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Using widescreen matte with 1920 x 1080 footage and 2592 x 1728 footage
Hi, I’m putting together a video that uses both 1080p footage as well as some timelapse clips that I put together in Quicktime 7 that measure 2592 x 1728. I kept the timelapse clips at their native resolution so that I could do some digital pans and zooms within the 1080p timeline.
My problem is this: I’m also throwing on a widescreen matte over the whole project so that the finished product will have a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, but I’m finding that the same matte when applied to the timelapse clips is not quite as letterboxed as the 1080p footage is. Does anyone know why this might be and what I can do to correct it? Thanks in advance.
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10 Replies
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Update: It appears that what is happening is that since I am scaling the timelapse clips, FCP is scaling the widescreen matte as well. Does anyone know a way around this?
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Nest the scaled clip. Apply the filter to the nest.
Or create the matte in photoshopmand place on a layer above.
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This happens because the filter sits on top of the clip and if you scale that clip, so does that matte. A couple of options:
1) Make a transparent still frame matte in Photoshop (or whatever) and simply add that still frame to the top most level of your timeline. That way, everything sits under neath the matte.
2) Wait until your project is complete, export a ref QT, then remiport and add the matte (I know why you won’t want to it this way, but I thought I’d add it)
3) Nest the clips and then put the matte on the nest.
I recommend #1 as it will be much easier to work with and FCP has some trouble with nests.
Jeremy
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Bingo. Nesting the clip worked like a charm. Thanks for the help, John.
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Oops, Mr Pale beat me to it. Sorry!
Jeremy
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All good. Your answers appear to be spot on as well. Thanks anyway.
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Are you going to Color? If so, those nests will be a problem.
Jeremy
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Nope. Keeping it in FCP. Doing some color work with Magic Bullet, but not on the timelapses and all within FCP. Thanks for the heads up.
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An alternative to nesting is to use 2 black slugs to create the matte (one for the top of the frame and one for the bottom).
-Andrew
3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1) -
An alternative to all of these would be to export a ref QT from your 1920×1080 sequence and bring into Compressor. You can use the Geometry settings to crop to 2.35:1 on source and then set output frame size to 1920×1080 and output image inset to 2.35:1. Instant matte creation completely independent of the FCP session…
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