Adam Taylor
Forum Replies Created
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i think overpriced is a bit inflammatory. If, like me, you use it for every job you do (and mine are all 4:3 safe on 16:9, then its worth paying for the ease of use.
However, if money is the overiding factor then the cheapest alternative is use a chinagraph pencil to mark your video monitor.
adam
Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK -
Steve, try thinking of it this way – garbage is not being added…quality is being removed.
to continue your music analogy….if you record your crappy lo-fi vinyl sample onto a cassette reel made of cheap low grade iron oxide, then no matter how good the shiny new instruments are, they will also sound crappy on the cassette….but if you record the same files to a cd, then the crap will still sound crap but the good stuff will shine.
Same with video sequence/timeline settings. If your sequence is set to render a low grade image, then everything you put on that timeline will be rendered low grade. Use a good uncompressed setting and things will look much better.
Its worth remembering that if you start with a compressed image, put it on a compressed timeline, add effects and then render it out to a compressed format, you are sending that initially poor image through several more compression stages, each of which has the potential to degrade the image further.
Are your graphics being deinterlaced the same way your video is? How did you create the graphics? some graphics packages will output a progressive file as opposed to an interlaced one. If yours is a progressive file, and you are deinterlacing it, then you will degrade the image, no matter which method you use – You will be removing data and then asking the software to try recreate the bits its removed in an effort to cure a problem that wasn’t there to start with.
One thing you still haven’t done is tell us what your timeline settings are? without knowing those, its very difficult to pinpoint quality issues.
Its completely wrong to believe the idea that digital somehow means no loss of quality, ever. Thats marketing nonsense to help consumer justify spending money on more unnecessary electronics for the home.
adam
Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK -
what are your sequence settings?
when you first drop material onto the timelin, it will ask if you want to match the settings…if your first material is a really crappy file type, then you will be setting your sequence to work at that resolution and you will be converting everything else to match.
I would suggest setting your sequence to one of the uncompressed formats (assuming your hardware can handle it) and then only going down to lower resolution quality at the final stage when you output to flash or whatever you use.
As for your motion artefacts, that does sound like a deinterlacing issue. It is an issue because different video formats play back their images in different ways.
Before progressive scan, screens would show alternating fields of a picture. Thus 1 frame = 2 fields – 1 field = even scan lines 1 field = odd scan lines. A 25 frame (1 sec) clip (i’m in pal land) would actually show 50 images that your eye would blend optically into a smooth motion (persistence of vision).Because of this, with motion you could see a slightly different image between the first and second fields in a single frame. All well and good if your playback device plays the fields in the correct order….but disastrous if it does not, and this is the root of the problem…..most video formats (but not all) play back fields with the Upper / Odd field first. DV plays back with Lower / Even fields first.
If your sequence is set to one method and your material to another then the mismatch will cause that horrible strobing.
You can either deinterlace, which will lower the quality of your video, or you could use the filter called Shift Field, which will swap the field order .hope that helps
adam
Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK -
i think your problem is more about what you are doing to the file within FCP. I also do as you describe and have no problems whatsoever with loss of quality.
What format are you outputting? If you are rendering out to a compressed format then you will lose something (thats how compressing works!).
If your animation has alpha channels are you setting the correct alpha type for the clip? FCP always seems to iport animation codecs with a straight alpha channel, yet all mine have “black” (premultiplied over black) so i need to manually change this in the item properties for the clip.
adam
Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK -
I wouldn’t deinterlace – that will remove data, use the Shift Fields filter ( i can’t remember exactly where it is) but it will let you swap the field order (and i’d do that on the dv material only)
adam
Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK -
I have had this problem also, and its not just blue…i’ve had allsorts of colours! Do you find the entire clip gets coloured or is it just a section?
My problem was random sections of a clip become coloured.I never found the cause, but it tended to happen when i had several layers of logos being comped onto a video track. It also happened when i used a motion file overlayed onto a clip, if i was using the fcp renderer instead of rendering the shot in motion first.
adam
Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK -
a full page ad in Audio Media magazine, by NAB themselves includes the following:-
“Be our guest at the NAB show. Use VIP Pass code A105 to register for your FREE NAB Show Exhibits Pass at http://www.nabshow.com/free”
seems a bit cheeky to try sell you a pass whilst they themselves are giving away entry passes for free, if you happen to subscribe to a (free) magazine!!
adam
Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK -
oops – sorry Walter. I had clicked my link for that forum, but must have missed and hit the fcp link instead!!
adam
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you’re on, Peter!
as long as i can convince the boss……
adam
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good tip Ron.
As one who is looking for reasons to convince a non-industry boss to pay for me to visit, its the little things like that, which i need to know!
adam
Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK