HD Footage resolution drops when imported into After Effects

[Andy George]

Hi Ryan,
I don’t think anyone is going to be able
to help without a lot more information-

Here are some questions to get you started-

Can you describe how it looks bad?
Pixellated? Bad colors? Aspect ration problems?
Frame rate issues?

How does the quicktime from Avid look in Quicktime player
before you bring it into AE?

How does the file look within AE?

How does the exported AE Quicktime look in quicktime
before you bring it back to Avid?

What are your composition settings?

What Codec are you using to export from Avid?

What Codec are you using to export from AE?

…

Andy

[Ryan Radchenko]

The HD footage looks good in the quicktime player with a correct aspect ratio of 16:9. Then when I attempt to enlarge the quicktime or re-size it the aspect ratio pops to 4:3. I figured that .mov was for SD only so I tried to export the HD video from Avid as an .m2t file. That worked and my aspect ratio was correct when I played it back using media player. I though my problems were solved and AE would inherit the correct aspect ratio from the .m2t file but when I drop it into the composition it is displayed in 4:3 and when I change the comp settings to HDV it gives me the same square video with lovely black bars on the sides.

Could you tell me what file type to export the HD footage as in the first place. OR figure out how to get the .m2t files to work in AE OR get quicktime to export my HD footage from Avid in 16:9. I would love to hear your thoughts on this, please.

Thanks
Ps What I think was happening in AE with the quicktime was that it was being stretched from 4:3 to fit my HD comp. setting thus making it pixelated. Could this be the case?

[Andy George]

Hi Ryan,
It’s been years since I have been on an Avid (or a pc) so Im not
to sure what all export options are available to you.
Hopefully someone with a similar
work flow can chime in.

You don’t mention what format/codec your video is originally but I assume
it’s some sort of non-square pixel HD format?

When you set up your composition in AE try dragging and dropping the
footage onto the “make comp” button if you have not already.
This makes AE set up a new comp based on the demesions of the footage.

AE handles non-square footage just fine but if your still having problems
you could also try exporting your video to the size that it should be with square
pixels. For example if your working with a 720p video with an
aspect ratio of 960 x 720 export it at 1280 x 720.

Quicktime player seems to struggle with non square pixel formats
so you can probabbly ignore what you are seeing there. Though it
should play back your square pixel export at the correct aspect
ratio.

.M2t is not a good codec for AE. For more on that see this post
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/958786

Not knowing what your source is I would export (and render)using the Quicktime Animation codec.
It’s uncompressed so will probably result in a larger file than your
original.

-Andy

-Andy