We keep getting jagged edge effects on moving elements in our animations sometimes after exporting the final projects, as if there are interlacing problems with the way the source material and the rendering was handled.
Our workflow is:
1. take shots with digital cameras of stop motion animation action
2. bring the shots into Photoshop to resize and resample and get them to the right size for video editing (we try to resize to 720 x 576 pixels at 72 dpi- PAL DV, but often the digital cameras used want to scale down to 768 x 576 which is PAL DV square pixel setting). we use a batch action for this.
3. we bring the shots into FCP set at 2 frame still image duration, stretch the first and last frame to about 1 second each to add editing handles for later work, and then export the shots into a quick time movie so that we are left with movie clips of each of our stop motion "shots" for later editing.
4. we use those movie clips to edit the animation together in FCP, add sound and titles and then export the final production as a quick time movie.
5. some projects also use blue screen shots and the students shoot live dv camcorder footage to edit in with the stop motion digital camera shots.
The movies are viewed on computers and I also make dvds out of several animation projects to give out to students who have made the projects.
What I would like to know is what sort of settings to use when I export the digital shots into video clips in FCP to avoid creating jagged edges, and what settings to use when exporting the final edit in FCP to also avoid introducing jagged edges on motion?
Since the original material is largely still images from digital cameras, should I make sure that any interlacing is turned off? Is there anything about the DV PAL and the DV PAL square pixels that might be contributing to the problems?
Which compression would be best? DV PAL? H264? Animation? Something else?
My main desire is to avoid spoiling the animation videos by introducing jagged edges to motion during the production process.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Our workflow is:
1. take shots with digital cameras of stop motion animation action
2. bring the shots into Photoshop to resize and resample and get them to the right size for video editing (we try to resize to 720 x 576 pixels at 72 dpi- PAL DV, but often the digital cameras used want to scale down to 768 x 576 which is PAL DV square pixel setting). we use a batch action for this.
3. we bring the shots into FCP set at 2 frame still image duration, stretch the first and last frame to about 1 second each to add editing handles for later work, and then export the shots into a quick time movie so that we are left with movie clips of each of our stop motion "shots" for later editing.
4. we use those movie clips to edit the animation together in FCP, add sound and titles and then export the final production as a quick time movie.
5. some projects also use blue screen shots and the students shoot live dv camcorder footage to edit in with the stop motion digital camera shots.
The movies are viewed on computers and I also make dvds out of several animation projects to give out to students who have made the projects.
What I would like to know is what sort of settings to use when I export the digital shots into video clips in FCP to avoid creating jagged edges, and what settings to use when exporting the final edit in FCP to also avoid introducing jagged edges on motion?
Since the original material is largely still images from digital cameras, should I make sure that any interlacing is turned off? Is there anything about the DV PAL and the DV PAL square pixels that might be contributing to the problems?
Which compression would be best? DV PAL? H264? Animation? Something else?
My main desire is to avoid spoiling the animation videos by introducing jagged edges to motion during the production process.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
