[Judas Beast]

“Compressor and Quicktime Conversion should look exactly the same since it’s the same “engine.”

I’m aiming to create a mov good for fast broadband, powerful computer.
The weirdest thing for me is that H264 does look good but only when i use export from FCP: “using quicktime conversion” – looks good even when i when i lower the bit rate to 150 kbits/sec…

…BUT: when I use use the same settings to export: “using compressor” it looks rubbish.

very odd!

cheers for your help

[Judas Beast]

the weird thing for me is that H264 does look good but only when i use export from FCP: “using quicktime conversion” When I use export: “using compressor” it looks kack

[Judas Beast]

whoops meant to post this on the FCP forum – I’ll do it anyway, lets see if someones got the magic solution

um, yeah!

[Judas Beast]

cheers Russ for your help, don’t want to ramble on, but I’ll run past my experience so far step by step, it may shed some light on what i need to work on – but I’m having a really hard time getting crisp movs using compressor.

1 – I’m working with PAL compositions created in After effects (720×576)- rendered out as lossless uncompressed animation quicktimes… look great in quicktime player although typically squashed due to pixel ratio

2 – I import the lossless animation into FCP, it looks fine and sharp on the timeline, making sure sequence settings use animation codec (forgot to change this from DV before and sequence looked rough in the viewer)

3 – from FCP file menu: export using “quicktime conversion”, I then choose the pre-set: “broadband high”, click the options and the default compressor quality is “high” and set to “H264”. Data rate I set limited to around “150 kbits/sec” (i used to leave it set to “672 kbits/sec” as default but found by lowering this value i got much smaller file sizes without much loss of quality) – frame size is set by default to: 480×360, I leave this alone.

4 – normally I got good web-sized movies this way until I recently a worked with an animation with a bright red background, RGB levels were too high, I fixed it but when i tried exporting it as before it would still look really pixely, although levels appeared ok in the vectorscope. I was then advised to avoid exporting using “quicktime conversion” because compressor had much more control, and may fix this pixely red issue (which wont go away!!)..

5 – now trying to use compressor – mimicking the pre-sets that previously worked well with quicktime conversion. I click on source setting and select pre-set: “web download, quicktime 7 compatible 800kbps” I have experimented with limiting data rate from 672 to 150 kbit/secs, also i check frame size – set by default to 480×360, i leave this

6 – the trouble is results in compressor are just plain worse than before using FCP’s QT conversion – I have no idea if there is some sort of small box I need to tick or un-tick, the original uncompressed file looks crystal clear… I’m slowly going mad here

this may warrant a re-post!

Thanks again – JUDD

[Judas Beast]

I rendered out out AE as uncompressed animation..
then tried changing the FCP sequence settings from dv to animation to see the difference: that is it “looked” ok as a animation sequence, not as DV though – and a cant seem to get a clean web export from FCP or compresser

[Judas Beast]

weird thing is: I just tried aharon robinowitz colour safe AE tutorial but it didnt seem to work for this – reds are still off the vectorscope scale in FCP and look very pixely in the viewer, unless i change the sequence settings to animation instead of DV

I think the red background layer in this After effects project is just too bright, it only starts to look better in FCP when i lower the saturation right down but the image goes so dark – far from being a proper red –

and as for getting a non-pixely web sized render out from FCP- forget it!… (but the white version looks fine!)

thanks for your help

[Judas Beast]

big thanks for all your help lads – cow’s been a real life saver. I’m working from home alone, an ex print designer daring to venture in to the world of motion – and loving it!
I’m still wet behind the ears and getting pretty good at creating the effects but often i’m stuck at the first and last hurdles (comp formats then finally the right renders for web movies) – all for a future post

will look at colour in FCP, but wondered if there is a way to do this job in after effects itself and should i make sure the illustrator guy i work with hands me files with the correct colour levels already set: if so, is there a written rule of maximum colour values i can tell him to use?

on this occasion – I dont have a proper monitor, but have linked my crappy home tv (i work in pal) to Final Cut via my cameras firewire . Is this ok for a makeshift system – in other words better than nothing?

also this particular animation is going on the net – does this colour issue apply for web videos as well as broadcast? (although i think the client may want to use this video on a DVD at some point, so it may be better to design for all possibilities anyway)

[Judas Beast]

thanks comrades – invaluble help

[Judas Beast]

great tip – makes pefect sense.
i had stumbled across this same cunning trackmatte/blur method in my desparation to use the stoke on scaled up vectors and hoped there was a “proper” way of doing it. its good to know I havent been doing a “bodge” job after all

would the same thing happen to other effects applied to scaled up vectors?

thanks
Judd

[Judas Beast]

cheers guys. we have no cash for fancy plug-ins but the circle comp idea with echo and a bit of glow worked a treat

um, yeah!