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Text in AE crap after DV-rendering…(short question – big problem)
Hi,
I have a problem concerning text in my project…it’s gonna be a 30s trailer for my university.
First the specs:
– The project’s gonna be exported as DV-PAL (lower field interlaced) and watched on big screen (canvas) using a beamer
– I don’t know yet if I have to make a DVD or just hand in the DV-AVI-file…Well my problem is, that I have a fully in AE generated comp where blood is dripping on a floor (Trapcode particular) and a text is visible on the blood (made using “Set matte” effect). The text is Courir, centered and has a size of 36. So it’s not a thin or small text. But the problem appears on all fonts. However in AE the text is appearing sharp but when rendered to Microsoft DV format (full resolution, best settings) it really looks like crap, totaly pixelated and blocky. Even worse then text which is filmed with a camera on DV.
My old Pinnacle Studio 9 gives a better quality….;)So what am I doing wrong?
I exported my project (by far not completed) to DV-AVI (progressive, best settings) and then made a quicktime using H.264 Codec and settings made for broadband internet streaming, it gives a nice example of what I mean, so the text is already that pixelated after exporting to DV. Look here, every text in the movie:
https://www.bootlegversion.de/dino/ADTrailer_nico.mov (H.264)
https://www.bootlegversion.de/dino/ADTrailer_nico2.mov (H.261)thank you
Dino Muhic -
8 Replies
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Red is a lousy color in the DV codec. And you have black text on the red backdrop. DV is going to artifact the hell out of that. White text might be a bit better, but DV is still going to chew up the red and give you a blocky mess.
At the end you have a thin black text on the solid white and that’s extreme contrast difference between the text and the backdrop. Again, DV is going to chew that up.
5:1 compression is not friendly to text at all and especially when you have extreme contrast between the text and the backdrop.
If you go to DVD or even H.264, I would render lossless in AE and then just compress it once for DVD or H.264. You’ll probably end up with a cleaner final product.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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I have had a little sux-ess, as in very little with he red problem in the DV codec by darkening the hole comp .. its cheeting but through a solid black over the whole thing find a good transfor and lower the oppacity .. Its kinda like a screen or a filter.. it sometimes works..
But out put it with no compression the file will be large … but if you takeit uncompressed into FCP or avid then lay it streightto video … you might also fix it..
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Yes, I think going to something like quicktime animation, and then to H.264 would give you very good results, and the end product should still only be a few MB’s.
Alexander Gao
“When the revolution happens, I’ll be leading it.”
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I did some tests following your steps. Using the MS DV codec, and then converting to h.264 (I just used Quicktime’s export to Ipod setting). It shows your artifacting on the edges of the text…most likely an artifact of interlacing in the DV.
I exported the same comp, using Quicktime animation, then converted to h.264 and it looks fine.
As for the AVI file, If you’re opening it in Quicktime and looking at it it probably will look smudged and pixelated, just the way Quicktime is handling the amount of data and performing de-interlacing I guess. Opening the same file in windows media player, it looks quite a bit better.
You’re best bet is probably going to be to find out what you can give them in terms of files. Most likely even if you are able to create a pristine DV AVI file, if they then give it a hack job of compressing to MPEG-2 for the DVD, it’s going to look like crap anyway. If they’ll accept an DVD compliant MPEG-2 stream, you might want to export your clip from AE as a Quicktime uncompressed and convert to MPEG-2 using a good quality transcoder…get it looking right and hand it over to them to add to the DVD they’re compiling.Erik
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Bottom line:
– DV doesn’t like graphics. Avoid it. Choose a better codec such as Animation or Photo-JPEG at least.
– Always ask the next person in the chain what they need from you, and see if they’ll accept something different — something that works better for you or gives better quality. -
Thank you for your answers! I’ll ask the teacher what they really need for the presentation.
BUT why the hell are titles in i.e Pinnacle Studio looking better when they are rendered to DV-AVI than the ones from AE? I really can’t understand this….
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I have had the exact same problem as you, but with different software. I have done a couple of projects where I did some graphics in AE and then exported to Premiere. When I exported to Microsoft DV from AE, the text looks quite pixellated, as you described.
Exporting to a lossless codec from AE and letting premiere do the DV conversion solved the problem. So I don’t know if AE just doesn’t render DV well, or if I am missing a setting in AE, or what, but I always export lossless from AE, then let premiere do the DV rendering.
If somebody has a better solution that would be great because this has been bugging me forever as well.
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