Trying to Render 720×486, but it won’t work.

[John Cuevas]

I can assure you that AE CS5 does render out to 720 x 486.

Pretty sure what’s happening is you have are trying to work with SD at a 4×3 ratio, but you’ve inadverntly set the pixel aspect ratio to square. Change it to .91 and you should be good to go.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor

[Jason Moore]

Hmmm…

Well, the footage says it’s .91, and I created all of the comps by dragging the clip over the comp icon, so it should be using the same specs as the clip.

I am checking the renders in Quicktime. It says:

Format Animation, 720 x 486 (654 x 486) Millions

Normal Size: 654 x 486
Current Size 654 x 486 (Actual)

I’ve never had this problem. All of my renders are coming out 654 x 486. I’ve been re-exporting using Quicktime to make them the correct size again.

Jason Moore
Midnight Oil Productions
http://www.midnightoilproductions.com

[Walter Soyka]

[Jason Moore] “Well, the footage says it’s .91, and I created all of the comps by dragging the clip over the comp icon, so it should be using the same specs as the clip.

I am checking the renders in Quicktime. It says:

Format Animation, 720 x 486 (654 x 486) Millions

Normal Size: 654 x 486
Current Size 654 x 486 (Actual)

I’ve never had this problem. All of my renders are coming out 654 x 486. I’ve been re-exporting using Quicktime to make them the correct size again.”

Quicktime Player is lying to you.

Actually, Quicktime Player is converting from rectangular (video) pixels to square (computer) pixels on-the-fly, to ensure that your video looks proportionally correct on-screen.

If you re-import your footage into After Effects, or bring it into a compression application, you’ll see that it is truly 720×486 with a 0.91 PAR. No need to adjust in QT.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Jason Moore]

You’re right. Quicktime is lying. When I bring it back into AE it shows as 720×486.

I wonder why QT is lying to me all of a sudden. Maybe some kind of upgrade I applied.

The strange thing is that files I export from Quicktime appear the correct size when I reopen them in Quicktime.

Thanks for your post.

Jason

Jason Moore
Midnight Oil Productions
http://www.midnightoilproductions.com

[Walter Soyka]

If you’re running Macs, I highly recommend MediaInfo Mac for media file analysis/reporting. It’s more informative (and less misleading) than Quicktime’s Get Info.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Douglas Ryan]

I’ve got just the opposite problem. I was given two graphics by a client to import into an Avid Media Composer 5.0 project.

My artists normally give me 720×486 out of AE and that works fine.

One of the graphics the client gave me was 720×486 and it came into the Avid slightly anamorphic. The other was 654×486 and it was correct. They both look fine in QT.

I’m assuming it’s a square vs non-square pixel setting in AE but I’ve never been super clear on what it should be.

What should I tell my client to do differently? I have to be diplomatic in this approach.

Any suggestions on what they/I should do differently?

Thanks,

Doug