Still image jpg w/ motion is chopy during playback

Greetings,
In FCE4 I have added a few still images which are approximately 500kb in size to a sequence. Motion has been applied to the stills, basically zooming out slowly in a Ken Burns way. During playback the motion is smooth when viewed in the Viewer but is chopy when viewed in the Canvas. What can be done to make the still image motion smooth in the Canvas?
Thanks, Scott

Make sure the Sequence is rendered fully.
-DH

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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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Get still image, but no motion video via firewire. Help!

This is really kicking me in the behind. I'm trying to do a print to tape, but before I get to that stage I have this problem where I can see my timeline video play fine in the canvas and I can see the still frame that I'm sitting on on the NTSC monitor, but that's all. If I try and play the video all I see on the NTSC is the still of the last frame. That is, until I stop the playback & then I see the frame I'm now on. So I have the data flowing from FCP 4.5 to my Sony DSR-20 and then to my monitor, just no motion video! I've gone over Shane's list of quick answers & I can't find anything wrong. What am I missing? I'm running 10.3.9 and QT 7 (not 7 pro).

Well guys, thanks for the suggestions but I am in all
frames, I have image selected as well as RGB. Any
other thoughts?
Forgive me for what may be a silly question: are you sure there is no codec incompatibility between your sequence and your device?
I ask because the only time I've gotten this issue is when I was working with 8-Bit Uncompressed (aka BetaSP footage) but still had my external monitoring pointing to my DV Deck. Just as in your case, I wouldn't get motion, but whenever I paused, I'd get that frame (externally).
Of course, you could have stumbled upon a whole new can of worms.

Export sequence of still images (JPGs, TIFFs) from FCP timeline into DVD without interlaced issues using Compressor

Hi,
How to export a sequence with stills (jpg) into a DVD format by using Compressor without having the interlaced issue on the outcome? The stills in the Canvas look crisp but once exported to DVD format, the outcome images look interlaced. How can I best match the crisp look of the high resolution JPGs in time line when exported to DVD?
My Sequence settings match the image settings:
Frame Size: 1024 x 768
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square
Field Dominance: None
Compressor: Photo JPG
I tried to export the sequence of img as an independent QT movie file by using Apple ProRes 422 output settings. The video file looks great. I then imported it back to time line into new sequence and exported into DVD format trying both: deinterlace and "same as source" setting. Both output DVD files still have the interlaced issue.
I also tried to work with JPGs converted to TIFFs on a different sequence with same as Tiff settings and the issue still persists.
I will appreciate any advices.
Thank you,
Izabela

Dear Nick,
Thank you, I understand now it is the aspect ratio issue.
Are you suggesting that I should use Photoshop or Graphic Converter to convert the 1024 x 768 to 720 x 480 prior to importing them into FCP seqence?
> Give the DVD authoring software the correct size:
I am using FCP 7.0.3 to create the sequence of images (there has to be specific timing and transitions), which I then export to DVD format by using Compressor.
Do you mean that I should set the FCP timeline sequnece settings to 720 x 480?
Please let me know. Thank you,
Izabela

Still Images suddenly have Media Offline icon

Asking this on behalf of a friend who just encountered it and is with a client at the moment...
In his timeline, everything was working fine, cutting in some footage, throw in a still image section, add more footage, all good. He then went back to review his timeline and a section of his timeline had the red "Media Offline" icon on all the footage involved. This section consists of about 15 still images (JPG files) around 10 seconds in length. Oddly enough, when he brought the playhead over this section, it still played fine, as in the proper still image was showing on screen. Even if he made modifications, he was able to render and again, the still images would play the way he intended. We tried making FCP take the footage offline, and then doing a reconnect: still had the offline icon. We restarted, still had the offline icon. All the items in his browser have the "picture" icon rather than the "offline" icon (box with red strike). We dragged the physical JPG file from Finder into the Browser window, and then placed it on the timeline: still had Offline icon.
Normally not a 'huge' issue, only a cosmetic one. Except that it's happening right in front of a big client who's always worked with Avids before. Ideally we'd like her Final Cut experience to be a wonderful one and I can tell that this cosmetic error isn't convicing her to switch. Anybody have any idea what's going on?
To sum it up: The pictures are all behaving normally, can be modified, animated, etc... The ONLY issue is that in the timeline, they have the "media offline" icon rather than a picture of it's first frame.

Don't worry its just the thumbnail that's offline. Its not even really necessary to fix but if he really needs to he can just shut down FCP. Go to wherever he has his scratch disc set up. (You know where you tell FCP to save renders, auto saves, and so forth). Just drop the folder named Thumbnail Cache into the trash. The next time you open your project it will automatically create a new folder and files and you should be good to go.

