jitter caused by keyframing drop shadow in FCP

[Jerry Hofmann]

Wish I could replicate this, but my display card went south this morning (what I’m seeing here on my system could be called digital art LOL… but maybe help will come faster if you post how you got to your current software setup…i.e. did you perform a totally clean install of Tiger, then install FCP 5 over it? Gotta admit that I’ve not keyframed changes in a drop shadow in the current software so can’t say it’s not a bug… However, strange things are happening on systems that were simply upgraded from previous OS and FCP HD installs… maybe your problem is due to that? Might add too that what you are doing should work without the jitters… so don’t think it’s user error or anything like it.

Might try just moving the picture in picture to a whole number vertically if you’re not. i.e. not .96 but at 1 or 0…?

Jerry

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[Becky]

Thanks for getting back to me. The system was completely new as of this summer, and everything was installed clean and fresh, straight out of the box. The X-serve raid had the 1.0 update installed too, right at the start.

In response to your suggestion of using whole number keyframes for the drop shadows (instead of tenths or hundreds), I have exactly that on another image with jitters and keyframed drop shadow.

I did do another experiment that’s isolated the problem to just the “offset” parameter of the drop shadow: I had an image for which I’d keyframed offset, opacity and softness. I tried first deleting the opacity and softness keyframes and leaving the offset, and that still had jitter. I then reversed it and deleted the offset keyframes but kept softness and opacity, and the jitter was gone.

So it’s looking like a bug with the drop shadow offset keyframe alone. Any chance of a patch?

Thanks again for your help — I really appreciate it.

Becky

[Kevin Monahan]

Can you try this on a PICT or PSD File? TIFFs are wacked sometimes. Also, are you seeing this on your video monitor? You have to check this on a video monitor to be sure.

Kevin Monahan
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[Becky]

I have tried it not only on TIF but also PSD files and DVCPro50 video files (cropped with drop shadow), and as I said in the original post, it makes no difference what the original format is — the jitter is still there.

And yes, I see it on my Sony PVM14L5 monitor. It appears both in normal play mode, and when I stop the timeline and go forward frame by frame. About every five or so frames, the image shifts down a pixel, then shifts back up for the next five frames. When I print to tape the jitter is there as well.

Thanks,
Becky