Fine detail graphics
 

Hi,

I'm working on a project which uses cut aways of graphics that were originally used as slides in a presentation. Some of these are composed of glyphs about 10 pixels across.

I produced a fresh version of the graphic of the same pixel dimensions as PAL SD 16:9 anamorphic (the project format). It looks fine and crisp when placed in the sequence in Final Cut Pro, (so long as the scale is exactly 100% to give a 1:1 mapping of pixels).

BUT as soon as it is rendered, a lot of detail and crispness is lost. This applies even when the uncompressed 10 bit PAL SD 16:9 for the sequence.

I suspect I am up against sampling artefacts, and there is nothing to do except reduce the detail of the graphics.

Are there ways to produce pixel accurate graphics on PAL?
Any sugestions?

Nick Hockings

i believe this is a limitation on most digital formats. try previewing small type or 1 pixel lines on an output monitor. unfortunately, it doesn't look very good. the only workaround i know of is to bump up the size of the problematic images until they look ok.

Nick, sometimes it helps to blur the image slightly using the gaussian blur filter so that lines of 1 pixel width become a bit thicker. This is especially important if you want to show the footage on an interlaced output device.