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Terrible looking Text
I know this question has been posed before but I’ve searched the archives and haven’t found an answer – what’s worse is I’ve been using LT for a few years and haven’t had this problem before. I’ve always been able to produce nice, crisp text, but this time I’m getting garbage. I did recently upgrade to FCP Studio 2 and it’s the first time I’ve really used LT with it.
Here’s the thing – the Text looks GREAT before I render it. When I play the imported clip in the viewer it looks awesome. Once I render it, I get jagged edges so bad it looks like there are actually stripes running through all the letters. What gives? I mean it’s not just bad, it’s unusable.
But I also tried creating the text in After Effects and had the same problem once I imported and rendered the file.
AND – I get the same effect when I create the type within FCP and render it. What the heck am I doing wrong?
RJ Thomas
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7 Replies
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It is essential when attempting to monitor the QUALITY of images in FCP that you use an external NTSC VIDEO Monitor (or PAL, if that’s where you are).
Especially after you render…
the Canvas is never high-quality (by design) and should not be used to make determinations of image quality of clips or graphics.If you position the graphics, make SURE the VERTICAL setting for each KEY-FRAME (start, stop or hold) is always a EVEN INTEGER. (examples: 4, not 3 / -144, not -143.27 / 336, not 335.62)
I sometimes forget to check this and I can end up with images that look fuzzy when in-position.
This info applies to re-positioning ANYTHING on the Timeline: moving video, freeze-frames, internally-generated titles, and imported graphics.
It can be quite detrimental to the quality of your final output to not double-check this every time you reposition and/or re-size an image.
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This may be helpful to you:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/motion_text_in_fcp_spencer.html
Wayne
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Thanks. That article looks interesting.
One thing I forgot to mention was that checking it on an external monitor is kind of a moot point since this is destined for the web and will always live on computer monitors. The problem persists when the project is exported to QT.
RJ
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RJ
It’s not totally moot. the Canvas in FCP does not display the full raster, so anything looks worse on it – especially smaller text. Rendering out to other formats often gives a better look than the view in the canvas. FCP was designed to work in tandem with an external video monitor.
Ben
Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd
EVS & FCP specialists for live broadcast.
OB Server 1 HD – Mobile FCP editing done right.
https://www.editecuk.com/OBServer2.html -
The problem for me is that the projects were still exporting in QT with crappy looking text.
But – I seem to have fixed the problem by changing colors. In my previous attempts I was trying to use red text. It looked like hell. I changed to white – just to see what would happen and it renders out nice and sharp and clean.
If anyone can explain that, I’d appreciate it.
RJ
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Color between 16-235. Pure red not to exceed 190-200. Red is hard to compress. There is a ton of information about this on the net.
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” -
Another thing you might enable for QTs destined for the web: enabling “High Quality”.
https://www.fcpworld.com/news/D4363B62-EFF5-4F30-B719-9A5E93AE4C92.html
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Workshop!
fcpworld.com
Pres. SF Cutters
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