Jagged edges when using graphics in Premiere

[Vince Becquiot]

A couple of possible issues. First DV AVI is not uncompressed. It is very compressed and will rake havoc on your graphics. If you want uncompressed, set your compression to ‘none’.

The other possibility is your setup in Photoshop. The easiest way to work is in the right Pixel Aspect Ratio.

When creating a new document, change the Pixel Aspect Ratio on the bottom to either .9 for 4:3 sequences or 1.2 for 16:9/ widescreen sequences. This does not apply to HD sequences.

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Jeff Brown]

Try not using “interlaced”. For PNG, that is a web-relative setting; has nothing to do with video. It’s akin to JPEG-progressive; relates to how an image is displayed when called up in a browser.
That said, I’d use PSD files over a transparent background. That seems to give the best alpha translation when going into Premiere.

Footnote: DPI is irrelevant for video.

-jeff

[Ann Bens]

I second that: psd is the best format and in most cased make sure it has the same framesize and PAR as your sequence.

[Buck Wyckoff]

I’m weak on Photoshop and just learning Premier (Lynda.com training is getting me up to speed), but I thought I’d mention this technique incase Toni is up against a desparate deadline and the other comments aren’t working out. I learned it from Richard Harrington’s book, Photoshop for Non-Linear Editors.

Anyway, his take is that Photoshop has no alpha channel unless you create it. After your graphics/text is created, make a blank layer. I call it “flatten” and have it at the top of my layers. Hide all the layers but the ones you want in the graphic file you are about to create. With the “flatten” layer selected, link the other layers to it (toggle the link chain icon next to the visibility icon). Then hold the ALT (OPT) key and in the layer pallet pulldown, select Merge Linked. It will be greyed out unless you have linked some layers.

Then with CTLR (Command) key held down, select the “flatten” layer and you get the marching ants selection around everything visible (the selection should encompass layer style things like drop shadow as well). Then in the channels pallet you can select the Create New Channel button at the bottom and you will create an alpha channel.

Now if you do a Save As to a tiff, targa (or png I presume) a perfect alpha channel layer is included. Now, tiff and targa saves with the 32-bit option enabled. Photoshop senses that there is an alpha channel and allows you to save a 32-bit file.

After I save it, three undos gets you back to not having anything in the “flatten” layer.

I create all text for an entire project in one Photshop file and by turning things on and off and going through this process, I can save all the individual graphic files with alpha for my NLE.

This method he advocates seems cludgy and laborious, but it works. You’d think something more straight forward, like a PSD file with a transparant background would be better. If you are editing in Premier, it should understand a PSD file and key it properly. I was editing in Velocity and am just moving to Premier, so I just don’t have experience with this.

For things like drop shadow, you need a black background so the transparent shadows key properly. There are other issues with this, but I don’t want to go on too long about his method.

I suspect setting aspect ratio is nice so that graphics that wind up in an NLE with non-square pixels will look correct while you are designing them on a square pixel display (you computer screen). But the file saved (TGA, TIFF, PNG) is just square pixels. The stretching happens on the display of an output monitor in an NTSC format.

The PAR is an aid so that circles you create in 720×480 on a computer screen aren’t ovals viewed in video output, but the file itself doesn’t do pixel stretching. It is irrelevant on the quality of the saved file and the keyed result in the NLE.

[Toni martin Dobrzanski]

Thanks for all the info!! I really appreciate it!

Right now we have a tight deadline for another production… so I have to finish that first. Fortunately I have enough time to fix this issue on the new project – for the first time ever not being under pressure 🙂

So I’ll go through all your advices on monday next week!

Hopefully it will work! And if it works I’ll just have to edit about 70 graphics – which then also are animated in Premiere…. that’ll be fun 😉

Cheers!!
Toni

[James Brady]

Not to worry, Toni: There are tools in both Photoshop and Premeire to make your editing and replacement of graphics easier.

I’m going to agree with all the comments about simply using PSD files with no background. It’s easy, and works great–no need to generate an alpha channel, Premiere will ask you how you want to interpret PSD files (one layer at a time, merged, as a precomp, etc.).

Anyway, when you get ready to re-do your graphics: if they don’t already exist as PSD files, you can open all of your PNG’s in Photoshop and set up a macro (Photoshop calls it an “action”) to re-save them all as PSD files instead. If you need help with this I can post how later–but in the interest of keeping this reply from being ridiculously long, I’ll skip it for now.

Then, when you’re ready to replace all of your PNGs in Premiere with your new PSDs: Import all of your PSDs. Then, while holding the ALT key, click and drag PSD#1 from your project bin down to PNG#1 on your timeline. When you release the mouse button, PSD#1 will replace PNG#1 and retain all of your animation keyframes and effects. Do this with each respecive PSD/PNG and voila! It’s still a bit tedious, but it beats copy/pasting keyframes!

Hope this helps!

James Brady
Senior Editor
Results Video & Animation
El Paso, Texas
http://www.resultsvideo.com

[Toni martin Dobrzanski]

Hi everybody…

I’ve tried some of the things you mentioned and I still have some problems.

Illustrator:
One of my graphics were created in illustrator. I imported it into Premiere as an AI-file and everything just showed as it’s supposed to. So that was easy. No jagged/pixelated edges.

Photoshop:
I have another graphic though, which I still can’t grasp why it’s showing jagged edges. It’s a small triangle (it’s the dvd-series logo) which I had put into the video as a PNG and downsized the PNG in Premiere – this was probably why I didn’t work to begin with. After your advices I tried making a 720 X 576 Widescreen (1,4587 -PAL) project in Photoshop and making the triangle the exact same size as it should appear in the video (so no need for resizing later) and having a transparent background. I used the PSD file in Premiere and exported the sequence as DV PAL and burned a DVD. This helped some on the jagged edges, but still not enough. Two of the sides of the triangle were almost smooth but one side still remains quite jagged. What could be wrong? And why is it only one of the sides that remain jagged?
If I export a still-frame out of the sequence in Premiere though, the jagged edges disappear and the graphic is really smooth in the tiff-file… (???).

Anyone?

Thanks,
Toni

[Toni martin Dobrzanski]

I’ve made a small video-clip for preview (75 MB):

https://www.soundcomposer.dk/TEST/TEST_2.avi

at first the triangle that fades in is the PNG file. In 0:12 the triangle changes to the PSD file – the edges become quite clearer. But still it’s the top side of the triangle, which is jagged compared to the other two sides.

Why is this happening? Has it something to do with aliasing?

Sorry for my lack of knowledge 🙁

[Vince Becquiot]

Again, my first thought is a pixel aspect ratio problem.

Is this all done in Premiere, or are you going through After Effects?

Vince Becquiot

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[James Brady]

Toni,
Are you monitoring to an external interlaced monitor–or on the computer screen only? If your project is interlaced, some diagonal lines will appear this way on a progressive-scan monitor, but not on your final output monitor. …Just a thought.

James Brady
Senior Editor
Results Video & Animation
El Paso, Texas
http://www.resultsvideo.com