• Adobe After Effects

  Pixel Aspect Ratio Dilemma

  Posted by Victoria Murphy on February 7, 2010 at 3:52 am

  I am working in AE CS3 on a project the video for which is NTSC DV. For the comps I set the preset to NTSC DV; width 720, height 480; pixel aspect ratio to D1/DV NTSC (.9).

  In a comp I created a shape layer on which I created a rectangle the size of which is 720 x 480. But instead of it matching the dimension of the comp—which is what I want, it is wider. I expect this has to do with PAR. I did some digging for articles about PAR so I might figure out what is going on (I read two “Tips N Tricks” by Chris and Trish Meyers published by Artbeats which was very helpful; I haven’t read Rick Gerard’s “Dr. Strange Pixel” yet, I guess that is next), but I still need help.

  I have 2.5 questions:

  1) What is going on? Why do the dimensions of the shape layer not match the dimension of the video?
  2) Does it matter? The project will be rendered in NTSC DV. (Before its final output I may well import it to Final Cut to do more work on it.) I don’t want any surprises down the road, i.e., that I not get the effect I think I am creating. (I am going to be skewing the rectangle 45 degrees, parenting it and a beam [also skewed at a 45 degree angle and placed at the left edge of the rectangle] to a null object which I will move back and forth across the screen, revealing and hiding video.)
  2 a. Is there a way to view the project on my external NTSC monitor as I work on it in AE? (I am set up to do that with Final Cut.)

  As ever,
  Victoria
  (I always appreciate the feedback I get from this forum. BTW, I’m located in Brooklyn, NY and would like to find someone local [I guess] that could tutor me from time to time on this videodance project. If you know someone in my ‘hood and that might be interested in working with someone who is not a digital whiz [my background is in modern dance], let me know.)

  Victoria Murphy replied 16 years, 3 months ago 60,121 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Victoria Murphy

  February 12, 2010 at 2:26 am

  Thanks, Dave.

  Re your advice about not working in DV because its codec is so bad, I’m confused. In AE, I’m making a comp that has layers of video combined with some masks and beams that wipe across the screen to create a look that I want. Once I finish the sequence, I expect I will render a QT movie, import it to FCP and incorporate it into my project. Since I am mixing video and motion graphics, can I still use a codec other than DV?

  Victoria

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