-
Why are my motion projects losing quality in Final Cut?
I’m working on a project in ntsc dv broadcast sd. I’ve created several graphics in apple motion, which look pretty good. If I export them out of motion, they still look fine.
When I try to put any of them in final cut however, its a whole nother story. When I open the graphic in the preview window, it still looks decent, although I think there is a slight drop off in quality. The moment I drop it in the timeline however there is an instant, noticeable decrease in picture quality. Any kind of text or logo gets significant artifacts around it, pictures become very pixelated, etc.
I can’t figure out how to fix this. I’ve changed the settings in render control to “best” when rendering motion projects, and that seemed to help only minimally. Can anyone offer any advice on how to fix this? It is a recurring problem with my projects. I’m guessing it has something to do with final cut re-rendering the project once I put it in the timeline?
-
10 Replies
-
[Brandon Smith] “ntsc dv”
thats why.
change your sequence to prores or uncompressed.
-
[Brandon Smith] “I’m working on a project in ntsc dv broadcast sd.”
NTSC DV = 5:1 compression. If you want to know what your graphics are going to look like in your project, work in DV-NTSC in Motion.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” now in Post.
Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
I know everyone here is all down on DV, but it certainly isn’t responsible for things like “pixelated” and extreme quality losses. A little bit of mosquito noise on high contrast text perhaps and a little bit softer image compared to digibeta, but I doubt it’s the culprit here. DV’s data rate is 5:1 compressesd, but most of that compression is in the color data, not the picture resolution.
Bret Williams
Web Design . Motion Graphics . Video Editing
http://www.bretwilliams.com -
I’m down on DV for two very good reasons. Practical experience shows me that graphics, particularly text goes pixelated compared to ProRes or uncompressed timelines.
Secondly in PAL (which is where I do nearly all my work) it is the only codec with lower field dominance which is a total pain.
All that said, if you shoot DV, capture via firewire and edit in that codec, it looks OK until you want to grade and add titles. At that point move to a ProRes or 10 bit uncompressed timeline. I recommend ProRes over 8 bit uncompressed as I can see the advantage in the extra grey scale resolution when grading.
-
Of course ProRes or Uncompressed won’t help him if he masters to DV. He’ll take the compression hit when he records to tape.
-
[John Pale] “Of course ProRes or Uncompressed won’t help him if he masters to DV. He’ll take the compression hit when he records to tape.”
Absolutely. In fact his video will look even worse if he takes DV, puts it into an Uncompressed / ProRes timeline and then have the DV deck recompress both the graphics AND the video.
If DV is your final output device, work in DV for the entire workflow. This will yield your cleanest results to tape.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” now in Post.
Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
Thank you all for your help.
Mastering to DV is not an issue. The primary usage of this video will be on the web. The only reason I chose NTSC DV was because it is what the footage given to me was shot in.
I’ve been editing for awhile but just recently starting to get into projects where I want to build graphics in a separate program like motion, so in that regard I am somewhat new at this. Do I understand correctly then, that working in an uncompressed or apple prores timeline will help, even if the video I have is in DV (as long as I am not outputting back to DV)?
-
Are you monitoring the motion renders via the FCP Canvas, or an external monitor? If it’s the former, I assume you realise the Canvas does not display anything at full quality? Just trying to remove the obvious here…
Edit Out Ltd
—————————-
FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producerhttps://www.blackmagic-design.com/casestudies/detail.asp?case=therydercup
-
Yes. This is the preferred method. This way you avoid the DV artifacts on your renders.
-
I’m not sure why people constantly say this, as it differs with different footage codecs and different render codecs. It also differs with the output device and whether the footage is rendered or unrendered and whether you’re playing back.
For example, on a DV timeline, being monitored off the output of a dvcam deck to a component or sdi monitor, you’re seeing DV quality. Rendered or not. That’s all the deck can give you.
However, if you ate parked on a frame in TL with a lot of grapics or layers, and it hasn’t been rendered, the canvas window works just like After effects and is displaying and uncompressed RGB image that you’ll notice should be free of type artifacts. Render that section and you’ll then be able to see it in the canvas too.
That’s been my experience unless something has changed recently.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up