Still images distort in motion 2

hello,
I have used still images in motion 2 many time before without a problem. for some reason today when I try to use still images in motion they pixilate on me. I have tried importing psd's of 16 and 8 bit, I have tried using jpegs, and I have even tried to scale the image down before importing. any idea what might be causing this?
Thanks Mike

oops, I opened the project in small muti media.
sorry.

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Examples of still image manipulation in Motion 2

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New Discussions ResponsesThe new system for discussions asks that after you mark your question as Answered, you take the time to mark any posts that have aided you with the tag and the post that provided your answer with the tag. This not only gives points to the posters, but points anyone searching for answers to similar problems to the proper posts.
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I am a relatively new Final Cut Studio 2 user I've taken a few classes and I know the basics and a little beyond. So far my projects have been coming out well until I started having to add still images to my projects. When I add these images I size down in Photoshop CS3 appropriately, usually they are really large tiffs or standard jpegs. Then when I import them into Final Cut I size them one more time to match the wire frame. When I play the movie I created in Final Cut it looks great but after I export it using compressor I either get a pixilated type of image distortion or the images are washed out, but its usually only on certain images not all images in the project are affected. My projects usually end up embedded on our website or up on youtube or bliptv, so I have been bouncing between the H.264 300Kbps for medium bandwidth streaming and H.264 800 Kbps for high bandwidth. Would someone be able to tell me if there is a better codec I should use for the web that would get rid of these problems that I am having or do I need to size my images in a different way? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
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Get still image, but no motion video via firewire. Help!

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Well guys, thanks for the suggestions but I am in all
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I have shot footage of my wife holding a white a4 card while talking to camera
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Hey Allister
I can't see why you would need any motion capture software - what I understand your trying to do from your post, should be perfectly achievable using just the motion keyframes in FCP. This would be how i would try and do the effect your describing -
1. Find the frame that wished to use as the mock photo on the piece of card. Create a freeze frame and export it as a still image PNG file. If your working in an interlaced format, then take it into photoshop and use the deinterlace filter on the footage to get rid off any jagged edged that should be smooth.
Filter > Video > De-Interlace
And resave it.
2. Import this photo image into the same sequence as your wife holding the piece of card. Drag this image onto the timeline above the clip of your wife holding the card. Now resize the image using the motion controls to fit the piece of card. Add a keyframe here to your "size" value and your "center" value, and any other value you have adjusted to make the still fit the card.
3. Now navigate to the frame of the zoom, in the clip of your wife holding the card where the card fills the screen. Adjust your still PNG photo image to fill the screen also - you should be able to do this easily by just setting all the motion values to their default setting e.g size 100%, center 0,0.
4. Now go back to through the footage zooming in on your wife. Play it through - and each time you see a frame where the photo image is in the incorrect position i.e not fitting the card, then simply adjust it so that it fits.
Hopefully a combination of the final cut tweening and a little perseverence on your part should get the photo to keep in position all the way through the camera zoom.
5. Now at the frame where the photo image fills the frame - cut to the actual moving footage from which you took the still. Make sure you cut to 1 frame AFTER where you took the freeze frame. Otherwise there will be an unnatural pause as you will be essentially playing the same frame twice.
Now you could also use the speed ramping tools in FCP to come up from a still image to slow motion to full speed video if you want a smoother transition than just going from a still to moving footage.
Hope this was of some help. Knowing me its probably clear as mud. If you want any clarification on any points just post back here.
All the best
JB

Still images are distorted

Having a frustrating problem... importing still images into FCE 4 and they are being distorted - the image appears to be stretched horizontally. The still images are set up as follows:
Frame Size: 1920 x 1080
Compressor: PNG
Pixel Aspect: HD (1440 x 1080)
Easy Setup:
Format: Apple Intermediate Codec
Use: HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60
Frustrating part is that some of the photos work fine and others do not - despite that they are all set up the same way. Any suggestions?

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Using still image in FCP and Motion

I'm using still images in Motion (and FCP) and exporting them to Quicktime movie files. What's the best size and resolution for the images and are JPGs or TIF best? I'm exporting for 720 X 480, and currently my JPGs are 4 x 6 at 300 dpi with a pixel width and height of 1312 x 2000. I'm adding some behaviors to the images in Motion (motion paths and shrink/grow).
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The preview in the FCP browser and canvas looks a little better but I do notice noise (moire patterns) along the sharp edges of the still images.
I've seen QT movies of these very same images (done by someone else who is no longer around) and they are much better quality.
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David, your a genius!!! You posted your reply on my birthday, and I missed it until today!
Fotomagico is devastatingly easy to use and absolutely makes me want to cry at the amount of time I wasted creating photo slideshows in FCP!
I opened Fotomagico up and created a slideshow, one that I had already created in FCP and had take me FIVE HOURS to create... in TEN MINUTES!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaaaaah.
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Al Romero

