Motion 'Stroke' Filter blurs the video

I don't remember everything I had to do to clear up the blurring:

The hair detail is exactly the same in both as far as I can tell (but I'm old...)

The "jaggies" on the stroke — really nothing you can do about that except try to use fade and fade falloff to help smooth it a little (and Outline Gradient is probably the best method, but a bit harder to use - especially as a published parameter.)

Here's a copy of what I did with your effect:

https://fcpxtemplates.com/?sdm_process_download=1&download_id=29753

It's been backdated to FCP 10.4.10. There may be a possibility that newer versions have that blurring problem that I wouldn't know about. If you install it in a different category, you can have both versions available in FCP at the same time.

Another method you could try is:

By Layers:

—————

Group

Clone [Effect Source]

> Stroke [apply Hide Source option]

Effect Source

Mask [hidden group]

> hidden group

circle

rectangle

>

—————

You might try starting with a new Effect project just to make sure all of the Snapshot "entanglements" have been removed.

Once you have everything operating to your liking, **then** you can Snapshot so that you are not adding/subtracting published parameters while the effect is being built. [But just in case, Save As a duplicate so you have a backup.]

Okay - this effect seems to work perfectly in 16:9 orientation and I don't detect any blurring, but when applied to 9:16 blurring is quite evident and there are a lot of parameters that are "broken". For example, the first Scale parameter is stuck at 77.98%. The Circle Properties > Scale parameter is stuck at 67.97% and actually, the Circle mask does not work at all. Both Shape choices results in Rectangle.

I can tell you that the problem is somewhere in the 9:16 Snapshot... it is really messed up. After deleting it and applying the effect to vertical clips, there is no blurring... but the Shape menu still does not work in vertical videos. I had to delete the menu as well and create a new one. When you use Snapshots, there are "hidden widgets" created that you have no access to. (You might see them as "Widget Widget" when you right click on a Rigged parameter.) There may be other gotchas.

This effect doesn't really need Snapshotting because the original shape sizes already fit inside 9:16 and resizing is still the same in 16:9. (And you might as well delete the Unsharp Mask — that's an effect that should be applied separately to a clip before you apply this kind of effect.)

One of the problems with Snapshotting a 9:16 project at 1080v is the horizontal measurement is a fraction (607.5). That *may* have something to do with it... but I don't know for sure (I do not use snapshots.) You might try changing the project size to 3840 x 2160 ; the 9:16 version would then be 1215 x 2160 which gives you "whole pixels". [Only experiment with this on a separate copy of the Effect in case something goes sideways.]

Let me know it goes!

Sorry about that — try it a different way —>

https://fcpxtemplates.com/sdm_downloads/inside-circle-1920/

From your screen recording, it looks like the image (?) is a different size than the project (I see 6100 x 4...something). Sometimes when you get a size mismatch like that, it looks fine until you add any effect and it's like some scaling algorithm that fits the two formats together gets turned off.

Turn the clip into a compound clip and add effects to the compound clip level. See if that takes care of that "softening" effect.

I'll contribute here, by citing a professional editor and plugin developer friend who said

"the basic unfortunate gist is that it’s applied and rasterized at the resolution of the template, not the timeline. And then, it doesn’t seem to anti alias when scaled down or up very well if at all. So if you create a 4k template, and use it in a 1080 timeline you get issues, and if you create the template in 1080 and then apply it in a 4k timeline you get issues. I tried all ways to apply it but the only solution was to have 4k and 1080

The stroke filter works well in many situations, but in others, especially because of the blur issues.

For a border such as this, to function in an PnP effect, I would never choose the stroke filter. The combination of shape layers and masks is better and this was the method used long before the stroke filter was introduced.

There are other instances in which blurring occurs (that don't involve Stroke) that setting the clips in Compound Clips is effective.

One really weird instance involves SD format in HD (1080) projects where the "upscaling" of the "raw" clip is excellent, but if you Scale the image/clip down (by added effect), it blurs. You would expect that it would become sharper, but it doesn't matter how small you make the clip (even smaller than 480) it still looks extremely soft. Placing the 480 clip inside a compound forces FCP to retain its original "treatment". Here's a demonstration:

https://youtu.be/i_-qIOdrRDU

(Sorry about the soundtrack — as I get older, I sound more and more like Rod MᶜKuen so I use text to audio tools.)

I don't remember everything I did in making alterations. About the only thing I made sure of was eliminating as much of the Snapshot widget as possible (I think I got it all.) For all rigged parameters, right click and if you see "Widget Widget" — remove it! Simply removing the Snapshot does not get rid of the altered parameters. Once you have your template "set" and all the parameters as you want them to be published... THEN you can create a Snapshot for 9:16 and ONLY modify the necessary parameters. Don't go back and forth "tweaking" settings.

Make sure that View > Better Quality is selected in Final Cut!

[BTW - I only JUST caught this:]

DO NOT USE the GROUP SCALING! [ESPECIALLY if it's 2D fixed resolution!!!!] You don't need it. Stroke adapts to fit the alpha regions in an image so resizing the shapes will be sufficient enough. Scaling the Effect Source should not overly "distress" the image's sharpness — even as far as 150% (maybe more).

Try setting the Effect Source's Group to 2D Fixed Resolution.

Can you provide a couple of screenshots — one of the blurring you see and one of the layers list setup? I'll try to recreate it.

Does it still look blurry if you render it?