4×3 to 19×9

[Steve Roberts]

(By the way, letterboxing is when you see black bars at top and bottom. Pillarboxing is when you see black bars on the sides)

To put it simply:

If you have an image that is 4:3 and you want it to fit into a box that is 16:9, you have three options:

1. an unsquished 4:3 image with black bars on the sides
2. an unsquished image that is as wide as the 16:9 box, but has had its top and bottom chopped off
3. a squished image that fills the 16:9 box

That’s it. You can’t add extra image to the ends of the 4:3 image, unless you’re a brilliant God-like animator or the original shot was done on a flat background.

I think you want #2. Drag the 4:3 video into a widescreen comp and use the fit-to-width shortcut (check the help) to make the video fit the width of the screen. If the 4:3 video was 720×486, you should move it up one pixel as well to avoid reversing fields.

[Chris Smith]

What really matters is what are you going to use to play back the video on that screen? A DVD player? A Digideck? SP? DV deck? HD deck?

So you need your output comp be set to a resolution that will be right for the playback system.

As far as your comp, if it’s meant to be 16:9 then for your 4:3 footage, you can either crop the top and bottom of the image and scale it up evenly (what i’d do) and reframe for your subject, or yeah, you can stretch it.

The idea is to have that master 16:9 comp then add all your elements and resize to the comp the way you see fit, often just using scale.

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com

[Ernie Geefay]

I think the project will be mastered onto a DVD for playback.
I won’t be doing this but I need to provide a movie file in the right aspect so they can make the DVD.
It sounds like what you are saying is
1.to create a 16×9 comp in after effects
2.drag and drop my 4×3 footage into that comp.
3.fit the 4×3 video to the comp
4.render it out as a quicktime movie
5.deliver a finished quicktime movie to client

Didn’t get the point about the 1 pixel shift???

[Chris Smith]

Correct.

Give them a 16:9 quicktime. Most DVD compression programs and DVD authoring programs can make this into a 16:9 DVD. Then on the DVD player that plays back the disc, set the DVD player’s internal menu to play 16:9. Then you set the Screen to ‘Full’.

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com

[Ernie Geefay]

Thanks for the help
One more question.
Which of the composition presets should I use to give me a 16×9 ratio
I see a preset for\ “NTSC DV widescreen 720×480”. Is that the one?

[Steve Roberts]

[Ernie] “Didn’t get the point about the 1 pixel shift???”

If your 4:3 720×486 video contains fields, dropping it into a 480-pixel-high comp will place it centered between top and bottom, with 3 pixels above and three below. This will reverse the field order, so the top field will no longer be an even-numbered field, but will now be an odd-numbered field. That’s why you bump it up (or down) one pixel, to retain proper field order.

HOWEVER, since you are scaling the footage up in both directions, you need to separate its fields on import (or in the interpret footage menu). This means that AE will now (basically) reinvent the fields, so my advice above is not necessary. It’s only necessary if you choose not to scale the footage in the vertical direction, and choose not to separate fields.

So in this case, ignore it. 🙂