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Is there a way to LOGARITHMICALLY stretch 4×3 to 16×9 in FCP?
Hi everyone-
I have recently re-telecined a 16mm film so I could get it as an HD master. it was originally shot and composed in 4:3 years ago.
HD is 16:9. The 16mm film, as I said, is 4:3. I am trying to find a way of changing the aspect ratio. I know I can simply strectch the horizontal, but then all the people are short and fat. I could zoom so the sides hit the edge of frame, but then I loose a lot of head room.
When I have played the 4:3 DVD on my 16:9 Panasonic TV there’s a mode called “just” (I have seem simillar modes on other brands called “mesh”). It zooms in the image slightly and streches it logarithmically. The center of the image is virtually untouched. The sides are gradually further and further stretched as it moves further from the center.
Sure, some shots look odd (if a person walks from left to right of frame they will go from long and flat on one end to normal shaped as they go through the middle of the picture space to long and flat on the other end. But for 99% of the DVDs I have watched (and the over the air Standard def stuff) the method looks fantastic.
I think combining the three various methods on a shot by shot basis would be the best solution.
The problem is I haven’t been able to find a way to do that “logarithmic stretching” on FCP. Has anyone here seen a way? Or is there a plug in that I can buy? Its seems like it should be a simple math based solution.
Thanks much,
David
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3 Replies
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Too Much Too Soon have a plug-in called Smart Anamorphic which I think will do what you want:
https://mattias.nu/plugins/Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
Unique plug-ins and tools for Apple Pro Apps
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Hi Martin–
I tried the “Too Much Too Soon Free Plugins” filters. The smart strech does do what it says, the big issue with it, is it has a very noticable line where the streching occurs. It’s not a gradual stretch. In other words if you have a close up of a person, the center part of the screen is great. Unstretched. However, there’s a soft fuzzy line about 2/3 of the way into the screen where suddenly it is completely stretched from there to the edge of the picture. Obvioulsy when the person (or camera) moves you can quite clearly see where the line is.
In effect, it kind of looks like what would happen if I took a 4×3 image on V2, did a soft crop of a few inches off the sides. Then on V1, took the same image and stretched it to fill a 16×9 frame. Then, matched where the soft crop line was.
I looked to see if I could either make the line softer (and less noticable) or even change where the “line” was. Unfortunately, it was a no on both counts… In fact, there are no user customizable options at all with the filter
Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Dave
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Hey all-
I have asked this before and have gotten some responses, but none have done exactly what I’m looking for, so I will re-ask:
Anyone know of a filter or method for stretching a 4:3 image logarithmically. to fill a 16:9 aspect ratio. I don’t mean just stretching the corners, as then the subjects get short and fat equally. What many 16:9 TVs have is a mode that leaves the majority of the center alone (where most of the action takes place), then slowly stretches the sides out. (Obviously there is distortion or blur at the sides, but generally it seems to work well).
I have seen some filters that try to do it, but most have limitations (either you can clearly see where the non-stretched image and the stretched area cover — there a blurry line in the frame. Or there’s no way to adjust exactly where the non-stretched “sweet spot” is.
Any one have any solutions to this?
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