Image gets really pixelated whenever I rotate

[tiffiel65300410]

Hi, I am a 2D animator. Today I opened after effects and imported all of my files to animate. When I started rotating everything became blurry and pixelated. I'm not sure how to fix it and it's driving me insane. Please help!!

[angie_taylor]

In the bottom of the Composition panel, click on the Fast Previews button and choose Fast Draft;

If this fixes your problem please mark this answer as correct so other people can find the solution easily. Thanks a million 🙂

[tiffiel65300410]

Thank you so much! However, it's still pixelated and changes my image.

[Roei Tzoref]

set it to Off (Final Quality)

Adaptive resolution will downsample your footage as you drag. this is good if scrubbing (dragging the CTI) real-time performance is more important to you than image quality. When dealing with graphics, or even video when fine detail is important to determine if the composite is good, many users turn it off (Final Quality) so that the image will always stay sharp. scrubbing might take longer, or might not.

more information here: Preview without rendering in After Effects

if this does not solve your issue, show us some screenshots or better yet - a video capture.

[tiffiel65300410]

Thank you for your advice! I also noticed that the only reason it gets pixelated is that I changed the anchor point to the spot it's supposed to be in to make the animation smooth. Is there a way for me to fix this so that I can rotate it normally with the anchor point wherever I want it? I'm not sure what happened but it was perfectly fine before.

Video of my issue: recording - YouTube

[Rick Gerard]

Are you new to video production and After Effects? If you are new to AE and the UI, what is the Magnification Factor of your Composition Panel? What is the comp resolution? The best setting for working in AE is AUTO. What kind of artwork are you working with?

Here are some facts about working with pixels. If you have horizontal and vertical lines and you put them at an angle they will antialias and look a little softer if you zoom in (magnification factor is greater than 100%) because you are dealing with pixels and not vectors. If your image has a lot of very fine detail and thin lines and you move anything even slightly off the pixel grid the pixels will be re-interpreted and the image will look softer or begin to develop moray patterns.

If you came from a print background and are used to working with vector images that stay sharp no matter where you put them on the page or you are used to working in vector applications like Illustrator where the screen display is always sharp then you cannot expect the same when working with video. The only way to make a valid judgment on video quality is to play the video full size and full screen in real time. You can never judge the quality of video by looking at a still frame or obsessing on a single frame  that you are looking at under a magnifying glass.

If your Composition Panel resolution settings are set to full or better yet Auto and the Comp Panel's Magnification Factor (far left at the bottom)  on a standard display is set set to 100% and the quality switches on the timeline are all set to High and the layer you are working on has a scale value that is 100% or very close to that and you are still having problems with aliased edges or pixels then show us a screenshot with all of the modified properties of the layer giving you problems revealed. Just press the U key twice and PrintScreen and paste to the forum. If you are on a Mac the Shift + Ctrl/Cmnd + 3 will send a screenshot to the desktop you can drag to the forum. If we can see what you are seeing then we can help. Everything else is pretty much guesswork.

[tiffiel65300410]

I'm not entirely new to after effects but I do know the basics. Normally when I animate, you will obviously have to rotate. When I rotate it just moves the way I want it. However, I'm not sure what happened but when I tried rotating, it made the pixels blurry which is not what I want. I provided some example attached to this forum when I rotate the chest of the girl. I've been trying to fix this all night yesterday and still haven't figured out what's wrong. I really appreciate your help!

[Rick Gerard]

I had to use photoshop to see the part that was rotated( the top of her apron) and I had to zoom in on the image to about 400% before I saw any aliasing problems.

The problem is that these illustrators are way way too small for video. A lot of the lines on the character are one pixel thick and they are not anti aliased. They look like sprites. Make that most of the lines. Take a close look the black line where her feet cross. As soon as you move these 1 pixel wide lines anything but a whole number of pixels up or down, left or right, they are going to fall apart. They have to. The only way to keep them 1 pixel wide is to turn on draft mode and that but that will probably make parts of the lines 2 pixels wide.

When something this small moves in a video it becomes a blurry mess but that's ok because that is what we expect when very small things move. Try to clearly see a moth flying around a lightbulb even when you are standing very close. Your eyes don't work that way.

If the artwork has to be this small then you cannot worry about it. I you drew the artwork then make it bigger and soften the edges of the lines and make them at least 2 or 3 pixels (points) wide.

[tiffiel65300410]

Thank you and I understand again, this problem only occurs when I move the anchor point to a different location, but in the past, I've done this before and had no problems with it, I just wanted to understand why it's occurring now and how to fix it.

[Rick Gerard]

There is no way to rotate aliased 1 pixel thick lines without causing them to be  reinterpreted  and softening. You just did not notice it before and you are worrying about things that so not matter in video animatiion.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi TiffieL,

Did you solve this issue to your satisfaction? Do let us know.

Thanks,

Kevin