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Reds getting Crunchy
This has been bugging me for a long time and I finally want to solve it. Working in FCP 4.5. Images (Logos, mostly) I create in Photoshop, if they have any red at all, look fine in FCP until I render them and then they get all crunchy and artifacty. Tried the NTSC color filters (both PS and FCP’s broadcast safe), cranking the red way down, desaturating, color smoothing (in FCP), different formats (tiff, png, etc).
What’s happening and how can I work around it? (short of using blurs and going b/w)
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6 Replies
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In general, the color red is gives NTSC fits. I’m not an expert in this area, so if you are new to the video realm and have a print background, you may just not yet be adjusted to the limits of the medium. Are you editing in DV codec? You will get a little more tolerance to RED out of 10 BIT Uncompressed.
G5 2Gg Dual
1.5Gg RAM
Panther
ATTO UL3D -
Bumping the sequence up to 10 bit uncompressed just to make a red logo look good isn’t an option here. And I’ve occasionally had red image files render fine. What’s different? Any tips on the exact color values? Can I change the rendering options of imported images in FC? I’ve even taken these into After Effects, played and displayed fine, then got artifacty when brought back to FC as mov file (lossless with alpha).
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Are you viewing the results on an NTSC monitor? You don’t say if you are or not, so I’m guessing that you’re not. FCP is designed to work with an external video monitor, and if you’re not using one, then you’re not seeing the ‘real’ picture. The Canvas window only shows a low-res ‘preview’ and doesn’t show both fields of each frame.
Connect a video monitor, then tell us how it looks. Consult the manual if you need help connecting the monitor, there are diagrams to show you how to connect it using a number of different combinations. And make sure that you connect your speakers to the same source as your monitor!
Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com -
You never mentioned what codec your working with in FCP. If you’re working in DV you’ll likely see this issue pop up quite often. The Apple DV codec seems to have problems with reds. We do most of our work in DV 50, 8 bit uncompressed or 10 bit and therefore never see this problem. Occasionally we’ll do an offline job in DV and see the problem you’re describing.
Michael Alberts
Ambidextrous Productions, Inc. -
Yes, monitoring on NTSC monitor. Computer-safe colors almost never look bad on the computer monitor. Yup, Apple DV codec. Switching codecs isn’t an option, we have a workflow here that isn’t likely to change. I know you can change certain aspects of the way Final Cut handles/renders stills you import (eg. I think you can clamp superwhite automatically or not), is there a setting for chroma? I have also seen red stills/logos translate just fine when rendered in FCP at regular DV. I know it’s possible, I just can’t get there…
Does anyone know what optimal color values should be for working with red photoshop exports??
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Two small and obvious things…
Make sure you are working in RGB and not CMYK in PhotoShop.
When selecting colors in the Photoshop color palette, watch for the little exclaimation mark (!) to appear over on the right side of the box. Try not to have it appear if possible. It indicates a color that’s too saturated or too bright.
tom
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