Text with pixel Aspect Ratio Correction

[David Johnson]

In both AE and PS, Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction is for viewing purposes only so it doesn’t affect the output and, therefore, whether you have it turned on while designing is a matter of personal preference. Far more important than the viewing mode is that your designs (AE comps & PS docs) are the proper aspect ratio for the final output you need … generally, square pixels for computers and rectangular pixels for TV.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Working with non-square PAR comps and PAR Correction only provides an approximation of the final output. More often than not you will find that your text is poorly anti-aliased during previews.

It is always better to work with square PAR and then nest the sqaure PAR into a non-square PAR comp for rendering out – if and only if you need a non-square PAR for delivery.

HTH
RoRK

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[David Johnson]

Just in case you find the combination of the two replies confusing, I’ll clarify that we seem to be both saying the same things in different ways. For example, my workflow is to always work in square pix (without PAR correction view), then nest and fit the square pix comp into a rectangular pix comp as the final step before renders. If I also need a square pix deliverable (i.e., web video), I typically convert the rectangular pix render back to square pix when I compress it to the needed web format, which any compression software can do.

Again, the bottom line is that Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction is for viewing only … what matters is the actual aspect ratios of your comps & docs.

[Chris Anderson]

So if you were working with 16×9 video, you both prefer to see it look a bit squished as you are designing?

The reason why I ask is I saw a demo where they made circle graphic with PAR off and it looked fine though the video was squeezed horizontally, but when PAR was turned on the video looked normal 16×9 but the new circle graphic was stretched horizontally.
However, when the circle was created with PAR on, it now looked fine and was of course squeezed like the rest of the image when PAR was turned off.
So I wasn’t sure if when creating text, it would have the same results.

Thanks again,
Chris

Chris Anderson

[Kevin Camp]

[Chris Anderson] “I saw a demo where they made circle graphic with PAR off and it looked fine though the video was squeezed horizontally, but when PAR was turned on the video looked normal 16×9 but the new circle graphic was stretched horizontally.
However, when the circle was created with PAR on, it now looked fine and was of course squeezed like the rest of the image when PAR was turned off.”

that shouldn’t happen normally… i’m not sure how they went about making the circle though…

normally, ae (and photoshop) handles the par correction, discrepancies and conversions fairly well, and i’ve never had a problem with text. but there are some pitfalls…

for example, create a ntsc d1 widescreen comp with par correction on and then create a new solid that is 200×200. it looks square and common sense says 200×200 is square, but try rotating the solid 90 degrees. now it looks like a rectangle. that’s because with a 1.2 par it is really 167×200.

however, you could create a new solid, make it 200×200, but set the solid to have a square par. rotate that 90 degrees and it still looks like a square.

you can easily avoid an issue like this if you worked in a ntsc d1 widescreen square pixel comp setting. the only pitfall you have there is if you have non square material, ae needs to be correctly interpreting that material as it’s correct par so that it will look correct in the square pixel comp… and, as mentioned previously, if you need to deliver non-square in the end, you’ll want to drop that square comp into a non-square comp for final render.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[Chris Anderson] “So if you were working with 16×9 video, you both prefer to see it look a bit squished as you are designing?”

We always WORK in square (1:1) PAR. And we always render out to non-square PAR when it is required. 16:9 can be anamorphic, non-aquare PAR or it can be 1:1 PAR.

Solids can be set to 1:1 PAR, or any other supported PAR and that’s likely what you were seeing with the demo.

HTH
RoRK

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