help with graphics in FCP 5 anamorphic…

[Bret Williams]

As long as you’re working in an anamorphic sequence your designers should be able to create at standard square pixel dimensions and FCP will take care of applying the correct distortion.

[Jon Ackerman]

So if he creates the graphics at 720×480 in square pixel, FCP should resize it accordingly? Thanks for the help!

[Bret Williams]

NO. That would be an exception. If you create any graphic that MATCHES a standard non-square pixel size, then FCP will determine that that graphic is non-square and treat it as such.

If he were creating a logo for example, he would create it at whatever size is appropriate. If it were a wide logo it might happen to be 800×200. If you wanted something huge that you could zoom in and pan and scan, you might create a logo or graphic at 2200×2000. These are arbitrary numbers. FCP would see them as standard square pixel graphics sizes, and add distortion (in the motion tab btw) so that they match your non-square pixels in your seqeunce/video.

It’s that simple. But if you create graphics that match a video frame size, 720×480, 720×486,etc. then FCP will assume you’ve done the diligence and already converted it to non-square pixels. It will not add the distortion. If this is incorrect, you can add the appropriate distortion in the distort area of the motion tab.

To make it more confusing, PS actually supports square and non square. You can simply create in a 720×480 NON-square document in photoshop as well.

HTH

[Jon Ackerman]

Ok, thanks for the help. To sum it all up, my NTSC DV- anamorphic sequence is square pixels. When they send me a graphic in square it shows up looking correct, but if they send me a non-square pixel, then it shows up squished. I really appreciate your help. I can also email you examples if that would help…