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Image Quality Resolution Questions in FCP
Before I start, let me say I understand the concept of image size well…
FIRST SOME BACKGROUND: Here is my dilemma – I was editing a project in DV-NTSC as the client wanted a 4:3 SD aspect ratio. I shot my footage 4:3 safe in HDV, 1080@ 60i. More on that later. There was a power point presentation I had to incorporate. PPT had lots of animations created in it, the only reasonable way I could see to get these into my project was to use a screen capture software. So I recorded the PPT and it looked great. Since my monitors are 1920×1080, it saved as 1920×1080…again 4:3 safe because of how PPT author did his slides. Using After Effects I shrunk PPT to DV-NTSC .mov file to make work flow easy. I also Took my Raw footage of speaker and down converted…but did that in FCP. At the end of the presentation there was one static slide with WAY too much info on it. I suggested that we capture an image at 1920×1080 and zoom in to each of 6 major text boxes at appropriate times. When you import such an image into FCP and put it in a sequence, it scales to fit. I scaled back up to fit 4:3 properly and it looked okay.
NOW HERE IS THE ISSUE…when I used motion setting in FCP to make image scale 100% again, text quality was horrible. Basically, I wanted to zoom on text, and I figured that since I was displaying image at 100% quality would be good…WRONG…it was very bad. I bought same image into motion to do same thing, exported a quick animation of the same zooms and moves, and it looked great, nice and sharp. I then timed the moves in FCP, as most of slide was static, I just did moves with 1 second holds so I could freeze and capture to time later. Result was excellent!
MY PROBLEM…Why did FCP display image so poorly at 100%. My concern is I shoot EVERYTHING in some form of HD, but often am still asked to edit in SD. I figure fine, bring my HD footage into the sequence and it scales to fit. PLUS, I can crop and re-frame up to 100% of image if I like and still stay sharp. For example, I had footage of a politician engaging a group of people…I started wide (as was shot) and then did quick zooms in to create an effect that was really cool. That result looked fine when my HD footage (Shot in DVCPROHD that time) was scaled back up to 100%. Is it safe, quality wise, to do this in FCP? If it is, why did still image look so bad?
Sorry for the long description of a simple issue.
Thanks
Rich Kaelin
Kaelin Motion Production Services
New York -
3 Replies
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Phew!!! All that and I can answer in just two letters…
The answer is “DV.” DV operates in 4:1:1 color space, as compared to nearly every other codec, which just about all operate in 4:2:2 color space. DV thus eats text and graphics alive, hence your Powerpoint stuff gets beat to heck. So, if you have to down-convert, use ProRes preferably, or at the very least use DVCPro50.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Thanks for your answer, and it makes some sense, and I wondered about it being the issue. But the problem is, I used DV codec in Motion and same image with same effects looks Awesome. I also rendered clip in AE and it looks great. The only program not looking good with image at 100% is FCP. I will try a prores test tomorrow, and see if it indeed solves the problem. Project is done, so no issue, just want to check for future. Thanks,again.
Rich Kaelin
Kaelin Motion Production Services
New York -
Working in PRORES has no effect on issue. FCP looks like crap, AE and Motion look great. Remember, this is bringing an image LARGER than the sequence in, so at 100% of image size, it is like doing a close up on that section of image. Beautiful in Motion and AE, even in the DV codec, crap in FCP in any codec. I don’t understand why…must be the mechanics of FCP. I am curious to see what Premiere does, that is my next test.
Rich Kaelin
Kaelin Motion Production Services
https://kaelinmotion.com
New York
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