Banding Issue in Lower 3rd Graphic

[John Pale]

After Effects renders in RGB color space.
The default setting for FCP is to render in YUV color space. You can force FCP to render in RGB color space in preferences. Try that and see if it helps (its possible his version of FCP is set for that).

Its probably better for him to render things that look right in YUV color space (you can do that in After Effects) rather than you changing your render settings. YUV is the preferred color space.

Its also better to work in an 8 or 10 bit Uncompressed timeline, rather than a DV one. DV is heavily compressed in the chroma department.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[John Pale] “Its also better to work in an 8 or 10 bit Uncompressed timeline”

This is really the issue. Since the title was rendered out in the Animation codec the RGb to YUV gamma shift issue is non existent. Also, if you can tell After Effects to work in YUV, please let me know how you do it as I’d love to know.

Billy, what you are looking at is dv compression that is notoriously horrible, especially in the reds. Do me a favor and put that clip with the title in a 10 bit uncompressed timeline and look at the results. It will look much better. You have a few options, the best being to capture in 8 or 10 bit uncompressed when you are done editing (provided that you have the drive speed to do so). If you don’t have a dv deck that will allow you to capture uncompressed, you can simply copy and paste your timeline into a 8 or 10 bit uncompressed and render. If you can’t go uncompressed try applying some color correction to the graphic and suck out some of the reds so that color red isn’t as vibrant. You can also find a filter at http://www.nattress.com that’s a Chroma Smoother that might help with smoothing that compression out. Going uncompressed will yield the best results, depending on your system, it might not be possible.

Jeremy

[Paul Johnson]

Thanks for the YUV tip, I forced FCP to render in RGB without any improvement. Talked to my motion graphics guy and his FCP is set to YUV. He didn’t think the difference between RGB and YUV would cause such a serious distortion as the problem I’m having. I dunno, I just know I have one day left till my deadline.

FCP 5.1.1, G5 2.5 Quad, Kona 3, IoLA

[Paul Johnson]

Thanks Jeremy,

I put it in the Uncompressed 10bit timeline and no banding issues, serious jagged edges with the logo but the color issue is gone. I own the Nattress plugin and will try it since recaptue is not an option right now. I will reconsider a DV timeline in the future. Thanks for your help.
Billy

FCP 5.1.1, G5 2.5 Quad, Kona 3, IoLA

[Jeremy Garchow]

Jagged edges with the logo? What size is the graphic made, 720×480 rendered lower field first? If this is so, make sure that your footage has moved up or down one scan line (in the 10 bit sequence) in the motion tab (it should have a center value of 0,1 or 0,-1). This will ensure proper field order.

Also, you don’t have to recapture, you can copy/paste your dv timeline into an uncompressed timeline and render. This will benefit your graphics as you have seen.

Jeremy

[Paul Johnson]

The lower third is 720×480 field is none, should it always be lower(even)? Strange some of the graphics I received are lower(even) others are none.

Also when I drop my footage into the Uncompressed 10bit timeline it doesn’t look as good. It looks somewhat blurry, all of the credits that were created within FCP look terrible. Maybe I’ll try the nattress route for a quick fix.

FCP 5.1.1, G5 2.5 Quad, Kona 3, IoLA

[Jeremy Garchow]

if your video was shot 60i, then lower field is best. If you are working with 30p, then rendering with no fields is best. make sure that the center values have changed in the blurry looking clips (0,1 or 0,-1)

Jeremy

[John Pale]

[JeremyG] “Jagged edges with the logo? What size is the graphic made, 720×480 rendered lower field first? If this is so, make sure that your footage has moved up or down one scan line (in the 10 bit sequence) in the motion tab (it should have a center value of 0,1 or 0,-1). This will ensure proper field order.”

Yes. Do what Jeremy has suggested and your jaggies should disappear. Your graphic was prepared for a DV frame size (720 x 480), but the Uncompressed timeline you are now using has a frame size of 720 x 486. You need to make the adjustment Jeremy suggested the correct the field order.

You could also add the shift fields filter, which will do the same thing.

[Paul Johnson]

Thanks for all your help, everything is working now.

FCP 5.1.1, G5 2.5 Quad, Kona 3, IoLA