Motion produced text - quality deteriorates in FCP

chromeboy007

chromeboy007

Well-known member
I'm having a bit of an issue with text from Motion that I did not have before with my old Mac.

The text I produced with Motion would look fine in Motion, but once I bring it into FCP the quality goes down. I don't know how to describe it in words, but it's like vertical lines missing and just general decrease in resolution and slightly distorted fonts. At first I thought it was a canvass issue so I exported it to .mov but it's still bad.

This is only happening on my new Mac. I tried making the exact same texts with my old Mac and it's fine. I even watched a file produced on my old Mac on my new Mac and vice versa, the file produced with my old Mac is fine and my file produced in my new Mac sucks, regardless of which Mac I'm playing them on (so it's not the monitor).

Any ideas as to what's wrong? I'm video is shot on the DVX and Motion's resolution is 720x480, same as FCP's.

Thanks
 
I've noticed this as well. I've not found a good fix as of yet. My current THEORY, has to do with the codecs not quite up to par within FCP.... Another I have is related to interlacing, which I've never been a fan of. In fact I really hate interlaced video... Always looks like crap comparatively. And causes me too much grief trying to deinterlace for progressive deliveries such as web video.

One question I would have for you is are you running the same version of FCS on both systems?

I've got FCS 2 & FCS 2009 and I see this degrading in both places. Have you double checked all the details from exact resolution, to codec type etc in the sequence settings and your motion project settings?
 
Hi Ryan,

Since last night I realized that I had not done my software update! LOL! But even after the updates the text quality is still lacking. It still doesn't look as good as 'advertised' in Motion.

The only codec difference is spatial quality. On my old Mac it is 75, new Mac 100... so the answer lies else where.
 
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What fonts are you using? Try using a wide font like Arial Black for example. I also made sure i exported out of Motion using a Apple Pro Res codec which is the same codec I am using in FCP and my Motion text/graphics looked fine when played back in FCP. What graphics card are you using?

I've noticed problems with fonts that are skinny or have thin lines. Colors like Red sometimes appear pixelated for some reason. I try to stay from those if I can.

I wonder if using a HD codec in Motion will give you the results your looking for in FCP?

I recently had an issue with a slide show I was working on and someone suggested that I work in 30p HD codec timeline. So I copied and pasted my timeline to that setup and boy oh boy what a difference that made...My final output was to a SD DVD too!
 
I've found that HD acquisition and editing in FCP make for far better looking output to SD DVD than all-native SD projects do. Using Compressor rather than FCP's output codecs helps a lot too.
 
I used to have this problem, but was so long ago now I cant remember how I fixed it. I do remember being utterly frustrated searching for the answer. Sorry.
 
DVX100Shooter said:
What fonts are you using? Try using a wide font like Arial Black for example. I also made sure i exported out of Motion using a Apple Pro Res codec which is the same codec I am using in FCP and my Motion text/graphics looked fine when played back in FCP. What graphics card are you using?!
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for suggestions - I have since resorted to 'blur' in Compressor deinterlace to solve my problems... definitely not the best way of doing it but for now it passes.

How do I 'export out of Motion using a Apple Pro Res codec'? When I'm in Motion I just save the project as a Motion file and have FCP import that file and render it on the timeline. Is there a better way of using Motion files in FCP?

Graphics card: TI Radeon HD 4850 graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory

DVX100Shooter said:
I wonder if using a HD codec in Motion will give you the results your looking for in FCP?
Click to expand...

I tried setting my Motion project up on a HD timeline (if that's what you meant) and it didn't really translate well back to a SD timeline. But I'm definitely going to try your HD timeline in FCP next time.
 
I have this same problem. Let me suggest 2 things.

1. I used to do as you are doing, saving the motion file and importing it to FCP. The problem is that then FCP has to do the processing and if I get to many of these files on the timeline, FCP slows to a crawl or crashes altogether. What you can do is export the file from Motion as a Quicktime file using whatever settings you want to use. I think you can select Apple Pro Res or whatever you're using in your FCP project.

2. One thing I discovered that you can do in FCP is go to Sequence, Settings, Field Dominance and change it to "NONE". This makes my text really clear. But I don't know what it does to your video if you're using interlaced footage.

I've been very frustrated with this problem also. Wish I knew what the real issue and solution was.
 
Now I think about it - it did come down to codec. I make sure my motion project is the same as the fcp project, I also ensure the motion project is progressive with no field dominance.
 
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