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Jpeg photo moves are bad-jaggy, stairstepped
I’ve posted this quesiton to the AE forum also, but am looking for help where ever I can get it. Moving some photos in After Effects.
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Ok, I’ve been doing this sort of thing for some time and now I’m confused. I have some digital photos taken with a Canon camera (8MP) and am doing simple moves on them–zooms, pans. I am adding some other elements (like arrows), or using solids and masks.When imported into FCP they are very jaggy or stairstepped. I’ve read Rick Gerard’s pixel aspect ratio article, scanned all the posts–nothing has helped.
I have tried:
– Comp size 720×540 Sq pixel, output as same, output as 720×486, output as 720×480.
– Comp Size 680×486 sq pixel, output as same
– Comp Size 720×480 Non-Sq, output as same (tried making photo “Fit to Comp” and then move–same thing.)
– Resizing photos in Photoshop to DV pixel aspect ratio, making the comp DV size also.
– Both field (lower) and frame renders.Using AE7, and taking the comps into FCP 5.12 into a 720×480 DV project.
What am I missing?
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12 Replies
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Are you viewing these pictures on an external monitor? NEVER judge the quality of anything in FCP using the computer monitors. The image in the VIEWER and CANVAS is not full resolution.
1. Disable overlays on the canvas
2. Make sure you’ve rendered everything (no green bars at the top of the timelinehttps://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24787
Video playback requires large amounts of data and many computations. In order to maintain frame rate and be viewable at a normal size, only about one-fourth of the DV data is used in displaying the movie to the screen. However, the DV footage is still at full quality, and is best viewed thru a TV or NTSC monitor routed thru your camera or deck.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
[JumpCut Ed] “What am I missing?”
Ed,
Just so you know, animating stills right in FCP is easy and the results outstanding, so there is no reason to struggle and little reason, if any, to animate them in After Effects.
As far as what you’re missing, the first thing is that you’re not telling us what your objective is for these animated stills. Is it broadcast, web video, DVD??? All we know at this point is what you’ve failed to accomplish, but you have not told us what your goal is.
“No job is worth doing more than once…”
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles -
[Shane Ross] “Are you viewing these pictures on an external monitor?”
External Sony 14″ CRT.
[Shane Ross] “https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24787”
Yeah, but this article refers more to captured video–that’s not the problem here.The other recommended items didn’t help either, but thank you.
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[David Roth Weiss] “little reason, if any, to animate them in After Effect”
Thanks David. Well, besides the photo, I am adding several layers of solids created in the AE composition (with masks) and moving the entire composition (zooming in). There are some photos I am doing moves on in FCP (and they look great), but some just need more effects.
[David Roth Weiss] “you’re not telling us what your objective is”
The end product will be a DVD. -
[Dave LaRonde] “he SIZE of the pictures you’re trying to animate”
Dave, These are nice, big still images. They are from an 8MP camera. I have used the original (3504×2336), I have resized in Photoshop to 200×1333, with the same results.
Ed
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Ed,
At least part of the problem is caused by rendering with the DV codec. Your solid layers in AE will take big hits for sure and most likely the stills as well. Try anything else, such as DV50 (DVCPro50) or 8-bit uncompressed and see if that helps.
David
“No job is worth doing more than once…”
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles -
Here is a link to what I am seeing. Jaggies between the black and the metal frame, jaggies running around the metal frame.
This is a 3 sec., animation codec file, so it is large (80Mb).
https://www.jumpcutpictures.com/Samples/2-4_PS2.mov
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I definitely see what you’re seeing. Those sharp vertical edges don’t help much.
I think part of the problem is color space, so do try a codec other than DV for that, and also add a directional-vertical blur as well, to smooth out the movement over the scan lines.
“No job is worth doing more than once…”
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles -
I’m with David. That is the DV compression at work. DV does horrid things to stills.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
No offense intended if I ask things that are basic or obvious to you. That doesn’t look like normal DV compression to me. It’s really ugly. It looks about 1/2 resolution–as if it’s deinterlaced by throwing away one field. Does your AE render look good in Quicktime prior to import to FCP? Are you sure the rendered Quicktime is at Best quality and Full resolution?
Normal workflow would be a 720×480 DV comp in AE. Photos would be interpreted as square pixel. Render fields, lower first (assuming that matches your FCP sequence). I’m sure you tried that combination among others.
If the animations are good prior to placement in FCP but bad inside FCP, look to your sequence settings to explain the trouble. If your FCP sequence is plain old 29.97 NTSC DV, interlaced lower first, your AE render must match that in terms of frame size, frame rate, and field rendering. Also check to make sure your AE clip has not been moved or scaled via a FCP motion effect.
I love a mystery. Be sure to let us know if you find the fix.
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