Rendered PSD Images Look Awful - Please Help

I've placed a couple of PSD files over some live video. When the video is rendered, the PSD file winds up looking awful. They look jaggedy, like a tiny bitmap graphic that has been severly enlarged. (That's not the case here; the image is reduced.)

The PSD image looks fine in the Canvas until it is rendered.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Maybe there needs to be a hot topic in red at the top of the forum or something about this one..

When you render graphics, essentially what you are doing is preparing the image to be displayed on a tv. Tv screens and computer screens are different. They have different pixel shapes. So an image meant for TV seen on a computer screen will look terrible because it is all crunched out of shape.

It's probable that there is nothing wrong with your image - try hooking up a tv or broadcast monitor and seeing if the problem is still there. Or export a bit to tape or dvd and watch it on a tv.

I have recently upgraded to FCP5 Studio. I did a full clean install with Tiger.
I have been using FCP since version 1.0, with external Sony NTSC monitor and have never seen this before. PSD and PICT graphics look jaggy when placed over clips in the timeline after fully rendering. When I double click to open in the canvas they look fine, in my NTSC monitor. I do understand how rendering works and have always had an NTSC monitor for final viewing. This only started happening after I upgraded to FCP5 Studio.

What does your RT Popup say? Are you in Safe RT and High Quality? Make sure you're not in dynamic RT....

It would have been helpful to know that stuff in your original post, since the question is asked at least three times a week by people who don't have an external monitor.

Which Mac are you on? Which graphics card do you have?

>>the image is reduced<<

What does this mean - was it made smaller in Photoshop and imported at 100% or are you reducing it inside of FCP?

Do it in after effect and then import it as a movie.
FCP cannot handle still images.

>>FCP cannot handle still images.<<

Yes it can. You just need to have them prepared correctly. And since the poster hasn't seen this problem before - since FCP 1 - it's probably something to do with the upgrade, rather than FCP's inherent uselessness.

This may be similar to a problem I've been having lately. When I import Photoshop files (RGB) into my 10 bit timeline they appear fine in my timeline, and when the play head is parked and previewed on thee NTSC monitor. When I render I get a strange distortion and the image is jagged and there is a purple line on the right two pixels. If I go into my Sequence settings and set it to always render in RGB it looks fine. Do I really want to render in RGB and not 10bit YUV?

If you really care you can see examples at
[homepage.mac.com]



2.5 dual G5, 4gigRam, OS 10.3.5, FCP 4.5, Kona 2, Kona 1.0.5

Set field dominance to NONE and see if that helps



Michael Horton
-------------------

Michael,

Thanks. That did solve the problem but I never had to do this in FCP4.5 HD or earlier. My clips seem to OK after turning the Field Dominance to "None".

Here is my original post:
I have recently upgraded to FCP5 Studio. I did a full clean install with Tiger.
I have been using FCP since version 1.0, with an external Sony NTSC monitor and have never seen this before. PSD and PICT graphics look jaggy when placed over clips in the timeline after fully rendering. When I double click to open in the canvas they look fine, in my NTSC monitor. I do understand how rendering works and have always had an NTSC monitor for final viewing. This only started happening after I upgraded to FCP5 Studio.

I have seen other posters having the same problem. Is this a bug that is going to be addressed? Why is it happening? Is turning the Field Dominance to "None" not having some affect on my clips?

One guess I have is that the new rendering system in FCP5 is somehow interlacing still images and causing the heinous jaggies.

Anyone have any thoughts or comments before I call Apple?

Thanks, Steve

Not sure what is going on. Others have said same thing after upgrading to Five



Michael Horton
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Read somewhere (maybe in a previous post) that it's a quality setting issue deep in one of the set up menus - something about Normal and Best - and that Best fixes the problem - just don't remember the menu....Andy

If there is a way to make images that are scaled or repostioned over time look good in FCP I would really really want to know how.
I have been moving the whole thing into after effects now and that takes a shitload of extra time compared to FCP.
I only did this cause there was no way I could figure out how to make the images look ok.
I get a "wobble" over the whole image when I animate them, kinda like if I would render them in After effects without anti aliasing turned on.

(I have tried pixelratios, filesizes, blurs, anti-aliasing filters, de-interlacing and different DPI settings )

So how does one do this?

No harder than this

[www.lafcpug.org]

Ease in Ease Out takes some practise, thats all. All begins with correct scanning resolution and preperation of photos



Michael Horton
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Make sure you have rendered these clips before you judge them. Even though there might be a green bar above them they look like crap until they are rendered.

Scott

Steve - have you downloaded the Quicktime 7 upgrade yet? 7.01? Does it help at all?

Jude,

I have downloaded the latest QuickTime 7.0.1 and the problem still exists. I have resorted to setting the Field Dominance to "None" which makes imported graphic look good.
I did play around with the render quality settings "Fastest (linear), Normal, and Best" and only got the "green side bars" problems mentioned in another post.
After talking with Apple support (the free 90 days limited) they would only say that if using the field dominance trick works ? use it. They also assured me that clips would not be affected by doing this but to use "lower field" when exporting DV-NTSC. They would not forward this as a potential bug problem without opening up a service contract. ($200 for incident and $800 for annual)
Not to extend misery unto others but I hope this issue becomes more pandemic so that Apple will address it.

If anyone else is experiencing this problem with the FCP5 upgrade please do not simply change your Field Dominance setting and call it good.

Post here and call Apple. Thanks.

Steve

Use the Feedback from the File Menu or where ever it is. They do read it and it seems lots of folks are having same "problem." Unless this is now a feature.



Michael Horton
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Adding a drop shadow in FCP5 really makes thing worse in animayed photo montages to the point of having to delete the drop shadow. Never had the problem in FCP 3 or 4
Vic