Photoshop titles to FC workflow

[Walter Miale]

OK, I get it. When the Photoshop file (with type as shape) is placed in Photoshop and opened from the browser, the type in the nested sequence is clean, and it’s still ok after draging the visible layer into the timeline with the background.

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Walter,
You are not exporting to DV, don’t you?
Set your canvas at 100%, overlays out, and look how it look to rendering to prores or so.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Walter Miale]

oh yeah, that’s good.

But what’s the difference whether I’m exporting to dv or not? Sometimes to dv, usually to QT full-size or web-size, but at the moment to Compressor for encoding to DVD.

Thanks.

Walter

[Richard Harrington]

1. You should visit our Photoshop forum and watch some of the podcasts
2. Design at native size with nonsquare pixels
3. Adjust your Type anti-alias method in Photoshop Options bar
4. Save with an alpha
5. Don’t use DV codec… switch sequence at end to DV50 and render… DV KILLS graphics and tosses 75% plus of information.

Richard M. Harrington, PMP

Author: Video Made on a Mac, Photoshop for Video, Understanding Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Studio On the Spot and ATS:iWork

[Walter Miale]

“1. You should visit our Photoshop forum and watch some of the podcasts”

Wow very impressive.

“2. Design at native size with nonsquare pixels”

Oh yes. I was working at 720 x 534 with square pixels (to match dv NTSC). What ratio should the pixels be?

“3. Adjust your Type anti-alias method in Photoshop Options bar
“4. Save with an alpha”

Hey I didn’t know about that. Always convert type to shape?

“5. Don’t use DV codec… switch sequence at end to DV50 and render… DV KILLS graphics and tosses 75% plus of information.”

I’m converting active sequences to ProRes 422 NTSC, OK?

Thanks!

Walter

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Walter,
The only time you should export to DV is when you need to print back to DV tape.
Whenever you have to render your footage, is convenient to export to a codec better than the original: You avoid further picture degradation and graphics and other effects hold much better. This is worth even if you will go to Compressor for an MPEG-2 or an H264.
You can export to DV50, as Michael points or to Prores.
A very good solution is PhotoJPEG at 75% quality: 422, and files smaller than DV.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Walter Miale]

Rafael –

Is converting the timeline settings to ProRes equivalent to exporting to ProRes?

If I export unrendered sequences for m2v or H264, what difference do the timeline settings make?

I use Photoshop files instead of jpeg. Is this overkill? (seems OK)

What do you mean “files smaller than dv”?

Thanks again.

walter

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Walter,
If you “Send to Compressor” from your time-line you get full quality because the sequence is not recompress to the Sequence codec (DV or whatever). You send to Compressor a 444 picture.
Set “Render all YUV material in High Precision”.
However sending to Compressor from the time-line may increase A LOT the export time.
When you Send to Compressor, the sequence must be rendered again (even if was already), and when make a Double Pass MPEG-2 the rendering is done twice, and in a Multi-pass H264 everything is processed THREE times.
The best solution is to export from FC a high quality master, then if you need to make any MPEG-2, web-video or whatever, Compressor just need to transcode and perhaps resizes.
If you are editing in DV, keep like that. Change the sequence codec just before exporting.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Walter Miale]

Thanks so much for your help Rafael.

I’m afraid I’m still not fully following. My understanding was that for best quality one wants to never render a clip that has already been rendered, yes?

So that if one is going to output for m2v encoding, the best thing would be to send for encoding a timeline in which nothing has been rendered (or in which all the clips were dis-enabled and then re-enabled). Is this not true?

Another Q: If I have nothing selected in the timeline and I change the timeline settings to “Render all YUV material in High Precision” will this override all the clip settings AND the overall timeline format (eg dv/dvcPro or ProRes 222–where it’s only 10-bit material that is rendered in High Precision YUV)?

Thanks yet again.

Walter

Walter

[Rafael Amador]

[Walter Miale] “I’m afraid I’m still not fully following. My understanding was that for best quality one wants to never render a clip that has already been rendered, yes?

If you mean try don’t re-compress stuff that have bee already compressed, yes.
This is why when working with DV or any other compressed footage, is important t try to avoid furthere re-compression.

So that if one is going to output for m2v encoding, the best thing would be to send for encoding a timeline in which nothing has been rendered (or in which all the clips were dis-enabled and then re-enabled). Is this not true? “
If the sequence have been rendered or not, it doesn’t change much. What it was not rendered it will be on export.
You may edit and render in DV for Preview and before exporting change the codec.
Render the sequence and export or export at once will have the same result, and will depend very much of the codec.

[Walter Miale] “Another Q: If I have nothing selected in the timeline and I change the timeline settings to “Render all YUV material in High Precision” will this override all the clip settings AND the overall timeline format (eg dv/dvcPro or ProRes 222–where it’s only 10-bit material that is rendered in High Precision YUV)? “
This doesn’t change nothing on the clips but in the accuracy of all the processes. Allows 32 b Floating point rendering. Is a “Sequence Setting” and if you change it the sequence will need to be rendered again (if it was so).

If you are working in DV, there are three things that you can do to improve a lot your picture:
– Apply a “Chroma Filter” (Nattres “Chroma Smooth/Sharpen”) and some basic Color Correction (Contrast).
– Render in High Precision.
– Render to a 422 codec (better 10b: Prores).
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com