Map text goes out of focus

[terry dennis]

I am doing a moving map for a video production and have used the 'Moving Road Map' instructions to great effect. However , I am having a big problem with the text on the map blurring when I come to run the video.

I have used www.fullscreenmaps.com to get a full screen map of New Zealand. I have then 'Printed Screen' and dropped the image into 'Gimp' in order to crop , resize and sharpen the image. I have then saved the result as a .gif file and dropped it into VS11. The image appears fine on the timeline but when I come to view the image as part of a video , the text becomes blurred and illegible. I get the same effect if I had saved the image as a .jpeg file and also if had not done any resizing or sharpening of the image ( and maybe the blurring effect is worse ).

Anyone got any ideas ?

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Terry

There was a simular post that finally found the solution,It was after rendering that the image became very blured,
cannot remember exactly what the cure was, give my brain a bit of time to wake up.

Do a search of the forum,
I'm away for the rest of the morning but if you havent found it, i will look.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Terry

http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php ... &hilit=map

Quote Ron:-
First.. Thank you Trevor for providing these, as it pushed me to pursue this problem in considerable depth to find a possible solution.

With the examples provided by Trevor, I was able to observe the horrible quality with VS X2 in comparison to VS8. I was not willing to settle for it is just a result of the program. Since I have numerous versions installed on my desktop, versions 8 through X2 Pro, and MSP8, I started a lengthy troubleshooting process. Instead of bore everyone with all the details, I'll just post a short summary.

In VS10 + I noticed that the quality had slipped, when in VS8 and VS9 the quality was good. So digging deeper in VS10+ I finally found the culprit to this, it is the anti-flickering filter. When I unchecked this option in VS10+ the quality was identical to that of VS8. So the next step is to check this in VS X2. When I unchecked the apply anti-flickering filter, the quality was the same compared to VS8...

So for some reason this nice little filter has an adverse affect on images like maps. It tends to blur the text. I'll also add that since this was checked on PCs, I used Frame-based and unchecked render non-square pixels. PCs do not use interlaced video (LFF or UFF), and uses square pixels.

[terry dennis]

Just a quickie to thank you for that , Trevor. I haven't digested the content yet but when I have and if I don't understand , I will get back to you.

[terry dennis]

I have unchecked the 'Anti-flickering' filter , and it doesn't make any difference to the blurring of my map text.

I didn't understand Ron' s bit at the end which said
"I'll also add that since this was checked on PCs, I used Frame-based and unchecked render non-square pixels. PCs do not use interlaced video (LFF or UFF), and uses square pixels."

Any more ideas ?

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Terry

I believe the 'Anti-flickering' filter fix cured problems when using Pan & Zoom, It was noticeably different.

When you refer to text do you mean text as in Titles from Video Studio or the text within the map image. I assume the latter.

Can you give details of the image size in pixels.
As it’s a screen capture then it will only be as big as your screen resolution.
What types of edit are you applying to the image?

You can e-mail the image if you like and I will give it a try.

[terry dennis]

Hi Trevor !

You assume correctly that it is the text within the map image.

I am not trying any editing within the map image. I had been steadily plodding through the technique of creating the Moving Road Map and , having mastered that , I wanted a source of fair size road maps to work with which I got from www.fullscreemaps.com. Any refinements like image editing I was leaving for later ! I don't have much experience in Image Editing - apart from the usual red-eye fixes in our family photos !

The image size in pixels that you asked me for , I wouldn't have a clue about but if you need that information , give me some pointers and I will get the info for you !

Regards

Terry

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Terry

The dimensions of an image is measured in pixels, the more you have the better the quality and the bigger the file size.
Right click any image and select properties.

The images from “fullscreensmaps” are displayed on your pc using your screens resolution, Screen capture, in image terms quite low quality.
Even so the text is very small.
Try using VS to make a title as small as the map text, it will be much improved, the map being poor.

When we add images to Video Studio it displays it as 720 x 576, that’s the project property frame size for standard DVD, again reducing the quality.

If you change the project properties to use a larger frame size then the image may look sharper on screen, You would use Mpeg 2 compression. But would not help when you render to standard Pal DVD.

Your best option is to use a camera to take a photo of a map.
Or find a web site that will allow you to download the map rather than using ‘screen capture’/’print screen’ at least you will get a full quality image.

I’ll give it some more thought…………

[terry dennis]

Trevor

Have you had chance to come up with any brainwaves yet ?

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Terry

Sorry for the delay in replying:-
Did you try downloading other maps from another source to compare quality?
Have you been able to use a camera to take a photo of a map?

You could try using a blank map, adding the place names using Video Studio Title option.

[terry dennis]

Trevor ,

Multimap and others give much the same limitation.

I have taken some photos of my NZ Map and , accepting that the map is creased and has routes already inked in , when I get any image and put it into VS11 and run the video , the image goes blurred !

I think I have reached the end of the road !!

[Trevor Andrew]

Terry

Keep right on to the end of the road….

When you play the timeline the preview screen does not always show good quality and does go blurred. If you render the timeline to a video file and then play on windows media player you should see the difference.

The text on the map is very small using only a few pixels, I don’t know if you are using the whole map or just a section.

Can you send the photo so I can have a look, there is an e-mail address on my guide below