Re: PhotoShop files degraded after render

Hi, all -

I'm attaching two screen grabs, which make up a "before" and "after" comparison to illustrate my problem.

As you can see, when I import a particular graphic (a PhotoShop image with transparent background), it looks great in my Canvas. The "Before" image shows what I see in the canvas when I place a JumpBack animation on V1 and my school district logo on V2, then wait for the preview of the non-rendered image. Looks fine.

But in "After," you can see that once I render the composited image, the PhotoShop logo looks pixilated and awful. If I add a slight drop shadow to it, it's a bit better... but, to my mind, there's no reason such a sharp graphic should look so ugly after rendering.

By the way, the graphic shows up at 100% of its original size. I'm not blowing it up or shrinking down a massive graphic here... what you see onscreen is not in any way manipulated to make it fit onto the screen... that's actual-size. It's 408 x 113 pixels, 72 dpi. Image mode is RGB color, it's one layer with its own transparent background.

I'd really appreciate any ideas you all might have about this. I tried to find out where I can set FCP to render at best quality (ever notice that when you open a FCP project from an earlier version of FCP, you get the option of setting the render quality, and are told that the default setting is something like "good" quality but there are higher-quality options? I wonder if that might be an issue here...) but I cannot find this setting.

Again, any input would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

M.

First thing to do is to make sure your render settings are correct.

Select Sequence > Render All and make sure ALL render options are checked, including the Full (dark green) option. Then you press ALT+R to do a full render of your timeline. Now check if the image looks better.

Always watch the image on your external video monitor. Your Canvas is not meant to show you the full video quality of your timeline. If you don't have an external video monitor just set your Canvas viewer to 100% (not "Fit to window) to see the quality of your video. Does it look OK now ?

You can indeed change the render quality of your timeline, but this only affects video that has been altered using the Motion tab (i.e. scale, distort, rotate etc...). The rule of thumb is to use the "good" setting (good quality, faster renders), and only use the "best" setting if you haven any problems with "good". Usually you will hardly notice any difference, except with video that has been modified using the Motion tab.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Hi, Ronny -

I do use an NTSC monitor (wouldn't be caught without one!) and unfortunately, the rendered version of this logo looks just as craptacular in NTSC as the version in the Canvas. I suppose I should have mentioned that in my initial post.
I've used this logo for years and it's always done this to me.

One thing I did finally learn from your reply, though, was where to find the setting for render quality - thanks! I am re-rendering to see what, if anything, happens differently.

Thanks - and I'm still open to ideas about this graphic.

- M.

Yes it really looks aweful. Please tell us if checking all render options has solved the issue. If not, I will have a closer look at the problem.

Best wishes,

Ronny