Still image with motion has flicker pulsating problem

I use FCP 5.0.4
I have read the many threads about this subject and am still not able to succeed in getting rid of the flicker/pulsating in a still image with motion.
I would say about 25% of the stills with motion have the jitters; all the rest look great.
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Effects:Video Filters:Video:Field Shift:none
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I just burned a test DVD using a variety of the persistently jittery stills from my current project and although the jitters change a bit, they were still there so all of these failed:
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3. Effects:Video Filters:Video:De-interlace Flicker Filter max
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There is no 'secret formula'. It just takes thinking through the issues.
1. Set the image size for each image that makes sense within the context of your project. Going significantly larger than the displayed area of that image (including movement) is just asking FCP to do additional work to resize the image. FCP is less sophisticated at resizing images than Photoshop. Use Photoshop and your planning of the movie to get the images to the appropriate size.
2. Wasted effort and totally irrelevant- you could set it to 7200 dpi if it makes you feel better.
3. Good idea - be sure to knock down areas of pure or very bright white. These are the elements that will give you the most trouble.
4. Don't do this unless you want to throw away HALF the picture information. Deinterlace deletes half the picture and then photoshop recreates it through interpolation of the remaining half of the picture. Why do this?
5. Make your determination based on what works. If you have properly exposed and sized the material, the need to blur is greatly reduced. ONLY do it on the images that need it. Why degrade every image if you do not need to do so?
6. See number 5
7. Lay out your time line early, view the work on an external broadcast monitor and only mess about with the images that require it.
In the psycho business they have term for much of the referenced post - it's called superstitious behavior. Basically it comes down to "It worked before so we recommend it to everyone without regard to their situation" ... here's another example:
Many years ago in my architecture practice, we had one of the early 512k macs (upgraded from the 128k!) I needed to show one of the interns how to create a project budget spread sheet in Excel. Inadvertently I clicked on Word, said "oops", closed it and opened Excel and we went to work.
A week later I was walking by the computer and overheard the same intern explaining how to work with Excel to another architect. "First you open Word, close it, THEN you open Excel", she explained. When asked by her 'trainee', why do you have to open Word first, wouldn't it just be easier to simply open Excel? Her answer was just perfect, "Well, it works every time, what's wrong with that?" so it goes ...
good luck with your project.
∏

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I want to import still images to make a stop motion animation, but when I try to change the duration of still images, it isn't reflected in the timeline. How can I do this?

I want to import still images to make a stop motion animation, but when I try to change the duration of still images, it isn't reflected in the timeline. How can I do this?

Tonaw,
If you import your still images using iPhoto, then the time you set for each still, using FCPX Perferences works.
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Specifically, am rolling a still image on-screen, freezing it in the middle of the screen a few seconds, and then rolling it off-screen. Doing this is easy: I just add a keyframe and type in the off-screen coordinates, then add another keyframe and type in coordinates somewhere on screen. But I want to vary the speed that the image rolls on-screen, so it moves on-screen quickly but then gradually slows down until it finally stops (freezes) in the middle of the screen.
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Why so much sarcasm in this FCP forum, Studio X?
Yes, it was in the manual, which by the way is quite large. And I didn't say how long it took me to spot that in the manual either -- a long time. I didn't spot it the first time I had read through that section (yes, I had read it before). And the fact is, you didn't know it either, otherwise you may have cared to point it out (for not only myself, but for others reading this forum too).
I participate in numerous other forums on other sites. Many times, people ask questions that are very simplistic to me -- I know the answers and I know those people putting forth the questions could easily have looked up the answer. Nevertheless, I take time to be helpful to others. For truly, some day I may be in their shoes, lacking time to read every part of every manual out there.
I am therefore thankful to those who likewise respond in a tactful manner to my queries, with the productive aim of helping others rather than condemning them. Thank you, David Harbsmeier, for being consistently positive and very helpful in this forum!

Working with still images SOOO slow in Motion 3! Any advice?

Hi Everyone,
I am fairly new to Motion, so please bear with any n00bness I bring. I've hunted the forums for a good half hour now but still not found a sufficient solution.
I am editing a Standard Def project for a client, and for the intro to the piece, they want there to be a bunch of still images flying onto the screen to create a mosaic of about 70 or so pictures. The idea is to start zoomed in on one picture (the pictures are all portraits of people) so that it fills the screen, and then to have the image recede and grow smaller. As the picture grows smaller, another fills the screen and also grows smaller. This continue with all 70 pics until they've all grown small and joined the mosaic.
I've played with some effects and found the "Light Rays" glow effect to be the feel I am looking for, and would like each photo to come onto the screen using this effect at the beginning as it fills the screen.
My problem, though, is that I'm only on my 2nd picture, and it's already SO slow. I tried lowering render resolution to draft and image to half, third, or even quarter. But the problem is that when I lower resolution, it doesn't merely degrade the image quality. It actually crops my 2nd image, and so even though it plays more smoothly, I only see a tiny portion of the image, and I can't properly time the effects or fly ins. It doesn't crop my first image, though, and for some reason, even if I solo this 2nd picture, it's still incredibly slow. I have to remove all effects from it for even the simple resize effect to play smoothly. The file is only 276kb and 842x1080. Does this sound right? Is there anything I can do so that Motion doesn't crop the photo when I lower resolution to improve playback?
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Thanks SO much in advance!!!!
Message was edited by: SuperMonk7

hi,
the first thing you can do is to pre-flight your images. make them as big as you need them in your final compostion, so if the biggest you're seeing them is full screen, make them that size. I use native photoshop files or PNGs, rather than tiffs or jpegs, they just seem to work better for me.
As you work, especially if you are using something like light rays, you;re going to have to render the sequence to watch it in real time. so do a RAM render to watch anything.
Once you have the rays working as you'd like, turn them off to work on the animation aspect. Then turn it on for the render and export.
not sure why the image is being cropped, but try the other stuff first and put the render quality back up to normal
hth
adam

Still images distort in motion 2

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