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Blurry movies from After Effects
Ok, I’ve made some pop up windows with text inside in After Effects and then brought them into Final cut Pro. The movies look crystal clear when playing in QT Player, but when I layer them in my timeline over video footage they get all muddy. My sequence settings are for DV/NTSC and I know that the movies come out of AE using the animation codec. How can I get these movies to look good? It seems like there would be a settings conflict that is driving the issue, but when I tried exporting my movie out of AE using the NTSC settings it looked like garbage, even at the highest quality settings. Any input is appreciated.
Dragzz
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8 Replies
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Ok, I think I solved my own problem. I needed to have the animation preset selected under compressor in my sequence settings. The only problem is, now the entire timeline needs to be rendered.
Was this the best solution, or are there other options out there?
Dragzz
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[Matt Dragovits] “The only problem is, now the entire timeline needs to be rendered.
Was this the best solution, or are there other options out there? “
Very impressive Matt, you came so very close, but your solution needs just a bit of clarification and a slight change in workflow.
The issue that you uncovered is not so much that the animation codec is the answer, but that the DV codec is the problem. And, switching the compressor in sequence settings to Pro Res is a slightly better solution than the animation codec, because it’s less processor intensive, has smaller files sizes, and it’s a realtime codec in FCP.
BTW, the fact that it’s a realtime codec might not actually mean you won’t need to render it in this case, because you’re transcoding, and the way I usually handle a situation like this is to edit the entire thing with the DV codec, putting the animations in and rendering even though they look horrible now, and only at the end do I change the compressor to Pro Res and re-render to make everything pristine.
Does this make sense?
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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[Dave LaRonde] “Just duplicate what you have, and change the new timeline to proRes.”
Dave,
See my solution Dave. It saves some steps, and he may still have to render the DV material no matter he changes to Pro Res. Hence, not making the change until his edit is complete.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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That makes perfect sense. Thanks so much for the prompt response from both of you. This forum is awesome.
Dragzz
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Should Matt change his AE output renders to ProRes 422 (and set AE project/color bit depth to 16-bit) in order to take better advantage of the 10-bit color depth of ProRes?
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Exporting to Pro Res from AE does sound like a good idea Tom. Can you explain the 16-bit part though?
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Yes, After Effects can render internally at 8, 16, or 32 bits. You get better quality–especially on gradients, blurs, and the like–at the higher bit depths. Since ProRes is a 10-bit codec, it makes sense to render AE at 16 bits. If you start at the default 8-bits, you’re sacrificing quality before you ever get to ProRes at all. Does that make sense?
Search AE help under “color depth” to get a more technical explanation and more links.
The setting for AE is in the menus under File/Project Settings. It does take more time to render at higher bit depth, so it’s wise to use only as much as you need for the job. Also, some AE filters do not work at higher than 8-bit. It will warn you if that happens.
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[Tom Brooks] “fter Effects can render internally at 8, 16, or 32 bits.”
Aha! Not being an AE guy (I still use Combustion), I didn’t realize the jump in AE went from 8-bit to 16-bit. Wonder why they skipped 10-bit?
THNX for the explanation Tom and for adding even further to this useful thread.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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