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720×486 animation in 720×480 timeline
I’m trying to understand exactly what happens to a clip when it’s downscaled in FCP. I’ve got these animated graphics that were created at 720×486. My FCP timeline is set to 720×480, as I’m outputting to a DVD. When I drop these animations into my timeline and export them/create my DVD, when I play the DVD on my TV the animations looks very jerky. The motion isn’t smooth at all.
I checked the motion parameters in my Viewer, and I can see where the graphic has been scaled down to 98.77. Are lines of information being removed here, or is it truly being scaled down?
As an experiement, I sent the 720×486 graphic to Compressor, and scaled it down to 480 there. I put that in my timeline right next to the 486 graphic and burned another test DVD and voila’…the 480 version is smooth as silk, with the other one jerky.
I’m glad it works using Compressor, but I’d really like to understand the science behind what’s happening in FCP with the 486 clip. Thanks,
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9 Replies
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FCP has a terrible re-sizing algorithm. Those 6 extra pixels/lines get murdered in FCP when you drop them in.
You’re best bet to to render all your graphics meant for a 480 timeline at 480. Or use Compressor (or QT, or Shake, or etc…) to resize them to 480 and crop off 3 lines from the top and bottom.
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[Aaron Neitz] “crop off 3 lines from the top and bottom”
If you do that you are in effect changing the field order to Upper first and get ready for a field order issue on TV screens.
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to resize them to 480 and crop off 3 lines from the top and bottom
Resize them AND crop off 3 lines? What I did in Compressor was use the geometry section to change the dimensions to 720×480. Isn’t this getting rid of the top and bottom 3? Or does what I did have the same effect as a shift-fields filter as Michael eludes to?
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Compressor doesn’t crop off 3 lines from the top and bottom…it crops off 4 and 2, which avoids the field inversion problem.
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I’m really trying to understand this. Does it do 4/2 so that the top will still begin on an odd line and the bottom an even?
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Right.
The thing is to crop 3 lines per field without changing the field order.
So two from the top and one in the end.
Paul, next time tell your graphics guys to make everything 720×480.
486 makes only sense when going to DigiBeta.
rafael(and here some clips for the friends: https://www.vimeo.com/2694745 )
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Hi, Rafa! Ok, I’m starting to get it now. (I think)
So, let me throw another scenario at you. If I have 1920×1080 footage that needs to
wind up on a DVD, should I use Compressor (or something else) to scale that down
to 720×480? If FCP does such a blah job of downscaling, I’d like to use the best method
I can. -
Hi Paul,
A couple of weeks ago I make a test, with a proper pattern picture, comparing the up/down scaling in FC and Compressor.
I set Compressor with “Frame Control ON” and the resize filter: BEST.
I set FC with “Render Motion Filters: BEST”.
For the downscaling really I could not see much difference between the two pictures.
Blowing the picture up a 400% or so you could see some very-very little differences. Some borders were better resolve in Compressor.
So I think I will keep using FC for downscaling.
For the upscaling although the FC picture looked good enough, in the moment you blow it up a 200% you could really start to see the difference. Very sublet changes in luma in some blocks around the shapes of the objects: The kind of think that will complicate another re-compression.
Compressor clearly made a better job.
So if ever I have to upscale something I’ll stick with Compressor.
rafael(and here some clips for the friends: https://www.vimeo.com/2694745 )
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I did a similar test myself over the weekend. I took a 1080 clip and dropped it into my 720×480 timeline, and took that same 1080 clip and downsized it in Compressor and dropped that in the same timeline. I burned a quick DVD of these two, and I really didn’t notice any difference. (Granted, my clip had very little motion…just a person sitting in a chair talking) Thanks.
Talk to you soon.
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