Import Still Images (Problem)

ktdmoviemaker

ktdmoviemaker

Well-known member
I use FCP 4.5 HD. In the past few weeks, when I import still images into a project, they come out looking degraded. I have no idea how to fix this. Anyone have any tips or a similar issue? Could it be the pulldown settings?

Have a good day,

-Kris
 
1) What DVX said, make sure the issue is happening with a calibrated external monitor. If its only happening with your computer monitor, well you can't trust that worth a lick, so get an external source to check it.

2) What sequence setting (compressor/codec) are you using?

3) What exactly do you mean by degraded? Is it noisy, pixelated, the wrong aspect ratio?

And no its not anything to do with the pulldown settings (at least not to my knowledge of using stills in FCP). Even if you load in a series of stills (perhaps for some form of jump cut like animation) that wouldn't make a difference. Whether you run it back at 24 or 30 will affect the look of the motion sure, but different frame rates shouldn't impact the simple image quality.

cheers.
 
i'm having similar issues. no matter what kind of filetype i import (tiff, jpeg, etc) or dpi i scan the picture as, it's coming up blurry once i bring the picture into FCP. the best way i can describe it is out of focus. the photos look sharp and in focus on my computer screen outside of final cut.

is there a particular setting i should change, or something i can do?

and im using dv - ntsc compresser, if that matters.

thanks.
 
clap,

Your images are becoming soft on your computer screen because of the DV compressor setting for your timeline. Your stills are probably nice, large, uncompressed images, then you put them on a compressed timeline and that's what will happen, at least from what you're looking at on your computer screen. However, when you look at it on a proper external monitor it will likely look just fine, it should blend reasonably well now with all your other footage. Your computer screen can tell you what is physically in the image and that's it. The quality of the images on your timeline must be evaluated using an external monitor, your computer monitor tells you nothing in that regard.

Now that's not to say that perhaps you do have a problem with some other setting, I'm not there looking at your setup, or your images, so I can't say for sure. But from what you describe, it simply seems like 'evaluating on a computer monitor' scenario.

cheers.
 
Try this, in your graphics program (PhotoShop, whatever), reduce the photos to 72dpi first. That works only if two criteria are met: 1- You don't do Ken Burns (who did not invent the technique, but repeated what was done two decades earlier) effect and zoom into them in the Timeline. 2- The photos are looking blury on an external, calibrated NTSC monitor, as has been pointed out before.

But I can tell you, I've done more photomontages than I care to remember, and I didn't have this problem on an external monitor, although sometimes I saw it on the computer monitor. Your computer monitor is not a TV, it lies to you!
 
thank you for the help. i definitely get the message that its probably a monitor thing. so that leads me to a very basic question...

if i run a firewire from my g5 into a minidv camera, and run the camera to a monitor with avi, should that allow me to watch whats on my timeline on the monitor? i used to this all the time with my pc and adobe premier pro, but when i tried it on my g5, it didnt work. is there a setting i need to select in final cut to allow my timeline to be viewable on a minidv connected by firewire (once it gets to the camera, it should go to the monitor just fine)? Or, is there another way to do this?

thanks again for all the help..
 
BUT! ....what if your final destination is computer monitors? I'm having the same problem importing PPT graphics for web-only videos. No matter what resolution I save from PPT, the graphics look blurry and pixelated in both FCP and the exported QT files.
 
What's the resolution of the photos you're importing? I haven't had this problem, so I'm not sure what to tell you. Graphic format, resolution, size, etc, it all factors in. What does the original photo look like? Was it taken with a digital camera, scanned in?

I do tutorials to be shown on comptuer screens, and I don't have any problem. But then, I'm being very sure that my source material is immaculate before it ever hits the Timeline. PowerPoint may or may not give you the quality you need, as it re-compresses on import, then again on export. I wouldn't rely on PowerPoint for anything that get's editing in FCP, although a lot of folks do it. Personally, and this is just my personal opinion, not a fact, PowerPoint for creating grahics to be used outside of PowerPoint just sucks.
 
DPI is meaningless in video, only pixel dimensions matter. Try rendering the photo clips and they'll likely stop being blurry.
 
benb-

in the final cut pro menu, under audio/video settings, there is no option to just "view audio and video playback". it lets me select how i want it played back (i selected "apple firewire ntsc" under video and "default" or "firewire dv" under audio), but no box to check that just says "view playback". is this what you meant? changing these selections havent made a difference.

and regarding rendering the photos, when i drop them in the timeline there is a dark green bar. if i select the green bar ("full") under sequence>render selection, it then allows me to render the picture. i'm not sure if this process is necessary, but anyway, rendering didnt change anything. so i'm hoping its a monitor issue...if i can just figure out how to test on an external monitor...
 
At various times I just render everything, so that's not a factor.

My main problem isn't the photos in PPT, it's the text captions. They become very hard to read. And I can't avoid working with PPT, as I'm dealing with scientists who want some of their presentation slides included in the videos.
 
Yes, you have to set how it plays back, set it for Firewire, it goes out to your camera. There is no "playback" switch. It always plays back, you have to set it up to play back where you need it to. If it's not set for Firewire, it's not going out the Firewire cable. It's pretty self explanitory.

DPI of the original can make an impact on how the photo looks once the NLE reduces it. Not all photos reduce well.

In the Sequence menu, under Render and Render All, make sure EVERYTHING is checked off.

PowerPoint text, ugh. I'd just redoe the text in FCP or LiveType. But if you're stuck with PowerPoint, there are several posts about using PP presentations in FCP and using it's elements in FCP. Check around here and other FCP forums (wwug.com, apple.com) to see how other folks are dealing with PP stuff in FCP.
 
Ben, so far my searches have indicated that the basic problem with PPT text is a lack of anti-aliasing. Some people suggested screen shots (PDF), others exporting QT movies and cutting to size. Tried them and neither did much for the text.
 
I don't use PowerPoint, and when I used to use it, I hated it. So, I'm not too up on the whole PP deal. If I do text in FCP, it's in FCP or LiveType, I never wander outside of that for text in my edits. Don't know what else to tell you.
 
the pictures are still not sharp on an external monitor, though even worse than the focus is the vibrating effect most of them have. on the computer monitor they are at least still, but on two different external monitors (one regular tv) they are vibrating (is that the right word?) pretty bad.

anybody know how to avoid this??? i'd be fine with a little blurriness at this point...
 
Just throw a Deinterlace filter (NOT the filcker filter, I hate that filter) the photo, that's an interlacing problem.
 
ok, i'll give that a try. thanks. i have one final question for this thread (i know i've probably exhausted all the support i deserve, but i'll go ahead anyway...) it relates back to monitor playback issue. the only time i can playback on my monitor is when i print to video. shouldn't i be able to just connect my mac to minidv by firewire, and minidv to monitor by avi chords, and be able to watch my timeline on the monitor? i went into audio video settings and set it properly, but still, it only works when i print to video, and even then, it seems to only work the second time (after i go into audio video settings and essentially just reselect firewire ntsc and firewire dv - even though they are already selected).

so thats where i am. thanks again so much for all the help with this stuff.
 
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