re: How to get around discrepancy in titles on computer and in external video

I have a small issue -- if anybody has recommendations it would be great.

I design all my titles in FCP because I don't like LiveType (though I know how to use it a little) and prefer to keep in the "editing mindset" when doing titles. There's just one problem: The layout of the text in the Viewer and the Canvas does not accurately reflect the position of the actual text when you output it. Basically, rendering changes the position of the text, and if I watch it on an external NTSC monitor, I see the true layout of the text. I know how to compensate for this (by using the NTSC monitor to check my layout), but obviously it makes the design/layout process more trouble than it should be. Does anybody have a way of getting around this -- of somehow making the Viewer and Canvas representations of the text layout accurate to how it will appear onscreen?

OK! So Apple gives you a stellar titling application and you don't like it?
Before LiveType it was Photoshop or maybe Boris Grafitti (which ain't cheap)

What is it you are trying to do by your self? What is the "editing mindset"?

LiveType is a wonderful titling tool for titles in the traditional sense of a still or title moving in a straight line.

wel he doesnt HAVE to like it!

i'm not getting a compositional shift on my canvas after rendering,
just the usual bluriness
(i';m in PAL, though.
i tried to check in NTSC, but my DSR11 is freaking out a bit about that.)


i think the FCP canvas behaviour is pretty flakey.
yes, we DO get used to it after a while,
and accept that that's the way it should be!

is the other app the same?

maybe there should be a preference for choosing to display higher res to the canvas, based on the amount of RAM you have?

nick

> i'm not getting a compositional shift on my canvas after rendering,
> just the usual bluriness

I get the blurriness as well. The ol' "rendering seems to make it worse" illusion. The problem I'm having seems to occur with some fonts and sizes more than others. The most glaring is when I string multiple title clips together to make a scroll. I would nudge the incoming clip so that the "seam" between the two looks almost flawless, but when rendered and checked on the NTSC monitor, they would be overlapping.

Well, nothing I can't handle, but an annoyance nonetheless. The reason I don't like LiveType is because a) some of my clients don't have it; and b) I always judge my titles based on the rest of the cut, in terms of pacing, motifs and movement, and I haven't found LiveType to be so indispensable that I need to go out into a plug-in application to do my titles. I've just seen too many AfterEffects gurus spend hours on a title, rendering and messing around, where a half-hour FCP title would have been just as good. Effects are a great tool, but also a potential distraction from the bottom line.

Regarding the blurriness,(and general jizziness-especially on serif fonts) i have had a notice a huge inprovement by going to the motion tab and making sure that the vertical placement of the text images land on an EVEN numbered pixel. Odd or fractional pixels will foul things up.

so you;re going for the best RT solution, there, i suppose.

there are other ways of creating a plain scroll, too.
if you keep everythiing simple in PS, you can move pretty fast, and then you can keyframe in RT in FCP.

you can stay in FCP, too:

scrolling text is ok, and title 3D can give you multiple fonts / siszes.

nick

Yes, there is sometimes a discrepancy in position while in the Canvas. But honestly, the Canvas should only be considered a preview in almost every aspect you could imagine it being used for. No one relies upon the Canvas for color correction. No one relies upon the Canvas for spotting interlace or motion artifacts. And no one should rely upon the Canvas for exact positioning of graphic elements. Its only preview.

My advice is to always position your broadcast monitor or TV in a very physically comfortable position near your computer monitor. Be aware of how much twisting you have to do with your neck and body to view the screen. But the broadcast monitor or TV is always the master of the whole endeavor.

Good luck,

-Christopher

I'm having a real problem with blurred/pixelated titles that are created through the Generator called Crawl. Does anyone else have this problem? It doesn't look fabulous on an external monitor either, so I can't blame the Canvas!

Hey Nancy,

In my experience, a plain Text card with Motion settings applied to do a crawl/scroll looks better, renders faster and can be changed quicker than the Scroll and Crawl cards in FCP's Generator. Of course it takes longer to set up initially, since you have to manually apply Motion parameters, but once it's in place, I think it looks better and gives me more control. Have you tried it?

The font you're using may also have something to do with it. Some fonts are "flakier" than others. What font and size are you using?

If nothing else works, LiveType crawls may look cleaner -- try that. Graeme also has a free, downloadable title clean-up filter called "G Low Pass" at his website; I tried it yesterday and it works, albeit in a very subtle way: www.nattress.com

Hey Derek - Thanks for your reply. I remember way back when setting those motion parameters - maybe that was in FCP 1 or 2. I'll try it again, though it is fiddly. As for the font - I'm using Geneva Bold 36 which looks great on a still title, but seriously flakey when it moves! I have a feeling it's not the font that's the problem. Will try getting to a LiveType font. Thanks.