OK, so I have a partial problem now. For the longest time, I've struggled with the problem of utilizing Livetype title in FCP and they always looked ragged. It was really ticking me off. Then, by accident, I switched the project settings in Livetype to use square pixels. My footage though is 24P DV footage but when I bring it into FCP it looks perfect now instead of the ragged garbage i had before, first off why is this? So how do I import files from AE with video b.g. wont it distort the video and make it a more square pciture?
Re: type and graphics question by Dylan Reeve on May 12, 2008 at 7:19:33 am
Now square pixels do tend to look a bit crappy, especially in 16:9 - it's simply the fact you have quite reduced horizontal resolution that does it. Square pixels will look sharper (take a look at Photoshop CS and up, with it's pixel aspect correction, turn on and off and look at the difference).
The problem is that square pixels aren't actually what ends up on the tape. If you work in non-square pixels, what you see is what you get (it's pixel-for-pixel with what actually goes in the video frame). Working with square pixels there needs to be a scaling conversion at some point which can actually soften some details (especially fine vertical detail).
So while square pixels will look better on the computer screen and non-square pixels go through less manipulation between your creation and the tape.
I personally prefer to go non-square at all opportunities.
