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widescreen question
hello!
I made an animation for a client for me in 4:3 (as he asked) now he wants it in widescreen! So this is what i did. i put my tiff sequence in a comp (720×576 4:3 pal) and put tis comp in a new comp (720×576 widescreen pal) and scales horizontally to 133,3% everything looks perfect now! But is this the way to make your comp widescreen??? is it that simple or am i forgetting something?
thnx Frank
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8 Replies
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oke that didn’t work! Does anyone have any idees about how to solve this problem?
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It is that simple.
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Why didn’t it work?
Another option is to create a pal comp that has the correct width and a height that makes the comp 16:9. ie. select the HD preset comp, then lock aspect ratio and change your width to 720. Then drop your footage into that comp and upon render, tell after effects to stretch the footage to the correct height. That will make your footage anamorphic.
Don’t forget to check your comp with the aspect ratio preview on.
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Stretching your project to fit in a widescreen comp will only make it looked stretched when you play it on a TV.
I might be misunderstanding: Is this the kind of thing where you can draw a mask that cuts off some of the top and bottom to make it look widescreen? That may be your best option here, and itr’s not a good one.
If not, and they want the project cto actually be formated for widescreen (and by that I mean that your safety areas are larger on the sides – i.e., you have more area to work with on the sides, becasue you are working with a different Pixel Aspect Ratio) then you have to know this when you start. Generally, you can’t just change a project from 4:3 to anamorphic (16:9). Think about it:
You’ve done all of your work for a 4:3 setting. Since, by making it widescreen you’ve widened the area of animation, things that fly off the screen to the right or left may still be seen on the screen, when you inteded them to be gone. Furthermore, backgrounds that were formatted for 4:3 are the wrong size, and unless you want to scale them up and lose quality (Illustrator artwork aside), you need to use a BG formateed for this kind of thing. Your safety areas have changed, which means there’s more room for text and images on the screen.
I hate to say it, but there’s no good solution for this, other than retooling everything that needs it. If your client failed to mention that they wanted it widescreen, you *might* be able to diplomatically convince them that its their fault for not telling you this, so that you can get paid for the time it will take to do this.
Good luck.
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Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
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Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
[Aharon Rabinowitz] “If your client failed to mention that they wanted it widescreen, you *might* be able to diplomatically convince them that its their fault for not telling you this, so that you can get paid for the time it will take to do this.”
All excellent advice as usual, Aharon.
I’d add that, with regard to this point, it’s important to indicate the deliverable format (4:3) on your next estimate. That way you can charge for the extra work if the client decides to change the format to 16:9 later.
Steve
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Definately a good idea.
Not to add salt to the wound, but I cover this stuff in my recent Creative Cow podcast, “Final Delivery,” which you can find here:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=866906
It may help you in the future.
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Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
I produce and operate graphics for Premiership soccer here in the UK. The main broadcaster – Sky Sports – broadcast in 16:9. However, BBC also broadcast the same pictures in 14:9. The pictures are also arced to 4:3 to meet any other broadcaster’s requirements.
So, when I’m designing a new graphics package, I have to make sure it will work in all aspect ratios, keeping a strict eye on safe areas. I use the same mind-set when working on all other projects – which can save a lot of trouble in situations like the one you have found yourself in. Here’s a link to a really useful template with every safe area. You can import it into your AE project as a shy layer.
Cheers,
Phil
https://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tvbranding/picturesize.shtml -
My bad, I didn’t realize he was only horizontally stretching his footage.
To correct my previous post, you cannot just do that.
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