Morphing a still image to video effect

I have shot footage of my wife holding a white a4 card while talking to camera
I have zoomed in on the card to fill the screen as she finishes her talk, I want the card to have a still photo on it (created in FCP as a freeze frame), then as we zoom and then hold for 1 second the still frame changes to video of the same still, seen this effect in the TV series "Criminal Minds", im sure they use a tracking piece of software to do this, but is this acheiveable in FCP or even Motion to look realistic? I shot the card straight on, would prefer to do it at an angle plane but this may be even more difficult!
Any suggestions?

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

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).
My FCP project is setup as a DV NTSC 48kHz, 720 x 480, editing timebase=59.94, timecode Rate=same as editing timebase, compressor-DV/DVPRO-NTSC, quality 100%.
When I export to Quicktime the movies are very low quality--lots of noise and moire pattern etc.
How do I get the best qualtiy using still images? Is it my FPS setting, image pixel size, compressor setting? Also, do the movies need to be deinterlaced?
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.
Does anyone have an appropriate workflow for this type of project? The final movies are to be shown on a flatscreen monitor from a local computer, so the file sizes can be relatively large (300mb).
I can post an example of he movie files if that might help.
Thanks.
Pedro

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.
I couldn't believe it. I thought there had to be a catch or something. This was too easy the quality can't be there... but it was. It's amazing and I can't thank you enough for all the future hours you have saved for me.
Al Romero

Keeping video proportions during still image export/import

What I'm doing is exporting a still image to the Mac desktop, then dropping it into Photo-to-Movie where I create pans and zooms on it, then exporting the pan/zoom sequence as a Quicktime movie that I drop back into FCE and splice into the Timeline.
Trouble is, the image in the pan/zoom sequence always comes back into FCE distorted (elongated), I guess because the exported still image that it was made from reverts to the square pixels during the export process from FCE.
So, my question is, in what form should I export the still image from FCE so that it retains the proportions it has in the video, so that when I operate on it in Photo-to-Movie and then bring it back into FCE, it still has the proportions of a video (NTSC) image?
In other words, I need to retain the video (NTSC) image's proportions throughout the process of export, then creating pan/zooms on it in Photo-to-Movie, and then reimporting it into FCE.
To accomplish this, I presume I have to either export it from FCE in some special NTSC-video-compatible form, or else convert it in Photoshop to an NTSC-compatible image before I drop it into PTM, create the pan/zoom sequence, and then bring that sequence back into FCE.
I'd be grateful if anyone could suggest a solution to this problem.
Tom

Hello Tom Baker 1
My friend let me tell you something - I TOTALLY share your frustrations, and disgust with the poor results of Keyframe (within FCE).
I am not a software engineer, but my perseverance to try and try again, is far above average.
At the risk of getting on a soapbox, (and I can attest to my excellent equipment capability), please believe me, (like yourself), I've paid my dues trying to get Keyframing to work suitably with stills in FCE.
I think I can safely say, beyond all doubt, if you want to get satisfactory results in regard to pans and zooms, (without being a math major), some options for reliability and smoothness are: 'Photo to Movie' (just as you're doing), Fotomagico, http://boinx.com/fotomagico/overview/, (although I've only heard it's pretty good) - haven't tried it yet.
OR
A recent discovery of mine: Lyric Media Pan and Zoom http://www.lyric.com/fcp-plugins/panzoompro/pzp.htm - The really nice thing about this is that it's a FC, or FCE Plug In, and utilizes FC's keyframe software engine. Why is it different than Keyframe by itself in FCE? Because (so far), what I can see is that it sort of fixes the mickey-mousery, herky-jerky nightmare of Keyframe within FCE. To me it sure looks like it can take whatever pixel size you throw at it, (and without being a math major having to apply cautionary resizing to every darn still), it just does the job. Yes it seems to do the re-sizing for you, and consequently produces smooth, reliable motion to stills.
Of course the advantage to this is that you're finally using an application (within FCE), to create your pans and stills right there. No exporting/importing of QT files as with Photo to Movie, or iMovie. And the parameters of control are more sophicated than Photo to Movie.
Again, I'm still working with it, and I still need to master it, but it sure beats keyframe.
One side note:
I really love the crispness of an iMovie pan or zoom, but we all know by now that it's downfall are the dreaded 'JAGGIES'. As confirmed here on the forum, what seems to make Photo to Movie work so well, is the fact that by it's very nature of design, it automatically smoothes out, and probably reduces or resizes images so that they will NOT produce unwanted glistening (aliasing). And as once said here, your eye will accept this softening of an image, far better than the Jaggies, or the herky jerky.
With all that said, I hope I didn't rant on too much - as I mentioned, there's nothing like 'experience'.
Peace
Mike
(it would be nice to see someone comment on Lyric Media Pan Zoom Pro)
PS- an excerpt from the documentary I'm working on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmB0_qiONQs

