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creating Letterbox Mattes in Photoshop for FCP HD Layoff – HELP!
Hey friends,
I tried doing a search on this on the forum but no luck and i need to layoff by EOD!!…so here goes:
I have been asked to layoff an HDCAM tape with multiple types of Letterbox Mattes so i need to create these in Photoshop and obviously have alpha info where picture would be and black bars elsewhere for the ltrbx.
I have never had to do this and am not very strong with PS – can anyways quickly explain to me how to do this in photoshop for one of the ones i have to make and then obviously i will understand how to make the rest.
i did the math already so i know what frame sizes they need to be i just dont know how to proeprly make this in PS and export for use in FCP.
Here are the HD sizes i need for creating Letterbox Mattes:
1920×817
1793×1080
1920×1038
1436×1080Thank you for any hel;p you gusy can provide
Best
Lisa
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4 Replies
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Lisa,
It’s pretty simple, but first you need to figure the math on how tall your letterbox will be (ratio for scope 2:35:1, Academy 1:85:1, or traditional 16×9 1:78:1). Do that math for each of your full frame sizes to see how large your cover area will need to be. Once that is done, launch PhotoShop and create a new canvas. You can type in the full frame size there. Use “transparency” as the background. Create another new canvas based on the letterbox size (so one new canvas for each of your 4 frame sizes listed above) at the top/bottom ratio that you want covered by letterbox. Make sure that black is your back ground color in PS and select (instead of transparency) “back ground” color. This will give you your cover area. “Select all” on the new canvas and copy it. Move to the transparent canvas you have set up — the one with the corresponding frame ratio — and paste the copy selection onto two new layers. Position them top and bottom in the canvas, save as a PSD file, and then repeat for each of the four frame sizes. That should give you the accuracy you’ll need for cover area. Then simply drop the PSD files into your video bed.
Good dubbing!
Josh
Digital Media, Thought Equity Motion
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Hey there
thanks for the reply – i guess i am just not familiar enough with photoshop to be able to understand all of these steps …i literally need a step by stepo for dummies…honestly i just need to get more familiar with PS obviously…if u have the time or energy to explain in detail that would be awesome.regardless thanks for your time
best
Lisa aka PS dummy : ( -
Lisa,
Do you have to use Photoshop to create the letterbox mattes? It might be easier for you to use a matte you build in Final Cut. You can use the video generators/matte/color solid and it might be easier if you’re not sure of the photoshop method. Drag a color solid matte onto your video bed in a track above what you want masked. Open it up in the viewer window by double-clicking it. Select the “controls” tab and select black as your color. Move to the “motion” tab and use the “crop” feature to crop out all but the top/bottom remainder (which will cover your video a la letterbox). You’ll have to use two color mattes for each video bed — one cropped down to cover only the bottom, and one cropped down to cover only the top. This won’t be exact mathematically as going the photoshop route, but you can eye it pretty well in real time. If you go this route, make sure that you crop both the top and bottom evenly (say to 92 % each — gives you 8 % coverage top/8 % coverage bottom) so that you are keeping the video centered.
Let me know if this works for you or not.
Josh
Digital Media, Thought Equity Motion
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Hi John,
I’m not Lisa, but your suggestion saved me from a Photoshop nightmare! Thank you!
-A
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