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Magic Motion: Zoom image has deteriorated quality.
GStrauch1971 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Sep 16, 2014 23:45 Messages: 3 Offline
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When I import an image to use in the Magic Motion zoom, I notice the quality is poorer - I can notice it when the video zooms in, it is poorer quality than when, for example, I zoom in to the image in the Windows Picture Viewer.

The image is already high quality, why is PowerDirector reducing the resolution, or can I change this somehow?

ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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Hi there -

Are you talking about what you're looking at in Motion Designer? That's a very low-res preview

If you mean in the main preview screen, try setting your preview resolution higher.

If you mean in the produced file (and the video is produced to HD), you've maybe zoomed in a li8ttle further than the original image can handle.

A little more information would help.

Have a look at this - http://youtu.be/j6WrI6_qhG8 - the original image used was 15000x8459px

Cheers - Tony
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GStrauch1971 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Sep 16, 2014 23:45 Messages: 3 Offline
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Thanks Tony,

Well my original file size is 1600x1200, much smaller than in the tutorial video, maybe that's the biggest issue.
I tried increasing the resolution in Photoshop, but see little difference.

By the way my little project is posing GI Joe figures in dramatic rock-climbing shots.

I made a short demo video showing the different zooms:

https://vimeo.com/106619184

Four sections:
1: original image, 1200x1600
2: resized image in Photoshop using bicubic, 3000x4000
3: resized image in Photoshop using bicubic smoother, 3000x4000
4: screen capture of Windows Picture Viewer, while zoomed in

Even in the last section where the screen capture looks better than the zooms, the title and menu lettering is fuzzy.

Too bad about this deterioration, any other thoughts?

Greg

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Sep 19. 2014 14:24

ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline
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Hi Greg -

Thanks for posting the video on Vimeo. That gives a few extra clues about your image degradation.

There are quite a few factors at work:
1. The image was 1200x1600, then upscaled to 3000x4000 - lower resolution for extreme zooming
2. The image was portrait - not landscape - that probably made it worse
3. The zoom was extreme - the final frame of the zoom would fit on the screen ~45 times!
4. The produced file (on Vimeo) was 640x480 - which would also contribute to the degradation.

When you upscale or downscale an image in PhotoShop, or other software, it uses complex filters to interpolate pixels. I don't think PowerDirector is blessed in the same way.

Really, there's too much working against zooming in on that image. Extreme zoom on a very high res image - yes. Moderate zoom on a low res image - yes.

http://youtu.be/ZL-gV7zNVQA

The video was an attempt to try to prove something, but I don't think it did

Cheers - Tony
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GStrauch1971 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Sep 16, 2014 23:45 Messages: 3 Offline
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Ok, thanks.

I'll just have to work with the limitations - either zoom in much less, or maybe just use a separate cropped image after the full image.

Greg
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