Enzo Tedeschi
Forum Replies Created
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If I understand correctly what you are trying to do, it is a simple matter of overlaying the animated text over the shot?
If so, you can avoid re-compression of your original shot by using it in AE as a guide only. When you render, switch off the layer with the original shot, and export a qt movie via a codec that supports alpha (transparency) channel embedding (eg the “None” compressor).
Once you import this file with the embedded transparency info, XPress Pro will be able to read the alpha channel, and composite the text on your original shot in the timeline. This method also allows you to make simple adjustments to cues and duration.
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You can do this using the Media Manager tool in FCP. It will give you an option to move or copy media to a new location, and create a new project referencing it.
A simple reconnect on the way back should do the trick, or do a transfer via EDL / XML.
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When you export a QT, are you leaving the “Make Movie Self Contained” button unchecked?
Do a check on your video monitor from your intermediate QT. This will help you establish if the softness is being introduced by your QT export, or by the DVD encoding.
Also, what are your encoder settings for the DVD? You will get some loss going to DVD, that’s unavoidable. If your project is short (under 1hr) pump the encoder right up to 8Mbps – if your images are still soft, then there’s something else amiss…
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What resolution are your pics? Are you rendering your pics before previewing them?
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Tough one without seeing… jagged edges is usually an interlacing problem, though. Tom is right.
Maybe check a couple of things if you haven’t already re: jerky playback:
Clip settings – was the footage OK before the upgrade?
Sequence settings – these should match your clips
RT Settings – the wrong RT setting on your machine could cause weird playback
Hard Drive – how full is it? You may get dropped frames if your drive is really fragmented or full, etc. Is it a separate media drive?And definitely check your stuff on a video monitor, not your computer screen, to look for those jagged lines as Tom suggested.
Good luck! Hope this helps.
e.
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Sounds like you might be rendering only certain segments of your timeline. Make sure that you render ALL of it (including the stills segments where there is no transition), sometimes it’s easy to miss, and if your transitions are rendered and not your footage, you can still get that pop.
When you output to Compressor, the system has to create a temp file for anything that the machine was doing in realtime (essentially the same as rendering) – so that could be why the problem disappeared when you put it to DVD.
Maybe.
:o)
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If you are comfortable with After Effects, try the Grain Removal filter. It can do well with dirty video, but I’ve never tried it with film-originated material.
Too many passes, though, will create an interesting glow, almost like a diffuse focus effect. I used this for an Indonesian Tsunami Appeal commercial to clean up our source material (badly encoded DVD). It worked well with 10 passes of the filter, and we ended up keeping the cool look that it created.
Just an idea.
:o)
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Off the top of my head (without doing any noodling), I’d say try creating a solid layer with feathered edges (to create a falloff of light), stick it on a layer above the couch footage, and then play with your composite modes (soft light, luminance etc…), depending on your footage, you may find one of these helpful.
Then again, maybe not…
:o)
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Depending on your background immediately surrounding your object, you might be able to use s combination of rotoscoping and keying: if you create a “garbage matte” to mask out the vast majority of you bg, you can sometimes use keying to soak up what’s left around the subject. It saves mucking around with keyframes – SOMETIMES! ;o)
I’ve used this when I get bad green screen footage that won’t key well.
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The most basic way, I guess, would be to animate the stills by keyframing the Motion parameters.
Cut a clip into your timeline, select it, press enter. This will load it into your viewer. Click the Motion tab. Add a keyframe at the first frame of the clip, and at the last. Do this for the Scale and Center parameters. Now if you park on the second keyframe and change either of those parameters, FCP will animate between them.
If there’s a more elegant way of doing this in FCP, I’d love to hear from anyone…!
e.