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AE projection mapping issue with fullscreen preview
This is not the first time I’ve used the fullscreen preview (cntl\ twice) command to send to a projector through the second or third output on my graphics card in order to map onto real world objects. But this is the first time I’ve had the image slip on me.
I was making a mask in the comp and dragged a point too near the comp edge – the whole image (through the projector) moved over 2 or 3 pixels. Turns out you can do this at any edge and the image will slide over in the opposite direction and you can now see just the edge of the comp border. Once this has happened there is no way to slip it back to “zero” as any kind of subtle move near the opposite edge slides the output at least 2 pixels over if not 3. With some restarting voodoo and a new project I can get back to normal but I can’t tell if this shift gets embedded in the comp or it’s a graphics card issue or if it’s an underscan issue. Simply quitting AE and firing it back up does not fix the issue, nor does reassigning the comp output to another monitor and putting it back on the projector output.The comp is 1920, the output resolution of the graphics card is 1920, the projector is 1920, so whats going on here? It’s the exact same feeling when you control zoom (on a mac desktop) and when you put the curser near the edge of the screen your larger-than-screen-desktop slides over a little. Does this mean that AE is actually sending 1926×1086 centered to the output?
(by the way, nothing in the comp has actually moved, it’s just how the comp is output with fullscreen preview. This does not happen when using a broadcast graphics card and monitor to display your borderless comp when you also have the working image of your comp on a regular monitor; this problem only occurs when using your second or third monitor output to send to a projector)
Is the much advertized full screen preview actually more like an underscan preview? It does seem to output every pixel of the comp from edge to edge; but when the shift happens you also get a few rows or columns of the comp’s border pixels in there on one side, while loosing comp pixels on the other.Thoughts?
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3 Replies
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[Steve Bentley] “Is the much advertized full screen preview actually more like an underscan preview? It does seem to output every pixel of the comp from edge to edge; but when the shift happens you also get a few rows or columns of the comp’s border pixels in there on one side, while loosing comp pixels on the other”
What you are calling “full screen preview” is not really a full-screen preview per se and is not called such by Adobe.
Ctrl+\ is the shortcut to “Resize application window or floating window to fit screen. (Press again to resize window so that contents fill the screen.)”
When you press Ctrl+\ twice, Ae sizes your window such that the contents fit the screen; this means that some window chrome extends beyond the screen’s border, so for example you can see the outer edge of a window on a secondary monitor back on your main monitor.
Also, this is not a special kind of window. It’s still a regular viewer panel, with the same behavior as any other. You can pan it with the space bar or the hand tool, and if you work too close to the edge, Ae will pan for you to show you what you are doing.
To re-center the view in the window, double-click the Hand tool.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
Sure I get that. (all of this done with double cntrl\) I can only pan around if I’m zoomed in more than 100%. But when at 100% and filled to screen why are there just the few pixels of the chrome around the edges available to pan to? If the stage is 1920 why is there 1926 or so of the interface being made available to the output?
And I can get near the edge and all is well, its only when I’m dragging a mask point. Dragging an image or a solid or an effect “center” near the edge or off the stage doesn’t slip the output at all.Good tip that. Didn’t think of the double hand tool trick to center. Does the question mark also do the same? (not in front of the system right now). My big issue was I might not see the image shift and i could be working away without knowing I was no longer centered.
At least that trick will get me back to centered so that I can know for sure that my line up matches the final output.Thanks for that.
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[Steve Bentley] “I can only pan around if I’m zoomed in more than 100%.”
Nope, you can pan around at 100%, too, past the edges of your comp. Try it. You’ll see the gray “outside the comp” area. You have a regular viewer panel, just blown up so that the interior of the window fits the display, cutting off the title above and the controls below.
[Steve Bentley] “But when at 100% and filled to screen why are there just the few pixels of the chrome around the edges available to pan to? If the stage is 1920 why is there 1926 or so of the interface being made available to the output? And I can get near the edge and all is well, its only when I’m dragging a mask point. Dragging an image or a solid or an effect “center” near the edge or off the stage doesn’t slip the output at all.”
This works exactly the same (weird) way without the window maximized.
[Steve Bentley] “Does the question mark also do the same?”
No. Shift+/ zooms to fit, but does not re-center.
[Steve Bentley] “My big issue was I might not see the image shift and i could be working away without knowing I was no longer centered.”
If you need confirmation that you’re looking at the raster’s edge, throw a single-pixel inside stroke layer style on a full-comp solid somewhere.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn]
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