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Non-square video and 3rd party plugins = softening
Hi,
I’ve noticed this softening before but now I wanted to see if Apple had fixed this. I downloaded MB Looks and Sapphire Edge which both are great plugins and work okay in FCPX if you have square pixel material.
But there seems to be something wrong how FCPX deals with non-square video and plugins. If I for example add MB Looks to SD anamorphic clip it will be very visibly softened. Even with HDV 1440×1080 you can see softening. So it seems that FCPX feeds material to plugins as square pixel so there is scaling involved back and forth and that’s why the softening.
Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad if softening happens once. But if you add for example three MB Looks filters there will be three times softening. So basicly with non-square material 3rd party FCPX filters are useless. Actually even some Apples own effects soften picture. Effects that have some things related to aspect ratio softens picture such as vignette. I hope Apple fixes this thing. I’ve reported it.
Best
Tapio HaajaOn-Air Promotion Producer
https://avseikkailuja.blogspot.com/ -
6 Replies
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Is this after render?
Interlaced material? Are you viewing both frames?
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Yeah I have rendered, looking both frames etc.. I actually reported this to FxFactory guys back in the days in July and they said it’s Apples fault how filters see material through Motion templates. Because if you add these filters straight in Motion to nonsquare material there isn’t any problems but in FCPX it’s bad bad bad…
Best
Tapio HaajaOn-Air Promotion Producer
https://avseikkailuja.blogspot.com/ -
I think it’s an interlace problem. If you change field dominance from interlace to progressive the issue is solved. Try it and let me know
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Nope nope. I’m deeper than interlace problems 😀 I’ve also build some plugins by myself and know quite well how video flows between plugins and program. I’m 99% sure problem is how plugins see video through these Motion templates. Plugins should see video in their original size but motion templates scale non-square material first to square pixel -> then plugin does it’s work -> then FCPX scales material back to anamorphic and this scaling causes blurring…
It doesn’t happen inside Motion where plugins get straight video material pixel by pixel.
Best
Tapio HaajaOn-Air Promotion Producer
https://avseikkailuja.blogspot.com/ -
This blurring problem come out when you apply the chroma key effect too. Very low, but there is.
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Yeah FxFactory guys confirmed this softening and said there’s nothing they can do and hoped people would send lots of feedback for Apple that 3rd party plugin makers can build real plugins that work straight with FCPX and not through these Motion templates which involve lot of limitations and all this scaling (softening) with non-square video material. So please send feecback to Apple. It seems after all that they are listening 🙂
https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html
Best
Tapio HaajaOn-Air Promotion Producer
https://avseikkailuja.blogspot.com/
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