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Comp specs for anamorphic video in 720 frame
Hello, hello.
My footage is dv anamorphic and I want to letterbox it in a 720 frame in After Effects. I’ve tried several combinations of size and pixel ratio, and tried outputting to see the results. They look ok, but not as crisp as when I export my anamorphic footage out of FCP at 864×486.
Note I do not want to create a dv widescreen comp in After Effects, I want it letterboxed within a 720xsomething frame. My output is for the web.
Thanks for your suggestions.
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5 Replies
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What output settings have you tried using, what codec, what settings on the codec?
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Out of FCP I exported DV NTSC 864×486 which looked perfect. From After Effects, 720×486 animation (which I want as I’ll be doing a lot of titling), with my widescreen video letterboxed. Not sure which pixel aspect ratio to use.
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If you’re exporting to the web, I believe square pixels would be the best way to go.
The quicktime animation codec should give you very good quality; check the settings for the codec.– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Well the QT Animation export is pretty good, but like I was saying, not as good as the final cut output. At the moment what I’m trying is exporting my anamorphic source footage out of FCP at 864×486, that way I have it displayed perfectly, then bring that into After Effects.
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I am having a similar issue. I shot some footage with my xl-2, edited it into a timeline in FCP, and then exported master clips from the timeline using media manager/copy.
I imported into After effects, did my work and exported using aspect ratio 720×480, and the pixel aspect ratio of 1.2 (d1/dv ntsc widescreen). But upon exporting I compared the video from AE side-by-side against the original and found that it is squished and narrower. And in FCP I have to change the file’s format to anamorphic to get it to fill out the viewer.
So I fiddled, and found that if I change the comp settings, making the pixel ratio square, the image displayed in AE becomes wider, and the file exported as well, now when I look at it in quicktime the image is undistorted, but cropped on the sides. So I changed the comp settings again to a size of 784×486. Now everything seems great.
What I’m confused about is why the image is getting wider when I change to square pixels from widescreen pixels in AE. And I know the xl-2 records to tape at 720×480, so why is AE cropping the comp at that size (with square pixels)? Is the method I described better or worse than the original? I just want to make sure I’m not losing pixels on my way back to FCP.
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