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FCP6/ QT/ H.264 to FLV – color and brightness problems
I just posted the following in the Flash forum, but I suppose it makes sense to put it in the FCP forum also. I’m quite new to Flash (and relatively new to FCP for that matter) and I’ve come across an interesting set of issues when trying to get from FCP to Flash. Any help would really be appreciated.
Essentially, I am having trouble getting a decent looking flv from a FCP project. The end result continues to look darker, and often has a red cast to the video, and text looks bad (somewhat irregular thickness to characters, soft).
I’m working with FCP 6.0.1 and Flash Video Encoder CS3.
I’ve tried the following (with a few variations of settings on each):
-Direct output from FCP through QuickTime Conversions to FLV (crop utility didn’t work for removing matting, darker video, red cast, and text looked really crumby).-Export FCP as QuickTime, then QT file into Flash Video Encoder. In the Encoder, I used custom setting of 800k bit rate, On2 VP6, and scaled back the framerate to 15 with keyframes every 15. The QT file looked good with colors normal in the video and sharp text, but output FLV file played back dark (somewhat muddied) and red, with text looking significantly worse. Crop, however, was successful there. Also, is it wise to scale back the framerate? Someone had recommended it to me- videos will be published to the web.
-Export FCP to Compressor, created a few different versions of H.264, with similar results as above method – though sometimes with better text results than above.
I’d love to be able to output a clean FLV file directly from FCP, but I’m willing to go through several more steps if it means higher quality. Any thoughts or suggestions? Any settings in FCP that might help me improve the color integrity, brightness, and quality of text in titles?
Thanks for any help!
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3 Replies
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[BRoss] ” I am having trouble getting a decent looking flv from a FCP project. The end result continues to look darker, and often has a red cast to the video, and text looks bad”
you are running into 2 different issues.
1) your are working with RGB graphics that are converted to YUV when used in video- the darker color is due to Video having a 2.2 gamma setting – and redder since you are not controlling the conversion but letting QT take care of it.
2) your fonts may be too fine for video or that you have not done anything to soften the edges )( since you do not say- I am assuming that you are working in SD.)
Make your text slightly bolder and larger- and then soften ( blur) it for use on an interlaced TV screen.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflowshttps://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php
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Thanks Gary,
Is it possible to better control the color profiles somehow? Can you recommend any settings that may keep the color/brightness closer to the original FCP project? Is YUM only in Flash, or can I adjust the workspace color profile in FCP to match it?
As for the text, I may be able to go slightly larger (they are disclaimers for my company, so space is an issue). The resulting FLV will be used on web only, so will it still help to soften the text slightly? I found that deinterlacing the file made the text much worse (at least on computer monitor), so I’m no longer using that option. Any other setting recommendations that might help to limit distortion to text?
Thanks again.
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Take a look at Video2SWF, a cool little app for just 45 bucks. It has controllers and color correction adjustments you can see before you encode. Very handy. Makes a self-contained SWF file.
Have a wonderful day.
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