[Bob Tanner]

Sorry I wasn’t clear, the FCP timeline is a whole montage and the AE video is just a small part, I won’t be able to let anyone know if I was able to fix the problem for another couple days, since I’m not home…

Thanks,
Zevie

[Bob Tanner]

When I render out in full quality in AE, it looks fine when I bring it into it’s own timeline, but when I bring it the timeline that I’ve been working on, the 720×480 then the quality is just bad…

[Bob Tanner]

If I drop the video into a new sequence, I do get the option, but I want to drop it onto the timeline that I have been working on, the 720×480…

[Bob Tanner]

Thanks for all the replies!

I’m not home right now, but this is what I recall…

I’m using a built in preset, NTSC 720×480 for the AE comp. I exported using the default settings this time, but I have tried ProRes 442 and H.264, but it never made a difference since the quality was always bad, until today where I realized I wasn’t rescaling it correctly…

My timeline setting in Final Cut is NTSC 720×480. I forgot what I’m using for compression settings, but it’s the default.

I generated the screen grabs using the built in screen capture program in the Mac, I dont think the’re would have been a quality difference if I would have exported from within AE as a PS file…

I am going to have the video on a DVD, which is going to be played on a projector and home T.V

I’m adding the AE video into my FCP timeline, which is mostly filmed with basic home video camera…

* I also tried exporting the video when it was scaled up and it played well on QuickTime, even before I put it in
FCP

Thanks for all the help,
Zevie

[Bob Tanner]

I also exported the movie 720×480 while the comp was scaled up and the quality was great, its just when I scale to fit the comp, really weird…

[Bob Tanner]

I seem to have figured out the problem, I just don’t know how to fix it. When I drag the full sized video into the 720X480 video, and don’t rescale the quality is GREAT! When I rescale to fit the comp, I loose quality as you can see in the screenshots below…

*You have to click on them to really view the difference…

When I first Placed the High Res video into the 720×480 Comp

After I Rescaled to Fit

[Bob Tanner]

Sorry. I don’t understand, how do I “Finish in Final Cut”?

Also, I’m not getting ‘better image quality’ when I scale the comp down. I realized that something has to be pretty wrong. I just took an HD video that I have for a tutorial and when I scale it down to a 720×480 comp, the quality is better, but when I take my video, the quality just drops..

[Bob Tanner]

Sorry to bother again. I followed your instructions. I made a new comp, 720×480 and then pre-comped my original comp and then dragged the pre-comp into my NTSC Comp and resized it to fit. Then when I export it using ProRes 422 there is a large drop in quality…

[Bob Tanner]

I’m away from home now, but I remember correctly, I first pre-comped the larger res. comp, then created a new comp. (720 X 480) and dragged the pre-comp in and scaled it down using the mouse (V key).

I then exported it using the default settings and also tried using ProRes 422 (HQ), which made the quality a little better.

Next, I imported it into my FCP timeline, and the quality wasn’t too clear…

* I’m going to read more about codecs, but is my problem in the way the video is compressed?

Thanks for all the help so far,
Zevie

[Bob Tanner]

Below are two images. The first one is how the video looks untouched and the second one is how the video looks after its dropped into my 720 X 480 timeline…

*To really see the difference you have to click on each image to view it in large…