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.
The first thing I tried was
Effects:Video Filters:Video:Field Shift:none
as well as
Effects:Video Filters:Video:Flicker Filter min, med, and max.
Maybe 5% were corrected with this, but the other 20% still had the jitters even after using a combination of the above or by themselves.
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:
1. Effects:Video Filters:Video:De-interlace Upper (odd)
2. Effects:Video Filters:Video:De-interlace Flicker Filter minimal
3. Effects:Video Filters:Video:De-interlace Flicker Filter max
4. Effects:Video Filters:Color Correction:Broadcast Safe conservative 115
5. Effects:Video Filters:Video:Flicker Filter max
6. All the tricks together which means
Effects:Video Filters:Video:De-interlace set at Upper (odd)
Effects:Video Filters:Video:Flicker Filter max
Effects:Video Filters:Video:Shift Fields: none
Effects:Video Filters:Color Correction:Broadcast Safe conservative 115
I know this issue has been kicked around a lot and i know some folks are not happy that it has to be kicked around at all. But I am doing something wrong because my DVDs look very un-PRO. Would anyone like to talk me through this nightmare preferably with as many details as possible since I am obviously missing something critical.
Thanks in advance.

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.
∏

Exporting still image - how do I stop motion compressing the original image

I wanted to see if I could take a still image in motion and isolate an object as Aperture 3 can't do this. I imported a photo of 5mb. I isolated a shot or my printer, cut out the background and filled it in with a white background. The printer fills most of the shot. When I export the image as eg a Tiff or jpeg the resulting exported image is only 600kb at most.
I've tried starting my motion project as multimedia large and HD1080i which gives a slightly higher file size.
How can I export such an image so that the exported still image is 4mb approx? As quality is needed for magazine pictures. I thought I had found a way to avoid buying photoshop!
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks

If you have large areas of white, they do compress well - either in TIFF as RLE or LZW, or in JPEG, so if the quality is good, I shouldn't worry. But use TIFF or PNG instead of JPEG. JPEG is a lossy compression format.
Happy New Year...
Patrick

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.
You can set the durantion from 1 frame to as long as you want them view.
If you do not use iPhoto to import your stills, the default is 10 sec's.
FYI: This issue was brought up within a month after FCPX was released. They found out by using iPhoto, you had better control of the amount of time your still was viewed.

Creating Still Images/High quality JPG's...please help

We are in desparate need of creating quality still images from captured video. Basically, we have footage in mini DV format that we import into Final Cut HD using a Sony Clamshell deck. What is the best way to make high quality still images?
We tried it this way....Export Quicktime as Still image...and it just looks bad, Even after De-interlacing it within Photoshop. We need it to look exactly like it does if we simply press pause on the deck or pause within Final Cut.

When you start with DV material, the highest res you can for a still image capture is 720x480 (non-square) or the equivalent of a really bad quality cheepo still camera. (~640x480 square pixels)
To avoid the need to deinterlace, (the horrors of which are described below) find sections in your masterpiece that have VERY LITTLE motion, i.e. everyone/thing standing/existing absolutely still with the camera locked down on a tripod. These sections will yield the very best possible still images.
If you have motion the frame, the still images will exhibit 'tearing' which comes from the two fields of video being recorded ~1/60 second apart. The second field shows elements displaced from the first field - hence a kind of internal image shifting going on. The only real way to deal with these kind of images is to deinterlace them - that is - decide which field you are going to keep and throw away the other.
When you have deinterlaced the image, you have in effect reduced it from a 720x480 image to a 720x240 image. The image pixel count REMAINS 720x480 but with half the vertical information as the remaining lines are doubled or interpolated to build back to 480 lines.
Confused yet? I hope not...
Still, if you know you'll want stills from a project, it's better to carry around a small digital still camera, you'll get better results. Otherwise, plan on pretty small prints.
Good luck.
x
Do your part in supporting your fellow users. If a response has been Helpful to you or Solved your question, please mark it as such as an aid to other lost souls on the forum.
Also, don't forget to mark the thread Answered when you get enough information to close the thread.

Can't select "Variable Speed" for Still Image Motion

I am using FCP 5.1 to add motion to still images. I've placed my still images on the timeline and added the appropriate keyframes in the Motion tab of the Viewer to Scale, Rotate, and move the stills on screen to my liking. But the speed is locked to "Constant," and I want to change that.
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.
Unfortunately, the "Setting" popup menu under "Time Remap" in the Motion tab of the viewer is grayed out and locked to "Constant Speed" (and yes, my still image clip is indeed selected and being displayed in the view). I cannot figure out how to unlock that popup so I can select variable speed.
I can choose Variable or Constant speed just fine for any imported "video" clips -- only still images are locked to Constant for some reason. Is this just a feature limitation of FCP 5? Any ideas would be appreciated.
Many thanks.

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!

Still image jpg w/ motion is chopy during playback

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