Nesting an HD comp into SD 16:9 widescreen comp … ?

[Jeremy Allen]

It would probably help more if you gave a breakdown of how you are trying to achieve that output. There are several ways you could do it… And when does it look bad? The rendered output, or inside AE?

IS this going for broadcast or DVD/Web use?

DVD/Web
I would make a new comp, 720×480 with the Pixel Aspect Ratio set to D1/DV NTSC Widescreen.

Broadcast
I would make a new comp, 720×486 (NTSC D1 Widescreen) with the Pixel Aspect Ratio set to D1/DV NTSC Widescreen.

Then just place your HD comp inside this comp, render as Animation, DV/NTSC or None compression, and see what happens.

That’s what I would try, but someone else may have better or more correct advice.. Good luck!

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2
DualCore G5 2.0 GHZ, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.11

AE CS3

[Jon Geddes]

That should yield decent results by placing the HD comp in an SD one and scaling it down. You can also scale it down in the render settings. You can add the HD comp to the render queue, then in the export settings scale it down to the desired size with scale quality set to High. Make sure you are using a decent codec (nothing windows/microsoft based). If the results are still not up to your standards, you can scale it down in a program like Virtual Dub. Export from After Effects in uncompressed AVI, import into virtual dub, apply the resize filter, set filter mode to Lanczos3, maybe even add a slight sharpen filter after that (no more than 10). Virtual dub is a free program by the way.

Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com

[Nic Dipalma]

Final output is for broadcast, so I nested my HD comp into the 720×486 (NTSC D1 Widescreen) at D1/DV NTSC Widescreen ratio. I rendered using the AVID codec with lower fields first, and once it imported into the AVID, the playback was horrible. Most noticeable is the text.

Nic

[Jon Geddes]

Try and find where the problem is coming from. Is it from after effects or the codec. To determine this, render as quicktime movie using the animation codec @ full quality. Bring that into avid and see if the text still has low quality. If it still looks bad, the problem is with how after effects is rendering it. Also make sure its not something simple like a preview setting in avid that is set to half quality.

Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com

[Nic Dipalma]

Unfortunately, I am working remotely, albeit just a few miles away, so testing back and forth has to be done with PICT files before QT movies. Would the issue be with moving a square pixel(1.0) composition into a widescreen (1.2) composition? Should I re-interpret the source files in the project?

Nic

[Nic Dipalma]

I tried something that may produce better results – I went back into my comp settings for the SD wide comp and changed to the preset “NTSC D1 Widescreen Square Pixel” Text graphics and everything else look perfect. Now, how do you think that would import into the AVID?

Nic

[Nic Dipalma]

I knew it! I knew it! I’m not an idiot … well, don’t ask my wife … but I knew that the HD comp nested into that D1 Wide comp would work. I had done it before, but just wanted to make sure I was not missing something. Never blame the client … until you are 100% sure it’s not you!

So, the problem … ? (drum roll) The AVID’s preview setting was set too low! Jon wins the prize! When all other solutions have been exhausted it’s usually the simplest that solves the problem.

Thanks, Jon. Sorry I don’t have any prizes left to give you, but you have my gratitude … which should get you through the long weekend.

Nic

[Jon Geddes]

I’m glad I could solve your problem. No prizes necessary.

Jon Geddes
Motion Graphics Designer
http://www.precomposed.com