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4×3 center extraction for 16×9 output
Hello
I have some miniDV clones of 4×3 Dbeta/16mm source. It’s all loaded into FCP SEQ.
Need to get a 16×9 center extraction. I’m just trying to hard crop the image, literally cut it off, say goodbye to my lovely original framing, because the 4×3 dates otherwise still appealing images. It’s 111 mb for 30 secs of footage. I just want to output straight to h.264 for youtube or vimeo delivery.
Many thanks,
Caleb Crosby
DP
FCP 6.06 -
6 Replies
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Put your footage in a 4×3 anamorphic timeline and scale. Export and change the aspect ratio to a 16×9 square pixel format when encoding for web (640×360 for example).
Jeremy
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Jeremy,
Thanks, I’m trying not to “scale” if I’m understanding you correctly- dragging the corner to change proportion/size. I’m experienced but the simnplest things have been known to give me fits. What do you mean by scale?
Thx much!
Caleb crosby
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OK, then export your 4×3 movie, and choose the crop function in Compressor when making your web encodes at 640×360. This will make a cropped 16×9 movie.
Jeremy
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Very generous thank you sir.
Just from curiosity, are these two paths to the exact same end?
Or is there a trade off?Looks great to me, I’m set.
Caleb crosby
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Two path to same end, yes, but one allows better reframing (the first option) the second allows a straight crop, no reframing, but the advantage is you won’t go through an aspect ratio (pixel shape) conversion first.
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Another path that lies somewhere between the two would be to use overlay 16:9 crop guide on the original 4:3 sequence and then cut up and reframe according to that crop guide … then export to Compressor and use the crop function there as already suggested. That’ll get you the straightforward center cut crop that you want + allows you some prior control over the framing.
For the crop guide overlay, you could create a graphic in photoshop or similar or use a mask shape or a preconfigured letterbox generator or similar … you can pick up a free letterbox generator here or here and probably elsewhere too (make sure you grab the ‘generator’ not the ‘filter’ in the first of those two links.
Cheers
Andy
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