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Resolution issues
Hello! I always used this forum to find answers, but now i have an issue i can’t resolve on my own and i didn’t find a familiar thread anywhere.
I am doing a classic hand-drawn animation. After i finish the drawing on a DIN A4 paper, i scan every frame at 600dpi, save it in a .tiff container and import it to afx.
My issue is, that after i import the image sequences, i can see a huge resolution difference between the imported one and the original. Quality loss is not because of the preview (which is set to full resolution) and doesn’t improve after an export.
For my project i am using a 1.85:1 sequence at 1998×1080, 24fps. The current version i am using is AFX CC 14.1.0.57.
The main and all other sequences have the “preserve resolution when nested” option checked. The quality and sampling switch is set to – bilinear.
On this screenshot you can see the quality loss. The blurry picture on the left is a detail from the image that has been imported and exported from afx in a .mov container with a Avid’s DNxHR 444 codec.
The one on the right is the original and the screenshot is taken from the default windows image viewer.Does somebody know what i am doing wrong, and why this blurriness occurs while working in afx, and doesn’t disappear after the export?
Thanks!
Dimiter Ovtcharov -
9 Replies
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And if you open the scanned image in Photoshop is it clear or blurry? 600DPi..so that means the images are huge right. And so how big is your composition. How far did you scale down or up the images in the composition? Sometimes going too big is not the right answer. Sometimes going smaller can get better results. try making a sample selection smaller in photoshop and export that in after effects and see if you get better results. ..and of course also render to a png sequence to make sure its just not a video compression problem
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Thank you, for taking your time and helping me with my problems.
If i open the original image in Photoshop it is crystal clear. As mentioned, my composition is set to (1.85:1) 1998x1080px. Pixel aspect ratio is set to: Square Pixels. I scaled the scanned images by approx. 70% so they fit my needs.
Here are the results of the down-scaling test. It seems that the first image, that i resized in Photoshop, so i don’t need to do any additional re-scaling in afx is more blurry than the one that i scaled in afx by 70%. The third image is a preview of the original image in Photoshop.I`ve tried to export a .png sequence, or a .tiff sequence – same results. There is loss in quality.
Thank you again!Dimiter Ovtcharov
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the downsized one is clearly sharper!…if your comp is 1920×1080 then the size of your images should be 1920×1080 …wait…are you zooming in on the render or is that just the full size.
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Pardom me saying but you must be missing some dumb thing.
You never said the actual resolution of the images you’re importing. DPI means nothing to after effects, so take that out of the question entirely! Work in pixels from now on…and save all your images to 72dpi.
Now, if you have any image at any resolution and you import it to a 1998×1080 pixels composition in After Effects and in a 1998×1080 canvas in photoshop. They MUST look identical at full resolution display and zoom.
If that’s not the case, You should first try with any other web image…next with your image in another machine. Come back with your results! Or please upload this possessed image so we can test how it’s doing its magic!
Good luck!
Cassius Marques
http://www.zapfilmes.com -
Hello, thank you again for the answer – The comp size i use is 1998×1080, not 1920×1080.
The previous downlscaled image (at screenshot marked with “downscaling to fit”) was imported into the comp size -1998×1080 with 72 dpi – 5104x7016px. Yes, all the screenshots are zoomed in pictures of the final render.Kind regards,
Dimiter Ovtcharov -
Hello!
This is the image size i import into afx.
I am afraid that i can’t resize all the image footage to match the sequence dimensions, because some of the scenes require a drastic camera zoom. That is why i want them to be in a higher resolution.Kind regards,
Dimiter Ovtcharov -
If you convert that do 72 dpi (which is the thing that’s probably happening in AE) your actual workable resolution is 842×612, which isn’t a lot.
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You don’t have to resize anything. Leave your images on default scanned values. If you have a 7016x5104px image, just make sure AE is import it as such.
Now then…you’re either taking those screen shots after you’ve precomposed things and/or zoomed in somehow, because there’s no way AE would render an image different than its pixels are. You’re not showing us the whole picture, and by that I mean what it is you’re doing inside AE before exporting. For a start that checkbox you checked to “keep resolution inside nested…” is exactly the opposite of what you want. And would only make sense if you have at least two compositions. So, whats happening within AE?
Cassius Marques
http://www.zapfilmes.com -
Hey!
Yes, i am showing only a detail of the image. Otherwise, there is no way for you to see the difference.
The resolution gets spoiled, when i import all the .tiff footage, connect the layers to a null object and then resize them.
Then i can see in the preview window (set on full resoultion) that the image is already blurry.
I tried to export the same frame to a .png, .tiff or a Avid DNxHR 444 and to compare this zoomed in spot, but it is not only the faulty preview in AFX.This is a 4 min. long multi-layered hand-drawn animation, there is a complex composition hierarchy. This is why “keep resolution inside nested…” is checked.
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