This is a common question and there are several answers:

First, the Final Cut Pro Canvas usually shows titles and graphics more pixelated and lower quality than the actual quality. Render a title and play it on a real monitor – or render and export a 10 frame test to disk and view to see the true picture.

Read these articles on monitoring: http://www.dvcreators.net/tag/monitoring/ for more info.

If you are rendering to the DV codec, you will see an instant drop in quality. But don’t worry, as long as you export to a lossless codec your final project will look great.

This article shows how to export in high quality.

If you are delivering on SD DVD, you have a challenge. NTSC and PAL are not perfect formats- and SD is low resolution and fuzzy. If you’re a graphic artist used to creating crisp, clean pixel perfect graphics in Illustrator or Flash on your expensive LCD display, you’re in for a big surprise. Keep your fonts and graphics big and bold, and put a drop shadow or slight glow on your titles. Keep checking on an external NTSC or PAL monitor if your project is slated for SD delivery. Watch TV and see what graphic styles look good on your TV set- and model those.

Here’s a list of nevers:

1. Never trust the Canvas Window to show quality
2. When using Motion or Livetype, never render to a lossless codec like DV before importing into FCP – import the project or render to a lossless codec
3. Never export from FCP using H.264 or any other lossy codec – always use a lossless codec (PJPEG at 90% – 100% is an exception)

For more info, check out:

Final Cut Pro Foundations

Final Cut Express Foundations

Ever since the release of our DV Enlightenment lighting course, people are always asking us, “How did you make those awesome light rays on your titles?”

In that case, we used an excellent plugin for After Effects called Shine. Shine worked for a bit in Final Cut Pro years back, but then Apple changed the plugin API, and Shine no longer worked in Final Cut. (It works now, however!)

I’ve always liked the super-dramatic light rays effect, but the light rays filters in Motion and Final Cut Pro take too long to render… and frankly, they are pretty lame. So I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to help you create those super long, awesome godlike light rays, and preferably in real time! And finally, that opportunity is here.

I bet you probably own an amazingly powerful 3D graphics program that you’ve never even installed- even though it’s on a disc within sight of where you’re sitting.

It taps directly into the awesome power of OpenGL, OS X Core Video and Core Image to give you incredible real time effects. And the project files can be dragged right into the Final Cut Pro or Express timeline (just like LiveType or Motion) for pristine, uncompressed SD or HD animations that will knock your socks off!

WARNING: This is not a tutorial for non-techies! If you don’t have a propeller on at least one of your hats, you may be a little overwhelmed. Also, you must own OS X 10.4 or higher.

However, if you fancy yourself a bit of a nerd, if you’ve tinkered with HTML, PHP, or Javascript, if you feel you have a good grasp of relativity, or predicted the subprime mortgage meltdown, or understand the movie Memento, this free tutorial will open up a whole new world of visual effect programming that will allow you to create some animations no other common software program will.

It was designed to be presented in our patented Chunkalized learning environment, so it moves pretty fast. You’ll want to keep a hand on your space bar to pause the movie after each step if you are following along hands-on. Some of the presets have some additional controls, and some are similar, but we have total faith that you’ll have fun with them even though they are not quite finished! We will keep teaching you about this impressive secret tool!

Also, this tutorial was done with Tiger, but Leopard users will find the tutorial is still 100% current. It’s even a little cooler in Leopard.

Ask questions about the course by clicking here.
Enjoy!

The student files are in this zip file:

Click here to download student files

Extract the zip file and place the folder in your Documents folder.

Click here to start your Rayz O Lite journey!

http://dvcreators.net/media/tiplets/complete_rayz_of_lite.mov

Have you ever found yourself changing the file names of a whole folder of clips, graphic or other files on your hard drive one by one? Here is a Warp Speed Workflow showing how to change hundred of files names in one click.

Click here to ask a question about Final Cut Pro workflows.

For more info, check out:

Final Cut Pro Foundations

Final Cut Express Foundations

A frequently asked question by new Final Cut users is about creating titles and not being able to see changes as they make them. This movie shows how to see changes while editing your title, all in real-time! Wa-Hoo!

Click here to ask a question about Final Cut Pro.

Bare Feats is at it again, with speed tests of the new Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros:

ArtRage is a painting package designed to provide a realistic and fun simulation of using paint on a canvas, along with pens, pencils, crayons, and other tools. ArtRage is available for both Windows and Mac OS X. It can be used with a mouse, but works better if you have a graphics tablet, or even better on a Tablet PC where ArtRage takes advantage of the unique interaction of pen and screen to produce a realistic painting feel.

