fuzzy pics everywhere, have tried everything!

[Chris Tompkins]

Fine detail will not translate well.
Make photo sizes big enough for moves (if desired) and no bigger.
Convert to PNG/tiff/Targa/PSD b/4 import.
Convert your sequence compressor to Prores when the edit is locked.
Fully render all.
Export current settings.
Take that file to create your deliverables.
View video on a final screen.
You may be expecting to much from a fine detail or lower res pic.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Samuel Frazier]

Thanks, Chris. I’ve tried everything you mentioned except view through a Kona/ Decklink/ etc device. So my preview is FCP’s, then Quicktime, then whatever is done to when Withoutabox.com encodes it for steaming video. It’s fuzzy and pretty lousy regardless. Seems a bit worse to me than it used to be comparing to older pics I brought in before. Perhaps I’ve just looked at them too long.

But, if this is how text looks brought in from Photoshop, then I can’t imagine why anyone would ever use Photoshop for titles, etc for FCP. Is this really as good as it gets?

[Chris Tompkins]

Maybe you should post a pic here, so we can see it…

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Alex Elkins]

This is a guess, but it’s the one thing you’ve not mentioned. Everything else seems to be about right…

Sounds like perhaps the graphics were created in Photoshop with 1:1 (square) pixel aspect ratio. You need to recreate the graphic in a Photoshop document using the correct aspect ratio – there are presets for Film & TV that you can work from.

Any better?

Alex Elkins
Twitter: @postbluetv
http://www.postblue.tv
Post Blue showreel
Latest work: Greyhounds in Motion at 500fps
My Vimeo Pro page

[Jerry Wise]

have you tried editing your project using an HD timeline..1920×1080.? it will look good and you can output a center-cut. just edit your pics keeping in mind the 4×3 output you are aiming for.

[Steve Eisen]

[Samuel Frazier] “I’ve tried everything you mentioned except view through a Kona/ Decklink/ etc device.”

This is the ONLY way to judge how your video will look. If you have it, use it. This will show you full detail if rendered properly on a calibrated TV monitor. Keep in mind you are working in an SD format. Your images are not going to look as good compared to HD.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Samuel Frazier]

Sorry, been out of this game for a long time and didn’t know you could upload pics. Here they are. Thoughts?

Canvass:

Viewer:

[Samuel Frazier]

Just tried that and thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, it didn’t make any difference.

[Samuel Frazier]

[Steve Eisen] “This is the ONLY way to judge how your video will look. If you have it, use it. This will show you full detail if rendered properly on a calibrated TV monitor.”

I know and you’re exactly right. Again though, I’ve been out of this world for years and am behind. Think I’d like to wait for Thunderbolt solutions to get settled before buying something like a Kona or Matrox MXO.

I hear you about the standard def. But, it looks pretty awful even for that. Stills elsewhere in the video don’t look nearly as bad.

[Samuel Frazier]

Wow! That seems to have done the trick. THANKS!! If I create an HD ProRes sequence and add the picture it looks perfect. I added the SD sequence to this timeline and the same pic from the SD looks horrible. So, I think I’ve learned:

1- For some reason, some pics look terrible in SD sequences. Some look fine.

2- apparently FCP does some rendering when you bring one sequence to another, so it’s best to avoid this if possible–especially if you’re dropping a SD sequence into an HD sequence.

The problem is, copying/pasting a lot of the material from SD sequences (like still I move around the screen–kinda Ken Burns style) gets sized all funky in the HD sequence after pasting. Might be a lot of work to get them as they should be. But, I’d guess they’d also look better.

Crazy work arounds to do I suppose. Any suggestions on how to speed this up?