Hi
I am trying to make a DVD photo album with comic book type captions and speech bubbles (PAL format). I am importing still images to Vegas, adding captions to some of them and rendering them for final output to DVD.
The problem I am having is with the quality of the final rendered MPEG2 file. If I simply import the still images to Vegas and render them directly to MPEG2, without any changes or captions or sound, the quality of the final MPEG2 file (using Mainconcept plug in) is fine.
But when I add text speech bubbles the MPEG2 file output (especially on the background image) is noticeably poorer - the colour balance is off (biased towards red), the whites are washed out (which I understand may be because the source may not have been broadcast safe, but I don't have the problem without captions) and the background images and caption are slightly blurred (I'm a perfectionist and I NEED them crisper than crisp).
I can understand why the caption quality may be poor but I can't understand why the quality of the photos should be any different from the MPEG2 file I created without captions.
For the captions I tried two different methods of creation. The first method was to create the caption as a vector object on a transparent layer in Fireworks and then import this into Vegas as a PNG file as the new top layer.
The captions are overlayed on the photo (Batman style!) so they appear on their own layer on the timeline ( layer 1) and have a transparent background so that the photo image (layer 2) is visible underneath it. They are not animated, they just appear with their respective photo. They don't appear alone to take up the entire screen.
Then I tried to bypass Vegas altogether and use After Effects by creating the caption as an Adobe Illustrator file and then importing it on top of the still images in After Effects - rendering the lot as an AVI file then rendering the AVI file in Vegas to MPEG2. This method gave me a crisper caption bubble but the colour balance and brightness quality of the MPEG2 file was still poor.
I don't use Chroma or a key because the caption background is already transparent.
This is driving me nuts. I've tried creating the caption in vector and bitmap drawing and paint programs at the final output resolution of PAL DVD and then tried higher resolutions. Then I tried messing around with square and non-square pixel settings. I've tried using different formats (JPG, BMP) as the photo sources. No joy.
Can anyone help me understand:
1. Why the addition of the caption layer should affect the final render and how to countermeasure?
2. The best way to add the speech bubbles without pixellation or blurring?
Thanks for any help.
Marco
I am trying to make a DVD photo album with comic book type captions and speech bubbles (PAL format). I am importing still images to Vegas, adding captions to some of them and rendering them for final output to DVD.
The problem I am having is with the quality of the final rendered MPEG2 file. If I simply import the still images to Vegas and render them directly to MPEG2, without any changes or captions or sound, the quality of the final MPEG2 file (using Mainconcept plug in) is fine.
But when I add text speech bubbles the MPEG2 file output (especially on the background image) is noticeably poorer - the colour balance is off (biased towards red), the whites are washed out (which I understand may be because the source may not have been broadcast safe, but I don't have the problem without captions) and the background images and caption are slightly blurred (I'm a perfectionist and I NEED them crisper than crisp).
I can understand why the caption quality may be poor but I can't understand why the quality of the photos should be any different from the MPEG2 file I created without captions.
For the captions I tried two different methods of creation. The first method was to create the caption as a vector object on a transparent layer in Fireworks and then import this into Vegas as a PNG file as the new top layer.
The captions are overlayed on the photo (Batman style!) so they appear on their own layer on the timeline ( layer 1) and have a transparent background so that the photo image (layer 2) is visible underneath it. They are not animated, they just appear with their respective photo. They don't appear alone to take up the entire screen.
Then I tried to bypass Vegas altogether and use After Effects by creating the caption as an Adobe Illustrator file and then importing it on top of the still images in After Effects - rendering the lot as an AVI file then rendering the AVI file in Vegas to MPEG2. This method gave me a crisper caption bubble but the colour balance and brightness quality of the MPEG2 file was still poor.
I don't use Chroma or a key because the caption background is already transparent.
This is driving me nuts. I've tried creating the caption in vector and bitmap drawing and paint programs at the final output resolution of PAL DVD and then tried higher resolutions. Then I tried messing around with square and non-square pixel settings. I've tried using different formats (JPG, BMP) as the photo sources. No joy.
Can anyone help me understand:
1. Why the addition of the caption layer should affect the final render and how to countermeasure?
2. The best way to add the speech bubbles without pixellation or blurring?
Thanks for any help.
Marco