Flickering Text in Final Cut
 

I'm trying to do some work with titles in Final Cut and I'm having a really bad problem with the text flickering. This is especially obvious when I have white text over a black background. I've also tried putting the text together in Photoshop and then importing into FCP, but it still doesn't seem to clear up the problem.

Any recommendations?

Looks like there is another thread of similar quandry farther down:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=87886


It might have some helpful info.

If memory serves, I think you might find some info on this in the FCP Help.

You may have to play around a little bit with the fonts and sizes as the edge detail will demonstrate varied performance with the flicker problem. Since it is also white text on back background, you probably want to begin by bringing your white level down to about 91 percent. That should be a blg help.

-Jon

Sounds like typical interlace artifacts.

Whenever you map a progressive signal like computer output to an interlaced medium like TV, the boundry between light/dark or two colors can fall right between the natural interlace lines and the kind of flickering it sounds like you're talking about can occur.

Possible solutions...

Change the font size. Change the font itself. Apply an edge treatment to the type like a drop or cast shadow. Change the amount of contrast between the type and it's background by altering the background or the type. "Blur" the type using a guassian or other blur filter (the type will become less legible, but the flicker will typically stop)

The very best way is to apply anti-aliasing to the type edges.

But none of those will do you any good if the type is simply too small to span enough scanning lines to show the letter form on screen clearly.

Bottom line: Small type on a TV screen is nearly impossible to do well - SD TV is just too low rez a medium.

Good luck.

Do not move the text around the screen by draging the entire frame in the canvas window! That will induce flicker.

Use the crosshairs in the text control tab. For whatever reason that reduces text flickering with FCP generated text. Photoshop graphics should be moved in Photoshop.