Importing Photoshop files

[Steve Roberts]

DPI is irrelevant. What matters is image size in pixels (X pixels wide by Y pixels tall).

Decide on a frame size for your video.
-320×240?
-720×480?
-1920×1080?
Then shrink your PS images to the right size to avoid unnecessary delays due to large files. If your images will fill your frame size above, then make them that size. If they will be zoomed into or scaled up as part of your plan, then make sure they can handle that zoom in — don’t shrink them so much.

To import PSDs with layers, import as Composition. For more, check the help on Importing.

[James E smith]

Thanks for the info… i saved a copy of the ps file, renamed it… and made the new one 720×480. And it fits….. My concern at this point, being new at this, is that once i bring it back out of ae, say in the form of a DVD…… the image will be of poor quality. Sorry if this is too newbie, please forgive me…. If there is another place to find out these sort of questions, please let me know. I would hate to be bothering anyone. Thanks for your time. It has been greatly appreciated.

[Steve Roberts]

Sorry, I left something out. If your AE frame size is the DV preset (720×480, non-square pixels) then your PSD image size can be one of two sizes to best fill the frame:

– 720×480 non-square pixels
– 720×540 square pixels
Check the PS help for more info.

regarding quality, you cannot compare print with video. The DVD NTSC frame size must be 720×480. You have no choice, and making an image bigger won’t help — everything has to be reduced to 720×480 eventually. Even if it’s going onto a really big screen, it has to be 720×480 for NTSC DVD. Them’s the breaks.

To try to maintain quality, you should render your AE comp to something like a Quicktime movie in the Animation codec to reduce compression loss, then compress that movie to MPEG-2 (necessary for DVD!), then author the DVD using that MPEG-2 movie.

In Windows, if using Encore DVD, you might have to make an Uncompressed AVI, then compress (using a two-pass VBR process) using something like Sorenson Squeeze, then author in Encore.
On Mac, you could render to QT as stated, compress (2-pass VBR) in Compressor, then author in DVD Studio Pro.

DVDs do not look as good as uncompressed movies. Then again, you can’t play back uncompressed movies on a DVD. It’s a compromise. You maintain quality by keeping the movie as uncompressed as possible before you compress it to MPEG-2 for DVD.

[James E smith]

An incredible amount of information. THANK YOU so much!!… As my grandmother used to say, affectionately: “Bless your pointed little head!”……smile. Also, I use a Mac (just that you had made reference to “if” i used Windows. Thanks again…..