Windows-only free app:

Gloodle is "doodle with globs" — drawing using 3D shapes to create 2D images with a lot of richness, complexity, and depth.
Gloodle is a simple app that shows some hint of the immediate feedback that makes particleIllusion so fun and useable: in Gloodle you just draw on the window and cool things happen. Not much thinking required. There are plenty of controls to experiment with, and (like particleIllusion) a lot of power hidden under simple controls.

What can you do with Gloodle?

You can create many interesting and organic images with Gloodle, with powerful features including:

• Several symmetry options, including polar symmetry.
• The ability to import an image and "gloodle-ize" it.
• Create a "pattern" out of a drawing, then draw with that pattern (can create some very intricate images!).
• Add shading to a drawing (or portion of a drawing) to simulate depth, or use Chromadepth coloring (if you have the right 3D glasses!).
• Import your own shape images to draw with.

Sample drawings that are included with Gloodle — click for larger versions.

download here

Photoshop is the old standby, but I don’t like it for video graphics. Someone as simple as grabbing an element and moving it is problematic. I much prefer FireWorks, or even Motion for still graphics, which has some nice layout functions.

Flash is also an option for "PowerPoint" type slides, as well as Keynote.

GIMP is a free, open source graphics program very similar to Photoshop. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.

On OS X, check out GIMP SHOP (Gimpshop 2.2.11 Universal App for OS X 10.3/10.4 Tiger (Intel & PPC now available) GIMP on Windows

Features:

To use still images in a Final Cut timeline, use one of the following formats:

• TIFF
• PICT (uncompressed)
• PNG
• .PSD RGB (NOT CMYK)

For 100% size, use 72 dpi. 24 bit color (or 32 with Alpha channel) looks the best.

Save your original Photoshop or Fireworks file, then “Merge Down” (to rasterize layer effects like glows and drop shadows, FCP will not import those).

Finally, resize your images to the right dimensions:

DV NTSC 720 x 480 (non-square pixels)

DV PAL 720 x 576 (non-square pixels)

1080i HD 1920 x 1080 (square pixels)

720p HD 1280 x 720 (square pixels)

Then save under a different name and import into FCP.

STILL IMAGE ZOOMS If you’re going to be zooming in to the still, a la the technique Ken Burns stole from that other guy, you need higher resolution.

How much higher? Well, if you’re zooming in, 2X, then the resolution should be 2X, that is, 1440 X 1068. If you will be zooming in 4X, you’ll need 2880 X 2136 resolution for the highest quality.

You can sometimes get away with zooming in a little over 100% depending on the quality of the picture (and your project), but over 100% the image will become more and more pixelated (fuzzy).

Photoshop does a much better job “uprezzing” stills than FCP- enlarge in Photoshop if you need to – no need to import stills with any higher resolution than you need- it will just slow FCP down.

To reduce flickering, try tests with the Deinterlace and Deflicker filters, and also a slight Gaussian Blur- depending on your graphic one will work better than the other

When moving footage is not available, don’t forget about still photos! You can animate still photos with motion and scale, crop them, apply filters (like sepia, B & W, color tint) and sometimes stills can fill empty spots in your timeline as well or even better than a video clip. Also, many stock photos are automatically HD res!

http://tutorialblog.org/25-places-to-find-awesome-stock-photos-%E2%80%94-free-and-cheap/

Here is a monster list of sites with free photos:

Wikipedia Commons
Stock Exchange
Morguefile
Image After
Free Photos Bank
OpenPhoto
BigFoto
USDA
NASA
NOAA
NPS
Earth from Space
FWS1
FWS2
Picture Station
Geek Philosopher
Free Images
Pixel Perfect Digital
FreeFoto
Image Base
Cepolina
Amazing Textures
Texture Warehouse
PDPhoto
Image Blowout
Piotrpix
Mandragora
Fotogenica
Mayang
Free Photo Station
Cromavista
Afflict
Creativity 103
The Photo Repository
Aarin Free Photo
Stockvault
Designpacks
Unprofound
Four Bees
Insect Images
Free media Goo
Burning Well
A digital Dreamer
Freestockphotos.com
Freewebpics
Lightmatter
Majestic Imagery
Triparalbum
Twice Pix
AboutPixel
Woophy
Pixelquelle
PIX
tOfz
Fontplay
Orangetrash
ArtFavor
ImageTemple
LogoDesignweb
Fotodatebank
Bajstock
PhotoCase
NPS Digital Image Index
Gimp-Savy
DeviantArt

Public_domain_image_resources @ wikipedia.org
Long page of links to websites hosting public domain images.

pixelquelle.de
Some 20,000 free images. You are not allowed to build (commercial) online databases or galleries.

Photoshop Tutorials Blog
An extensive list of over 50 free stock photos resources.

Yoto Photo
yotophoto is a search engine for finding free photos. The nice thing about it is that it searches multiple photo collection sites, so it may make a good starting point when you’re looking for something specific.

