cut timeline works.
Do you know much between 422 and 422HQ? I’m assuming that for compressed you don’t get much usage out of the extra quality that HQ offers. Is HQ reserved for times when you’re working with uncompressed footage starting out with? When would you use HQ?
-Jason
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I think HQ is more for when you will be doing multi-generation compositing.
Also, if you are going to capture raw green/blue screen footage then 422 HQ is good as well.
If you are not doing much compositing with it then I think plain 422 is good. I am just a noob though.
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How did you change the compressor of the sequence? I am having the same problem as you, my pictures are blurry. I am new to Final Cut so any tips you have would be awesome!
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