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PS-Motion-FCP workflow
Hi All,
This my first post here, and found the forums a really useful resource so far.I’m currently working a 30 sec advert spot at work, which will be my first foray into editing for broadcast (rather than web which i’m used to!). I know I’ve picked a difficult combination of things to work with, so I’m looking for some guidance on getting the best results, and how to check the output with reasonable confidence.
To sum up I’m working with a text montage in Photoshop, zooming in with Motion and adding further clips and simple edits and outputting in FCP. On of the images is also fairly high contrast, and as you can probably guess, I’m getting mixed results, with jagged text, blurred images etc.
For the best results what are the best workflows and codecs to use at each step?
PS to Motion, Export to FCP
or
PS to FCP to “Send to Motion” back to FCPMy final output needs to be DV-Pal for the broadcasters (tape or QT file).
Any pointers and pitfalls to watch out for would be a great help.
ThanksSam
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7 Replies
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If your zooming in your Photoshop files need to be a bigger size then your working canvas or you’ll get blurred images. Also, if your render quality is set to draft your images won’t look that great as well.
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Thanks, the issue I seem to be having though is more on jagged text. Everything is fine up until the point I add it to the FCP timeline and render it.
I’ve heard this is due to deficiencies in the DV Codec, but the spec from the broadcaster is DV-PAL. Is there any way around this issue or a best practice?
I heard some mention of scanning lines and moving the text up to correct this. I get what looks like a similar issue, but the text is almost blurred horizontally when rendered. Even a straight vertical line in the image looses it’s clarity, as if another copy of the image is overlaid and off set.
S
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So you’re saying everything looks great until it reaches Motion?
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No sorry, to clarify I went from photoshop into motion to create zoom, then exported and added to Final Cut, at which point it looks horrid.
I’ve also tried going from photoshop to Final Cut without any effects, and get the same result. It’s all great until I render the Final Cut timeline!
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In FCP go to: Final Cut Pro, User Preferences, Render Control Tab and set Master Templates and Motion Projects to Best. I mark the check box below as well.
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Thanks Stephen, I’ve tried your suggestion and continued to play around with other settings (under Sequence).
I found the issue can be isolated to the compressor option under “QuickTime Video Settings”. If this is set to any DV codec I get the horrid jagged look, otherwise it’s fine.
The problem is I’ve been specified a QT file in DV-PAL at 25Mbps.
Is there a way around this or anything I can do in FCP/Photoshop to correct this for DV PAL, or do I need to ask if I can submit in another format?
Sam
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[Sam] If this is set to any DV codec I get the horrid jagged look, otherwise it’s fine.
Humm….I’ve never seen this before. Obviously you haven’t either. If you built the whole spot in Motion and just want to render it out in FCP, then change your Quick Time Video Settings to a non DV codac like Uncompressed 8-bit. This will make FCP render the project, but that doesn’t matter because you are going to render it anyways. Then export it out in the DV-Pal format for final delivery.
You may want to re-post this question in the Final Cut Pro forum.
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