blurry resolution in canvas

[Stephan Scrofani]

Any 4:3 standard video format…

[Tom Wolsky]

You said you are working toward a standard video format? What format is that?

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”

[Stephan Scrofani]

anything with 4:3 dimensions

[Tom Wolsky]

Help us out here. If you’re going to a standard video format as you said you were then the specifications are exact, not anything that’s 4:3. What exactly are you trying to do? Where exactly are you trying to get to? How is this thing going to be delivered, viewed, projected, distributed? What’s your end product?

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”

[Bill Dewald]

Final Cut does a bad job at scaling. This quality loss is compounded by your H.264 format.

Also, what is the timebase of your footage? Since your source was 1280×720, was it 720p? If so, using a FCP sequence to change the timebase will be a hot mess.

The best way to maintain quality would be to deliver the correct format from After Effects.

[Stephan Scrofani]

Essentially what we want to do is take these movies that are in the h264 format and be able to work with them on the same FCP timeline. The movies have different dimensions as they of photographs taken horizontally and vertically , 2:3 & 3:2 (stop-motion sequences)…I understand that h264 was not the best choice to go out of AE but that is what i am working with. I guess my main question is there a sequence setting or something that I can do that would allow me to work with both size movies in the same timeline. Eventually the project would be something that would be of a 4:3 standard size, not particularly for the web. A possibility would be that the final output would be projected on a large screen or on widescreen television we simply are not sure yet. We just need a canvas on which we can work with so to speak.

[Tom Wolsky]

If you have any aspirations to put this on television or project it on a large screen start over and do it right. There is no way on earth you can now work this material and make it look decent. If you continue to work with this media it’s going to be garbage. GIGO.

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”

[David Roth weiss]

Tom,

I must commend you on your patience.

David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Alan Okey]

If having the AE clips re-rendered and output in an editing-friendly codec is not an option, use Compressor to transcode all of your h.264 source clips to ProRes. Final Cut will choke on h.264 clips.

The h.264 standard is an MPEG-4 codec designed for delivery, not editing. MPEG-based codecs use interframe compression, which compresses groups of frames together, making it difficult to edit video footage with single-frame accuracy. Video compressed with an intraframe codec needs to first be transcoded to an editable format in order to be edited. HDV is an MPEG-2 based intraframe codec that falls into this category. This is why a very powerful computer is needed to edit HDV, because the clips need to be transcoded behind the scenes in real time into an editable form. H.264 is even worse because it does not have a constant bit rate or GOP (group of pictures) structure, making it impossible to edit.

The “editing” codecs that others have referred to all utilize intraframe compression, in which each frame is compressed separately. This preserves the ability to easily make frame-accurate edits.

By transcoding your h.264 clips to an editing codec, you make it possible for Final Cut Pro to edit them easily. Suggested editing codecs include ProRes, DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, M-JPEG, DVCPRO HD or 10-bit Uncompressed.

[Stephan Scrofani]

Thank You Alan, that was very helpful. Right now I am changing all my compositions in AE to 2k and rendering everything in the ProRes codec.