Scrolling Titles are all shimmery

earthrisers wrote on 12/2/2008, 5:06 PM

I'm (still) using Boris Graffiti to create some of my titles.
When I create scrolling credits, the text looks smooth and fine when previewed on the Vegas timeline, but when I render it, the words on the resulting AVI get all "shimmery" as they scroll -- as if tiny bits of each letter vanish and re-form as the credits crawl.
Anyone have an idea what's causing this??
I'm using Vegas' default render-as NTSC DV settings.

Comments

TeetimeNC wrote on 12/2/2008, 5:22 PM

Here's something I ran across a while back, perhaps on this forum:

1. Avoid thin horizontal elements, which can vanish from the frame if they happen to be on an even scan line during an odd field, or vice versa. The height of the horizontal bar in a capital H, for example, should be three pixels or greater. You can thicken horizontal elements by increasing font size, using a bold (or faux bold) style, or applying a stroke.

2. When animating text to move vertically—for scrolling credits, for example—move the text vertically at a rate in pixels per second that is an even multiple of the field rate for the interlaced video format. This prevents a kind of twitter that can come from the text movement being out of phase with the scan lines. For NTSC, good values include 0, 119.88, and 239.76 pixels per second; for PAL, good values include 0, 100, and 200 pixels per second.

Jerry

earthrisers wrote on 12/2/2008, 5:37 PM

Thank you.

One can't set the vertical-pixels-per-second rate directly in Boris Graffiti, but it's possible to experiment with lengthening or shortening the time the complete credit roll takes to do its rolling.
I'll go experiment with that...

johnmeyer wrote on 12/2/2008, 5:52 PM

Scrolling Text

Start with the link above (it is part way through a thread). This was from only a few weeks ago.

Rory Cooper wrote on 12/2/2008, 9:54 PM

This might help

Check your project settings in Vegas pixel format should be 32-bit and preview full and when in Boris make sure your project settings in Boris are same as Vegas

kentwolf wrote on 12/2/2008, 10:05 PM

>>...This might help...

Another thing that will help: Use Graffiti as a stand-alone app.

Years ago, I had several problems with Graffiti/Red/Other Boris app render quality (titles, in fact) when trying to use the Boris apps as a Vegas plug-in. It seemed that rendering at Vegas BEST was not being carried through to the Boris app. It was like the Vegas part was at BEST, the Boris part was at DRAFT-plus.

Boris plug-in-ability is a real kludge. It almost may as well not exist.

Using Boris apps separately, all works great.

Boris apps plug in very well with Adobe apps. Not Vegas though.

Coursedesign wrote on 12/2/2008, 10:10 PM

Jerry is right, the scroll rate is what matters with non-subpixel-rendered text in interlaced video .

It's a simple law of physics, and 32-bit can't do anything about that.

You can however add a little bit of blur to smooth the impression.

John_Cline wrote on 12/2/2008, 11:20 PM

Check out this article by Adam Wilt, scroll down to "Character Generators & Titling."

http://www.adamwilt.com/Tidbits.html

earthrisers wrote on 12/3/2008, 11:16 AM

Great article -- thanks a lot!

I've reduced some of the "visibility" of the credits-flicker in my current project, by putting a simple illustration and a light-grey screen above the credit roll, and adjusting the composite-level on those top two tracks.
Didn't make the twittering go away completely, but it seems to be a fair bit less noticeable.

farss wrote on 12/3/2008, 2:47 PM

Simple fix, add a tiny amount of the gaussian blur FX in the vertical direction only.

Bob.

earthrisers wrote on 12/3/2008, 3:34 PM

THANK YOU!

The little bit of blur improves the result tremendously.