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jcmurphy1971 Author

Level 1

1 points

Odd Text Distortion in FCPX

Hey All,

Been receontly been having an issue with text effects being oddly distorted in Final Cut X. Happens randomly in all projects in different libraries. Sometimes if I delete the effect and re-do it, it fixes itself... sometimes if I shut down FCPX and restart it fixes itself... preference delete sometimes helps... but it always seems to come back, and not always in the same instance of the text effect.

Anyone else been seeing this issue? Here's a screenshot... notice how the text looks in the upper right corner of the viewer...

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Final Cut X, Final Cut 7

Posted on Apr 2, 2014 8:12 AM

36 replies

Apr 21, 2014 6:40 AM in response to jcmurphy1971

@jcmurphy1971 what is your hardware system setup?

jcmurphy1971 Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 21, 2014 6:53 AM in response to StingRay67

Working on a late 2010 Mac Pro 5,1. ATI Radeon 5770 GPU, 2.8Ghz Quad Core Intel Xenon, 32 gigs of RAM. Running a 7200rpm Baracuda drive for my OS and all external media is on either a 1tb Glyph external drive via FW800 or a OWC 2tb external drive via FW800.

Running Mavericks and FCPX 10.1.

Apr 21, 2014 6:54 AM in response to jcmurphy1971

Then you are running a very different system to me yet we both have the same issue. Strangely I don't get the problem on my MacBook which has the same versions of FCPX, plugins etc as my MacPro?!! However, It does look like an FCPX issue with certain set ups?

jcmurphy1971 Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 21, 2014 6:57 AM in response to StingRay67

I've been in touch with Apple regarding this issue (as well as another) and we're trying to track the issue down. I've directed my contact to this thread so he can see that others are having the same issue as well. The more details we can collect on this thread, maybe the better the chance we have at finding a solution.

Apr 21, 2014 8:34 AM in response to StingRay67

Video of text distortion

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,058 points

Apr 21, 2014 9:00 AM in response to StingRay67

Not seeing a problem in the title, except for the poor quality encoding.

Apr 21, 2014 11:51 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

No, its not poor quality encoding... there problem is very clear... the text shadowing is flickering and looks bloody horrible. When text is placed and edited on the screen, its unreadable (see previous screen shot). FCPX is has a prblem on my brand new MacPro 8Core!!!!!!

Apr 21, 2014 11:35 PM in response to jcmurphy1971

Thankfully the problem still hasn't reoccurred for me after the full reinstall of FCPX.

Do any of you have any earlier versions of FCPX on your systems? I did until my last reinstall, the point being that I was keeping the last, stable version archived but I had to remove it before the App Store would allow me to do a fresh install this time. It could have been some kind of conflict I guess.

Apr 23, 2014 6:00 AM in response to chestnutcow

I did a clean reinstall of Mavericks 10.9.2 on a totally clean SSD drive on my nMP. Reinstalled FCPX and everything else. Only PlugIns installed are FXFactory & Magic Bullet Looks 2. Text distortion didn't show for 2 days of testing, then... BAAMM!! It came back!

It came happened when I placed a fcpx stock title on a piece of GoPro footage (same footage I've been using), with a Magic Bullet Looks FX applied to it. I tried deleting MBL from the clip, but the text distortion problem didnt go away.

Rendering, and/or clearing the render cache sometimes helps, but the issue just re emerges.

I use the same set up on my older MacBook Pro and the problem doesn't occur at all. FCPX has exactly the same plugIns and software installed as my nMP!, so its difficult to see whether or not this is an FCPX issue or something else?!

The testing continues..

jcmurphy1971 Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 23, 2014 6:04 AM in response to StingRay67

Very similar experience to mine. Seems to pop up at random which makes it a very hard problem to pinpoint. There was a time before I did the reinstall that the issue would come up constantly in my projects so I would see it daily. Now its way less frequent but still lurking somewhere in the program waiting to rear its ugly head. The next time it comes up, I will NOT undo, but save the project as an XML file and send it to Apple per their instructions.

Apr 23, 2014 6:41 AM in response to jcmurphy1971

Thanks for your reply.

I am right now in the process of trying to sort this issue. I've been speaking with apple care and I'm following their instructions.

I have two questions for you: (please be very specific)

Do you have magic bullet looks to installed?

Do you have an adjustment layer that you had created yourself installed?

jcmurphy1971 Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 23, 2014 6:47 AM in response to StingRay67

Yes, I do have Magic Bullet Looks installed. No adjustment layer necessarily. What I mean is while I do have MBL installed and there are adjustment layers available to me, the distorted text issue has appears on footage that has had NO adjustments made or effects applied to it. I've dropped a Blur text effect over a piece of raw footage and the issue has appeared.

Does that help?

Apr 23, 2014 6:59 AM in response to jcmurphy1971

ThanksJC,

Yes this helps and Thank you. My testing continues but I've isolated any effects that i've created in motion, they are fine because the problem will happen whether they're on my system or not. At this particular point in time it looks to me that magic bullet could be the culprit. You do not need to be using it for it to affect other titles in the title pain - The AppleCare representative agreed. I am continuing testing and have removed Magic Bullet looks. So far, no matter what I do to my titles I cannot recreate the problem. When magic bullets was installed, I could recreate the problem instantly! Either way, removing magic bullet looks has categorically had an effect.

A couple of years ago when Magic Bullet looks was released for FCPX there was a display problem and it took some time for magic bullet to catch up with the new product. I'm using a new Mac Pro but I know you are using a different system.

Assuming magic bullets is the culprit, it could be because it is very specific about hardware combinations.

Obviously my assumptions are based on conjecture, so I will continue to test and post my comments here.

jcmurphy1971 Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 23, 2014 7:04 AM in response to StingRay67

Please do, and I will do the same.

I wonder if contacting Red Giant to weigh in here would be helpful?

Apr 23, 2014 7:19 AM in response to StingRay67

Hi,

I seem to be suffering from the same problem - the text appears corrupted when trying to apply to the timeline (when initially scrolling through the various text selections, all appears fine). Not had this problem before but very recently updated my Magic Bullet Looks to version 2.1.4 - done a quick test on a project (timeline) without Magic Bullet applied - text behaved as normal. Back to the project with Magic Bullet applied, pasted in the text - not as currupted as before but not correct. Curiously, going back to the project without the Magic Bullet applied, the text not working correctly as before - even after a render.

I suspect Magic Bullet may be causing some of the trouble. There's a new version that I've downloaded but haven't updated yet.

Odd Text Distortion in FCPX