bad jagged text

Hello all- I'm getting really bad stair steps on my text from FCP - so I tried the livetype route-better, but when I add a drop shadow... KABLAMO! stair stepped edges. I have done several tests even going to AE and wondering what the best way anyone has found for crisp clean broadcast quality text.

im working in dv an got all the latest n greatest

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Michael Horton
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Are you viewing on an external monitor or just the canvas monitor?

The text will normall look horrible on the canvas. Most likely it will be fine.

"The text will normall look horrible on the canvas. Most likely it will be fine."

-True, and if you look at your quicktime file in quicktime app it will also look "crappy" if it is rendered out as DVPAL.

To test, just render out as animation from FCP using QT conversion.

If your problem is on a broadcast monitor there are a few things to try:
-Make sure the text is placed on absolute pixels.
-Dont use to thin text or text with small kerning.
-Apply the "flicker filter' in FCP, does wonders sometimes.

Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com

HEY GANG! once again when in doubt keep working it till you find n answear then post back to the forum...
I have tried all the above - found out that the main problem lies when I add a drop shadow to the text. So I have said no to FCP text generator and been using livetype- the text I bring in looks better... slows me down a bit in my workflow but I just have not been able to find a work around-

even exporting QTs using the generic lucidia grand text still looks like poop. i will try some more but seems like live type is WAy better.... thansk again gang..

Lucida Grande look like crap naturally. It's a sure sign that an editor didn't bother looking for the right font for a design! I did a DVD output for an editor one time where, even knowing that it's a Sundance submission, they kept the default Lucida Grande font. Put a few minutes into it and do a bit of rudimentary layout, will ya!

Adding to Johan's post, if you're using QuickTime 6 or lower, QuickTime movies watched on a computer monitor will also look like crap unless you manually enable High Quality playback (APPLE-J, Video Track, Quality).

Also, Boris Title 3D tends to yield cleaner titles than just the FCP Text tool.

You're also not exactly working with the most graphic-friendly format. DV isn't kind to titles, especially thin ones, red ones or very bright ones. And titles done on DV would regularly fall short of "broadcast quality".

Are you using proper drop-shadow technique? If your drop shadows are too soft or too far from your text, they'll exacerbate the problem, not alleviate it, especially on DV.


www.derekmok.com

Derekmok- thanks fer posting!
First off- I have tried most of the fonts installed on my system, they all suffer from stair stepping- especially when I put a drop shadow on them. Now I'm not doing anything crazy here, just simple lowerthirds with -3 drop shadow, 100% Opacity/ 10%softness. I am viewing on an ntcs monitor as well as exporting QT referance files to check the titles. Laying out thirds in FCP just dosent seems to loook pretty on this project, so going the live type route. Borris is NOT installed on this system.
After several tests I have come to the conclusion that : A; your right, DV sucks to title over. B; the footage was shot with z1u/480 then brought into a regular DV timeline. C: Drop shadow is just making the aliasing worse.
D; frack it- use live type.{ take more time but titles are cleaner}
ohh and E:- I dont like having to add an extera step in my workflow for titles {on this project- real estate house tours -ug}

So if you have anymore ideas I'm all game, till then I will keep plugggin away - shine on you crazy diamond you-

-adrok

Did you render before watching? Titles look like garbage unless you render.


www.derekmok.com

YEP-

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