Shimmering Credits

[John Rofrano]

The flickering is due to interlacing. What you can do is add a slight Gaussian blur in the vertical (0.002) to blur the fields together. Using a larger font also helps. Never use a font with serifs.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Christopher Key]

Thanks John, I’ll try that right now. I’ll let you know what happens

At one point during this project I remember it seemed like the problem went away when I rendered the original as AVI uncompressed and then let DVD architect do the mpeg2 conversion. Does this make sense? Is it better to do so or are the rendering engines in Vegas and DVD architect the same?

Christopher Key

[John Rofrano]

[Christopher Key] “At one point during this project I remember it seemed like the problem went away when I rendered the original as AVI uncompressed and then let DVD architect do the mpeg2 conversion. Does this make sense?”

The only thing that should change it is if you render progressive because that avoids the interlacing. It may still look bad on an interlaced TV but it will look great on a progressive LCD display.

[Christopher Key] “Is it better to do so or are the rendering engines in Vegas and DVD architect the same?”

The rendering engine in Vegas gives you more control and so it is preferred but I assume it’s the same engine used by DVD Architect. It’s just in DVD Architect there is no control; you take the defaults.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Christopher Key]

I tried the blur and it helped a little but, now the text shimmers less but looks a little blurry. I’ve also tried re-rendering the credit roll in AE with different fonts – and that did not solve the problem 100%. Now I’m afraid I’ll have to try the Sony credit roll plug in. I’ve used it in the past but the credits in this project are long and complicated and the client wants their logos included as well. Is there any easy way to get a text file into the credit roll plug-in rather than entering lines and names one at a time? If Sony wants us to use Vegas in professional projects – it seems the credit roll is something that could be improved.

Christopher Key

[John Rofrano]

[Christopher Key] “Is there any easy way to get a text file into the credit roll plug-in rather than entering lines and names one at a time?”

Sure… cut and paste from a text file (Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V). I do it all the time. You can even add tabs in the text document and get the left….right credits working.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Christopher Key]

Thanks John,

I actually did cut and paste the credits and it worked – thats cool! I’m still having problems removing the flickering. I still have several questions.

1) is there a reccomended workflow to avoid this type of issue in the future? A specific font/size that works really well? Should I always use the blur when creating a credit roll?

2) I do a lot of work with stills creating slideshows – I’ve noticed similar issues sometimes – usually its a rooftop, a fence or water that can look strange while panning or zooming – Is there a way to avoid this as well?

And if rendering something for the web – should it be rendered as progressive?

Thanks for all your help.

Christopher Key

[John Rofrano]

[Christopher Key] “1) is there a reccomended workflow to avoid this type of issue in the future? A specific font/size that works really well? Should I always use the blur when creating a credit roll?”

It doesn’t matter how large the font is, the edges will still crawl as they scroll (although it is less noticeable on larger block fonts). I’ve even seen this on Hollywood DVD’s. It’s the nature of interlacing being field based. The only solution is to render progressive and hope the person watching it has a DVD player and TV that will support progressive output. Otherwise even then, the DVD player might interlace your progressive footage anyway. That’s why the slight blur is the only thing that works 100% of the time.

[Christopher Key] “2) I do a lot of work with stills creating slideshows – I’ve noticed similar issues sometimes – usually its a rooftop, a fence or water that can look strange while panning or zooming – Is there a way to avoid this as well?”

This is the same problem. Any line or detail that is less than two fields high will flicker as the fields alternate. A slight vertical blur is also used to correct this so that the lines are wider then one field.

[Christopher Key] “And if rendering something for the web – should it be rendered as progressive?”

Yes, absolutely. PC screens are not interlaced and therefore web video should not be interlaced.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Christopher Key]

Thanks John,

I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us all.

One thing that seemed to help was I re-worked the credit roll by creating the original credits in Illustrator with a rounded edge font and then used the blur in AE specifically designed to remove the interlace flicker. Finally problem solved.

Christopher Key