Livetype compatibility with Avid

Question

Hey,
I think this issue has been raised before, but I still haven't gotten a response that helps me.
Here's the issue: I'm an editor currently using an Avid system who would like to use LiveType titles. I have no problem creating the titles in LT, then importing them into my other app. The issue is the quality of the title. I know you've all read this before: "It looks fine on my computer screen, but crappy on my NTSC monitor." My current Avid setup is 30i, and imports using the Lower Field first.....I've tried every combination of Project Properties in LT (changing field order, pixel size...etc) Nothing works. Any moving title looks awful when imported into Avid. By the way, everything is peachy keen when keeping it all in FCP, but unfortunately that's not my workflow now. If anyone has a fullproof "Setting" for LiveType when it's going to be used in an interlaced environment with Lower Field first, let me know. Thanks in advance! Dave

Answer 1

Hey David,
Maybe you've tried this already but if not maybe it's worth a try:
Choosing a Field Order
You can run a simple test to determine the proper field order for your system.
To test your system, render two LiveType projects, one rendered with upper field first and one with lower field first.
To test the field rendering order:
1 Start a new LiveType project.
2 Choose Edit > Project Properties.
3 In the Project Properties dialog, do the following:
aChoose an NTSC or PAL setting from the Presets pop-up menu.
bChoose Lower (Even) from the Field Dominance pop-up menu.
Do not choose Upper (Odd). In this case, you are rendering the lower field first.
4 In the Inspector, do the following:
aType a capital “O” in a system font on Track 1.
bIncrease its size to fill most of the Canvas.
c Color the letter red, then choose black as your background color.
5 Apply a fast-moving effect to the track, such as Jumpy, in the Caricature effect category in the Media Browser.
6 In the Timing tab, set the speed of the effect to 100 percent.
7 Choose File > Render Movie.
8 Enter lower.mov as the filename in the Save As field, then click Save.
The movie renders to your chosen location.
9 Now change the color of the capital “O” to blue. Select Upper (Odd) in the Project Properties dialog.
10 Save the file, naming it upper.mov.
11 Render the second movie.
12 Import the rendered files into Final Cut Pro, then play back both movies on an NTSC monitor.
One of the two movies will look distorted; the other movie will play correctly, with sharply defined edges. Whenever you render a LiveType movie for that system, use the settings you used for the undistorted output.