16:9 Comp looks 4:3 in 6.5…

[Kevin Reiner]

Or check the “pixel aspect ration correction” in the view options panel. The view options panel can be found by clicking the small arrow in the circle icon in the upper right hand corner of your comp window. Without knowing what format you’re working in, your solution is most likely what Michael suggests or what I have just suggested.

System Setup (for a more detailed list, see my profile)

HARDWARE
Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
9GB Memory
Two 16x SuperDrives
Dual-channel 2Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Apple Cinema HD Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon X1900 XT Graphics Card
AJA Kona LHe SD/HD capture card
Apple Xserve Raid 5.6TB

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.4.11
Final Cut Pro Studio 2
After Effects CS3
Photoshop CS3
Illustrator CS3
Boris Continuum 5
Sapphire Plug Ins
Roxio Toast
Digital Anarchy Anarchist Suite
ParticleIllusion 3.0
Trapcode
Zaxwerks

[Kevin Camp]

don’t quite do what jan suggested… he is on the right track, but you can’t just set the pal widescreen preset to use square pixels, you’ll need to use the ‘pal widescreen square pixel’ preset.

or keep the standard pal widescreen preset and use the pixel aspect ratio correction toggle as kevin suggested.

the funny thing about widescreen sd is that it is actually the exact same dimensions as 4:3… it’s just the pixel aspect ratio changes. 4:3 pal is 720×576 which is really a 5:4 ratio, but with a 1.07 pixel aspect ratio (par) that makes it look 4:3 on tv. widescreen pal is 720×576, same actual ratio, but with a 1.42 par, making it appear 16:9 on tv. to view how these comps will appear on tv, you’ll need to use the par correction button in ae… or use a square pixel comp preset, but you may need to render out a pal standard resolution file in the end (this can be done at render in the render settings, or by dropping the sqr pixel comp into a standard widescreen comp and render that…)

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Michael Lansdell]

“pixel aspect ratio correction” was the one, thanks!

Michael Lansdell

Online Editor,
Available Light Productions Ltd

My system:

2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
5GB DDR2 RAM
512MB ATI Radeon X1900 XT
OS X 10.4.11
Final Cut Pro 6.0.4
Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme (6.6.2)