Finding Images Online
a Directory of Web Image Sites

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morgue file
This morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use.

Pixel Perfect
PixelPerfect? Digital is an image archive with over 4,000 images sorted in 146 categories free for commercial and non-commercial use. The newest files appear on the gallery home page and randomly selected images on the bottom of the page. You can stay on top of the newest files by subscribing to the RSS feed.

Open Photo
The Open Photo Project is a stock photo community and framework devised, implemented and supervised by Michael Jastremski. Its purpose is to allow photographers to share and protect their works through Creative Commons licensing where you can view photo thumbnails by license.

Image After
Image*After is a free online photo collection. Download and use any image or texture from the site to use in person or commercial work per the terms of use. At the top is a drop-down list for browsing images and textures by category or you can use the search box. This well-organized library can be sorted in different ways and the thumbnail pages include the image’s dimensions, number of hits and file size. Plus, you can select how many images to display on each page and even make the thumbnails larger by clicking on the magnifying glass.

PDPhoto.org
PDPhoto.org is a repository for free public domain photos. It contains about 2,000 photographs under a many categories. One person has taken most of the photos.

StockVault
Stockvault is a stock photo resource which offers medium-sized images for personal and non-commercial use. Stockvault has evolved from stock.b-man.dk and features images from various photographers, both professional and amateur.

Buzznet
Buzznet.com is an online photo-sharing community that allows its members (registration free) to upload images from mobile phones, and post, syndicate and republish digital photos in their blogs. For RSS feeds, look at the bottom of each user page, gallery, community gallery and friends listing.

Flickr.com
Flickr.com, bought by Yahoo, is one of the best ways to store, search, sort and share your photos. This online software application and image resource has super features and a community of world contributors, plus it’s s easy to use. Each person publishing images on Flickr can select and specify the type of licensing to be applied to those pictures — from fully reserved copyright to any of the Creative Commons licenses. So look carefully for the explicit author permissions specified on each individual photo page.

Ourmedia.org
Ourmedia is a (still in alpha) non-commercial free clearinghouse for all rich-media content for sharing, re-use and enjoyed by as many people as possible.

Jupiter Images

Frimages Royalty free images.

Multimedia @ all the web

Pro Corbis

galerie photos @ l’internaute

Freefotos
Self-proclaimed largest collection of free photographs for private non commercial use.

Creative Commons Search
The Creative Commons Search engine specializes in finding different content on the Web, which have been published with a Creative Commons license allowing re-use, and in some cases even modifying the work.

Gimp Savvy photo archive
The photo archive at Gimp-Savvy?.com contains over 27,000 free photos and images. The images come from three sources: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Though the photos are copyright free, be aware some restrictions apply.

DHD Multimedia Gallery
This isn’t a fancy site, but its photos are free for personal and commercial use. However, be sure to read its terms and conditions. You can browse collections by category, new entries and best photos. Each photo includes information on the date added to the collection, size, image type and rating. Also, the photo details page has the photo’s copyright information.

Free Photographs Network
Free Photographs Network is a resource for royalty-free stock photographs available for non-commercial use. If you use any of the photographs from the site, you’re agreeing to abide by international copyright law. Its terms of service outlines the rules for using the photos from the site. You can browse collections by category or use the search tool.

Free Stock Photos
FreeStockPhotos?.com is a resource for free photography for personal or commercial use. There are some restrictions in using photos from the site such as retaining the domain name when using the photo on the Internet, in a Web page, in printed publications or in any product, advertising or packaging. Categories include animals, Christian, Egypt, Israel, Near East, Rome, scenery, sky/weather and wildflower/plants.

Free Images UK
FreeImages?.co.uk has over 2500 stock photos. To ensure following the Web site’s rules for using its images, read the terms and conditions to ensure following the Web site’s rules for using its images. The home page lists the top three galleries, which is currently the home, financial, and flora.

Free Images.com
FreeImages?.com has over 2300 stock photos. Note this one is FreeImages?.com and it’s not the same site as the one from the UK. You can read the terms and conditions to verify the rules for using the site’s photos.

Big Foto
bigfoto.com is a repository of photos organized by categories and sub-categories. Each sub-category has a brief description about the category. The main categories are America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Pacific, Themes and Miscellaneous.

Geek Philosopher
Geek Philosopher has a collection of photos, backgrounds and wallpaper organized in nine main categories with subcategories. If you use an image, the site requires you to include a link to GeekPhilosopher?. According to the site, you are free to do whatever you want with these photos except redistribute them.

Barry’s free photos
Barry’s Free Photos has over 2300 free and royalty-free stock photos organized by many categories and subcategories.

Holyland photos
Holy Land Photos has over 2400 photos related to the holy lands. The photos represent a diversity of religions with photos sorted into three categories: daily life and artifacts, people and region. Regions cover Jordan, Lebanon, Italy, Israel, Turkey and Greece.

