• Adobe After Effects

  BBC Specs

  Posted by Donald Mitchell on April 21, 2012 at 2:55 pm

  Has anyone here produced titles for the BBC recently and knows the current graphics safe requirements? I’m producing a title sequence for them in After Effects. I’ve been told to work to 16:9 HD but 4:3 graphics safe. What should I set my safe margins to?

  Tristan Summers replied 14 years ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Darby Edelen

  April 21, 2012 at 7:00 pm

  I’ve never produced assets for the BBC, but it sounds like they want you to produce something that can be easily panned and scanned. Meaning that they’ll use the same video for 16:9 and 4:3 broadcast so don’t put anything that the audience HAS to see outside of the regular 4:3 title safe.

  This is something that I used to do all the time for DVD menus back when DVDs were still a cool thing 🙂

  Darby Edelen
• 

  Donald Mitchell

  April 23, 2012 at 4:50 pm

  Thanks folks, got hold of a BBC in house online editor today who gave me the proper specs.
• 

  Andrew Somers

  April 23, 2012 at 4:56 pm

  As Dave indicated, AE CS3 and later has center cut safe built in.

  Settings are under “Grids and Guides” in Preferences.

  
• 

  Tristan Summers

  May 2, 2012 at 6:30 am

  Hi. Hope you get it right.
  The BBC base their title safe percentages on SD ACTIVE PICTURE area which is 702 not 720 pixels wide.
  I got stung by this in the past and did the maths to make a PSD, which I would share if I could find it.

  Download the worldwide requirements document to check, as the HD safe zones keep being re-evaluated.
  They do have supplied safety cages; the in-house people in London always worked to a 14:9 cage for example, and there is a PSD but I think it may be old.

  I guess just be aware that if you go by the standard 80% guides in AE, or anything else,it may be wrong.

  Tris

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