Text highlighting problem

klgood1 wrote on 1/3/2006, 1:33 PM

I'm working on a menu with highlighted text, and am having a problem with incomplete highlighting after I render the project. It looks fine when I preview, but lousy after it's rendered. Here's a sample picture of the menu:

http://www.triplerchild.com/menu.jpg

I thought it might be the size of the lettering that was causing the problem, but it happens on larger text as well. I tried intensifying the color, but that only made it more apparent.

The color set I'm using only has color for the "fill" color. Does the anti-aliasing color help this problem? I'd like some sort of idea what to change before I spend 4 hours rendering this again.

Comments

jrazz wrote on 1/3/2006, 9:24 PM

Instead of rendering for 4 hours, why don't you just make a menu as a new project, attach a picture to a highlighted link and play around with it. No sound, no video, just a quick render/compilation. antialiasing does a lot for edges-making them smoother. Play around and see what you come up with.

j razz

Chienworks wrote on 1/4/2006, 4:52 AM

I think you're hitting the limits of what compressed NTSC can handle. NTSC and MPEG are both optimized for real-world images including soft colors and edges. Your image includes high contrast fine details and strongly opposing colors. Reducing the saturation will probably help a lot. Changing the font to bold may help too.

Oh, another thought ... if nothing else works, how about leaving the text white and having a green box behind it for the highlighting? It will be a similar visual effect, but you won't have the fine detailed red vs. green pixel clashing around the letters anymore.

richard-courtney wrote on 1/4/2006, 6:25 PM

Try rendering the background as progressive scan instead of interlaced
if it is a moving image. (I assume the snow flakes are falling)

Highlighting is done as RLE compression and this some times fights with
the interlacing.

We will let the DVD player interlace the final output.

klgood1 wrote on 1/4/2006, 8:21 PM

RCourtney,

You're correct -- there's a lot of movement in the background (snow falling, ornaments swinging, etc. -- it's a Digital Juice background from ETK 9)

Could you explain exactly how to render as progressive scan? Thanks.

richard-courtney wrote on 1/5/2006, 7:39 AM

In Vegas start a new project and select the Video template such as
NTSC DV 24p (720x480, 23.976 fps)
the "p" is progressive, and you will note the Field Order will change to
None (progressive). I use Caligari Truespace for my 3D animations and
24 frames seems to make the smoothest edges.

Import your background and add your text if you use a custom highlight
mask. If not add the text in DVDA as needed.

If you don't want to use 24 frames you can select PROGRESSIVE ONLY
in the field order when you render. Render the background video.

Bring up DVDA and finish the project. Most DVD players will correctly
interlace the video with the highlight overlay when used on a standard tv
set.