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Using the BCC UpRez Filter in Final Cut Pro

Media Used in this Exercise: Artbeats forest.mov

Let's take the example of a client that needs to use an SD clip in an HD project. In this project we'll use Apple Final Cut Pro as our host application but you could just as easily do this with any of the host applications that are supported by BCC such as Avid, Autodesk, or Adobe. To begin working with this filter in the FCP host there are a couple of settings that must be changed or the filter will not work.

  • Go to Final Cut Pro menu bar and select the user preferences - then select the Editing tab. Set Auto conform sequence to Never and disable the Always scale clips to sequence size.

Now that the applications is set up to work with this type of filter we can proceed. We'll start by creating an HDTV 1920 x 1080 sequence. We'll import an SD 720 x 480 clip, and drag the clip into the timeline twice, with one clip beside the other clip. This is going to be the source sequence, where we will perform the image filtering.

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Create a second sequence, also HDTV 1920 x 1080. Double click the Destination sequence to access the sequence timeline. Drag the first sequence into the timeline of the second sequence.

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Double click on the destination sequence timeline to access the source sequence and then double click the first of the clips to access the motion controls for the first clip in the source sequence, click on the Effect Controls tab and select the Motion tab. Set the scale to 299 percent. This should scale the image so that it fits in the frame.

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Go back to the Destination Sequence. Select the blade tool from the tool bar and blade the nested sequence in 3 places so that the clips are isolated from each other.

BCC Uprez

Now go to the effects tab in the project window and drag the BCC UpRez filter onto the source sequence in the destination sequence timeline.

Video Effects

Control click the filtered clip in the source timeline and select Open In Viewer to access the UpRez filter controls.

Motion Graphics

Click on the Hide Source Controls to access the source parameters. Click on the Source Pixel Aspect Ratio and select Square PIxels. Then click on the Source Size pop-up and select NTSC DV.

Resolution fix

Click on Hide Transform Controls to reveal the transform parameters and in the Framing pop-up select Fill Frame (Crop). The SD media has been now scaled to fit the HD window in both instances of the imported clip, one with host transform and the other with BCC UpRez. Comparing the image generated using the host scale controls to the image that was generated with BCC UpRez, we can see how the results are quite similar, almost identical. This is because we are still using a standard transform algorithm.

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Click on the Hide Quality controls to reveal the quality parameters. By default, the filter is set to use an algorithm that was designed to take the least amount of time to render while still offering an improved image result over the host transform scale alone, however the sharpening value defaults to 0 so no additional image sharpening will occur until we enter a higher value in the sharpening parameter. Set the Sharpening parameter to 50 percent and review the image result by clicking on the destination sequence. Although this result is indeed better than the host scale result, the UpRez filter can deliver more image detail and we'll enhance it further by selecting the Magic Sharp algorithm from the UpRez Filter pop-up menu. Observe that now the image appears much clearer and closer to the original untransformed clip.In the Method pop-up, select the Magic Sharp option and set the Sharpness parameter to 75.

Click image below to enlarge

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