Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 1265)

• Change your clip In and Out points to limit the SmoothCam filter to a portion of the
clip without abrupt visual changes or severe camera movement. This reduces the
amount of motion compensation that the SmoothCam filter needs to apply, so less
scaling is required. For more information, see
“Setting Clip In and Out Points to Improve
SmoothCam Rendering.”
• Reduce the Auto Scale parameter value to reduce scaling. Reducing the amount of
scaling will reveal black edges around your clip, but this may be acceptable in some
cases. For more information, see
“Using the Auto Scale Parameter.”
About the Actual Scale Value
Too much scaling can cause your clip to appear blocky or softened, so you should try to
limit scaling of your clip as much as possible. The Actual Scale value in the SmoothCam
filter informs you of the current scaling applied to your clip. The value shown here is the
result of many factors: the amount of motion compensation the SmoothCam filter needs
to apply based on the motion analysis data, the current In and Out points, and the current
value of the Auto Scale parameter.
Important: If the SmoothCam filter requires a very large repositioning adjustment to
compensate for camera movement, the SmoothCam filter does not apply motion
compensation at all, and the Actual Scale parameter is turned off. In these cases, your
clip probably contains too much movement or too many abrupt visual changes. For more
information, see
“Improving SmoothCam Filter Results.”
Using the Auto Scale Parameter
In some cases, you may prefer to reduce the automatic scaling that the SmoothCam filter
applies by lowering the value of the Auto Scale parameter. For example, you may want
to reduce scaling if:
• You know your project will be shown only on overscan monitors, so you don’t care
what’s outside of the action safe area
• You’re going to composite this clip beneath other elements, so you plan to crop the
edges anyway
• You are applying the SmoothCam filter to HD footage within an SD sequence, so you
still have plenty of leftover pixels at the edges
By default, the Auto Scale parameter is set to 1, which means the SmoothCam filter applies
the minimum scaling necessary for the clip to appear without black edges in the Canvas.
Reducing the Auto Scale parameter to a value less than 1 reduces the amount of scaling,
revealing black around the edges of the clip.
1265 Chapter 74 Using the SmoothCam Filter