Blurred final results (composites)
by Sophie Carapet
on
Aug 17, 2008 at 7:15:59 pm
Hi all, I am having the following problem -
I am making short composite sequences using many layers, made up of jpegs and mp4s/.mov files,
I am cutting out shapes from the mp4s/ .mov files using toms 50 point bezier matte, then laying these over jpegs that have a color key added to them, the final result is a composite of images and stills.
i have resized the jpegs somewhat, in photoshop before importing them to final cut. before importing them they are crystal clear images.
the final result, after rendering is quite blurred / out of focus, with a loss of clarity on both the jpegs and mp4's/.mov files.( ie the total composite!)
i imagine this has something to do with the sizes of the jpegs and mp4's not corresponding but am not sure....
can anyone help me with this? is there a way to find an average. size that will fit both the stills and moving images without losing detail.?
thanks so much, any help will be greatly appreiciated
Re: Blurred final results (composites) by David Roth Weiss on Aug 17, 2008 at 7:28:20 pm
So Sophie, we know lots of information now, but we don't know what your timeline settings are. Since you didn't tell us, I'm going to take a wild guess that your cutting a DV timeline. Right? BTW, the reason I ask and the reason you always need to mention the details like that in every post, is that it does make a big difference.
For the record, MPEG4 is not an editing format, it's one of many highly compressed formats, primarily for web distribution.
I'll help you further when you respond to the questions above...
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW's Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
Re: Blurred final results (composites) by Sophie Carapet on Aug 17, 2008 at 7:59:03 pm
Hi David, Thanks for your quick reply. I have to admit that i'm not sure what a dv timeline is, but i usually use final cut for editing dv footage so i assume that it is.
Unfortunately I am forced to download clips from you tube, (hence the mp4, whhich i then edit to .mov in quicktime,) as i am having to search out very specific clips of film ie. 3 seconds of a human hampster...etc, anyway i wont bore you with the details.
Re: Blurred final results (composites) by David Roth Weiss on Aug 17, 2008 at 8:58:37 pm
No, every sequence has settings that typically match the material you're cutting. If you're cutting DV video captured from a DV tape shot in a DV camera your sequence settings are typically set using on of the Apple Easy Setups to DV NTSC.
In your case you're not cutting video from a camera, but nonetheless you still have to have sequence settings in FCP. You can check in the browswer of go to Sequence -- Settings and check what shows up there in Quicktime Video Settings -- Compressor.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW's Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
Re: Blurred final results (composites) by David Roth Weiss on Aug 18, 2008 at 12:48:10 am
[Sophie Carapet]"ah, sorry excuse my ignorance...."
That's okay Sophie, you're clearly trainable and that's all that matters. Just watch, its gets easier now...
Now that you know the sequence is DV and you where to look in th Sequence Settings to find that, you also know how to change it, which is the next step. Go there now, and under Quicktime Video Settings change the Compressor from DV-PAL to DVCPRO50-PAL.
Now rerender the timeline, making very certain that the "Full" is checked in Sequence -- Render All beofre you start the render.
In theory, this should halp to make your fianl results not so blurry... Let me know if it works.
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW's Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
Re: Blurred final results (composites) by Sophie Carapet on Aug 18, 2008 at 10:53:58 am
Hi David,
Well i've tried it this morning, but i ve still got blurry results.
My main sequence is made up of several nested sequences, so I applied your suggestion to all, and gave a full render to all, individually.
I'm wondering if i should do a test, start a new project and import a couple of the jpegs and a clip in from scratch, and set to DVCPRO50-PAL , from the start.... I think I'll try that a bit later to day and see if it makes any difference.. I'll post back the results
Re: Blurred final results (composites) by Sophie Carapet on Aug 18, 2008 at 11:30:42 am
sorry to double post,...
i ve just tried from scratch with the following results: the clip plays back, in the final cut window, clear at 100%, i then tested by exporting the clip as a self contained quicktime movie and tried to play back with quicktime pro..... the results are still blurred!
Re: Blurred final results (composites) by Kevin Monahan on Aug 18, 2008 at 4:59:28 pm
Go to QT Pro and then type CMD J. Click on the Video parameter. Check off "High Quality" the lower right corner of the box. You need to use a video monitor to judge your true quality.
Re: Blurred final results (composites) by Sophie Carapet on Aug 18, 2008 at 8:02:33 pm
Thanks for your helpful responses. Its seems that did the trick, its now playing back clearly in quick time. I'm going to play in on a telly and see how it looks.
