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Anamorphic Headache
I recently did a shoot of a host against a greenscreen background. Typically I record in the standard 720 X 480 aspect ratio. I was shooting at a new studio and I didn’t notice that they were shooting in anamorphic. When I got back to the studio I digitized the footage and realized it was anamorphic. As I exported the movies and checked the info it still shows them as 720 X 480, yet they are clearly widescreen. I did a screen grab and the actual resolution was 850 X 460.
I tried using compressor for the movie to see how it responds and it squeezes the widesscreen into the 720X480 box, thereby vertically squashing my image.
Can anyone tell me the proper workflow and/or settings to properly edit this footage and then compress it? It’s turned out to be a real pain in the butt.
Dragzz
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4 Replies
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Anamorphic is the way to get 16:9 in standard def video. Rather than change the standard frame size from 4:3 (720 x 480) they squeeze the image into the frame and flag it as anamorphic. In playback the device or media player is supposed to read the flag and stretch the display.
So far you have just experienced what is normal in SD 16:9 footage.
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Yes, that has been my understanding of it. The problem is that when you go to compress the video and tell it to read 100% of source, it reads it as 720 X 480 and then the image gets distorted. Do you know how to handle compressing this type of footage?
BTW, does shooting in anamorphic create any image quality loss?
Dragzz
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If you want to get a 4:3 image, you will have to center punch and crop off the sides, then export as a quicktime. This will cause a drop in quality. In theory an anamorphic image when stretched will have a slight image quality drop but it isn’t significant compared to having to center punch.
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You shot 16X9 SD it is 720X480 Anamorphic.
What are you trying to do?
Drop it in a sequence and let it match your settings and start keying.
If you need to export it to use in in AE or something, use “current Settings”
If you are done editing and going to compressor, It’ll read it as 16×9.Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC
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