Title Safe 4×3 Lines For HD 16×9 Display

[Adam Smith]

I’d assumed all the shots would be tweaked to taste before export. I use a combination of Andy’s Guides, guides & shading on my Panasonic HD monitor, and an SD monitor with my AJA set to downconvert with Crop.

Tom – how do you feel about the quality of downconvert within FCP? I haven’t tried that workflow as I’ve generally figured Compressor has much more control over the process.

-Adam

– – –
Video Photographer / Avid & Final Cut Editor

[Adam Smith]

Heh.. after re-reading that it seems like a silly question – I’m sure if you felt the quality was lacking I don’t suppose you’d use/recommend the process.

There’s certainly something to be said for viewing the true final image area right there in FCP.

– – –
Video Photographer / Avid & Final Cut Editor

[Mark Fanjoy]

Adam, you were still on track with me. Yes, I would want to have the picture framing finalized before I dropped it into Compressor, which by the way, I still see as a valid direction.

My bigger problem is having the guides set correctly to know how far left or right I can shift my video picture (and place graphics) to be within that 4×3 area. Andy’s guides look productive, but I’m not quite sure I’m inserting them correctly.

When I dropped Andy’s guide into a 4×3 sequence from a previous project, his guide lines do not line up with that 4×3 sequence. So now I’m a little gun shy about the accuracy of that guide for my 16×9 sequence. Maybe his coding factors in the sequence settings and adjusts display of the guides accordingly. So, if I drop the guides into a 4×3 sequence, the code still adjusts to its code presets (thinking its a 16×9 sequence) and displays the lines, which are squeezed way inside the 4×3 range.

I don’t know.

Wherever I am…I’m lost!

[Adam Smith]

I seem to remember Andy’s Guides being right on, or at least close enough that it didn’t raise any flags with me. Not sure about the guide behavior in an SD sequence.

I used them for a bit, but like I said above I have 2 external monitors to use as reference. I’m out of the house right now but in about 4 hours I’ll be back and getting started on a project, if you’re still wondering I can compare between Andy’s, FCP7 and my monitors.

Or maybe Andy can chime in… and I second your opinion on his free filters – “Thanks Andy, great stuff!”

-Adam

– – –
Video Photographer / Avid & Final Cut Editor

[Mark Fanjoy]

Thanks for that, Adam. I’m sure they are right on and when you check against your monitors you will confirm that.

Being new to Andy’s guides I just wanted to bounce on someone out there for an opinion once I saw the behavior of his guides when dropped into the 4×3 sequence. But, they’re not designed to be dropped into a 4×3 sequence I reckon!

I’m going for it and going to start my session.

Wherever I am…I’m lost!

[Andy Mees]

Yup, the safe guides are specifically designed for use in a 16:9 sequence to show your 4:3 and 14:9 crop, title and graphic safe areas within that aspect … the free guides and center cross can certainly be useful when used in a 4:3 sequence but the safe areas would not be correct. FCP already has perfectly good 4:3 safe guides so if and when working in 4:3 you can simply use those guides rather than my plugin.

If you work in your original 16:9 sequence (or a copy of it) you can use the guides to show the 4:3 center crop region and resize and reframe / keyframe your shots accordingly for your pan and scan version, then use the method originally outlined above (Compressor > Geometry tab) for creating that version when exporting directly.

Hope that helps
Andy

[Mark Fanjoy]

Thanks, Andy. One last confirmation from you about the guide’s color bars.

Red is title safe, green is graphic safe, and blue is absolute 4×3 border, correct?

Thanks,

Wherever I am…I’m lost!

[Mark Fanjoy]

Andy, I lied. One more question!

I have set up a two-camera multi-clip edit to switch back and forth. But when I lay the Guides over the multi-clip sequence, the two clips no longer show in the Viewer, only the Guides.

Can I not use the Guides in a multi-clip edit setting?

Thanks,

Wherever I am…I’m lost!

[Andy Mees]

>Red is title safe, green is graphic safe, and blue is absolute 4×3 border, correct?

Yes, those are the default guide colors but you can change them if you want.

Can I not use the Guides in a multi-clip edit setting?

Just lock the track with the guides on and it should work fine (as this prevents it from loading into the Viewer when the Playhead Sync mode is set to “Open”).

Best
Andy

[Mark Fanjoy]

Yep. Locking the track did it. You ‘da man!

Thank you all very much for your input and support (and patience with the rookies!)

Great site!!!

Wherever I am…I’m lost!