Aspect Ratio import issue

[Tero Ahlfors]

[Ryan Walker] “however when I bring it into After Effects and create a comp based on the video settings it appears as a rectangle”

Do you have the aspect ratio correction checked for the viewer?

[Ryan Walker]

Tero – I’m assuming you’re referring to the “Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction” button. Yes, that seemed to do the trick as far as viewing this piece in a square format. Thank you for the input.

[Walter Soyka]

Depending on what you’re doing next with this, it might be helpful to render with square pixels with a 4:3 aspect ratio from Ae.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Ryan Walker]

Hey Dave –
Thanks for the insightful explanation. I was fairly confident 4:3 was possible, but the pixels seemed so oddly shaped that I started questioning my findings. These pixels are more like skyscrapers than squares. I do have a couple follow up questions if you wouldn’t mind. They aren’t 100% After Effects, so feel free to pass.

I am trying to wrap my head around how this file was even created. I’m assuming the file was originally a square when it was digitally transferred from film. So how was the creator able to take that square, put it in1920x1080 instead of a 1440×1080 and lock it at a 4:3 without having black bars on the side? I would think that would be done in AE, but I’m not understanding how they selected 1920×1080 and locked it for 4:3. Seems like AE defaults to 16:9.

The other question I have is about putting this 1920 x 1080 4:3 video onto a DVD. Majority of TV’s these days will take a 4:3 video and by default stretch it to fit 16:9. Therefore compressing it directly for MPEG2 will leave me with a 4:3 scenario. I don’t want that stretch, and black bars are fine. How would I go about prepping this video for conversion to MPEG2 for DVD burning while working with the pixel situation? Will I lose additional quality with a h264 master?

The project was filmed in 1967 in San Francisco.

[Ryan Walker]

Trying to get it to a DVD. Sent this to Dave a few moments ago.
“The other question I have is about putting this 1920 x 1080 4:3 video onto a DVD. Majority of TV’s these days will take a 4:3 video and by default stretch it to fit 16:9. Therefore compressing it directly for MPEG2 will leave me with a 4:3 scenario. I don’t want that stretch, and black bars are fine. How would I go about prepping this video for conversion to MPEG2 for DVD burning while working with the pixel situation? Will I lose additional quality with a h264 master?”

I am interested in what the process would be to return the project to square pixels?

[Walter Soyka]

If you’re going to standard definition DVD, you don’t want square pixels, but you do want different non-square pixels than you have right now.

Create an NTSC DV comp, put your content in it, and scale it to fit the height of the comp. The keyboard shortcut is to select the layer and press Claw+G. (Claw is my goofy shorthand for Ctrl+Alt+Shift on a PC and Cmd+Opt+Shift on a Mac.)

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Ryan Walker]

Thanks for the info Walter.

I do realize that I don’t need square pixels for this project because it’s for a DVD, however I was curious how that would be achieved if you wouldn’t mind a quick explanation.

[Walter Soyka]

[Ryan Walker] “I do realize that I don’t need square pixels for this project because it’s for a DVD, however I was curious how that would be achieved if you wouldn’t mind a quick explanation.”

Same deal. Either drop it into a square-pixel comp and render that (easy), or dig into the output settings and adjust it there (a little harder).

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Ryan Walker]

Wouldn’t I end up with a 4:3 DVD based on what your recommended? My concern with a 4:3 DVD is most newer TV’s will auto stretch it to fit a wide screen. My target audience is an older crowd who won’t have a clue about fixing that. Based on what you’ve written, my best bet to achieve a 16:9 with a 4:3 square in the middle is to create a DV Widescreeen comp and apply the same logic. That sound right?

[Ryan Walker]

Create an NTSC DV comp, put your content in it, and scale it to fit the height of the comp. The keyboard shortcut is to select the layer and press Claw+G. (Claw is my goofy shorthand for Ctrl+Alt+Shift on a PC and Cmd+Opt+Shift on a Mac.)

I dropped my video in a AE 720×480 NTSC DV comp and “Claw+G” it. I then took the comp converted it to MPEG2, then drug it into Encore. Once in Encore the program defaulted to a 4:3, now way to switch to a 16:9. Burned the DVD and both TV’s I tried it in stretched the video to fill the screen. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t maintain the same 4:3 look as it does in the original file.

What if I created a NTSC DV Wde screen comp and Claw G that?