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Scrolling text “shaking”?
I just noticed that my scrolling credits bob up and down slightly as they scroll up the screen. I only notice it in the smaller type (my font is Lucida Grande at 17 point). I’ve tried making the font a darker shade of gray, but it doesn’t seem to be improving the shaking. Any suggestions?
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10 Replies
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Use a larger font. Don’t scroll the text.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 3.5 HD Editing Workshop” -
If you are using FCP’s scrolling text, you might want to try the Boris Scrolling text which for me looks smoother. Small fonts are a problem and if you are doing a credit roll for TV, small fonts are hard to read anyway.
The speed of the scrolling makes a difference too. Try a longer or shorter scroll to see if it is just a bad combination of font size, style and speed. Some people suggest a slight blur can help.
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I can attest… A one pixel blur from Boris Continuum Complete or something like that works wonders.
Seth
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison -
If you are working in NTSC standard def, make your vertical rolls in multiples of 120 pixels/second and you’ll get very smooth rolls regardless of the font style or size.
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17 point won’t look good on video even if it’s still, and will look worse when it’s moving. Unfortunately there has never been a way to set scroll speeds based on pixels in FCP, or better yet a scroll tool that has specific rates of travel for NTSC or PAL video, the way Chyron and real character generators do.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 3.5 HD Editing Workshop” -
I just rolled a page of text that was 17 “point” (lines} and it looked just as good as our Chyron or A-72 ever did on an NTSC monitor. I used the motion tab and also the Boris controls with the same results.
Edit a page of text into a sequence exactly 4 seconds long, set Y position key frames at 0 and 4 seconds. At key frame 1 set Y position to 0 and at key frame 2 set Y position to 480 (120×4=480).
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I’d quibble about how good 17 point looks. I think it looks pretty poor, still or otherwise. You’re talking about animating. I’m talking about a text plugin or text tool within the application. There isn’t one. Strangely there isn’t one in any application that I know of. Only AE has a way of setting speed based on pixel movement.
Position y 0 is the center of the screen, you’d have to set timing for -480 to 480 for DV. One more reason to get out of this interlaced garbage and work in a progressive format.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 3.5 HD Editing Workshop” -
And I forgot to allow for the pixel height, and there’s the rub of course. -480 will set the text at the bottom of the screen. You need to start with the text off the screen. So you have to calculate on how far the text as to move from it’s off screen position, and of course if you have a large text block, the off screen position might be -1200 or -1782 pixels of some such and then you have to calculate it’s plus side position, and I’m no good at math and my head hurts already. Give me a plug-in with preset speeds. Can it be that hard?
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 3.5 HD Editing Workshop” -
Haha…yeah I’d have to agree with Tom on this one. I’ve replaced my 17-point font with 20, FCP scrolling text with Boris crawl, and it’s made a significant difference. Thanks to all who responded!
~ Cathy
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Ummm.. you’ll still have to do the math. There’s only one speed that a scroll looks good at. And the math takes about half a second to calculate. A lot quicker than bickering about it here.
You want good scrolling text in FCP, learn how ntsc works. Yes, it’s sad that Avid’s roll has had speed presets since 1996, but that’s only 12 years ago. I’m sure we’ll catch up someday. 🙁
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