-
4:3 with 16:9 LB
Hi, I’m relatively new in exporting AE comps for broadcast. The particular project that I am working on specifies this:
Shooting / Acquisition Format: HD 720i / 1080i
Mastering / Delivering format : Digital Betacam 4:3 w/16:9LBIts probably a relatively simple answer, but can someone please explain to me how i should work- what preset should I use in the photoshop file (is it PAL D1/DV Widescreen 720×576)? What about the PAR?
Also what Comp settings should I use in AE? Should I work in 4:3 (720×576) and ‘fake’ a letterbox, or as a 16:9?
Finally, what format would be best to export from AE to transfer to Digibeta?As you might be able to tell, I’m a little confused.. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
-
4 Replies
-
i surprised nobody has chimed in on this yet… i may not be the greatest on this subject (i haven’t worked in pal nor used digital beta) but i’ll take a stab.
i would think that the pal d1/dv widescreen preset would be the correct settings to use in ae. it will maintain the 16:9 ratio in sd.
you will need to make sure that the field interpretation is set correctly in the interpret footage settings for you hd clips (particulally field dominace, and i would check preserve edges in this case, since you will be scaling your footage and re-adding fields at render). if you had ntsc hd you would also want to know if the footage was shot 24p and had a pulldown added, but i don’t think this is much of an issue in pal.
if sd widescreen (or anamophic) can be recorded on digital beta (and i think it should be), then you don’t want to ‘fake’ letterboxing, otherwise when displayed on a 16:9 tv you will get letterboxing with black columns on the sides… you would rather the 4:3 gets letterboxed and the 16:9 fills the fullscreen.
as far as format, it depends a bit on what software you are using to lay to tape. but generally uncompressed or lossless codecs would be the way to go if you have fast enough drives… you would just like to know what your software plays natively (decklink card: blackmagic 10-bit would be good; fcp: apple’s lossloss animation codec would be good; avid: omf 1:1; etc.)
Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
i mentioned that you would render back out to fields… well when you render, set the render settings (from the render queue) to render fields, with the appropriate field dominace.
Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
Thanks for your reply..
I am involved in creating the motion graphics for this project and will probably not be using the production shots, so the interpretion setting for footage is not so relevant.. But its useful to know for future ref! 😉 However, I will probably have to hand the motion piece over to the editor who will be running on fcp. He will then final render it on his side before laying it all to tape. (probably done at another post facility.)
Just to clarify things now, my comp in photoshop is 720×576 and the PAR is set to D1/DVPAL Widescreen (1.422). When I import it into an ae comp, the comp settings is the same. So, when it comes to exporting it from ae, the settings i will use is (avi, no compression, 720×576, lower fields first) When i view it in any media player, it will look ‘squashed’ right? (that is until change the settings to 16:9 widescreen viewing format) Is this normal and given the specs that they asked for and will this be acceptable when put into FCP to final render?
OR will it be better to do things in square pixels? Please correct me if i am way off. -
if you are rendering to send to fcp to be edited with other footage in fcp, then you will want to render the same frame size, frame rate and par. so, if they are editing in d1/pal widescreen, 25 fps interlaced, then you should give them the same.
they probably can convert square to non-square, but you can save them and yourself some time by working in with the non-sqaure pixel format.
also, make sure they are aware that you will be rendering in rgb and that they should import accordingly. i haven’t used fcp, but it is normally an easy adjusment… you could also make the adjustment at render, in ntsc land you add a levels adjustment layer over the whole comp, set the black output to 16 and the white output to 235. i don’t know if thats the same for pal, but if pal in yuv colorspace, then it probably is the same.
Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up