Aar In Free Photo
Aarin Free Photo and Digital Images offers over 950 free photos and images for personal and commercial use. You may download and use the images on your Web site, print ads, brochures or any other end products as long as you display the copyright information per the Web site.

Photo Rogue
Photo Rogue has a unique concept — if you can’t find a picture you need, submit a request to Photo Rogue and you might see your request fulfilled. The site relies on volunteer photographers. Before submitting a request, review the Guidelines. While the service is free, there are no terms on the site regarding the use of photos.

Free Photos
FreePhotos?.com offers over 1000 royalty free photos with no usage restrictions for Web site or print work use. The site doesn’t ask for reciprocal links or credits.

Free Stock Photos
Free-StockPhotos?.com is a collection of (what else?) free stock photos available for use in personal and commercial design projects as long as the terms of use are followed.

tOfz.org
tOfz dot org is one photographer’s collection of everyday urban life. Jeremie Zimmerman, the person behind the site, sorts his photos by location and categories. He shares his favorites. The site uses the Attribution-ShareAlike? 2.0 Creative Commons license and free art license (Copyleft Attitude) from License Art Libre. This site is available in English and French. A small, but respectable collection.

Free Media goo
FreeMediaGOO? has a collection of royalty free images, audio, textures, and Flash available for commercial and private user free of charge except for propaganda, adult or suggestive materials. Credit for the images is not necessary.

AMG Media Works, Inc. Free Photos
AMG Media Works Inc. is a design and photography service company that offers free stock photos for your use as long as you give credit to the photographer, Ernest von Rosen.

US Agricultural Research Service
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) image gallery is a complimentary collection of over 2,000 high quality digital photographs related to agriculture.

Creating Online
Creating Online Stock Photos Gallery is a free stock photo gallery of over 500 photos, most of which have been taken by Pamela Auer Roth. Photos are free for personal or commercial use as explained in the Terms of Use.

Woophy.com
Woophy has a collection of over 23,000 photos from around the world and over 4300 cities are represented. You can search by city, country, category keywords or member to find photos. The categories are animals, culture, landmarks & buildings, objects and people.

Image Base
ImageBase? is a collection of over a few hundred photos on nature, people, city, and objects taken by presumably one person, David Niblack. Though a small database in comparison to others, you can expect to find quality photos here. The site clearly states that “all images are 100% free to use.”

Free Stock Photos from Cepolina Photos
Free Stock Photos from Cepolina Photos contains over 1900 photos by three photographers covering mostly nature and geography.The photos are free (see FAQs for details) as long as the site is credited and that you don’t link directly to the images of the web site as that’s stealing bandwidth.

From Old Books
Pictures from Old Books is a unique collection of over 800 images scanned from old books that are public domain (copyright-free or out of copyright) unless otherwise noted. The site has many pictures of castles, abbeys and old houses.

Majestic Imagery
Majestic Imagery has a collection of over 400 royalty free photos organized by categories. The terms of use require that those who use photos give proper credit with a link back to the site.

Photocase
Photocase contains a repository of photos and a community that includes forums, polls, buddy lists and user profiles. Photos from this site may be used for commercial and noncommercial self-contained original work. You can download up to three photos per day.

Visipix
Visipix is an art museum, clip art, and photo gallery with around 100,000 exhibits. If you publish the photos, the site requires crediting the authors and Vispix.com somewhere near the pictures. Per the copyright page, all copyrights are free. However, they can’t be used in the sex industry or in the promotion of tobacco and alcohol.

BurningWell.org
BurningWell?.org is a repository of over 1400 public domain images for your use. You’re allowed to download, copy and use the photos for any purpose. Photos from from photographers around the world. The site has eight top-level albums (categories) and 27 in total ranging from activities to textures.

Art Favor.com
ArtFavor? has a collection of vector and flash clipart, sounds, fonts, photos, pictures and images that the site indicates, “All artwork and sounds are absolutely free and you can use them in commercial applications.” You can download files in their original or zipped format.

freedigitalphotos.net
Freedigitalphotos.net has over 2000 free images for use in commercial and non-commercial work so long as you don’t claim the works as your own, redistribute them or offer them for sale.

Ixuz.com
Travel the world in pajamas with Ixuz Travel, which is dedicated to collecting photos from around the world. The site has a Korean version of its pages. Currently, the collection has over 2700 pictures sorted in 85 albums and 18 categories.

High quality & free photos

Free photos gallore

Absolut Vision

Fotolia.com

Totally Photos

WebReviews.ca

Pixel Load

Media lytecube

Wikipedia:Public domain image resources

The above sources come to us courtesy of Revolution in Education

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Here is an interesting site with some low cost photos:
http://www.blish.com