Credit roll looks awful....
by Adrian Zehn
on
Mar 6, 2007 at 6:42:26 pm
Hi,
I am working in a DVCProHD sequence and then outputting to SD via the Kona card using the AJA 8bit 1080i playback.
I have a credit roll created with the Boris credit roll tool.
It looks fine on the computer monitor but on my video monitor the motion is not smooth - the text kind of jitters.
I've tried a variety of setting and filters, including de-interlace, shift fields and motion blur, as well as reducing the opacity of the text to %90 but they make little or no difference.
Re: Credit roll looks awful.... by CharlieX on Mar 6, 2007 at 7:29:25 pm
Can't say about Boris - but if I were doing a credit roll in After Effects for 60i, I would make sure I field rendered it, not frame rendered.
the problem with "your monitor" in FCP is that you're only seeing 1 field - it's a progressive display - so anything going to a interlaced monitor is going to look and behave differently.
Truth is, rolling credits are always tough. 60i, 24p, 25p.... Pick a hearty font without fine serifs and don't let it scroll too fast.
Re: Credit roll looks awful.... by Bret Williams on Mar 6, 2007 at 9:03:23 pm
This has been discussed so many times. The answer is fairly technical, but the gist is that because of interlacing, the only way to truly have a credit roll look perfect is to run it at a speed that is an even multiple of the field rate per second. (see adamwilt.com for details) In other words, in the motion tab, your text must move upward 120 or 240 pixels per second (in NTSC). 240 is really fast, and 120 is pretty legible if you space out the elements a little. Or, if like most credits, you don't REALLY care if they're all that readable. They're just supposed to be there.
It's so ridiculously simple I uploaded a template project consisting of a psd and a fcp project file to my website.
bretwilliams.com/cowstuff (You'll find a .zip called croll.zip.)
The psd is simply a 720x3000 with a text layer in times. Yes times. Even serifs are no problem.
It's a 30 second roll, and if you look at the keyframes you'll see it moves upward 3600 pixels over 30 seconds. That's 30x120=3600. It's just that simple. Credit rolls done this way are solid as a rock. No artifacts, no waves, etc.
The beauty of this template is that you can just change the psd file to change the roll. If the new text is shorter, then it'll scroll nothing for the remainder. Just cut off the blank portion. But don't move the keyframes. If you need a longer roll, simply put two back to back. I think FCP is limited to 3000 pixels.
Re: Credit roll looks awful.... by Bret Williams on Mar 7, 2007 at 4:19:23 am
I read that in Creating Motion Graphics years ago. A book on After Effects. They cited Adam Wilt. The detailed info is on his site.
Hardware CG rolls used to confine you to good speeds. They might even increase or decrease the leading of your text to make it fit a particular duration.
Avid Media Composer did this with their old hardware based roll effect. It was smooth as glass.
But with software like FCP and After Effects and Boris they don't lock in speeds. They try sub pixel rendering (which FCP sucks at), or blurs, or nothing at all and just let you create rolls at any speed you like. it all looks like junk with small text sizes.
Re: Credit roll looks awful.... by Billy Mabou on Jun 21, 2008 at 8:08:50 pm
Bret, that's awesome that you provide this zip file for download. I just came across this post searching for something else, but I'm going to make use of the files, I guarantee!
