Pixelated exported After Effects and text in CS3 Premiere

[Mike Canella]

I have gone through my projects and here are the answers to the checklist… Does this help narrow down the problem?

What was the Pixel Aspect Ratio in the file brought into AE ? — The video brought into AE was 4:3, 720×480, codec-H.264
>>>but this was just the credits which have been replaced in Premiere by title slates.

What are the composition settings in AE? — NTSC DV, 720×480, Aspect Ration 3:2 (locked), Pixel Aspect Ratio: D1/DV NTSC (0.9)

What are the export settings in AE? — Render Queue >
Render Settings: Default Settings
Output Module: [Lossless]Quicktime, Project Link, None / [Video Output] RGB, Millions of Colors, Premultiplied (Matted)

Once imported in Premiere, right click on the clip, interpret footage. What are the settings ? –Interpret Footage>
[Frame Rate: Use Frame Rate From File: 29.9700 (checked)]
[Pixel Aspect Ratio: Use Pixel Aspect Ration from File: D1/DV NTSC (0.9) (checked)]
[Alpha Channel: (nothing checked)]

Do any of these settings help to narrow my problem? Thanks again for your help!

[Vince Becquiot]

Try this:

Change your AE compostion settings to square pixels and replace 720 by 648 in your resolution settings. (if you were working in a widescreen project you would choose 864 instead.)

The first thing you will notice is that your AE preview window is now clearer, and probably in the right aspect ratio if you didn’t have the correct aspect ratio option checked.
That’s because AE likes to work in square pixels. Do your normal export.

Then in your Premiere import make it is interpreted as square as well. That should fix your issue.

Vince Becquiot
Director | Editor

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Mike Canella]

….unfortunately the footage doe not look much better. It may look slightly better, but it is not noticeable and it still looks very unprofessional.

Thanks though. Any other ideas?

[Vince Becquiot]

Ok, let me just confirm a few things here. You are exporting “DV” (you captured it?) from Premiere to AE. The footage looked fine in Premiere, correct?

Now you are adding titles in AE. You changed the settings in your AE composition to 648×480 , square pixels.

Now you are exporting back to Premiere using QT animation.
Your preview window in Premiere is set to best quality.

Now your entire footage looks bad in Premiere (not just the titles).

On a side note, have you tried a different fonts? some font just look bad not matter how they are encoded.

Last question, how does the AE Quicktime export look when played in Quicktime?

Vince Becquiot
Director | Editor

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Mike Canella]

Exporting “DV” (you captured it?) from Premiere to AE. The footage looked fine in Premiere, correct?
>> Yes, I exported/caputred DV and the original footage looks good in Premiere. Video clips were brought into AE and masked/feathered with animated/effected text layers created in AE.

Now you are adding titles in AE. You changed the settings in your AE composition to 648×480 , square pixels.
>>I created animated/effected text layers in AE, and I’ve adjusted the Comp settings to 648×480.

Now you are exporting back to Premiere using QT animation. >> I am exporting out of AE using the Render Queue to a QT Movie (not animation? I don’t have that option)
Your preview window in Premiere is set to best quality. >> Yes

Now your entire footage looks bad in Premiere (not just the titles). >> It is most noticeable in the text layers, but the video quality is diminished a little too.

On a side note, have you tried a different fonts? some font just look bad not matter how they are encoded.
>> Just tried ‘Arial’, still pixelated/grainy… the original font is ‘Monotype Corsiva’

Last question, how does the AE Quicktime export look when played in Quicktime?
>> Once exported as an MOV file, the quality is sharp (just as it is in the comp in AE)

Are we running out of solutions? My next option was to pass of the exported files (from Premiere and AE) to another person and see how they function on their machine…

[Vince Becquiot]

Could it be a Matrox issue? Have you tried working without it?

Vince

Vince Becquiot
Director | Editor

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Mike Canella]

ok! so I was looking the source window of the clip I recently exported out of AE with the settings you recommended and it looks great! but when I pull it into the timeline it looks pixelated again…

Also, the previous video I exported from AE (with the old settings) looks as bad in the Source Monitor as it does in the timeline. Go figure?

I’ll keep working and get back to you if I figure it out.

[Vince Becquiot]

So then it still probably is an pixel aspect ratio issue. The source window displays the PAR from the file, while the preview window displays that of the project.

Could you look at all your project settings one more time and confirm that they are indeed correct ?

Vince Becquiot
Director | Editor

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Mike Canella]

I exported the sequence/project to Encore and created a DVD. It looks good, like it does in the Source, not the Timeline!

Thanks again for all of your help! Very much appreciated! Maybe I’ll return the favor some day, but it appears that you have much more experience than myself.