Pixelation when importing hi-res stills

[Jack Kelly]

Here are some illustrations:

The image directly below is what it should look like. I took this image from the “footage” window in After Effects:

The image below is what the image looks like once I’ve imported it into the composition. Note the jaggies on the guy’s trousers.

And below is proof that I’m using the best quality settings and that I haven’t zoomed into the image at all.

Any ideas why I’m seeing jaggies on the image after I import it into the composition?

Thanks,
Jack

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Jack Kelly
London
Dir / Prod / Camera
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[Jack Kelly]

Oh… and I’ve tried setting the “origin” to various different values and that doesn’t work either.

Thanks,
Jack

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Jack Kelly
London
Dir / Prod / Camera
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[David Frisk]

Well in your screenshot it looks as though you have the PAR correction on which would make the quality worsen. I’m not sure what the settings were of your comp for the posted pics, but what happens if you make the comp with the exact same settings as the picture (drag your picture onto the “new composition” icon)? Does it still look that way?

[Jack Kelly]

Hi!

Many thanks for the reply.

If I drag the picture onto the “new comp” icon then it does have exactly the same jaggy problems!

What is the “PAR correction”? I’ve looked for it in the help but no joy!

Thanks again for your reply,
Jack

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Jack Kelly
London
Dir / Prod / Camera
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[David Frisk]

Pixel Aspect Ratio correction is for when you’re working with non-square pixels. Since computer monitors have square pixels, images made up of non-square pixels look a little stretched. So they have the PAR correction button which adjusts the picture so that it looks more like it would on a TV, as opposed to the distorted way it kind of looks on your monitor. However, when you use it, the picture loses a little quality. It looks like yours is turned on.

The button is located at the bottom of the comp window. It’s the button just to the right of where you pick your camerea view (Yours is set to “Active Camera”). So hit the button just to the right of it to turn it off, because I think you have it turned on.

[Jack Kelly]

Sorry, I was being dense… I forgot PAR = Pixel Aspect Ratio!

I tried togling the PAR button but no joy… the image imported into the comp has more jaggies than the same image in the “footage” window, albeit slightly reduced.

Thanks,
Jack

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Jack Kelly
London
Dir / Prod / Camera
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[David Frisk]

Sorry, I’m out of ideas. I’m thinking somethings gotta be set weird in your comp settings or something if it looks fine in the footage window…but I really couldn’t tell you for sure.

Maybe someone tomorrow can help you. Best of luck.

[Jack Kelly]

OK, thanks!

Jack

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Jack Kelly
London
Dir / Prod / Camera
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[Steve Roberts]

Yep, PAR correction does muck it up.
And having the image at a half-pixel position can muck it up … hmm …

Can you show us a screengrab of the image info in the project window? Maybe it’s RAW or something, and should be a TIFF or PSD. Maybe.

And maybe a new screengrab of the comp with PAR correction off.

Steve

[Jack Kelly]

Hi,

Thanks loads for your reply.

The images aren’t RAW. I shot raw and then used PS CS2’s RAW converter to convert the images to 16-bit PSD files.

I originally imported these 16-bit PSD files directly into AE. Then, when I noticed the nasty jaggies, I tried outputting 8-bit TIFFs from PS and importing these into AE. The jaggies remained no matter if the files are TIFFs or PSDs.

I will upload some more (thrilling) screen-grabs tonight (in about 9 hours, at 10pm GMT!)

Thanks,
Jack

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Jack Kelly
London
Dir / Prod / Camera
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